NCAA Tournament 2024: U’Conn pummels Purdue to earn repeat national titles

Despite a 37-point, 10-rebound performance from Purdue’s Zach Edey, the Boilermakers got run over in the 2024 national title game by the superior Big East regular-season & tournament champs; the U’Conn Huskies. By successfully defending their 2023 national championship, the pride of the Big East became the first program to win back-to-back nat’l titles since Joakim Noah, Al Horford, & Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators accomplished that feat in 2006 & 2007.

Trailing by a deuce, 21-23, after the Boilermakers’ 7-foot 4-inch giant (/Edey) scored his 13th & 14th points of the night with a nice finish in the paint, the Huskies stayed true to their original game plan; guarding Edey straight-up (/1-on-1) and pushing the pace offensively to wear Purdue down as nearly 8 minutes (still) remained in the opening half. With 7:14 to play in the first half, U’Conn’s Tristen Newton leveled the score at 23 with a half-runner, half-floater in the lane that he drilled over Purdue’s tiring rim-protector (/Edey). On the following possession, Edey’s fatigue was noticeable; as the Canadian big man caught the ball in the lane and got whistled for a walk with 6:50 remaining in the first half.

Immediately after the Purdue turnover, play was halted for a media timeout and Purdue’s head coach Matt Painter took the (extra-) time to give his star player a much-needed rest on the bench. Edey, who played (in) all but 33 seconds of Purdue’s victories in the Final Four and Elite 8, has incredible stamina (especially) for a man of his tremendous size; an asset that kept him on the floor in the natty ship for more than 39 minutes. Against a team with the Huskies’ firepower, however, Edey has to be on the floor (at all times) if the Big Ten regular-season champs want any chance of hanging around.

Knowing Edey was gassed and in need of some time off the court, U’Conn’s head-coach Dan Hurley used the media-timeout to his full advantage; drawing-up a post-play to get the ball inside to his 7-foot 2-inch center, Donovan Clingan. No more than 12 seconds removed from the media-timeout, Clingan delivered an and-1 bucket before completing the 3-point play at the charity stripe thanks to a foul that was committed by Purdue’s 6-foot 10-inch backup-big, Caleb Furst. After taking a 26-23 lead with 6:38 remaining in the first half, the Huskies didn’t blink once; growing their lead to 7 over the next 3 minutes, 32-25, and entering the halftime locker-room up-6, 36-30.

With 15:54 to-play in the game, U’Conn’s Clingan made his way to the bench after committing his third foul; prompting the entrance of UConn’s 6-foot 10-inch backup-big Samson Johnson to help defend Purdue’s Edey. While Johnson committed 5 fouls in merely 5 minutes of playing-time, he also contributed 4 (big-) points; extending U’Conn’s lead to 11 & (then) 13 with a pair of dazzling alley-oop’s on opposite sides of the basket after timely feeds from Tristen Newton. Newton, who had 7 assists to-go along with 20 points, (clearly) took his head coach’s advice to-heart; throwing Edey out of whack by giving him different looks the moment Samson entered the game to replace Donovan. Once Samson came-in for Clingan following the latter’s third foul, the former wasted no time impacting the game; diving to the cup with bad intentions and giving his Huskies a commanding-lead.

After setting the nation ablaze with an onslaught of 3-pointers during the 2023-‘24 season, the Boilermakers drained 1 measly 3-ball in the biggest game of the year; the nat’l championship. Not only did Purdue make just 1 3-pointer, they attempted just 7 of them; falling-victim to U’Conn’s relentless ball-pressure, stellar defensive-rotations, and their ability to not overreact to Edey’s presence on the interior. In other words, Hurley wasn’t worried about Edey going to work in the scoring department; but he wasn’t going to let Edey get his points and his assists (too). Plainly, Hurley and U’Conn thwarted Purdue’s perimeter-offense; turning them into a dribble-drive, mid-range team (that came) against their own will.

Welp, thanks for comin’ (The Big Ten). As we witnessed, U’Conn is the best team in the nation by a long-shot; and the teams in their own conference were the ones who gave them the closest games all season. Simply, the Big East has proven itself as the nation’s best conference.

Another year of Big East dominance in the record books.

Unfortunately, I’m sure Doc Charles McClelland and his clueless pals will have no-trouble giving the Big East less (bids) than they deserve (come tournament time in 2025).

Some people never learn.