While I am certainly not going to provide any predictions better than what my golf ball did, I think it is still nice to see some information about the teams – in case you haven’t watched them before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illinois (28-8, 3 seed in the South)<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n STARTING LINE-UP (based on last game)<\/p>\n\n\n\n KEY BENCH<\/p>\n\n\n\n HOW THEY GOT HERE<\/p>\n\n\n\n CURRENT KENPOM STATS<\/p>\n\n\n\n COACH – Brad Underwood<\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably the biggest story around Illinois is the meteoric rise of Keaton Wagler. Wagler was a 4 star recruit whose received offers to multiple mid-majors but only had offers from Illinois and DePaul from the power conference schools. Wagler chose Illinois, and the rest is history. The freshman has been averaging almost 20 points per game, and has the ability to take over a game either by driving to the hoop or shooting lights out from three-point range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Illinois is not simply Wagler. They are one of the tallest teams in college basketball as the only player of their normal 8 who play under 6’6″ is senior Kylan Boswell. And to make it harder to defend them, their big men can shoot from three-point range. Statistically, they currently have the #1 offense in college basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I would argue the reason that Illinois has made it to the Final Four is that their defense has been exceptional in the tournament. The only team that scored more than 60 points against the Fighting Illini was Penn in the first round – who scored 70 and still lost by 35. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their key to success will likely be whether or not Wagler has a great game. When he is on fire, Illinois is unstoppable – so it will critical for the Huskies to make it hard for him to get shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connecticut (33-5, 2nd in the East)<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n STARTING LINE-UP (based on last game)<\/p>\n\n\n\n IMPORTANT BENCH<\/p>\n\n\n\n HOW THEY GOT HERE<\/p>\n\n\n\n CURRENT KENPOM STATS<\/p>\n\n\n\n COACH – Dan Hurley <\/p>\n\n\n\n REGULAR SEASON MATCHUP<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if experience matters, then you have to figure the Huskies have the advantage as multiple players from the 2024 champions stayed in school and are now juniors and seniors for this version of the Huskies, including Alex Karaban who was a starter for that championship team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They also feel like a team of destiny after watching their amazing victory over Duke in the East Regional Final. They somehow find ways to win games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Huskies are led by Karaban, who has the ability to score in the paint or from three-point range, and Tarris Reed Jr, a transfer from Michigan who is a beast in the paint. But maybe the most important player for them will be Silas Demary Jr – their point guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that is because Demary not only is an excellent passer, but is an incredible defender – which the Huskies will need to try to keep Wagler at bay. At the end of the day, this game likely comes down to if UConn’s lock-down defense can stop Illinois’ high-octane offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well – the game is ready to begin – the Final Four is here!!!!!! Good luck to both the Huskies and the Fighting Illini.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While I am certainly not going to provide any predictions better than what my golf ball did, I think it is still nice to see some information about the teams – in case you haven’t watched them before. Illinois (28-8, 3 seed in the South) STARTING LINE-UP (based on last game) KEY BENCH HOW THEY […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2026-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3660,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3659\/revisions\/3660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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