The UConn Huskies made history
Monday night by becoming the first team since 2007 to win
back-to-back NCAA Men’s Basketball championships after defeating
Purdue 75-60 at the State Farm Stadium in Phoenix,
Arizona.
The last team to do the same
feat was the Florida Gators, who won back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.
They were led by then-head coach Billy Donovan and eventual NBA
stars Al Horford, Joakim Noah, and Corey Brewer.
UConn capped off one of the most
dominant runs ever in college basketball history with the best
point differential in a single NCAA tournament all-time with a +140
spread. They beat the previous records set by Kentucky in 1996
(+129), Villanova in 2016 (+124), and Duke in 1999 (+123). This is
their sixth championship in program history.
The Huskies were only up 36-30
after a tight first half but then poured it on after the break,
showing why they were the defending champions from a year
ago.
UConn used every offensive set
they ran to perfection and executed their defensive game plan: let
Zach Edey score and stay home on shooters. This limited Purdue to
only one three-pointer made on just seven attempts
overall.
The two-time National Player of
the Year feasted with 37 points and 10 rebounds, but the rest of
the team only managed to score 23 points.
“We didn’t want to give up 3’s,”
UConn head coach Dan Hurley shared. “We didn’t care if Edey took
25, 28 shots to get 35 points. The gameplan was no Smith, no Loyer,
no Gillis, no Jones. Keep that collective to under 20 points as a
group and they had no chance to win no matter what Edey
did.”
Tristen Newton, who was named
the tournament’s most outstanding player after the game, led UConn
with 20 points on an efficient 6-of-13 shooting from the field
along with 7 assists and 5 rebounds, while projected 2024 NBA draft
first-rounders Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan added 15 and 11
points respectively for the Huskies.
