What we're watching
• The Final Four is here: March Madness has turned into April Anticipation for the four remaining schools left in the men’s NCAA tournament.
• UConn advances to national title game: The first game of the night saw UConn making its third trip to the Final Four in four years following a win over Illinois.
• Arizona-Michigan: The nightcap is set to be a barn-burner between the Wildcats and the Wolverines. These two teams have been among college basketball’s best for the entire season.
UConn all smiles following win
UConn head coach Dan Hurley and guard Braylon Mullins had a hard time containing their excitement following their win over Illinois.
Mullins, who finished with 15 points, gave a shout out to the UConn fans that showed up to Indy.
“Playing in front of all these fans — I mean UConn always shows out,” Mullins told the TBS broadcast. “I mean, we are so ready for the national championship game. This is what I came here to play for. Man, let’s get it on Monday.”
However, Hurley was booed while talking and jokingly questioned why so.
“Are they booing? The headbutt? I don’t know what they’re booing,” Hurley joked but added how proud he is of the school.
“You’re set up for success at UConn,” Hurley said. “Geno Auriemma, Jim Calhoun, Kevin Ollie, just some incredible coaches before me. Got the best staff in the country. Got an incredible group of players and there’s nothing like the bus ride on a Monday night over to the stadium when you are one of the last two teams standing.”
UConn advances, defeats Illinois
No. 2 seed UConn will advance to Monday’s national championship game after a 71-62 win over No. 3 seed Illinois.
The Huskies, who won it all in 2024, will face the winner of Michigan versus Arizona. The two top seeds will tip off shortly.
Low scores, missed shots
Illinois averages above 80 points per game, but they’ve only netted 56 tonight.
However, the Fighting Illini aren’t the only ones struggling.
UConn’s Braylon Mullins has not scored a single point in the second half of this nail-biter. The freshman went 4-for-12 from the field in the first half, netting 12 points for the Huskies.
With under three minutes to go, UConn leads 61-56.
Illinois catching up, UConn still leads
Illinois is slowly but surely biting at the Huskies’ heels, capitalizing off of free throws. The Fighting Illini are 17-21 from the line.
With six minutes to go, UConn leads by six points but haven’t found the basket in 3:36.
Lack of assists holding Illinois back
In 25 minutes of play, Illinois has just two assists – and they’re from the same player, Keaton Wagler. Wagler’s 14 points have kept the Fighting Illini afloat, but basketball isn’t a “one man show.”
Both teams have struggled from the field, but Illinois is feeling it, exhibiting their largest deficit of the season.
UConn currently leads 49-38 with just under 14 minutes to go.
Michigan's head coach scouting from the stands
Michigan has arrived at Lucas Oil Stadium, but the Wolverines’ head coach Dusty May was there long before the team bus rolled up.
May was seen sitting courtside, jotting down notes on Illinois’ and UConn’s performances.
When May took over at Michigan in 2024, the Wolverines were coming off an 8-24 season. Within two years, Michigan has become a dominant presence within the Big Ten and a national championship caliber team.
No. 1 seeded Michigan tips off against fellow top seed Arizona at 8:49 p.m. ET.
UConn leads going into halftime
With UConn leading 37-29 going into the locker room, Illinois is looking to make some adjustments.
This is the most points the Fighting Illini have allowed in a first half of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Illinois has gone 10-for-29 from the field to start things off, led by Keaton Wagler. The Huskies’ Braylon Mullins hasn’t been afraid to shoot, and neither has Tarris Reed Jr.
“We got to control the glass,” Reed told the TBS broadcast. “We aren’t doing it well enough on the glass. … Once we control the glass and limit turnovers, we will be good.”
Second half will get underway here in a little more than 10 minutes.
UConn and Illinois go back-and-forth
“Every time the ball goes up, it’s World War III to get it,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley told broadcasters following a media timeout.
While neither team has turned the ball over, UConn has been consistent at the glass and from the field, but Illinois is heating up.
Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler, who averages 17.9 points per game, has been a much-needed addition to the Fighting Illini’s momentum.
A big 3 gives the Illini a 22-21 lead heading into the under-8 minute media timeout.
Illinois struggling at the glass
No. 3 seed Illinois dominates their games by going after any and every rebound. So far, they’re off to a slow start in an area they know best.
The Fighting Illini, who rank seventh nationally in rebounding, have four grabs off the glass thus far.
No. 2 seed UConn has nabbed eight with Silas Demary Jr. and Tarris Reed Jr. snatching opportunities.
A hometown hero: Braylon Mullins
When Dan Hurley recruited Braylon Mullins, he promised to take him back to Indianapolis for the Final Four.
A native of Greenfield, Indiana, Mullins is now playing for a shot at a national championship just 20 minutes away from where he grew up.
Mullins became a household name after sinking a game-winning Hail Mary shot against No. 1 seeded Duke last weekend.
