DOUBLE-DOUBLE
UConn men turn back Purdue in NCAA title defense
UConn stands alone. Again. A balanced offensive effort and another dominant second half led the Huskies past Purdue 75-60 to win the men’s basketball national championship last week for the second year in a row. UConn is the eighth program to go back to back in men’s NCAA Tournament history and the first since Florida in 2006-07.
To do so, the Huskies had to overcome another banner night from Purdue center Zach Edey, the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year and just the third player in NCAA men’s history to be named the Naismith Player of the Year multiple times.
“You can’t even wrap your mind around it,” Huskies coach Dan Hurley said. “It’s just ... shows how hard this tournament is. What a special group of people and special coaching staff . ... The best group of players you could possibly do it with.”
Edey scored 16 points in the first half, bullying UConn sophomore Donovan Clingan and drawing double-team attention when Clingan went to the bench with his second foul. But the Boilermakers went without scoring for the final 2:18 of the first half to send the Huskies into the locker room with a 36-30 lead.
The halftime deficit was Purdue’s first of the tournament.
And as against Illinois in the Elite Eight and Alabama in the national semifinals, UConn pulled away in the second half with increased defensive intensity and an offensive barrage.
A quick spurt coming out of halftime put the Huskies ahead 47-34 after a Samson Johnson dunk with 14:30 left. After two free throws from Edey made it 47-36, the Huskies held Purdue without a field goal for more than four minutes to make it 56-40 with 9:27 remaining.
Once again, the rout was on. Purdue would draw within 13 points at 59-46 after an Edey dunk with 7:31 to go and again at 67-54 with 2:46 left but had no answers on either end of the court for the Huskies, who controlled the tempo and pace in the second half to drown the one opponent pundits believed had the ability to derail the defending champions. That wasn’t the case. Defensively, UConn was unable to slow down Edey, who had 21 points in the second half and finished with 37 points and 10 rebounds.
Edey’s 177 points this postseason are tied for the second most by a player in tournament history with Princeton’s Bill Bradley in 1965 (177 points), trailing Michigan’s Glen Rice in 1989 (184 points).
With Edey tough to contain, the Huskies’ overall depth and wealth of scoring options in the backcourt made the biggest difference.
The threesome of Cam Spencer, Tristen Newton and Stephon Castle combined for 47 points on 17 of 38 shooting. Newton repeated as the tournament’s most outstanding player.
UConn had four players score in double figures, led by Newton’s 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Despite his foul issues, Clingan added 11 points and five rebounds.
“We recruit really talented NBA players
that are willing to not make it about themselves,” Hurley said. “To be a part of a winning group and to go for all the championships and while doing that their draft stock still is really, really high. We both win. Uconn wins and the players win.”
Along with Edey, Purdue guard Braden Smith had 12 points. But the rest of the Boilermakers went a combined 5 of 27 with 11 points. Despite facing a growing deficit during the second half, Purdue attempted just seven shots from 3-point range, making one. UConn went 6 of 22 from deep.
Overall, the Huskies allowed 18 points during a 20-minute span of game time
spanning the first and second halves.
Beating the Boilermakers puts an exclamation point on one of the most impressive runs in NCAA men’s tournament history and gives the Huskies an argument for being counted among the best teams in college basketball history.
The win was the program’s 12th in a row in tournament play, all by double digits. The closest win during this span was 13 points against Miami in last year’s Final Four.
UConn is the fourth men’s Big East team to win the national championship in the past eight tournaments. The last team from the Big Ten to do so was Michigan State in 2000.