UConn has won two of the past three national championships but will enter Monday night’s title game against Michigan as a heavy underdog.

That’s because the top-seeded Wolverines have blitzed through their first five games of the NCAA Tournament, winning by an average of 21.6 points. That includes an 18-point dismantling of fellow No. 1 seed Arizona on Saturday night in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score.

UConn, the No. 2 seed in the East, followed a dramatic upset of No. 1 Duke in the Elite Eight with a systematic breakdown of No. 3 seed Illinois. Still, the Huskies will enter Monday night as the underdog for their third consecutive game.

Michigan was a consensus 7.0-point favorite across major sportsbooks on Sunday, with the Wolverines seeking to become the first Big Ten team to win the national title since the 1999-2000 season.

The line was sitting at 6.5 points at both BetMGM and DraftKings, where the line opened at 7.5. The total points line at 144.5 at both books. At DraftKings, the shortest odds on the winning margin was Michigan to win by 3-6 points at +425, followed by a Wolverines victory by 10-13 points at +450. UConn’s shortest odds for a victory were 3-6 points at +800.

The Wolverines are the 10th Big Ten team to reach the final in a season that began this century, but the most recent team to cut down the nets remains Michigan State in 1999-2000. Michigan looking to complete a turnaround that saw the program stumble to an 8-24 finish just two years ago.

UConn is in the final for the third time in four years, but will go up against a Michigan team that already is the first in history to score at least 90 points five times in a single NCAA Tournament.

“We know it’s just one more, so we’re going to try to get it,” Michigan’s Aday Mara said after Saturday’s beat down of Arizona.

The Huskies certainly have recent history on their site, and coach Dan Hurley will enter Monday night with a 350-179 career coaching record along with that pair of national titles. No program has won three in a four-year span since the 1972-75 UCLA Bruins.

UConn has 18 wins this season in which it has held its opponent under 40 percent shooting, and the Huskies held Illinois to 33.9% shooting from three-point range on Saturdya.

“We’re a group of fighters. It’s not appealing to everyone,” Hurley said. “I’m sure there’s some people in here that it’s off-putting for. But we are a group of fighters. We are incredibly tough. We’ve got incredible will. We go into these games, we’re ready for battle.

“Again, for us it’s not a game that we’re just kind of running around in uniforms throwing the ball around, hoping it goes in. That’s not what we’re doing out there. We’re fighting. It’s a life-and-death struggle for us to get to Monday night for the opportunity to win a championship, and then just to be able to prolong this season with each other and to make the people of Connecticut proud, to make the university proud and all the former great players.”

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Dodgers put Mookie Betts on the 10-day injured list on Sunday after an MRI verified an oblique strain.

Manager Dave Roberts said Sunday that Betts could be sidelined four to six weeks, but he anticipated time missed being on the lower side.

Betts exited in the middle of the first inning on Saturday during the Dodgers’ 10-5 win against the Washington Nationals, with right lower back pain cited as the reason.

He was replaced by Miguel Rojas, who will bat second for the Dodgers against the Nationals on Sunday.

In a corresponding move, Los Angeles called up infielder Hyeseong Kim from Triple-A Oklahoma City. He played in 71 games and hit .280 for the Dodgers last season but didn’t make the club out of spring training. In six games at Oklahoma City, he is hitting .346 (9-for-26).

He could see some time at shortstop as well.

After posting a career-low .258 batting average last season, Betts — a former American League batting champion — is off to a slow start at the plate. The 33-year-old is batting just .179 (5-for-28), but he does have two homers and seven RBIs in eight games.

–Field Level Media

The New York Islanders fired Hall of Famer Patrick Roy as the team’s head coach Sunday and replaced him with Peter DeBoer.

The Islanders (42-31-5, 89 points) have lost a season-high four in a row and reside in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets. New York is idle until Thursday, when they’ll host the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Roy, 60, posted a 97-78-22 record in three seasons since taking over for Lane Lambert as coach of the Islanders.

DeBoer, 57, guided the Dallas Stars to the Western Conference final in three straight seasons before being fired by the team on June 6. He posted a 149-68-29 record with Dallas.

DeBoer has a 662-447-152 coaching record with the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Golden Knights and Stars. He guided the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012 and the Sharks to the finals in 2016.

Roy was a four-time Stanley Cup champion and a three-time Vezina Trophy recipient during his playing days.

He is the fourth coach to be fired this season. Rick Bowness replaced Dean Evason in Columbus on Jan. 12, D.J. Smith took over from Jim Hiller in Los Angeles on March 1 and John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy with Vegas on March 29.

–Field Level Media