How Dan Hurley, UConn beat Zach Edey, Purdue to win second straight national championship

Donovan Clingan is not what you’d picture in a playmaking center. But instead of just planting him in the post, which is where he would have played in past eras, Dan Hurley has made him the hub for UConn’s halfcourt offense. Clingan can’t really dribble or shoot, so defenders usually sag off him, but that’s a luxury for the Huskies. He’s always open for ball reversals, and he can execute handoffs and deliver the ball as UConn’s shooters are endlessly screening and cutting around him.

“I love passing,” Clingan says. “Just getting a great pass off and setting up a teammate for an easy basket, I love that.”

Hurley uses him this way because it works, but he also sees it as his responsibility to develop Clingan so he will eventually fit in the NBA.

“If they can’t play in five-out, if they can’t play away from the basket, they’re going to have a hard time getting to the NBA,” Hurley says. “So I think it’s a weapon for you, creates new opportunities offensively, but also the responsibility to the player in terms of their career and your player development and being able to recruit the next center that you can win with.”

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Connecticut center Donovan Clingan and Purdue center Zach Edey enter Monday's game as the favorites to be named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, according to odds from BetMGM.

Clingan, a sophomore, is the favorite at +190. He is averaging 16.2 points, nine rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game in the tourney.

Full odds:

• Clingan: +190
• Edey: +225
• Stephon Castle, UConn: +375
• Tristen Newton, UConn: +650
• Cam Spencer, UConn: +1100
• Braden Smith, Purdue: +3500
• Alex Karaban, UConn: +4000
• Lance Jones, Purdue: +6000
• Fletcher Loyer, Purdue: +10000

The play ended with Zach Edey and Nolan Winter back to back, Winter bent over at the waist and Edey splayed across his shoulder blades. They wound up there, in an awkward reverse piggyback while fighting for a rebound on the final day of the regular season, only after their forearms got wrapped around one another like dueling boa constrictors.

Fans in Mackey Arena, angry that their Purdue big man got tangled up, voiced their displeasure, while Wisconsin coach Greg Gard, convinced his big man got the brunt of the workover, voiced his. Amid the din, officials Doug Sirmons, Brian Dorsey and Kelly Pfeifer went to the monitors to review it all. On the broadcast, Fox analyst Robbie Hummel deadpanned, “There’s a lot to unpack there.”

The hardest job in college basketball is not defending Zach Edey; it’s officiating a game in which he plays. The Athletic talked to five recently retired officials and coordinators and one currently working to ask them about the challenge that Edey presents. They all agreed that the big man is no picnic, not just because of his size (7 feet 4, 300 pounds) but also because of the scrutiny he brings to every possession, let alone every game.

Whistles and no-calls merit equal attention. Big Ten coaches and opposing fans screeching about the first, Purdue fans enraged at the second. Northwestern coach Chris Collins earned himself an ejection after storming the court to vent his frustration after Edey earned 17 trips to the free-throw line while Collins’ entire team took eight from the charity stripe. And an irate Tom Izzo, when asked by Fox during a timeout of Michigan State’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinal against Purdue how his team might better defend Edey, bristled. “I don’t like how it’s being called. How’s that?” And in a tourney semifinal, Edey alone fouled out three Wisconsin players.

Yet the chorus of caterwauling that has trailed Purdue throughout this season has not even reached its crescendo. That comes now. Everything matters more in March, including every foul call.

“You have to watch him on every single play, get your head on a swivel,” says former NCAA coordinator of officials J.D. Collins, who retired from his position in 2022. “If he’s setting a screen, posting up, dunking, every single play he’s involved in, we need to decide if it’s legal or a foul.”

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — In so many ways, Stephon Castle is the Connecticut Conundrum. You already have to account for consensus All-America point guard Tristen Newton, honorable mention All-Americans Donovan Clingan and Cam Spencer and big-shot specialist Alex Karaban. Got all that covered? Oops, well, here comes the five-star freshman like a rattlesnake coiled in tall grass, selectively striking whenever anyone gets too distracted by the family of grizzly bears trying to eat them.

