For Dan Hurley, advancing in the NCAA Tournament is nothing new. As the two-time defending national champions, the UConn head basketball coach admitted as much following his team’s first-round win over Oklahoma.
With the win, Hurley and the Huskies extended their March Madness win streak to 13 games, going without a loss since 2022. Hurley claimed beating teams in the tournament has now become “normal” for him, even with UConn entering the 2025 bracket as a No. 8 seed instead of No. 1.
“That was a big win for us,” Hurley said in his post-game interview. “Oklahoma is a really tough team to guard. Our defense has probably cost us a lot of games this year, but our defense won this game for us today. Just thrilled to be advancing in the tournament. It feels normal.”
“It feels uh … it feels normal.”
Dan Hurley is getting used to this winning in March thing. pic.twitter.com/yoTDRNrR0E
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 22, 2025
To kick off their quest for three consecutive national championships, UConn topped Oklahoma 67-59 in a gritty defensive affair. The Sooners hit just 32.1 percent of their shots, including just 17.6 percent from three. They only recorded five assists as a team, four coming from star freshman Jeremiah Fears.
In a game that did not feature much scoring, UConn guard Solo Ball led the team with just 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting. Only three Huskies reached double figures, with Alex Karaban adding 13 and Tarris Reed Jr. pitching in 12 points off the bench.
If UConn is able to defy the odds and win another national title, it would become the first team to “three-peat” since John Wooden and UCLA won seven straight championships from 1967 to 1973. Since then, two other teams — Duke and Florida — have won consecutive tournaments, but neither one of them made it back to the title game in the third year.
Dan Hurley advances UConn to second round of NCAA Tournament
For the third straight season, Hurley advances UConn to the Round of 32. The Huskies will be in for a tough second-round matchup with No. 1-seeded Florida, whom many believe is the favorite to win the national championship.
Florida is coming off a 95-59 thrashing of No. 16-seeded Norfolk State in the first round, its seventh straight victory. Entering the tournament, the Gators consecutively beat Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee to win their conference tournament. They have yet to lose to a team outside of the SEC.
Despite UConn’s recent string of success in the NCAA Tournament, Florida is lined as an 8.5-point favorite for the Round of 32 matchup. The Huskies have only been underdogs seven times in the year, going 4-3 in such games.
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