Alabama basketball reached its first Final Four in school history and is now chasing a monster upset against top-seeded UConn at 7:49 p.m. CT Saturday.

Tide Illustrated staff writer Jack Knowlton spoke with Stratton Stave, Sports Editor for The Daily Campus and Staff Writer for the UConnReport, to get some insight on Alabama's heavyweight clash against the Huskies.

In general, you answered the question in the first sentence. Teams haven't really been successful penetrating the paint when he's there. The best advice I'd give is to grab a time machine and go back to when he was still coming back from his injury a month or two back. Since getting healthy, Donovan Clingan has been on a tear defensively and teams haven't had any success getting much to go on the interior. The good news for Alabama is that they space the floor in a way that no other team UConn has played can do. If the Tide's shots are falling and Clingan is forced out of the paint, then there's some hope. But there isn't a ton of indication that this is a likely outcome.

UConn has several guys who can get theirs on any given night. Some teams have one guy who will dominate every night, but the Huskies take turns--and they're incredibly unselfish. Cam Spencer is the obvious pick. He leads the nation in offensive efficiency and is in the top 50 from three. If this game becomes a shootout, I wouldn't want to be shooting against Spencer. Same goes for Alex Karaban, who has a knack for hitting shots in big moments. He's a better shooter than his 38% from deep indicates and he's also in the top 40 in offensive efficiency. Steph Castle will be a big factor defensively and Hassan Diarra's veteran experience will be appreciated, but I think we're looking at big games from Spencer and Karaban as the pace picks up.

UConn's biggest strength is their ability to wear teams down. They don't do any one thing incredibly, but they throw a bevy of different looks and offensive schemes at the defense and use whatever works. That's why their games can start out tight, but behind the scenes UConn is waiting to pounce after they've surveyed what they can use to blow out their opponent in the second half. UConn is the most vulnerable when they're on the road against an NCAA tournament caliber team. So far that's the only situation they've lost in and fortunately for them, they have no more games on the road. They have so many different ways to win and haven't really been challenged yet in the postseason.

Things didn't go terribly well when Creighton, UConn's best 3-point shooting opponent, went 14/28 from downtown in Omaha, but I feel pretty confident in saying that game was an anomaly. Especially since the Bluejays shot just 23% from distance the other time they played. UConn's next best shooting opponent is Gonzaga and they held the Bulldogs to 16% in that game. The Huskies are one of the top 30 teams nationally in three point defense, so they should be pretty well equipped to stop the 3, which is essentially the key to the game.

When I told the folks at Arkansas Rivals before last year's Sweet 16 that I thought UConn was going to win by 10-15 points, they looked at me like I was speaking Yiddish. The Huskies won by 23. I think this year's UConn team is comparable or better to last year's team, but Alabama is also better than Arkansas was last year. I'm guessing UConn is going to want to calm the pace down and run their offense, but the good looks may come early and often. I think UConn will win by 15 and we'll have a relatively high-scoring game. Score Prediction: 88-73.