The standout freshman, who’s gone 2-for-2 from the arc so far tonight, has averaged 11.8 points per game this postseason.
Men's NCAA Tournament Final Four is underway
No. 2 seeded UConn versus No. 3 seeded Illinois has officially tipped off, marking the beginning of this year’s men’s Final Four.
The two teams are meeting for the second time this season. The Huskies won the last matchup 74-61 in November backed by junior Solo Ball.
The coaches tell Coy Wire what they look for in a player
Each Final Four team has a very distinct identity that they build throughout the year. CNN’s Coy Wire wanted to know what the coaches look for in a player when they’re building their program.
Tommy Lloyd of Arizona said one of the most important things for his team is celebrating one another.
“Gritty but great people. We have guys that have great character and one of the core tenets of our program is you need to enjoy others’ success as much or more than your own,” he said.
Dan Hurley of UConn said his team is as tough and resilient.
“Resilient. They choose to go to scholl in Storrs, Connecticut. There’s maybe some sweeter places with nicer weather. The season change, the winter’s cold, it’s dark – it makes you pretty tough,” he said.
Dusty May said his guys have to be willing to get close with their teammates.
“Extremely caring, someone that works incredibly hard and appreciates the opportunity that we have – whether that’s the competition or the sport, whatever it is that drives them – but being very grateful that we’re here together,” May said.
Dan Hurley’s advice dealing with criticism? ‘Just please stay off your phone’
UConn head coach Dan Hurley embraces his role as a lightning rod in college basketball, but says he doesn’t let it get to him. His advice for his players to follow suit is pretty simple.
Take care of your mental health with therapy, counseling, whatever is needed. Meditate, visualize and embrace your spiritual side. And get off the phone.
“Just please stay off your phone. I know it’s tough, man. Get your face away from your phone and get in the real world. Like get off Twitter, get off Instagram, stop reading the comments. That’s probably why it doesn’t bother me when people have things to say,” he told reporters Friday.
“I don’t live in that world. My world and the world I think is the best world to live in is the real world, which is interacting with people, putting your phone down.
I get much more of a bad reaction from people, I think, on social media than when I meet regular people, because anytime I meet regular people they look at me and they start laughing or they start smiling, or like, you’re the guy from the video, you look a little crazy but I think you’re a good egg.”
Illini look to show what they've learned from 2024 defeat against UConn
When UConn steamrolled their way to a second straight national title in 2024, one of the schools caught underfoot was Illinois in the Elite Eight.
The Illini hung with that powerful UConn team until a 30-0 run – yes, 30 to zero – put the game out of reach. Illini coach Brad Underwood said there’s a lot his program took from that game to get them ready for Saturday’s showdown.
“I don’t think we’ve rebuilt, I think we just reload. It’s looked different. I’ve said all along, you just have to keep knocking on the door and our opportunities were going to come,” he said.
Underwood gave all the credit to Dan Hurley for teaching that unfortunate lesson.
“We grew from that from the standpoint of understanding how hard it is, what that looks like,” he said. “But yeah, it’s hard to argue with what Danny has done throughout his time there and the consistency, and that’s the one thing we’ve tried to match is the consistency and not ever look at it as a rebuild but just a reload.”
Dan Hurley knows he’s intense with officials. He’s not changing.
UConn coach Dan Hurley can be so combustible that you can roast marshmallows near him when he really gets fired up.
Hurley’s interactions with officials have been the subject of a lot of discussion before Saturday’s Final Four, particularly after a viral clip showed him going forehead-to-forehead with official Roger Ayers after Braylon Mullins’ dramatic 3-pointer to send the Huskies to the Final Four.
Ayers brushed off that moment in an interview with ESPN, and Hurley said he’s not changing his demeanor during games.
“For some people we’re just out there playing a game. For me it’s a life-or-death battle. It’s a war. It’s a street fight for me,” he told reporters on Thursday. “However you look at sports, or people on social media that comment on how the combatants carry themselves, that’s not really for me to judge. I approach sports as a competitor the way that I do. My responsibility is to win games and obviously do a great job for my players. Those are really the only two things I’m concerned with.”
He added that he feels like knows where the line is come tournament time, and doesn’t believe he’s crossed it yet.
“I’m an intense coach. It’s not easy to work my games. But I’ve always gotten zero technical fouls in my NCAA tournament coaching career,” he said.
And then he realized he may have jinxed himself.
“Oh, my God, now I’m going to get bounced out of this thing. Oh, my God,” he said with a laugh. “Getting walked out of a stadium, long walk.”
Coy Wire gets inside the heads of the four Final Four coaches
Four coaches at the Final Four, four very distinct personalities.
CNN’s Coy Wire wanted to get inside their heads with a very simple question: What is each coach’s spirit animal?
Dusty May of the Michigan Wolverines kept it simple: “Let’s go wolverine, keep it simple.” He added, he’s “small and terrorizing” like the ferocious member of the weasel family.
