It’s a battle of blue bloods in Philadelphia on Sunday night, as the 2-seed UConn men’s basketball team takes on Mick Cronin and the 7-seed UCLA Bruins for a spot in the Sweet 16. UConn survived 15-seed Furman’s best punch Friday night for an 82-71 win to make it to the second round, while UCLA fought off a late comeback from 10-seed UCF to hold on for a 75-71 win. Now, the two historic programs with 17 men’s basketball titles between them will square off at 8:45 p.m. ET on TNT for the right to take on 3-seed
Michigan State next weekend in the Sweet 16 in Washington, D.C.
FanDuel has UConn as a 4.5-point favorite over the Bruins on Sunday night, with the Huskies odds to win outright at -194. The over/under for the game is set at 136.5, down from the opening odds at 137.5. If history is to say anything about matchups between Cronin’s teams against UConn dating back to his Cincinnati days, Sunday night figures to be a physical affair where points could be at a premium. For more NCAA tournament odds and futures, be sure to check out FanDuel.
A win for the Huskies would give them three Sweet 16 appearances in the last four seasons and be the 20th Sweet 16 in program history. In order for UConn to get there, here are three keys for the Huskies to take down the Bruins.
Get Healthy
UConn was without starting point guard Silas Demary Jr. and sixth man Jaylin Stewart for the win over the Paladins. While Stewart has missed the last seven games with a knee injury, Demary Jr. injured his ankle in the Big East Tournament Championship against St. John’s and missed his first game of the season Friday night.
Both players were sorely missed in the First Round, as Dan Hurley and the Huskies had to go a little deeper into the bench than usual to try and compensate for having two key players unavailable. While Malachi Smith and Alec Millender stepped up to help UConn get the win, Demary Jr.’s scoring ability and defensive skills were sorely missed. The same can be said for Stewart’s versatility.
Both are still questionable for Sunday night. Fortunately for UConn, UCLA seems to be a little banged up too. Cronin said Tyler Bilodeau — the Bruins’ leading scorer at 17.6 points per game — remains questionable after not playing against UCF in the First Round.
Monitor the midrange
Analytics have modernized basketball, especially on the offensive end, where teams have focused and refined their offenses solely around layups and 3-pointers and basically nothing in between. This UCLA squad is a bit of a throwback in that the Bruins are comfortable taking plenty of midrange jumpers. Per KenPom, UCLA’s average 2-point distance is 7.8 feet from the basket — one of the highest marks in all of college basketball.
The midrange jumper might not be the most analytically smart shot, but against defenses built to primarily stop teams from getting easy looks at the rim and run offenses off the 3-point line like UConn has, the midrange can be wide open. Teams like Seton Hall and Arizona took advantage of this against the Huskies to varying levels of success this season. While it’s a risk — it’s still worth two points, but harder to make than a layup — UConn will need to contest these shots to ensure the Bruins don’t get too many clean looks.
Hit some shots
There’s no other way to put it; UConn has been ice cold from three. The Huskies were 5-25 from three against Furman, and just 3-19 in the Big East title game against St. John’s. That’s 18.2 percent in the last two games. Outside of Alex Karaban, who has five of those eight makes, the rest of the Huskies’ normally solid shooters have been ice cold.
Despite the struggles, Hurley doesn’t seem to be worried. While shots aren’t falling, UConn continues to get consistently open looks. He believes in the shooters he has put together, and that eventually things will start to turn around.
I would be a lot more concerned if we weren’t generating really good shots, like if we were missing really hard shots, really difficult, contested. The offense isn’t generating open looks. I think we’re generating looks that we’re more than capable of making and getting hot and getting on a run here. It’s like the law of averages, right? At least that’s what we keep — that’s what we kind of keep talking about,“ Hurley said at media availability. ”The guys are such excellent shooters. Solo Ball is an excellent shooter. You watch him shoot, he’s one of the best shooters in the country, Braylon Mullins, he’s an incredible shooter of the basketball. They just get that first one to go in or get one of those early ones to go in, and you could have a team here that’s ripping them off.“
Mullins in particular has struggled from deep in March. The star freshman is 5-38 (13.1 percent) from three in five games this month. It’s an unfortunate and unlikely shooting slump for Mullins, who has already demonstrated the ability to shoot the ball effectively. A strong performance Sunday night would put the slump to rest and reignite his 2026 NBA Draft stock.
