BOSTON: Alabama and the remainder of the soccer followers within the Southeastern Conference are about to seek out out what Big East basketball is all about.

The Crimson Tide, who’ve received 18 NCAA soccer championships however have by no means been to a males’s basketball Final Four, will meet top-seeded UConn within the nationwide semifinals on April 6. The Huskies have an opportunity to win back-to-back NCAA titles — which might make it six in 13 years for the Big East, the league that takes delight in its basketball pedigree whilst soccer cash upended the remainder of school sports activities.

“The Big East is a monster,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after the Huskies steamrolled Illinois 77-52 on Saturday night — a March Madness -record 10th straight double-digit victory for the Huskies.

“Iron sharpens iron,” Hurley mentioned. “The league prepares us for these nonconference video games. … You’re going in opposition to beasts and monsters each evening within the Big East, and the Big East ready us for groups like Illinois.”

UConn has beaten three Big Ten teams this season, topping Indiana in the regular season and Northwestern in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies did not play an SEC team this year but went 3-0 against them last season, including an 82-67 victory over Alabama on Nov. 22, 2022.

“We’re going to be tough to beat,” mentioned Hurley, whose group scored 30 straight factors in opposition to Illinois to interrupt open a recreation that was tied 23-all within the closing two minutes of the primary half. “It was a particular stage of basketball that we had been taking part in.”

Donovan Clingan had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots for UConn, which cruised to its fifth national title last year and seems inexorably headed for a sixth.

Their NCAA Tournament wins this year have come by 39, 17, 30 and 25 points.

Actor Bill Murray, whose son, Luke, is a Huskies assistant coach, watched the game from a courtside seat and took video of the postgame celebration, where his grandchildren were showered with confetti. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David was additionally a part of a closely partisan crowd the Huskies (35-3) known as “ Storrs North ” for the East Region games that were played about 90 miles from campus.

UConn, which won the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden and advanced to the Sweet 16 in Brooklyn, will now get on an airplane for the first time in almost a month and head to the Final Four outside of Phoenix. Alabama advanced with an 89-82 victory over Clemson later Saturday night.

The Huskies, who set a school record for victories in a season, are the first defending champs to make it back to the national semifinals since Florida won back-to-back titles in 2006 and ’07.

That’s nonetheless a chance for UConn, too.

“It’s not about really trying to win No. 6 or go back to back,” Hurley mentioned. “It’s this time of 12 months, you’re keen on your group and you may’t think about what it might be prefer to not rise up the subsequent day and nonetheless coach your group. It’s what you study while you win the way in which we’ve received: It actually is in regards to the work, the journey, the method.”

The Fighting Illini (29-9) managed just four points in the first half when Clingan was in the game, with the 7-foot-2 Connecticut native recording nine points, six rebounds and three blocks before the break. Overall, they were 0 for 19 on shots challenged by Clingan.

“We were getting the same shots we’ve always gotten, and Clingan erased a few of them,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood mentioned. “He’s good. I imply, doesn’t all people have him projected within the (NBA) lottery or near it? He does an excellent job of defending the rim.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness