The college basketball season came to a close last night as the 1st overall seed UConn Huskies defeated the Purdue Boilermakers to repeat as national champs for the first time in 17 years.
Like several of UConn's games this tournament, the game was tight through the first half. But the Huskies asserted their dominance in the second half to pull away early and retain their lead through the end. Rather than focusing on Purdue's big man, Zach Edey, UConn's philosophy was to let Edey go one-on-one in the post and prevent Purdue's perimeter players from beating them.
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The Final Four took place on Saturday night in Phoenix, Arizona. And despite valiant efforts from the underdogs, the higher seeds proved to be too much in the end. Both games followed similar trajectories with the game remaining close until halftime, with the 1-seed pulling away in the second half. As a result, (1) Purdue took down the Cinderella, (11) NC State in the first game, and (1) UConn defeated (4) Alabama in the second matchup.
Two more teams punched their ticket to the Final Four on Easter Sunday. And the response for each of those teams couldn't be more different.
(1) Purdue benefitted yet again from very questionable officiating to beat (2) Tennessee from the foul line. Zach Edey shot more free throws than the Vols combined to score 40 points in an essentially 1v1 game between him and Dalton Knecht, who had 37. The big issue is not solely the special treatment Edey gets on offense, but the fact that he is allowed to do whatever he wants on defense and positioning for rebounds without anything ever called against him. He had just one foul the entire game, whereas Tennessee's main big man, Tobe Awaka, fouled out in just 13 minutes of game time. |
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