Last night on April 10th, 2024, the UConn Huskies defeated the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60 to win their second straight national championship. UConn is the first team to win back to back national championships since Florida in 2007. The Huskies did not have a game that was within 10 points when the buzzer sounded, capping off a dominant tournament run. Guard Tristen Newton MOP of the tournament after scoring 20 points in the National Championship game. UConn has now tied UNC for 3rd with 6 national championships, all coming after 1999. They have clearly cemented themselves as a blue blood in college basketball.
This game started out really close and back and forth. Zach Edey was dominant in the first half for Purdue with 16 points of his own. Braden Smith was making the right plays too and was the catalyst of the Purdue offense. Cam Spencer brought the energy for UConn out of the gate and got his teammates going. The game went into the break 36-30 with UConn leading. UConn continued to grow their lead in the second half with a more active Donovan Clingan, Stephon Castle and Tristen Newton scoring in spurts. Edey continued to dominate in the second half, finishing the game with 37 of Purdue’s 60 points. UConn keyed in on stopping the rest of Purdue’s supporting cast and just allowing Edey to do the damage everyone knows that he is capable of. Braden Smith had a solid game with 12 points and 8 assists but the rest of the team struggled to get involved. Fletcher Loyer was held to 0 points, Lance Jones to 5 and Trey Kaufman-Renn to 4.
Head Coach Dan Hurley claims UConn is “the basketball capital of the world” but they will have a lot of questions they need to answer next year. The team will likely only return one starter in Alex Karaban next year. Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle will both end up declaring for the draft this year and will both be high first round picks. Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton have both graduated now and will both also declare for the NBA Draft. Dan Hurley also has serious interest from Kentucky for their head coach position. It is unlikely Hurley leaves, but crazier things have happened. Purdue will bring back guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith but will be losing 2x NPOY Zach Edey to the NBA Draft. Role players Lance Jones and Mason Gillis have also graduated and will be leaving Purdue. Matt Painter is going to have to work hard in rebuilding this roster back to a championship caliber team.
