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It is incredibly rare when the losing machine That is, the NCAA Tournament spits out the two best teams in the country for the national championship.
However, that’s exactly what we have here. What a true blessing it is to see the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country battle it out in Phoenix for a shot at glory.
All season long, Purdue and UConn have been going back and forth for the title of best team in the country. Now, as inevitably could have been, the Connecticut Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers will face off for a national title.
For Connecticut, it’s a chance to cap a dynasty of six titles in 25 years – possibly the closest anyone can get to UCLA’s dominance in the 1960s and ’70s. But for Purdue, an annual Big Ten basketball power, the Monday’s title game represents their first chance to taste national glory in school history.
Here, Mail Sport takes a look at Monday night’s domestic title match to see the teams’ path to the final four… and who is set to lift the trophy.
Phoenix hosts national championship game between UConn and Purdue on Monday night
Purdue’s path to the finals
The Boilermakers were hell-bent on making sure their failures from previous years were not repeated. Last season, they became the second men’s team to lose to a 16th-ranked team in the tournament. A year before that, they were two seeds and lost to St. Peters, who would become the first 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight.
After clinching the Big Ten regular season title for the third time in five years, they were unable to repeat their achievement in the conference tournament after a loss to Wisconsin.
This year, there was no first-round upset, as Purdue handled Grambling with ease and then reached the Sweet 16 after dispatching Utah State.
What followed was a healthy win over Gonzaga before an incredibly close 72-66 win over Tennessee to reach the Final Four.
Against top-seeded NC State, coach Matt Painter’s Purdue team shot just 40 percent from the field but hit ten 3-pointers to win 63-50 and reach the title game.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter reacts to a play in the game between NC State and Purdue.
Purdue players to watch
The offense starts (and often ends) with 7-foot-4 big man Zach Edey. While it is incorrect to say that Edey constitutes his own one-man team, it is correct to say that the offense often flows through him more than anyone else.
He is an excellent facilitator on offense and has often used his size to generate more contact than normal and go to the free throw line (although this was not seen on Saturday, where he only had two shots from the charity stripe).
This will be a game about supporting casts more than anything and Purdue has one of the best in the country with the guard trio of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Lance Jones.
Jones shot 5-12 from the field and 4-9 from 3-point range on Saturday, tallying a solid 14 points.
Loyer also contributed double-digit points with 11, as well as four rebounds and two assists.
Smith has been on a cold shoulder throughout the tournament and will need to take a step forward for the title game. After playing 40 minutes, he was left with just a 1-9 shooting line with three points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Purdue doesn’t have many depth options that consistently get running time other than Mason Gillis, so expect them to essentially run six men most of the night.
Big man Zach Edey (15) is the Boilermakers’ primary facilitator and offensive engine.
UConn’s path to the final
After winning the national championship last year, the Huskies had their sights set on Florida in 2007, the last team to do it back-to-back.
The Huskies won the Big East regular season title and the Big East Tournament championship to advance strongly in March after winning seven straight games to close out the season.
After topping Stetson in the first round, the Huskies dominated Northwestern to reach the Sweet 16, a feat no defending champion has accomplished since that 2007 Florida Gators team.
A rematch of last year’s national title awaited them, but Dan Hurley’s Huskies defeated San Diego State to win by 30 points.
Speaking of 30, after a close first half in the Elite Eight against Illinois, UConn went on an improbable 30-0 run in the second half to build such a lead that they were essentially destined for the Final Four with 11 minutes left in the game .
That led to Saturday night, when Alabama became the first team to take more than 60 points off the Huskies in the tournament since Arkansas in last year’s Sweet 16. Still, Connecticut’s foot stayed on the accelerator and they won 86-72, the most. margin of victory in a Final Four in school history.
Connecticut Huskies head coach Dan Hurley reacts to a play against Alabama in the Final Four
UConn players to watch
The biggest strength of this UConn team is how unselfish and well-prepared the team is, making it incredibly difficult for coaches to plan for specific players with the knowledge of how massive the Huskies’ playbook is and how the offense can flow through any of the initial five.
Only 7-foot-2 big man Donovan Clingan has been the leading scorer in singles games in this tournament more than once, against Illinois and Stetson. He has an incredible physical and defensive presence with phenomenal post moves that could draw attacks on Edey.
Guard Tristen Newton has had inconsistent field goals, but his all-around play is what makes him an All-American.
Transfer Cam Spencer is an elite shooter from both inside and outside the arc. Rookie guard Stephon Castle might be the best on-ball defender in the NBA Draft pool and he dropped 21 points to lead Connecticut over Alabama.
Alex Karaban is an unsung hero on this team, more than capable of using his slender frame to slide to the rim and equally capable of hitting shots from beyond the arc.
UConn has a much deeper bench, with guard Hassan Diarra a reliable sixth man and Samson Johnson able to fill in for Clingan if he ever struggles.
Add to that the minutes logged by players like freshmen Jaylin Stewart and Solomon Ball, and UConn is more than capable of rolling eight or nine guys in a single game.
Edey’s opposite number in the paint will be 7-foot-2 physical center Donovan Clingan.
Forward Alex Karaban (left) and guard Cam Spencer (right) could have big games against Purdue
Freshman guard Stephon Castle (5) will be the Huskies’ primary defender against Purdue.
So who is going to win it all?
These two teams match up incredibly well, making this a difficult game to predict, but the edge should lean towards UConn.
If Clingan and Edey get caught in a paint battle, then both could be limited early by fouls and Purdue doesn’t have someone who can take over Edey’s interior presence like Johnson can with Clingan.
Even if the referees allow the bigs to face each other, Edey hasn’t played against anyone as tall as Clingan this season, while his UConn counterpart’s closest rival in the conference was Creighton’s 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner.
But beyond those two, Connecticut will have a size advantage over the rest of Purdue’s starting four, which could give them a boost on the glass.
By metrics, UConn is the best team in the country on offense and the fourth-best on defense, according to analytics site KenPom. That compares to Purdue’s third-ranked offense and Purdue’s 12th-ranked defense. They are 1-2 in KenPom’s primary metric, adjusted overall efficiency, but UConn is more than four points better than Purdue.
Historically, the Huskies have lost only one Final Four game to a Draymond Green-led Michigan State team in Detroit in 2009. They have never lost a national championship game. Meanwhile, Purdue is here for the second time in its history, the first time since losing the national title to the UCLA Bruins led by Lew Alcindor (later the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
This will be a much closer game than UConn has played at any point in the last two tournaments. Their streak of 11 double-digit wins will likely end here, but the win streak itself will likely remain intact as Connecticut is the pick to win back-to-back national titles.