SI:AM | UConn Asserts Itself as Title Favorite With Historic Second-Round Beatdown

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad there’s nothing in my chosen career quite like facing UConn at home in the NCAA tournament.

In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Last day of women’s second round
🟠 Virginia’s surprising run
🐅 Tiger Woods’s comeback (sort of)

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Huskies cruise again

Blowouts happen all the time in the opening round of the women’s NCAA tournament, but what UConn did to Syracuse on Monday in the second round was historic.

There have been 45 games in the women’s round of 64 in which a team has won by at least 50 points (compared to just three on the men’s side). That makes sense: Talent-laden power programs get to play a home game against underfunded teams from small schools. But the playing field is more even in the second round—or at least it should be.

UConn throttled Syracuse on Monday evening in Storrs, 98–45. The Huskies’ 53-point margin of victory marked just the seventh time in women’s tournament history that a game in the second round or later was decided by 50 points or more.

Two of the previous post-first round 50-point blowouts can be thrown out the window. They belong to Louisiana Tech (which beat Tennessee Tech by 61 points in 1982) and Cheyney State (a 72-point win over Monmouth in ’83). Those were the first two women’s NCAA tournaments, when the sport’s power imbalance was at its greatest. Four of the remaining five such games belong to UConn. LSU won its second-round game against Texas Tech on Sunday by 54 points and is the only other school to win by 50-plus after the first round.

Incredibly, the final score obscures just how thoroughly the Huskies dominated the Orange. UConn didn’t just win by 53 points; it led by 53 at halftime. The Huskies went into the locker room leading 65–12, then took their foot off the gas in the second half as both teams scored 35 points after the break. It was a similar situation to how UConn’s first-round game played out. The Huskies led UTSA 48–14 at the break and then cruised to a 90–52 win.

Syracuse was held scoreless for more than 10 minutes in the first half, during which UConn piled on 31 points. It was the only 30–0 scoring run in women’s NCAA tournament play since ESPN began tracking play-by-play data seven years ago.

After the game, Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack took issue with the selection committee placing her team in the same bracket as UConn for the second time in three years, saying that “to continuously have to come to UConn” is “unfair to the young people.”

“After being in this business for 37 years, and to have to come and be in this particular bracket every fricking year is unacceptable. It’s wrong,” she continued. “I have been on those committees to see how it’s done, how you can put people on different lines. Put us on a 10 line, whatever. But for us to continue to come to Connecticut year after year after year is, to me, it’s a personal attack, because I just think that we are way better than what we performed today.”

Syracuse lost a tight one against UConn in the second round of the 2024 tournament, 72–64. A similar fate befell Legette-Jack’s Buffalo team in ’19, when the Bulls lost 84–72 to Huskies in the second round. The Orange also drew UConn in the ’17 and ’21 tournaments, before Legette-Jack’s arrival.

It might feel personal to Legette-Jack, but it’s really just practical. The NCAA attempts to limit costs in the early rounds of the women’s tournament by placing teams at a first-round site near their campus. The NCAA is required to pay for charter flights for teams traveling more than 400 miles from home in the first round. Syracuse is less than 300 miles from Storrs (about a four-hour drive). It’s not a long trip, but it probably feels a lot longer after you just got beaten by more than 50 points.

The best of Sports Illustrated

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As the men’s tournament moves to the Sweet 16, Bryan Fischer reseeded the 16 remaining teams. (There's a new No. 1 overall seed.) Tim Capurso does the same on the women’s side. From the First Four to the Sweet 16:
Emma Baccellieri writes how Virginia became the biggest underdog to advance past March Madness’s opening weekend after its upset victory at Iowa in double overtime.
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With the first wave of free agency in the rearview mirror, Conor Orr has a new set of NFL power rankings, and the Bengals and Commanders are contenders again.
Bob Harig writes that Tiger Woods will return tonight to play in the TGL finals. The 15-time major champion still has not committed to playing in the Masters.

The top five…

… things I saw last night:
5. The wigs Rangers players wore in honor of Mika Zibanejad’s 1,000th career NHL game. (New York then went out and played one of its worst games ever, recording just nine shots on goal, tied for the lowest total in team history.)
4. A sweet assist by Vanderbilt’s Aubrey Galvan.
3. Oklahoma State point guard Jadyn Wooten’s pass through the legs of UCLA’s Lauren Betts.
2. Darius Garland’s ballhandling before burying a step-back three.
1. Jalen Duren’s lockdown defense on Luka Dončić to seal the Pistons’ win over the Lakers.

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