Bracket busters? UConn has been more like bracket gangbusters

LAS VEGAS — This was going to analyze each Final Four squad, compare strengths and weaknesses for Saturday’s national semifinals, leading to who will be shouting late Monday night in Arizona.

Instead, let’s cut to the chase before they cut down the nets.

The Diabolical Dr. Danny Hurley descended into his Connecticut dungeon laboratory about 15 months ago and emerged with a monster that doesn’t appear to care who is on the other side of the court.

Public Enemy No. 1, it seems, is the spread. As if Hurley charged his charges with pummeling that number. Double up the point spread, the mad scientist/evil genius might have barked, and every foe will be left in our wake.

“Systematically, we wore them down,” Hurley said of his Huskies zapping Illinois last Saturday. Pro bettor Tyler Wyatt rang from Knoxville to chat about the utter dismantling of the Illini, texts sailed in from New York to Hawaii.

UConn had dropped six of eight last season to send the doctor into his basement. That fallout ballooned those Huskies title odds to 20-1, double what I had already invested in them.

So I bought more UConn stock, which helped boost fantastic overall dividends to my Final Four and title futures portfolio a year ago.

The Huskies didn’t just finish that campaign by winning 15 of their final 18 games, claiming the program’s fifth national title to earn blueblood status, they did it by overwhelming their NCAA opponents.

DÉJÀ VUCONN

UConn went 6-0 against the spread in last year’s tournament, becoming the fifth squad to do so in a run of 10 NCAAs.

In 2016, Villanova went 6-0 by smashing the spread by an average of 16.3 points a game. Last year’s Huskies crushed their NCAA spreads by a 14.8-point average. Absolute dominance.

The Huskies are 4-0 ATS over the last two weeks, beating the spread by an average of 12.5 points. Should they go 6-0 ATS again, they’ll be the eighth program to do so since 2004, when the TeamRankings database began.

They’d become the first to achieve that in back-to-back years. In addition, CBS reported that UConn’s margin of victory (23.1 points) over the last two NCAAs is set to break UCLA’s two-tourney record (22.5, 1967-68).

UConn is favored by about 12 over Alabama. In a UConn-Purdue finale, the Westgate SuperBook projects the line to be Huskies -6.

These Huskies hunt history.

“Hurley as mad scientist against the spread,” BetMGM director of trading Lamarr Mitchell said, “you could be on to something.”

I detailed the above to pro bettor John Murges, in Sarasota, Florida, who arrived at a similar conclusion. “The beginning of a dynasty,” he said.

We chatted about Purdue’s 7-4 Zach Edey and the enthusiasm of N.C. State’s 6-9, 275-pound DJ Burns.

Murges, however, agreed that whoever advances from Boilers-Wolfpack figures to be exhausted, yet one more check mark in UConn’s favor.

ROLL IT OVER

For me, this tourney will not be as lucrative as last year’s. I likely will profit from it, though, and that’s the aim.

A wise tack two weeks ago was embarking on the UConn Rollover, a $22 wager on the Huskies in their first game, rolling it over with each spread win. A duplication of last year’s 6-0 NCAA ATS run would return more than $1,000.

A minnow’s windfall.

Last week, I tore into the weekend’s games individually, with respect to futures tickets I have held for months on certain teams. I sought to hedge, on underdog moneylines and teams to win regionals, to ensure profit.

With some deft maneuvering, that mini-package included Purdue +140 to win the Midwest, N.C. State +245 to beat Marquette, Clemson +250 to defeat Arizona. I cashed six tickets Sunday night that nearly tripled those in-tourney investments.

In December, I risked two units on a 16-1 title ducat on the Huskies, and I’ve steadily added to that outcome; +500 in February, then +400, then +300. In that mini-package, I nabbed a UConn title ticket at a plus price.

Two days later, that drifted into negative territory. At DraftKings on Wednesday,
UConn was -195 (or bet $195 to win $100) to win the title, followed by Purdue (+205), and both Alabama and North Carolina State were 16-to-1.

UConn has been too devastating to ignore; foolish, I believe, to bet against. The Huskies have won 50 of their last 55 games. They’re 30-0 this season when holding foes to 67 or fewer points.

These Huskies have tallied in the 90s six times; in three games, they hit triple digits. Four NCAA opponents have averaged 53.5 points, none has hit 60.

“They look unfazed, just hitting on all cylinders,” SuperBook executive vice president Jay Kornegay said. “It’s amazing to watch this team just demolish every team they play, like last year. Déjà vu.”

In its four NCAA tourney triumphs, UConn has shot 63.8% from two-point range, dished out 80 assists and turned it over 36 times. Its opponents check in, respectively, at 37.1%, 30 and 42.

The finish might be dramatic.

For maybe the first time, longtime UNLV fans should be concerned come Monday. In Denver in 1990, the Rebels belted Duke 103-73, a 30-point margin that stands as a record for a championship game.

UConn tallying at least 104 points and winning by more than 30 would be downright diabolical, unless you’re a certain mad scientist.