NCAA Tournament: UConn crush Purdue to retain men’s national title
UConn delivered the latest of their suffocating basketball beatdowns on Monday night, smothering Purdue for a 75-60 victory to become the first men’s team since 2007 to capture back-to-back national championships.

Tristen Newton scored 20 points for the Huskies, who won their 12th straight March Madness game – not a single one of them decided by fewer than 13 points.
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UConn were efficient on offense but won this game with defense. The Huskies (37-3) limited the country’s second-best three-point shooting team to a mere seven shots behind the arc – Purdue only made one – while happily allowing 7ft 4in AP Player of the Year Zach Edey to go for 37 points on 25 shot attempts.

UConn joined the 2006-07 Florida Gators and the 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils as just the third men’s team to repeat since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 70s.
“Can’t even wrap your mind around it,” coach Dan Hurley said. “You just know how hard this tournament is.”
Purdue made it this far a year after becoming just the second No 1 seed in the history of March Madness to fall in the first round. But the Boilermakers (34-5) left the same way they came – still looking for the program’s first NCAA title.
In what was supposed to be a free-for-all in this new age of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals, UConn have figured out how to dominate.

The 2024 Huskies are the sixth team to win all six tournament games by double-digit margins. They won those games by a grand total of 140 points, blowing past the previous high of 121 by the 2009 North Carolina team for the highest margin among that exclusive club.
“We just recruit really talented NBA players that are willing to not make it about themselves, and to be part of a winning group, to go for all the championships,” Hurley said.
Cam Spencer, a transfer from Rutgers, Stephon Castle, a blue-chip freshman, and Alex Karaban, a sophomore from last year’s team, spent the night guarding the three-point line and making life miserable for Purdue’s guards.
Edey battled gamely, finishing with 10 rebounds to record his 30th double-double of the season. But this game proved the number crunchers right. UConn let Edey back in and back down all night on 7ft 2in Donovan Clingan, giving up difficult twos in exchange for any threes.

Meanwhile, as Edey started wearing down, the Huskies took the ball right at him. Castle finished with 15 points and both Spencer and Clingan had 11, and it barely mattered that UConn made only six three-pointers, which was right at their season average.

Hurley joins former Florida coach Billy Donovan in the back-to-back club, and is in company with Bill Self and Rick Pitino as only the third active coach with two championships.
“The message was that we were the best team in the country,” Hurley said of his pregame talk to his players. “Purdue was clearly the second-best team in the country. Play to our identity, be who we’ve been the whole year, and we’ll be champions.”