Look: The Elite Eight game between the No. 1 Connecticut Huskies and the No. 3 Illinois Fighting Illini is still going as I write this, but I’m not even going to wait until the final buzzer.
This was game was actually tied 23-23 towards the end of the first half before the defending national champions opened the gates of hell with a 30-0 run. THIRTY TO ZERO. The Illini won the Big Ten Tournament by the way, and they’re experiencing the same fate as Stetson. And Northwestern. And San Diego State.
With all due respect to the other three teams that will eventually make their way to Glendale, Arizona, for the Final Four, the national championship is already decided. UConn is a war machine with very few weaknesses, and becoming the first program to go back-to-back since Florida has felt like an inevitability for a while.
They’re elite on both sides of the floor and can kill you in a variety of ways, from 7’2” center Donovan Clingan all the way down to the deadly guard duo of Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer. ALL OF THEM have stepped up big in this tournament, and their 63.5% assist rate is a testament to how they can whip the ball around to set everyone up for good looks on offense. And on defense, well, ask the Illini. They entered Saturday with the No. 2 offense in the entire country and it was rendered obsolete.
So yeah, good luck to anyone trying to stop this.