The UConn Huskies’ 13-game NCAA tournament winning streak has come crashing down in a 77-75 loss to the top-seeded Florida Gators in the second round of the Big Dance on Sunday.
UConn looked poised to pull off a bracket-busting upset as the Huskies clung to a slim lead late in the second half in Raleigh, North Carolina. But in the end Florida’s size, speed, and determination proved too much for UConn to withstand.
UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley spoke through tears to CBS after the tough defeat and graciously offered praise for Florida’s performance.
“They showed their quality. I thought we played with tremendous honor. I thought we played with the heart of a championship program and a program that’s gone back-to-back.
Dan Hurley
“For a team to end what we really wanted to do, they were going to have to put us down. And obviously a worthy opponent like that – there’s honor in the way we went out,” he added
With championships in 2023 and 2024, UConn was already the first team to win back-to-back national championships since their opponent Florida accomplished the feat in 2006 and 2007.
By their own lofty expectations, the Huskies’ season was a bit of a disappointment.
UConn started their campaign ranked in the top 10, but a three-game losing streak against unranked opponents at the Maui Invitational in November was an early indicator that this year’s Huskies squad might not be up to the program’s typical elite standards.
The Huskies’ season was marked by frustrating losses and close scrapes against inferior opponents.
The Huskies appeared to be getting all their horses pulling in the same direction late in the season, and there was belief that the team was capable of making a deep run in the tournament, but UConn ran into a buzz saw on Sunday in the form of the SEC champion Gators.
It has been more than 50 years since a school has won three straight NCAA tournaments, dating all the way back to the UCLA Bruins dynasty of the 1960s and 70s, and it was not meant to be for the 2025 Huskies