Brad Underwood of Illinois: “I’m a lion. I’m a lion. I’m gonna try to be the kind of the jungle. That’s what you do when you’re here in the Final Four, right? You try to win them all and go for the jugular.”
Tommy Lloyd of Arizona went with a very different choice. “I say my spirit animal is our equipment manager Brian Brigger. You got a great culture when people that no one else sees on a day-to-day basis are the most popular people in the program and Briggs is by far the most popular guy in our program.”
We didn’t get an answer from Hurley on his spirit animal – sometimes when you’re reporting in the field you forget to ask some questions, no big deal – but we did find out something else about him: What his lucky underwear will be for tonight.
“I’ve got the blue dragons for the day before the game, but then the red dragons will take the court tomorrow night,” he said. “I think they’re 18 to 1 in this tournament right now.”
“I’ve got my wife, Andrea, takes great care of them between games with the travel washer and the travel dryer, and obviously, Illinois has to overcome that – this team, UConn team, and the dragon underwear – if they want to advance.”
The Final Four returns to normal in Indy
The last time the Final Four was in Indianapolis … well, it wasn’t really the Final Four.
The year was 2021 and the world was only just beginning to contemplate emerging from Covid-19 lockdowns. The NCAA tournament was returning after being completely canceled in 2020, and it looked beyond different.
Instead of being spread out all around the country, the entirety of the tournament was played in Indiana. Teams mostly stayed quarantined in Indianapolis and traveled to various sites in the city and other universities in the area to play their games in front of few, if any, fans.
The home of the Final Four this year, Lucas Oil Stadium, was divided in two and had two courts on the floor so two different games could be played simultaneously in the first two weekends of the tournament.
“It was bizarre. Listen, everyone from that – if you did great in that tournament, you deserve all the credit,” UConn coach Dan Hurley told reporters this week. “If it went bad for you, and I’m not just saying that because it went bad for us, but you should get a pass. That was a mess. They were literally knocking on your door and dropping the food at your door. It wasn’t slop, but it was – maybe it was.”
Illinois had won the Big Ten tournament that year, also in Indianapolis, but got to celebrate with zero fans. Coach Brad Underwood said he has fond memories of the on-court action, but nothing else.
“We never went outside. The day we were to go to the baseball field it rained,” he said. “Then the uniqueness of having to go to – being quarantined and never really being able to celebrate that, that Big Ten victory, was all a unique experience.”
With more than 70,000 people expected to be at Saturday’s Final Four, it’ll be good to see Indianapolis’ basketball passion on full display again.
How Michigan got here
The top seed in the Midwest region looked to be on the ropes for about 20 minutes in their opening game against Howard.
The Bison only trailed by four at the half against the Wolverines and alarm bells were going off in Ann Arbor. Then the Wolverines came out in the second half and absolutely blew Howard away, and they haven’t slowed down since.
The Wolverines blew out Saint Louis in the second round before doing the same to Alabama and Tennessee in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, respectively.
How AI and personality evaluations helped fuel Brad Underwood’s evolution
Marcus Domask was not good enough and no one could convince Brad Underwood otherwise.
As he watched the Southern Illinois would-be transfer on film, Underwood repeatedly told his staff no, as a power forward, Domask was simply not a Big Ten player.
Until, that is, one of his assistants handed Underwood a different evaluation, one that did not say a word about Domask’s skillset, upside or basketball potential but stressed his compatibility as a teammate, his willingness to learn, his competitive spirit and work ethic.
“I read that and said, ‘We need to go get him tonight,’” Underwood told CNN Sports.
In his single season with Illinois, Domask started 38 games, finished second on the team in scoring (15.9), first in assists (3.9) and fourth in rebounding (5.0), helped the Illini to the Elite Eight and was named Big Ten Newcomer of the Year. So crafty was Domask’s shooting touch, Underwood took to calling him Luka – as in Dončić.
“And I would not have taken him, without that evaluation,” Underwood says.
It would be a bit of an overstatement to say that Profile, the assessment tool Illinois uses, is why the team is in the Final Four for the first time since 2005. But it’s not unfair, however, to say that the new tool played a big part in how Underwood brought the Illini back.
“These teams are like a Fortune 500 company,” Underwood said. “And like any good CEO, you need to know your people – what interests them, how they succeed. If you don’t know that, how can it work?”
Huge cheers for Illinois, bigger boos for UConn
They might as well rename this place Champaign-Urbana-Indy.
It looks like a Tropicana glass in here there’s so much orange, and the Illini received massive cheers when they took the floor. When the Huskies came out, they were booed just as lustily.
Michigan and Arizona fans are certainly here – the yellow of the Wolverines standing out in the crowd – but it’s basically State Farm Center in here at the moment (it’ll always be Assembly Hall to yours truly).
UConn will relish the environment; they’re used to playing the spoiler. But it won’t be easy.