That sudden, searing pain in Alabama’s … attempt to pull an upset Saturday night at the Final Four? It was Castle. He represents the problem with playing UConn, because he’s about the fifth-biggest problem, until he isn’t. Until he drops a career-high 21 points in a national semifinal and helps deliver the Hydra Huskies to a second straight NCAA championship game, via an 11th consecutive tournament win by double digits.

What do you do when the fifth-leading scorer is a lottery pick who suddenly unleashes the full bag of tricks? You lose, despite your absolute best effort, as Alabama did, 86-72, on Saturday night. Castle, a McDonald’s All-American, could’ve gone plenty of other places and been the focal point in what is surely his only season of college basketball.

“That’s true,” Castle said, “but I never won anything in high school. I never won a state championship. So I wanted to come here and be coached by a winner. I wanted to be a winner.”

That winning coach, Dan Hurley, who is on the cusp of becoming the first back-to-back champ since Billy Donovan at Florida in 2006 and 2007, called Castle’s shot(s) Saturday. He told the kid who was a 26.1 percent 3-point shooter this year and who’d made just 1 of 12 3s in the postseason that Alabama would sag off him to start the game, and that he would make the Crimson Tide pay.

“He said this morning that Steph was going to do what Adama (Sanogo) did against Miami in last year’s semifinals,” assistant coach Luke Murray said. “Because Miami didn’t play on Adama at all on the first few possessions, and he went out and made two of them.”

So did Castle on Saturday night. He sank a pair of wide-open 3s, like fangs in an unsuspecting derriere, and scored eight points in the first three minutes of the biggest game of his life.

“Coach Hurley has taught me so much,” Castle said, “that I can go out and play in environments like this and be fine.”

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STORRS, Conn. — It is 1 p.m. on a dismal January afternoon and, aside from a few managers, Gampel Pavilion is empty. The Connecticut players have finished reviewing film but have yet to shuffle in from the practice facility across the street. Dan Hurley stands a few steps behind halfcourt. He’s wearing gray sweats, a hoodie, a UConn beanie and a pair of reflector sunglasses. He would like it noted that he wore the sunglasses “way before Coach Prime.’’

Hurley starts launching halfcourt shots, cursing under his breath when the first few attempts clank off the backboard or, worse, airball short of the basket entirely. The Huskies stream in, clomping down the stairs to the court, and Hurley, still in his getup, keeps shooting.

Finally, the ball swishes through the net and Hurley shouts, to no one in particular and everyone on hand, “Who’s the king of two in a row?” Ever obedient, star center Donovan Clingan yells back, “You are, Coach.”

Hurley never swishes back-to-back shots. That doesn’t mean he can’t be king.

It has been 17 years since a college basketball team has won consecutive national championships, the pursuit of back-to-back coronations becoming increasingly elusive as the sport dynamics have shifted. Not only has no team matched Florida’s two-year run, no defending champion has so much as carried the No. 1 ranking into February since the Gators.

Until now. Until UConn. A year after dusting NCAA Tournament opponents by an average of 20 points per game en route to the 2023 title, the Huskies are potentially, and frighteningly, even more capable.

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Our “numbers guy,” Austin Mock, uses advanced statistical models and simulations to project the outcome of each game in the tournament. Based on 1 million simulations of the men’s 2024 NCAA Tournament, here are Austin’s projections for the national title game:

Projected final score: UConn 75.3, Purdue 68.8 (UConn by 6.5, point total: 144)

DETROIT – Zach Edey unfolded a brown blanket across his legs in the first aisle seat on the right, and Lance Jones carefully tucked the Midwest Regional trophy into the seat beside him. The flight attendant congratulated Purdue on its 72-66 victory over Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The plane taxied, took off and, 52 minutes later, landed in the middle of catharsis.

