The Final Four: Connecticut

The Connecticut Huskies are just plain good. The Connecticut Huskies are just plain good. Their record of 34-1 is staggering enough, but the real show starts inside the numbers. The Connecticut Huskies are just plain good. Their record of 34-1 is staggering enough, but the real show starts inside the numbers. The Huskies had an average margin of victory this season of 31 points. And that's not to say that the Huskies have played a cupcake schedule -- their schedule was ranked the nation's fourth-toughest, and when they faced fellow Final Four participant Rutgers in the final of the Big East Tournament, the Huskies won by 20. Four Connecticut players score in double figures, but no member of the Huskies averages more than 28 minutes per game, nor does any UConn player hoist up more than 10 field goal attempts per game. The result is that seven players have led the team in scoring in different games this season, making it nearly impossible to prepare a defense to face UConn. Sophomore guard Sue Bird may be the nation's best pure shooter. She hits at an other-worldly 49.6 percent clip from three-point range and hits on 89.5 percent of her free throws. Bird runs the point just fine, too, dishing out 151 assists on the season. Bird's backcourt partner, junior Shea Ralph, is no slouch herself. Ralph is the Huskies' leading scorer at 14.6 points per game in her first full year as a starter after having two surgeries on her ACL. Ralph can also grab rebounds -- she averages 3.7 boards per game and hauled in eight in the Huskies' January 8 victory over Tennessee. Fellow junior Svetlana Abrosimova is Connecticut's leading rebounder, averaging 6.1 boards per game. Abrosimova is also the Huskies' second-leading scorer, filling the net for 13.2 points per contest. The Huskies don't just play offense, though. UConn's defense is among the most stifling in the nation, holding opponents to just 33 percent from the field. The Huskies have won 15 straight games and have an excellent chance to win the national title this weekend. -- Jesse Spector