Despite this year’s NCAA Tournament having one of the most unlikely Final Four teams ever in No. 11 seed N.C. State, Monday night’s championship game came down to the two best teams. Ultimately, the No. 1 overall seed Connecticut Huskies easily handled the Midwest Region’s No. 1 seeded Purdue Boilermakers, 75-60.
The Huskies dominated every opponent they faced in this year’s tournament— their smallest margin of victory was 14 points against Alabama in the Final Four—but after a tight first half, it seemed like Purdue would keep it close. Connecticut, after completing a historic 30-0 scoring run against Illinois just over a week prior, was only able to achieve a 6-0 scoring run in the first half against Purdue.
The Boilermakers went into the locker room down by six points despite their two-time defending Naismith National Player of the Year, star center Zach Edey, having scored a whopping 16 first-half points.
“We didn’t care if Zach [Edey] took 25, 28 shots to get 30, 35 points. This whole game plan was like no [Braden] Smith, no [Fletcher] Loyer, no [Mason] Gillis, no [Lance] Jones,” said Connecticut Head Coach Dan Hurley after the game. “Keep that collective group under 18, 20 points…they had no chance to win, no matter how well Zach played.”
Hurley’s game plan was executed to perfection. Edey finished with 37 points on 25 attempts, well above his 28-point scoring average from the previous five games of March Madness. However, his supporting cast, the group Coach Hurley mentioned, finished with a combined 17 points. In the four games after the round of 64 (in which Purdue’s main contributors sat out for most of the second half), that same group averaged over 35 points per game, double what they scored on Monday night.
The Huskies stopped Edey’s supporting cast by keeping them away from the 3-point line. Coming into the contest, Purdue averaged 8.3 made 3-pointers per game, but on Monday, they only attempted seven. Their seven attempts, one make and 14.3% conversion rate were all season-lows for the Boilermakers.
On offense, Connecticut was led by this year’s NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, senior guard Tristen Newton, who finished with team highs in points (20), assists (7), 3-pointers (2) and free throws (6). Newton is one of three scorers from last year’s championship who elected to return to the Huskies in 2024 and defend their national title.
Coming into the game, the story was Repeat vs. Redemption. All season, Connecticut was on a mission to become the first team since the Florida Gators in 2007 to successfully defend a national championship. After a 31-3 record heading into the tournament, including an outright Big East Regular Season Championship and a Big East Conference Tournament Championship, the Huskies earned the top seed in the field, and nearly a quarter of bracket makers picked them to cut down the nets.
Not only did the Huskies repeat, they destroyed their competition. Connecticut recorded a +140 point margin of victory across their six tournament wins, which is the largest in men’s NCAA Tournament history. Their 37 wins are the most in a championship-winning season since Kentucky in 2012, a team led by Anthony Davis and six other future NBA players.
The last time a team led the nation with at least 37 wins, won the NCAA Tournament and won their conference tournament was…never. Arguably, Coach Hurley and the Huskies just completed the best season in the history of men’s college basketball.
On the other hand, Purdue was looking to redeem their shocking first-round exit in last year’s tournament against No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson. Rather than heading for the NBA, Edey returned for his senior season to attempt to avenge the crushing loss.
Despite not ending the storybook season with a happy ending, Edey had an incredible year to cap one of the best college careers in history. Before Edey, the last time a player won multiple Naismith Player of the Year awards was Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s.
“You can never say that I didn’t give it my 100% every single time I stepped on the floor, every single time I went through practice, and that’s what I’ll always hang my hat on,” said Edey after the loss.
Edey appeared in the NCAA Tournament in all four seasons of his career, made two trips to the Sweet Sixteen, won two Big 10 regular season titles and one conference tournament title, and finished as Purdue’s all-time leader in points and rebounds.
Edey’s basketball career will continue into the NBA, but the story of Monday night and the 2024 season is Connecticut’s dominance en route to their second straight NCAA title. The Huskies’ six championships surpasses Duke’s total and equals North Carolina’s. Without a doubt, Connecticut is a blue-blood men’s basketball program.