Purdue on Saturday will play NC State in its first Final Four since 1980, and a program so long tethered to its failings finally has a reason to celebrate. And so they came, students leaving Harry’s Chocolate Shop, where the chocolate is merely a descriptor and the bar is the heart of the matter, and grown-ups packing up their kids as if going to a parade. They jammed the tiny airport parking lot in West Lafayette, Ind., to capacity, forcing late arrivals to ditch their cars on the grass and police to come to create some order.

By the time the Boilermakers touched down, fans stood 10 deep on either side of the road, from the metal gates that led to the tarmac at one end, all the way to the traffic light at the other. Three hundred? Four hundred? The dark made counting tricky, but there were enough people that everyone who disembarked from the plane stopped and stared. “This is crazy,’’ walk-on guard Chase Martin said.

After collecting their bags, the players awaited their ride on the tarmac side of the gates as if waiting in the wings to take the stage. Finally, they boarded the Boilermaker Special, Purdue University’s “official” mascot, which could be best described as a Victorian-era locomotive replica plopped upon a pickup truck, its open-air bed big enough to hold half a basketball team. After the first crew left, the Special returned to collect the rest, including Edey, who climbed aboard with the net looped around his neck, and Mason Gillis, who hoisted the trophy above his head. With three honks from the train, the Boilermakers rolled through a crowd near delirious with delight, and on to the national semifinal.

“That was so cool,” one little girl yelled to her dad. “You’re only 7,” he replied. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for that?”

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Evaluate, recruit and develop is the Matt Painter way. Purdue added one key transfer in the offseason — Lance Jones, who has injected the lineup with much-needed perimeter quickness — but otherwise this is a team of guys Painter recruited and convinced to stick around West Lafayette. And while there are four former top-100 recruits, the team’s two best players are Braden Smith, who barely cracked the top 200, and Zach Edey, who was famously ranked in the 400s coming out of high school. “We’re trying to sign high school guys and develop them and grow them,” Painter said. “We’ll have had two transfers in four years. That’s the fewest amount of any high-major program in the country, by a long shot. We just signed six high school guys in the fall. We want to continue to do what we’ve done, and we’ve been successful with that.”

Starters: Two seniors, three sophomores

Transfers (1): Jones (Southern Illinois)

Recruits: Trey Kaufman-Renn (No. 44), Caleb Furst (No. 65), Fletcher Loyer (No. 96), Myles Colvin (No. 97), Ethan Morton (103), Camden Heide (No. 135), Smith (No. 198), Edey (No. 436)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Braden Smith went from sarcastically slow-clapping himself on the floor to muttering in an arena tunnel to sitting in a folding chair and explaining why he’d been very bad in a Final Four game. “Terrible,” actually, was the specific phrasing from Purdue’s sophomore point guard. This self-immolation went on for a while. Eventually, the locker room emptied, and Smith was alone at his stall when his head coach passed by.

Matt Painter slapped him on the back, hard, three times.

“Way to go, man,” the Boilermakers’ coach declared, before disappearing into the back.

“See that?” Smith said, after Painter was gone. “That’s how lucky I am. I played like crap and he left me in for 40 minutes. He trusts me. Not everybody can say that.”

The good news, as everyone correctly pointed out, was the 63-50 win over NC State and the berth in the national championship game that came with it, all while the engine ran without oil for a couple of hours. The less acknowledged issue was that it happened at all. That an All-Big Ten point guard looked, for a while, like he forgot how to play point guard. Given the monsters under this particular program’s bed, the idea that a solved problem is suddenly a problem again is not a small thing.

When Connecticut jumps in the tank on Monday and the water rises to Purdue’s chins, five turnovers, 1-of-9 shooting and increasing passivity on the offensive end by Smith is a very good way to ensure Connecticut wins the national title. This is not the most scorching of takes. It is, however, reality. And a pressure point that will carry through the weekend; Smith is now shooting 39.2 percent since March began, and five of his 12 single-digit scoring outings on the season have come in the postseason.

