March Madness 2024: Coaches' advice on how to stop UConn - ESPN

Can anybody beat UConn?

After two thoroughly dominant performances by the Huskies in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, that's the big question entering this week's Final Four.

The numbers are fairly staggering. UConn has trailed for a grand total of 28 seconds so far in the NCAA tournament. In the 80 second-half minutes the Huskies have played, they've led by double-digits for more than 76 minutes. They scored 30 unanswered points — in an Elite Eight game.

Can they be beaten? Of course. It's happened three times this season, although Stephon Castle missed the loss to Kansas and Donovan Clingan left the loss to Seton Hall early. Creighton was the only team to beat the Huskies at full-strength, winning 85-66 on Feb. 20.

To find out how it could potentially happen again this weekend, we reached out to coaches who have faced Alabama, Purdue and NC State to see where each team possibly find an edge.

For much of the season, Alabama had the nation's No. 1 offense at KenPom — and one of the best offenses since KenPom's database started in 1997. But down the stretch of the season, most of the attention was on the Tide's faltering defense — though they also went cold from 3-point range.

Alabama can't let the latter happen against UConn. The Tide picked up their shooting in the NCAA tournament, making at least 11 3-pointers in three of four games and shooting 41.4% from 3. In the Elite Eight against Clemson, they made 16 3s.

«It's not unrealistic that they can make 12-15 3s,» one SEC coach said. «It can be really difficult, especially against a team like UConn that's heavily favored. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure on you. To beat UConn, that number has to be 12-plus… UConn has the back line with [Donovan] Clingan, that blocks