Matt Painter: 'We just came up a little bit short to a great team'

Zach and Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers came up just short of stopping UConn from getting back-to-back championships. After losing in the first round of last year's tournament to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, the Boilermakers came back this season with one goal in mind, hoisting a trophy at the end of it all.

Unfortunately, Purdue fell just short of that goal losing in the National Championship 75-60 to the Huskies. This was a team that many thought had all the ingredients to win it all this season. In Edey's four seasons, after winning National Player of the Year, he did everything he could this season to make his team successful.

"People have no idea the burden you carry when you're as good as he is, produce like he does going into opposing arenas," head coach Matt Painter said in a postgame press conference.

It is no surprise that the two-time National Player of the Year was at the forefront of Purdue's offense all season long. Edey averaged 24.9 points per game and added 12.2 rebounds per game as well. In the National Championship, Edey was amazing scoring 37 points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes on the court, but it just wasn't enough.

"We were going to go to the well with Zach as much as we could at that point," Painter said. "In a game like this, we had to be able to rebound defensively better, and then we had to have something balance that out. That was threes, they stayed home with us. They did a really good job defensively."

UConn was able to give Purdue what they wanted with Edey in the post, but they locked down the three-point shot which kept their guards out of the game. While Purdue was able to hit a few good shots here and there, Edey still had over half their points in the paint alone. Forcing the Boilermakers to eat them inside worked well for them.

Even though Purdue didn't win it all this year, this season was anything but a failure. They were back-to-back regular season champions for the first time since 1976 and ended up being the last undefeated team in college basketball. They also have the National Player of the Year in Edey and after playing in the Big Ten Tournament made it to the National Championship in the NCAA Tournament.

Painter made sure his players weren't hanging thier heads too much after this loss because they are just getting started.

"We put ourselves in a great position now and we took advantage of it. We just came up a little bit short to a great team," Painter said. "So, like, now just like any other year we're going to take two to three weeks off, then get back to work."