Even if Purdue isn’t worried, there are thousands here and elsewhere who will worry for Purdue. “I look forward to Monday,” director of player development P.J. Thompson said, “because I know a Braden on edge is a really good Braden.”

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Hassan Diarra brought his hand to his mouth, checking for blood. Alabama’s Rylan Griffen had caught him with a swinging elbow on a move to the basket in the waning moments of a game already decided. Now Diarra was on the court, hoping no teeth were jarred loose. The shot to the head mightn’t have been so bad if Diarra weren’t defending this meaningless possession as if his entire life depended on it. But he was.

The Connecticut bench erupted in joy as Diarra got up, finding a smear of red upon his hand. Dan Hurley, his coach, walked onto the floor, smiling proudly. He put his palms on both sides of Diarra’s still-rattling skull and yelled in his face. He asked Diarra if he was OK.

“But, like, sarcastically,” Diarra clarified later. “He knew I was fine.”

Diarra went to the end of the bench, bent over, and rested his face into a large white towel. By now there were specks of red splatter on his jersey. He wasn’t looking at the court as the horn sounded and his fellow Huskies high-fived, and casually went through the handshake line as if it is a perfectly normal feat to win a national semifinal in the NCAA Tournament and secure a place in the national championship game.

As if it’s perfectly rational that the team that was supposed to be the team after the team is two days away from possibly winning UConn’s second straight title and sixth since 1999. A mega-matchup with Purdue awaits. The Huskies are already favored by 6.5 points.

It’s still not sinking in how stunning this all is. Nearly two years ago, early in the 2022 offseason, Hurley sat down with top returnees Adama Sanogo, Andre Jackson Jr. and Jordan Hawkins. He told them the following season’s team was in their hands. It was a pact, of sorts, among the coach and the players, and they’d eventually deliver one of the great runs in a program built on great runs. Their 2023 national title tied UConn with Duke and Indiana in the annals. A sixth would stand alongside North Carolina. Only Kentucky’s eight and UCLA’s 11 remain in the distance.

Then Sanogo, Jackson and Hawkins moved on, along with sharpshooter Joey Calcaterra and Nahiem Alleyne, a tough guard averaging nearly 20 minutes per game.

UConn, in theory, would struggle to replace them, even with a returning core of 2022-23 starters Tristen Newton and Alex Karaban, and budding stud big man Donovan Clingan. There’d surely be a natural regression. The great teams in college basketball history that have repeat national championships typically returned mostly intact.

But this is Connecticut. And Connecticut for some reason operates only with audacity. So now once again it’s almost the first Monday in April and the Huskies are not only here again, but are somehow better.

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All odds via BetMGM.

Spread: UConn -6.5

Moneyline: UConn -275, Purdue +225

Total: 145.5

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The first time Zach Edey touched the ball Saturday afternoon, DJ Burns Jr. clenched his teeth and held his ground. There was just one issue when it came to Edey versus Burns: seven inches.

Burns was too small for Edey, who could turn and shoot over Burns without issue. Edey scored 20 points and had 12 rebounds in a clunky 63-50 win over NC State that moved Purdue into its first national title game since 1969.

The Wolfpack actually had a great plan for Edey, using both Burns and Ben Middlebrooks against him. Both players could hold their ground and NC State’s guards would dig at the ball. They created five Edey turnovers and Middlebrooks was the Edey stopper, allowing Edey to score only one time when Middlebrooks had the assignment.

While Edey struggled when he put the ball on the floor and the Wolfpack dug in, he did have the wherewithal to pass it out to shooters when he could sense they were coming. He had four assists, including a big one on a dagger corner 3 from Fletcher Loyer that stretched the Boilermakers’ lead to 15 with just under five minutes left.

Purdue made 10-of-25 3-pointers. Super senior Lance Jones, who was the one piece Matt Painter added in the offseason after the first-round loss to Fairleigh Dickinson last season, made a team-best four 3s and added 14 points.

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