INDIANAPOLIS — The road ends in Indianapolis, where ESPN’s college basketball team is on-site breaking down all the action.
Follow along as the crew tracks Arizona-Michigan, with the chance to face UConn in Monday’s national championship on the line.
Final Four live tracker
How UConn won: It was Braylon Mullins who sent UConn to the Final Four, and it was Braylon Mullins who hit the dagger 3 to essentially ice the game for the Huskies on Saturday. The Indiana native finished with 15 points, including a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left that pushed UConn’s lead from four points to seven points and took the life out of Illinois’ comeback attempt.
The Huskies led by as many as 14 points in the second half, and Illinois failed to get over the hump and give itself a chance to take the lead or tie. The Illini struggled to finish around the rim and were surprisingly outshot from 3-point range. UConn made 12 shots from behind the arc, the most in a game in program history, while Illinois shot 6-for-26 from 3.
UConn advances to its third national championship game in four years.
No. 1 factor that helped UConn reach the national title game: 3-point shooting.
The 3-point battle was always going to be key in Saturday’s Final Four matchup against Illinois, but no one expected UConn to outshoot Illinois the way it did. Going into the game, the Fighting Illini ranked in the top 15 nationally in 3s made per game and 3-point attempt rate but shot just 6-for-26 from behind the arc Saturday — while the Huskies, who have made double-digit 3s in a game just once since Feb. 18, went 12-for-33 from 3. The 12 3s were the Huskies’ most made 3-pointers in a Final Four game in program history, per ESPN Research.
UConn’s shotmaking trio of Braylon Mullins, Alex Karaban and Solo Ball has been streaky for most of the season, but the trio came up huge at the right time. Karaban went only 1-for-8 from the field, but Mullins was terrific, making four 3s, including the dagger 3 in the final minutes. And Ball hit three 3-pointers, scoring eight points in a five-minute span early in the second half that extended UConn’s lead. Combine the shotmaking with Tarris Reed Jr.’s first-half efficiency, and the Huskies were able to keep Illinois at an arm’s length when it mattered. – Jeff Borzello
