Is UConn capable of losing?

The defending national champs have the second-biggest point spread in the last 21 years of the Final Four. The generational showdown with Purdue is practically penciled in for Monday night.

How can 11.5-point underdog Alabama even compete? They’ve lost 11 times this season. Eleven.

UConn lost three. It enters the 7:49 p.m. CT Saturday semifinal with a 35-3 record and few expectations of losing this one.

Except they could.

An examination of the Huskies three losses offers some blueprint for Alabama in the effort to shake the foundation of an already historic run. Crimson Tide forward Grant Nelson certainly isn’t conceding anything.

“They’re definitely beatable,” Nelson said Thursday in the locker room before practicing in Glendale. “I mean, they played great all year so it’s going to be tough but I think if we lock into our scouting report, I know coach has spent a lot of time on that with our analytics group and they found out I think the best way of beating UConn.”

The Huskies bid for a repeat is interesting because of how they lost those three games. The first one was the most understandable, a 69-65 loss at then-No. 5 Kansas. It was a battle of heavyweights played in one of the nation’s most hostile road environments. And it came down to the final minute.

The other two are more confusing mainly because of the margins.

First, Seton Hall delivered a 75-60 beating on Dec. 20 in Newark. Exactly two months later, Creighton handed the Huskies its most lopsided loss in five seasons with an 85-66 rout in Omaha.

“Look, we’ve lost three games,” UConn coach Dan Hurley conceded Thursday. “We got crushed at Creighton. At Seton Hall we got our butt kicked, too. If we’re not on our identity, we’re vulnerable like everybody else.”

There were a few consistent themes in those two Big East blowout losses.

“They take good shots,” Nelson noted. “They don’t force over Clingan. They guard them, they help off one guy and double in the post. Creighton played the best against them. They made a lot of shots, made a lot of 3s, pushed in transition.”

UConn was dreadful when shooting 3-pointers in those games.

It was 4-for-21 at Seton Hall and 3-for-16 against a Creighton team that made 14 of 28. Few disagree Alabama’s path to an upset will require deadly 3-point shooting since that piece of the pie represents 37% of its scoring — the 32nd-highest percentage in the nation.

“It’s knocking down 3s, knocking down our shots,” Alabama freshman Jarin Stevenson said. “We just have to get into the gym, get our shot feeling right and running in transition and getting transition looks.”

Alabama lost just one of the 19 games in which it shot better than 40% from the 3-point line. That loss came to Final Four team Purdue, 92-86 on Dec. 9.

Seton Hall, the eventual 2024 NIT champs, also made life miserable with its defense. It had 11 steals, the most allowed by UConn all season.

“Really, just really stunned by how unprepared I had these guys for a tough physical conference game,” Hurley said in the aftermath that night in New Jersey. “Credit, (Seton Hall coach) Shaheen (Holloway) Credit, Seton Hall. You know, they just kind of poked us there in Big East Conference fashion. So just a really, really disappointing effort.”

UConn didn’t match the defensive intensity. Its 120.3 defensive efficiency rating (via KenPom.com) was its third-lowest of the season but considerably better than its Creighton effort. That number was a stunningly low 145.0 — not far from Alabama’s low point of 146.1 allowed in a 117-95 loss at Kentucky.

The Tide’s highest offensive efficiency number was 152.6 against Liberty while its top performance against NCAA tournament teams was 142.8 (Morehead State) and 135.0 (Texas A&M).

Steals haven’t been Alabama’s defensive strong suit, generating them on 9.4% of possessions to rank 163rd in Division I. It had 10 in the Round of 32 win over Grand Canyon but four and three, respectively in wins last week over North Carolina and Clemson.

The other key is limiting UConn’s 7-foot-2 center, Donovan Clingan.

A sprained ankle took him out of the final 16:33 at Seton Hall where he scored 14 points playing 14 minutes. Interestingly, the Pirates got a big night from Jaden Bediako, the brother of former Alabama center Charles Bediako. He had 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in the win over the Huskies that night.

Then at Creighton, Clingan picked up two quick fouls and played just 11 first-half minutes when the Bluejays built its insurmountable lead.

Alabama saw Clingan last year but the 82-67 UConn win was his seventh collegiate game. Not the feature of that Huskie offense, the Bristol, Conn., product scored four points in 11 minutes.

Rather than focus on that game, Alabama’s looking at the experience of playing Purdue’s 7-foot-4 Zach Edey earlier this season. It didn’t necessarily go well as the national player of the year favorite scored 35 points, making 12 of 20 shots and all 11 free throws.

“I think it has us battle tested and ready,” said Alabama’s Nick Pringle, likely to have the biggest responsibility in slowing Clingan. “I feel like Edey is a bigger body than him. I mean, we’ve been there. We watched a lot of film learning from Edey so we already know how to guard that type of player. I think our coaches are going to have a great game plan to go out there and be prepared for it.”

Alabama did a reasonably good job against North Carolina’s star big man, Armando Bacot in the Sweet 16. The Tar Heel scored 19 points on 8-for-18 shooting as Nelson often collapsed in double teams to slow the post-play edge North Carolina carried.

Pringle said the key is to keep a body on Clingan and cut down the easy angles.

“And I feel like everything will take care of itself,” he said.

Bottom line: Alabama’s in for its biggest challenge of this already-unprecedented season where every step is another piece of program history.

Difficulty level 11.

But not impossible.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.