UConn overcomes Edey, Purdue to repeat as champion
What a team has built, one man cannot break down. No matter how big, how skilled, how tough, one man was not going to stand between the UConn men’s basketball team and the history they came to make Monday night.
Zach Edey, the national player of the year, did all he could, but he was one giant of a man trying to stop a locomotive. The Huskies had too much else going for them, and they fulfilled their mission of a second consecutive national championship with their 75-60 victory over Purdue.
“We’re the best team the country, Purdue is the second best team in the country,” coach Dan Hurley told his team before the game. “Be who you’ve been and we’ll be national champions.”
Few teams develop such an identity and play to it as consistency as UConn, a study in unselfish, determined play.
Though the 7-foot-4 Edey, with 37 points and 10 rebounds, provided an obstacle the like of which UConn had not seen, the Huskies have provided a spectacle the like of which the college basketball world has rarely seen, a 15-month run during which they won 52 of 57 games, most by large margins, Big East regular-season and tournament titles and, now, two NCAA Tournaments. March Madness is supposed to be a grueling, survive-and-advance affair, but the Huskies have won 12
tournament games in a row by double digits.
Even Purdue, the Midwest Regional champ, was the toughest opponent on paper, even the Boilermakers never took control of the game for any stretch, leading for only 1:36 early in the first half. Edey was a force, but the rest of the Huskies were too fast, too athletic for those guarding them, or guarded by them.
So up the ladders to cut down the nets went Hurley and the Huskies yet again, the sixth championship in school history, all coming since 1999. They are the first team to repeat since Florida in 2006 and 2007, bringing closure to college careers that will long be remembered in Connecticut.
Donovan Clingan, the 7-2 sophomore from Bristol, is likely going to the NBA Draft after maybe the most successful basketball career in state history, with a state championship at Bristol Central High followed by two national championships at
UConn. He had 11 points and five rebounds.
Tristen Newton, who transferred from East Carolina, scored 20, rising to the occasion in the championship game for the second year in a row.
And Cam Spencer, who transferred from Rutgers, became the fiery core of a championship team in his one season at UConn, had 11 points and eight rebounds, Edey or no Edey.
Same for freshman Stephon Castle, who scored 15. A “one-and-done” player also likely to go to the NBA, he did what few one-and-dones ever do, produce as advertised and blend seamlessly into a team.
And the Huskies two-year surge has lifted Hurley to the top of the profession, the envy of colleges across the country.
All of that is written indelibly in the history books now, and nothing the future, the tumultuous nature of the college athletics landscape, can ever erase it. This was their moment, and they mastered it.
“We watched the film. They get their 3-pointers off people going down there and helping on Edey,” Newton said. “The UConn coaching staff did a great job game-planning and made sure it was a focus that we didn’t leave the 3-point line and let Edey do his damage. He only shoots twos. He doesn’t shoot threes. If he makes 15 twos like he did tonight, that’s 30. Where are the rest of the points going to come from?”
The Huskies are the first team to secure back-to-back NCAA Tournament titles since Florida did so in 200607. Newton, Castle, Clingan and Spencer made the Final Four All-Tournament Team, joining Edey.
As 74,423 gathered in the NFL home of the Cardinals, more Purdue fans than UConn, by the naked ear, the Huskies lined up to face their formidable obstacle. Edey was every bit the nightmare he was billed to be, every bit the matchup nightmare a center of that size figured to be. He scored 16 points in the first half, with five rebounds, two blocks. The Huskies, at least, were able to limit his damage later in the half, and Clingan made it to the break with only one foul.
Hurley, in his sideline interview, promised some adjustments, as allowing Edey to continue along this path would be “unsustainable.” Also no surprise, Edey did not have a foul called on him, nor a goaltending, something with which Hurley was getting increasingly frustrated, at one point exchanging snarls with Edey as they passed on the court during a timeout.
“I just got to play better,” Edey said. “This is one of those games where I can’t go through stretches where I’m not effective. I had a few of those stretches... and that was the game.”
But at the other four positions, UConn was doing what it usually does, moving the ball around and getting open shots. The Huskies, despite Edey’s production, led 36-30 at the half, a bigger lead than they had against Alabama in the semifinal. In the second half, they only kept increasing their lead, gradually wearing the opponent down. When Edey air-balled a free throw, it looked as if even he were tired.
“They were just going to let us play one-on-one in the post. You see the 25 attempts that Zach had,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Not everybody can do what they just did. You have to give credit to their defense and their coach and how they’re wired.”
These Huskies could do that, wear down opponents, critics, until there was nothing left to do but praise them. Hurley has described them as bulletproof, and as they warded off all comers the past two years, their achievements will stand all tests of time.
(Hartford Courant/TNS)