UConn MBB has chance to further distance itself from recent national powers 

When it comes to the top college basketball programs in the country, UConn has set a standard that is nearly unmatched in both the men's and women's game. With its 71-62 win over Illinois on Saturday night, the Men's team is back in the championship game for the third time in the past four years and has a chance to further distance itself from the other top-tier programs. If Dan Hurley's squad can complete yet another championship run on Monday night, it would not only give the Huskies their third title in four years, cementing the program as a modern dynasty, but it would also give them their seventh national championship over the past 30 years.  That is a lot in any era, and would put the program among the all-time greats in any era. But it really stands out in this era because there is no other team that is even close to them in terms of championship success.  Just looking at that most recent 30-year window, no other program has won more than three national championships in that time-frame. The only programs that have three are Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida. Kansas and Villanova have each won two. Nobody else has more than one.  That is quite an impressive run, and they have done it with three different head coaches (Jim Calhoun, Kevin Ollie and now Hurley) and in two completely different eras of college basketball under completely different rules. Calhoun and Ollie won in the pre-NIL, pre-Transfer portal era, where recruiting was king and building a national championship-contending team took years of development and patience. Hurley has won it in a NIL and transfer portal era where money talks. No matter the rules. No matter the standard of play. No matter the coach. The UConn machine keeps rolling along. Nobody has done it better over the past three decades. They are one win away from furthering the gap between them and everybody else.  Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on X @AGretz Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!