Championship Showdown: UConn vs. Purdue Live Updates from the March Madness Final

There was no doubt where the focus would be when Connecticut and Purdue squared off with a national championship on the line in a matchup between the top two seeds and the finest teams in college basketball. In Glendale, Arizona, on Monday night, the 7-footers who led their teams to a stadium packed with almost 74,000 fans captured the attention of basketball enthusiasts from all across the state.

This year’s top overall seed in the tournament, the Huskies, faced a formidable opponent in 7-foot-2-inch Evan Clingan, a two-way threat to UConn who asserts himself at both ends of the court. And that meant 7-foot-4-inch Zach Edey for Purdue, which secured a No. 1 seed for the second straight season. Edey is the first player to win the Naismith Men’s Player of the Year Award back-to-back since former Virginia great Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s. David vs Goliath.

The performance did not let me down. Throughout a first half where he scored over half of the points for the Boilermakers, Edey repeatedly lowered one of his huge shoulders into Clingan. On defense, he altered and blocked shots, pulled fouls, and collected rebounds. From the most distinctive athlete in the sport, head coach Matt Painter could not have asked for much more.

But even with Edey’s early success, Purdue’s deficit at the half stood at six points. As usual, Connecticut spread the scoring (four players finished with at least seven points each), guarded the ball (three turnovers), and executed the defensive strategy that Dan Hurley and his staff came up with (limited Purdue to one 3-pointer). That was exactly the kind of half that lends this UConn squad a sense of inevitable success.

And that is what happened inevitably. UConn started the second half on a fast start, outscoring their opponent 11–4, and they would go on to overwhelm another opponent in the process. Clingan was substituted for by backup center Samson Johnson after he was sent to the bench due to foul trouble. As the shot clock was about to run out, Alex Karaban made a game-winning 3-pointer. With 9:27 left, Hassan Diarra, a reserve guard, made a transition layup that increased UConn’s lead to 16 and prompted Painter to call a timeout. Edey had missed seven of his previous eight shots by then. And the lead ballooned to 17 when Stephan Castle sunk a triple immediately after play was resumed. Purdue was unable to halt the hemorrhage.

This meant that Connecticut became the first team to win consecutive national crowns since Florida in 2006 and 2007, as the last few minutes became their crowning achievement. With four players in double figures, including point guard Tristen Newton with 20, the team outscored Purdue 75–60 in a master class that saw them commit just eight turnovers and commit just 18 assists on offense. They also shut out the Boilermakers’ one and only 3-point shooter, going 1-for-7 overall. When it counted most, Edey’s supporting cast withered for the second year in a row.Three points were shared by Mason Gillis, Lance Jones, and Fletcher Loyer. With 10 rebounds and 37 points, Edey finished.

If the goal of winning the national championship the previous year was to solidify UConn’s status as a blue blood, then becoming the first team to win six national titles elevates Connecticut to the status of one of the best college basketball teams ever. Following Monday night, UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8) are the only teams to cut down the nets more frequently than the Huskies. Hurley and numerous others throughout the show refer to Storrs, Connecticut, as the basketball capital of the world for this reason.

0:00 2H UConn 75, Purdue 60

14:40 2H UConn 46, Purdue 34

Samson Johnson was able to put the ball away with decisiveness after Tristen Newton created some space and floated it up to him, extending the Huskies’ lead.

16:39 2H UConn 41, Purdue 32

To start the second half, Purdue’s Cam Heide snatched up an Edey miss and hammered it in for a massive highlight play.