{"id":899412,"date":"2026-04-15T14:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/three-keys-a-pick-no-3-seed-illinois-vs-no-2-seed-uconn\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T19:17:57","slug":"three-keys-a-pick-no-3-seed-illinois-vs-no-2-seed-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/three-keys-a-pick-no-3-seed-illinois-vs-no-2-seed-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Keys &#038; a Pick: No. 3 seed Illinois vs. No. 2 seed UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"<article data-key=\"280206175\">\n<header>\n<h2>Illini Inquirer&#8217;s Kyle Tausk breaks down Illinois&#8217; Final Four matchup against No. 2 seed UConn on Saturday.<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<h2><b>No. 3 seed Illinois (28-8) vs. No. 2 seed UConn (33-5)<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Date &#038; Time: <\/b>April 4, 5:09 p.m. CT<\/p>\n<p><b>Location: <\/b>Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Ind.)<\/p>\n<p><b>TV: <\/b>TBS\/TNT\/TruTV (Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill &#038; Tracy Wolfson)<\/p>\n<p><b>QUICK HITS<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Illinois is making its sixth Final Four appearance in program history, third in the modern era (since 1975) and first since 2005.<\/li>\n<li>The Illini are coming off a 71-59 win over No. 9 seed Iowa in the Elite Eight on March 28.<\/li>\n<li>Illinois is fourth on KenPom, currently holding the No. 1 offensive efficiency rating in KenPom history (131.7), which dates back to 1997.\u00a0 They are 20th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.<\/li>\n<li>With a win on Saturday, the Illini would match the third-most wins in a season in program history (29), tied with the 2023-2024 season.<\/li>\n<li>Illinois has a 50-36 all-time record in NCAA Tournament games.\u00a0The Illini&#8217;s 50 wins rank 18th among all schools and second among schools yet to win a national championship, only trailing Purdue (53).<\/li>\n<li>The Illini are 1-4 all-time in Final Four games. Their six Final Four appearances are second-most among teams yet to win a national title, only trailing Houston (7).<\/li>\n<li>Illinois is 10-4 in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed. They are 4-13 all-time in the NCAA Tournament as the lower (worse) seed.<\/li>\n<li>Brad Underwood is 10-5 in the NCAA Tournament during his Illinois tenure and 12-9 in his career, making his first Final Four appearance in his 13th season as a Division I head coach.<\/li>\n<li>Illinois is 1-4 all-time against UConn. The Huskies defeated the Illini, 74-61 on Black Friday at Madison Square Garden earlier this season. In the 2024 Elite Eight, UConn beat Illinois, 77-52, which included a 30-0 run.<\/li>\n<li>Dan Hurley is in his eighth season as head coach at UConn and is making his third Final Four appearance. The Huskies are 198-74 under Hurley and won back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024. Hurley is 17-3 in the NCAA Tournament in his career.<\/li>\n<li>The Huskies defeated No. 1 seed Duke, 73-72, on Sunday in the Elite Eight after erasing a 19-point deficit. They beat No. 3 seed Michigan State, No. 7 seed UCLA and No. 15 seed Furman on their road to the Final Four.<\/li>\n<li>UConn is currently ninth on KenPom, ranking 27th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency and ninth nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.<\/li>\n<li>The Huskies finished in second place in the Big East with a 17-3 conference record. They are 2-2 against KenPom top-10 opponents and went 7-3 in Quad 1 games during the regular season.<\/li>\n<li>Illinois is a 1.5-point favorite in this matchup, which has an over\/under of 139.5. The Illini are 22-14 against the spread this season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>To read this full article and more,<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.247sports.com\/college\/illinois\/join\/?promo=vipgateHLBARRIER\">\u00a0subscribe now \u2014<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>SALE:60% off first year<\/h2>\n<p>Get access to this article and all of the in-depth coverage from the 247Sports Network with this special offer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secure.247sports.com\/college\/illinois\/join\/?promo=vipgateVIPBARRIER\">Join at 60% off Annual<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Already a subscriber? <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/college\/illinois\/login\/\">Login<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/\"><\/a> Yuri Mischke <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMi2gFBVV95cUxOQ3hFckthTFZHaVZUZFZmQkRaVHJNUlhVWktPZDVncHpWUWtCTWdVYjJaVUp3enhBbHBIanp1Zmd5RnRBWTJmT3FMMHpYc2xqTk1WX3RRSkhEUW5lcmwwdFVMYXBDMjZXRnhEc1BITzlJbS00aTYtaGZab0stcEE2U1h1ZldUbmVGZW1sNE0wck9FVEdHTlE3LWJpeUozZUd5aDVKSzItTEdfMXV0bWEzcWpJQjR4cGhkSWNGa1VhRzBBT0NSRkh2NWtPUm52YWE4LTZUcTF2VVEwUQ?oc=5\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illini Inquirer&#8217;s Kyle Tausk breaks down Illinois&#8217; Final Four matchup against No. 2 seed UConn on Saturday. No. 3 seed Illinois (28-8) vs. No. 2 seed UConn (33-5) Date &amp; Time: April 4, 5:09 p.m. CT Location: Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Ind.) TV: TBS\/TNT\/TruTV (Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill &amp; Tracy Wolfson) QUICK HITS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22769,1862],"tags":[8082,6791],"class_list":{"0":"post-899412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-illinois","8":"category-three","9":"tag-illinois","10":"tag-three"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}