The UConn Huskies are national champions.
No. 4 UConn defeated No. 5 San Diego State in the 2023 men's national title game at NRG Stadium in Houston on Monday. In securing the program's fifth national championship, the Huskies finished off a historically dominant NCAA Tournament run.
The Huskies began the Big Dance with an 87-63 blowout of No. 13 Iona followed by a 70-55 defeat of Saint Mary's. In the Sweet 16, UConn cruised past No. 8 Arkansas 88-65 and then crushed No. 3 Gonzaga 82-54 to win the West Region.
Dan Hurley's squad continued to flex its muscles in the Final Four, knocking off No. 5 Miami 72-59 before beating SDSU 76-59 for the national title.
That's six double-digit March Madness victories in as many games for the Huskies. And since the Big Dance expanded in 1985, just four other champions have won all of their NCAA Tournament games by at least 10 points.
The feat was first achieved by Michigan State in 2000 followed by Duke in 2001, UNC in 2009 and Villanova in 2018. Unlike UConn, all of those teams were No. 1 seeds.
According to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, the Huskies' average margin of victory in the tourney of 20.0 points is the fourth-largest since 1985. UConn, however, is the lone champion to win all of its games by at least 13 points.
UConn's dominance of out-of-conference foes wasn't anything new, either. During the regular season, the Huskies won all 11 of their non-conference games by double digits as well.
