As we count down the final days of the year, SI writers are reflecting on "The Best Thing I Saw in 2024" and looking back at the most memorable moments they witnessed in their reporting this year.
UConn men’s basketball’s 12 straight NCAA tournament wins by double digits is arguably the most impressive streak in sports. Over the last two years, the Huskies have made the most unpredictable event in American sports, well, predictable, dominating March Madness and etching their names into the record books in the process. And no moment encapsulated that domination more than the Huskies’ 30–0 run against Illinois in the 2024 Elite Eight that officially punched UConn’s ticket to the Final Four and made a second straight title feel almost inevitable.
Illinois entered the game as clear underdogs, playing essentially a road game in Boston against the clear favorites to cut down the nets. But after UConn scored the game’s first nine points, Illinois battled back. Marcus Domask’s old-school post bucket tied things at 23 with just under two minutes to go in the first half. The orange corner of the arena’s belief seemed to build with every possession.
Then came the UConn tidal wave. The next nine minutes of basketball was a systematic dismantling to the tune of 30 straight points… from 23-all to 53–23. It was the perfect illustration of two years of thoroughly dominant basketball, condensed into less than an hour of real time.
“I just think we played a level of basketball that was demoralizing for them,” Hurley said in the tunnel afterwards.
March 30, 2024: @UConnMBB goes on a 30-0 run to cruise past Illinois in the Elite Eight as part of the 2024 National Championship run pic.twitter.com/m7nGV3QkND
— Husky Highlights (@UConnHighlights) July 18, 2024
First came five unanswered points to enter the half with a lead and some confidence. Out of the halftime gates, UConn came out like a racehorse, with seven more in the first 2:50 of game time. Future No. 7 draft choice Donovan Clingan swallowed a dunk attempt by Illinois on one end, then finished a poster slam at the other to set the crowd ablaze with its patented “U-C-O-N-N” chant as the Huskies went up 12.
Hurley said later that day that one of the things that made UConn so surgical was its staff’s willingness to “coach every possession.” Nothing ever slips past. The moments as that lead ballooned further and further were the perfect evidence of that. Top assistants Luke Murray and Kimani Young pumped their fists nearly in unison as Cam Spencer climbed the ladder for an offensive rebound and putback that pushed the lead to 16, then pivoted their focus quickly to organizing a huddle. The bench’s energy never dwindled, ever as UConn’s lead climbed past 20, instead building with every successive defensive stop and score at the other end. An Illinois team that had looked largely dominant the rest of March was made to look like the junior varsity as the Huskies did whatever it wanted on both ends of the floor.
For the next week, pundits tried to talk themselves into the path for someone to beat UConn the next weekend in Phoenix. Perhaps Alabama could go on an all-time shooting stretch… or maybe Purdue and Zach Edey could beat up the Huskies on the inside. But anyone who was in the gym for that 30–0 demolition derby knew at that moment that UConn would be the back-to-back champs. It was just a matter of figuring out what time the following Monday the confetti would start to fall.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Looking Back on the Demoralizing 30-0 Run That Cemented UConn’s 2024 NCAA Title.
