At the beginning of the 2023-24 season, the UConn men’s basketball team had one goal
and one goal only: to be in the mix for six. It would require everything they had and more, along
with the ability to overcome challenge after challenge.
On Monday, they’d accomplish that goal, rewriting the history books and becoming the first back-to-back National Champions since the Florida Gators from 2006-07 with a win over the Purdue Boilermakers 75-60.
What was billed as a true battle of the bigs was truly so at the beginning of this matchup. The game plan for the Boilers was to give it to their main man, Zach Edey, and it worked about as good as hoped for coach Matt Painter.
Edey was dominant in the first half of Monday’s game, totaling 16 points on 7/13 shooting. It was about as tough of a matchup possible for big man Donovan Clingan and while the Great Wall of Bristol was able to neutralize him as much as possible, it wouldn’t be enough to take him out of the game, at least not until the latter stages of the first half.
Meanwhile, Connecticut played their brand of basketball on the offensive end, with the energetic Cam Spencer leading the charge in the first National Championship appearance of his college career. Not only did the Maryland native get the first points of Monday’s game on a three-point jumper, but he was also effective in the paint with plenty of pump fakes to catch the Boiler defenders off guard.
Not only was Spencer giving Connecticut a massive boost on the offensive end, but it was Hassan Diarra who also showed up big to give his guys a spark. In the first half, Diarra matched Spencer’s scoring total with 7 of his own, electrifying the crowd with some crucial buckets in just 5 minutes of play.
Yet, with all that being said, what really gave UConn an edge in the first half ended up being the play of Tristen Newton, who’s no stranger to the big moment. Last year, it was the Texas native who helped power this team to championship No. 5 with 19 points on 5/11 shooting. Fast forward to 2024, in just the first 20 minutes, he was just as dominant, combining some electric defense with some massive buckets to collect 11 points on 4/8 shooting.
As the clock winded closer to halftime with under three minutes to go, the Huskies held just a five point lead, 32-27. While Braden Smith had started to heat up a bit, the reigning National Champions remained poised and confident in their brand of basketball and that attitude would serve them well. While the Boilers guard would ultimately cut the lead to as low as 2, the Huskies would answer right back and more, playing behind some excellent defense and key offensive buckets to head into the half up 36-30.
What was most impressive heading into those latter stages of the game was how they guarded the massive figure of Edey. Up until around the 12 minute mark, the Canadian big man simply was getting what he wanted, but after that, Connecticut seemed to have contained the 7-4 center much better. In the final 12 minutes of the first half, the squad would hold Edey to just 5 points as both teams headed to the locker room.
20 more minutes till greatness. The Huskies had the lead, but with such an incredible offense like Purdue, Dan Hurley and Co. needed to go all out in the second half to end Monday’s game as champions.
What transpired in the final 20 minutes for UConn was dominance and nothing but that.
With some positive momentum in their favor of preventing Edey from complete domination, the game would get completely out of hand and in complete favor of the Huskies. It all started off with a big triple from Newton, fresh off an offensive rebound from Clingan. Then, it was some crucial buckets from Stephon Castle, a player who was largely absent in the scoring column in the first half.
Connecticut would stack their buckets to form a pair of runs. Those points would eventually stack like a game of Tetris, forming a wall that Purdue simply could not overcome. UConn’s lead would balloon to as much as 17 at its peak at the 8:39 mark. Led by UConn’s electric guardplay, the team would chug on toward greatness, outscoring Purdue’s guards 55-17.
“That was the game plan, just limit the guards,” said Newton following the game. “Steph, Cam, got in there and did a great job on the guards, limiting them and their impacts.”
“We didn’t care if Zach took 25, 28 shots to get 30, 35 points. This whole game plan was no Smith, no Loyer, bo Gillis, no Jones. Keep that collective group under 18, 20 points as a group. They had no chance to win, no matter how well Zach played,” said coach Hurley following the win.
That sentiment was truly remarkable, as despite an astronomical 37 points from the Purdue big man on 15-25 shooting, they truly had no chance when Newton is putting up 20 or Castle adds 15. When you add some lockdown defense to the equation, game over.
With championship No. 6 now in Storrs, UConn now leaps further into the upper echelon of programs in college basketball and tie North Carolina for the third most of all time. If you know Hurley, he’s determined to keep this program climbing to a whole new level, even higher than the program already is.
“I don’t think we’re going anywhere,” said the coach of the reigning National Champions.