UConn tops Illini, makes 3rd title game in 4 years

INDIANAPOLIS -- If UConn's miraculous win over Duke in the Elite Eight was about Braylon Mullins' buzzer-beating shot, then Saturday's 71-62 win over a stubborn Illinois team in the Final Four was the byproduct of the confidence that moment gave him - and his team.

With his team up four points against an Illini squad that had cut into a 14-point deficit in the second half, Mullins stepped up to the 3-point line late in the game and launched a shot that sealed UConn's win only 30 minutes from where he grew up in Greenfield, Indiana.

"We were not surprised," UConn forward Jayden Ross told ESPN about Mullins' 3-pointer that gave UConn a 66-59 lead with 52 seconds to play. "Me and Jaylin Stewart were on the bench and he looked at me and said, 'I'm calling a Braylon Mullins 3-pointer right here.'"

Now, the Huskies will enter Monday night with a chance to become the first program in more than 50 years to win a national title for the third time in four years.

Mullins' 3-pointer was meaningful because eight seconds later, Illinois star Keaton Wagler made a 3-pointer on the other end to cut UConn's lead back to four. Without Mullins late-game heroics, UConn may have found itself in a one-point game with history on the line.

Mullins wouldn't allow it.

But the teams that UConn coach Dan Hurley has guided to this juncture were all different. The 2022-23 championship squad won its first 14 games, fell apart for six weeks and then found its footing again to win 12 of its final 13 matchups. In 2023-24, All-American Tristen Newton led a team that beat every NCAA tournament opponent by 14 points or more. This year's group has been a mix of both squads. They won 22 of their first 23 games and then waded through an odd 7-4 stretch before winning every game in the NCAA tournament, most of which demanded a fight like Saturday's victory.

Yet, this group - similar to those championship teams - had heroes when Hurley needed them. Alex Karaban, the only holdover from the 2023 and 2024 title teams, has been the steady leader for this squad. There is a case to be made that Tarris Reed (17 points, 11 rebounds on Sunday) has been the best player in the entire NCAA tournament. Solo Ball, who'd weathered a rocky stretch in March, has recorded double digits in three consecutive games.

And then there is Mullins (15 points, two steals, 4-for-7 from the 3-point line against Illinois), the freshman who didn't think twice when he shocked Duke in the Elite Eight or again on Saturday.

He'd started 0-for-5 in the second half after a strong first half before he made the shot that essentially iced the win. It was his only shot of the second half.

"I think just coming into the second half, I just had to get the momentum from the first half and you've always got to shoot with confidence," Mullins said after the game. "The set was going to be run for anybody on the team. You've just got to shoot with confidence, just trying to find the best look on the floor and I know our point guards are going to get us the ball, so I think that was the biggest shot I hit tonight."

Hurley has now earned a chance to become the first coach in more than five decades to win a third national title in four seasons.

"I've grown to have this relationship with him in four years, beyond basketball, and it means the world to me," said Karaban, who can win a third national championship. "I made the decision to come back for moments like Monday night. I want to do everything in our power to win this game and have success."

UConn's success on Saturday was the result of defensive pressure that held the best offense in the country to a 34 percent clip from the field, committed a single turnover in the first half (a record in a half under Hurley), connected on a barrage of early 3-pointers (12 were the most in a Final Four game for the program, per ESPN research) and finished with a 15-for-17 connection rate on free throws.

You'd have to be more than 50 years old to have been alive the last time a team won three national titles in four years. Back then, Marques Johnson and Dave Myers were All-Americans for John Wooden's UCLA squad in 1975. That team had eight upperclassmen, though.

For UConn, Karaban is the only holdover from the back-to-back championship runs for the Huskies in 2023 and 2024. Ball, Jayden Ross and Jaylin Stewart played five minutes combined in the national championship game in 2024 in one of the most dominant runs in NCAA tournament history.

Hurley said the latter team was an all-time great squad but this current group has fought through some of the same obstacles the 2022-23 squad had to overcome to win a title. He called this team similarly "resilient" and worthy of "respect."

If the Huskies win the national championship on Monday, they'll have another adjective to describe this program and its recent run of success: Dynasty.

"We're a tough program. We're a group of fighters," Hurley said. "It's not appealing to everyone. I'm sure there's some people in here that it's offputting for. But we are a group of fighters. We are incredibly tough. We've got incredible will. We go into these games, we're ready for battle. Again, for us, it's not a game that we're just kind of running around in uniforms, throwing the ball around, hoping it goes in. That's not what we're doing out there. We're fighting. It's a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship, and then just to be able to prolong this season with each other and to make the people of Connecticut proud, to make the university proud and all the former great players."

To achieve that feat, Mullins will have to show up again. His teammates are confident he will do just that.

"We know Braylon can hit those shots," UConn guard Malachi Smith said. "We're kind of used to it. I'm just glad he hit that 3-pointer at the end of the game. We're going to need a big game from him on Monday."