Word to the wise: If you want to take UConn's crown, you're going to have to pry it out of the Huskies' cold, dead hands. This has hardly been a vintage season for Dan Hurley and Co., from three straight losses at the Maui Invitational to a 6-6 stretch during conference play and a semifinal loss in the Big East Tournament. The defense has taken a major step back after Donovan Clingan's departure, and the offense doesn't have the sort of steady hand at point guard it needs to get Hurley's beautiful machine revving at top speed.

And yet, here they are, still very much alive in their bid for a threepeat after outlasting No. 9 seed Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night. This may not be the UConn team of the past two years, but Alex Karaban, Liam McNeeley and Solo Ball still have some firepower at their disposal, and Tarris Reed is slowly turning into a monster down low. Pull up the KenPom stats all you want; no one wants to face this team at this time of year — not even a squad as dynamic and dangerous as the No. 1 seed Florida Gators.

Which is saying something, because there might not be a team playing with more confidence than Todd Golden's bunch right now. Florida absolutely pasted No. 16 seed Norfolk State in its opener, nearly cracking 100 points despite missing 21 of its final 35 shots. Walter Clayton is doing his best James Harden impression, and the Gators throw waves of size at you in the frontcourt while running like crazy and shooting from everywhere.

This is going to be a stern test of what UConn's made of, is what we're saying. Can a Huskies perimeter defense that isn't the fleetest of foot hang with arguably the bounciest team in the nation? Can Golden gum up Hurley's intricate offense? Storylines abound here, and that's before you even consider the history between these two programs.

To say that Florida is motivated for this one would be an understatement. You wouldn't think of the Gators and Huskies as basketball rivals: They've never shared a conference, and they'd only played once prior to the 2010s.

But over the last decade or so, this has become a belter of a matchup, delivering darn near every time. Florida won the first-ever meeting between the two schools, a 69-60 overtime win back in 1994. Since then, though, it's been all UConn, which has won each of the last five games in this series — highlighted by the 2014 national semifinal, which the Huskies captured en route to the program's fourth title.

UConn won in Gainesville in January 2015, then eked out a three-point victory at home in November of Hurley's second year on the job. The most recent meeting came back in December 2022, when Hurley welcomed Golden to Florida by pasting his Gators 75-54.

Those Huskies were at the height of their powers, and Florida has come a long way since then. Just how long? We'll find out on Sunday.