The Alabama Crimson Tide and Connecticut Huskies are set to square off in the second game of the NCAA Tournament Final Four on Saturday. The winner of this game will play Monday night for the National Championship. The opponent will be either the North Carolina State Wolf Pack or the Purdue Boilermakers.
The Alabama Crimson Tide were the 4th seed out of the West Region. The Crimson Tide beat Clemson in the Elite 8 to get to this game. The last two games for Alabama were both wins over Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Alabama comes into the game with a 25-11 record.
For the Connecticut Huskies, they were the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies are 35-3 on the season, and have won 11 straight games. UConn is coming off a regional final win in Boston over Illinois.
The Connecticut Huskies are big favorites here. UConn is listed at -11.5 over the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Hurley Leading Huskies
Dan Hurley and his Connecticut Huskies have not lost a game since late February on the road at Creighton. Since them, the Huskies have won 11 straight games, with just two of them being competitive at all. The win over Illinois saw the Huskies go from tied 22-22 to being ahead 52-22 midway through the second half.
Donovan Clingan made a huge mark in the win with five blocked shots. Clingan is fourth on the team with 12.9 points per game. He is also adding 7.5 rebounds per game to his resume. Clingan in the NCAA Tournament has gone for 19, 14, 8 and 22. His rebounding numbers have been 8, 14, 8 and 10.
The top scorer for the Huskies this season has been Tristen Newton. They did not need his scoring in his 31 minutes played on Saturday. He scored just 5 points, and was 0 for 6 from the field. His biggest game was in the second round against Northwestern, when he recorded 10 assists in the game.
High Scoring Tide
The Alabama Crimson Tide are the highest scoring team in College Basketball. Alabama is scoring 90.6 points per game. During the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson Tide have scored 109, 72 and back to back games of 89. The defense has improved for Alabama. Twice late in the season, the Crimson Tide lost games due to allowing 100+ points.
The offense goes through Mark Sears. He is an elite scorer for the Crimson Tide. In the win over North Carolina, Sears scored 18 points on 7 for 14 shooting. Then, in the win over Clemson, he was able to knock down 7 three point shots. Sears finished the game with 23 points. He is averaging 24.7 points per game in the big dance.
Alabama has had an interesting season that saw them score 100+ in their first three games of the season. Those wins were over Morehead State, Indiana State and South Alabama. The Crimson Tide lost early season games at Ohio State, to Clemson, Purdue, Creighton and Arizona.
Huskies Survive and Advance
The UConn Huskies are unstoppable right now. Illinois was playing great basketball and ran into the buzzsaw. Alabama is going to have to hit a ton of shots, and the Huskies play too good of defense to allow them to catch fire. Look for UConn to use one of their big runs, and win this game by double digits over the Crimson Tide. It was a great season for the Tide, but it comes to an end. Our final bet for this game is the UConn Huskies -11.5 over the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday. Enjoy the game!
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