Postgame analysis
In a battle between No. 1 seeds, between the two best teams in college basketball, there was little question where the epicenter of attention would be when Connecticut and Purdue took the floor with a national championship at stake. As ever, the collective gaze of basketball fans near and far would be magnetized by the 7-footers that guided their respective teams to a stadium filled with more than 74,000 spectators in Glendale, Arizona, on Monday night.
For the Huskies, who were the top overall seed in this year's tournament, that meant 7-foot-2-inch Donovan Clingan, a two-way terror for UConn who imposes himself at both ends of the court. And for Purdue, which earned a No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season, that meant 7-foot-4-inch Zach Edey, a back-to-back winner of the Naismith Men's Player of the Year Award, the first player to do so since former Virginia star Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s. Goliath versus Goliath.
The action did not disappoint. Time and time again, Edey lowered one of his broad shoulders into Clingan during a first half in which he accounted for more than 50% of the Boilermakers' points. He drew fouls, he grabbed rebounds, he blocked and altered shots on defense. There was little more head coach Matt Painter could have asked for from the sport's most unique player.
And yet, despite all of Edey's early success, Purdue still trailed by six when the halftime buzzer rang. Connecticut had still done what this Connecticut team always does: spread the scoring (four players with at least seven points); protect the basketball (three turnovers) and execute whichever defensive game plan Dan Hurley and his staff devise (limiting Purdue to one 3-pointer). It was precisely the kind of half that gives this UConn team an air of inevitability.
And inevitable the result became. Beginning with an 11-4 spurt in the opening minutes of the second half, UConn unleashed yet another second-half surge that left yet another opponent in the dust. There were alley-oops to backup center Samson Johnson after Clingan went to the bench with foul trouble. There was a backbreaking 3-pointer from Alex Karaban as the shot clock was about to expire. There was a transition layup by reserve guard Hassan Diarra that pushed UConn's lead to 16 with 9:27 remaining and forced Painter to call timeout. By that point, Edey had missed seven of his last eight shots. And when Stephon Castle buried a triple shortly after play resumed, the margin swelled to 17. Purdue couldn't stop the bleeding.
Which meant that the final few minutes became Connecticut's coronation, the first team since Florida in 2006 and 2007 to win consecutive national titles. The 75-60 victory over Purdue was a masterclass on both ends of the floor: 18 assists and only eight turnovers on offense with four players in double figures, led by point guard Tristen Newton with 20; limiting the Boilermakers to just 30 points in each half and snuffing out their 3-point shooters (1-for-7) overall. For the second consecutive year, Edey's supporting cast wilted when it mattered most. Fletcher Loyer, Mason Gillis and Lance Jones combined for five points. Edey finished with 37 points and 10 rebounds.
If last year's national title was about cementing UConn's place as a blue blood, then winning a sixth national championship makes Connecticut one of the greatest programs that college basketball has ever seen. After Monday night, the only teams to cut down the nets more often than the Huskies are UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8). It's one of the reasons why Hurley and so many others around the program refer to Storrs, Connecticut, as the basketball capital of the world.
- Michael Cohen
