We’ll get to the game, but the central points are clear:
--this UConn team is one of the great teams in the history of college basketball.
--the two-year run of UConn –12 straight double figure victories, the first six as a 4-seed—is as dominant a run as there has been in the NCAA Tournament.
--with six national championships in the past 25 tournaments, UConn is the dominant program in college basketball.
You play in your own time. Over time, the rules of basketball have changed, the style of play has changed, the tournament has changed. Who is eligible to play, who goes to college, who stays in college, who is allowed to transfer and how often all has changed.
I have not seen them all. I only started watching the NCAA tournament in 1966. For me, nothing compares to UCLA’s seven straight championships and 10 in 12 years. There have been some other dominating one-year performances, such as Villanova’s beautiful team in 2018. But for a two-year stretch, in my opinion, there is only one team whose two-year performance in the NCAA tournament compares with UConn’s performance over the past two years:
UCLA 1967-68 (Coach John Wooden, Lew Alcindor, Lucious Allen) (Lew Alcindor’s last UCLA team almost lost to Drake in the 1969 Final Four).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_NCAA_University_Division_basketball_tournament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_NCAA_University_Division_basketball_tournament
Even that team had a nine-point win in a 58-49 slowdown game over Sam Lacey, Jimmy Collins and New Mexico St. in 1968.
Two other teams were close:
UCLA 1972-73 (Coach John Wooden, Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes) (tested by Florida State in 1972 (a five-point final but actually not quite that close) and Indiana in 1973 but still dominant))
Florida 2006-2007 (Coach Billy Donovan, Al Horford, Joakim Noah) (had four single digit wins over 2 years).
Here are some great teams that won multiple championships that were not as dominant as UConn has been the past two years:
Oklahoma A&M 1945-46 (Coach Hank Iba, Bob Kurland) (beat NYU by 4 in the 1955 Finals and UNC by 3 in the 1946 Finals)
Kentucky 1948-49 (Coach Adolph Rupp, Alex Groza, Ralph Beard) (beat Holy Cross with Bob Cousy by 8 in a 1948 game that was close at the end, in a tournament with only 8 teams.)
USF 1955-56 (Coach Phil Woolpert, Bill Russell and K.C. Jones) (beat Oregon State by 1 in the 1955 West Reginal Finals)
Cincinnati 1961-62 (Coach Ed Jucker, Paul Hogue, Tom Thacker) (upset Ohio State with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek in overtime in 1961)
UCLA 1964-65 (Coach John Wooden, Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich, Keith Erickson) (played three close games in 1964.)
UCLA 1970-71 (Coach John Wooden, Sindey Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Steve Patterson, Henry Bibby) (played three close games including a 2-point win over Jerry Tarkanian’s Long Beach State team in 1971.)
Duke 1991-92 (Coach K, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill) (miracle win over Kentucky in 1992)
Notably, until UConn tonight, Florida has been the only repeat champions in the past 30 years. That Florida team also is the team that is most like UConn. While all four teams were beautifully coached and played pure team basketball at both ends of the court, the two UCLA teams were led by dominant big men and generational recruits, Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton, who are on any short list of the greatest basketball players of all time. Florida did not have that, and like UConn the past two years, was filled with good but not elite recruits. This may help explain why Florida was only a 3-seed in 2006, just as UConn was a 4-seed last year.
Here are the Rivals rankings for that Florida team:
Corey Brewer: 31
Al Horford: 36
Joakim Noah: 75
Lee Humphrey: 81
Taurean Green: 105
For UConn tonight:
Stephon Castle: 10
Donovan Clingan: 39
Samson Johnson: 70
Hassan Diarra: 74 (Texas A&M)
Alex Karaban: 75
Tristan Newton- zero star (East Carolina)
Spencer—one scholarship offer—Loyola (Maryland)
There probably are 20 or more programs right now that could put up similar recruiting rankings, and 5-10 who would have qualitatively better rankings. What is it that made this UConn program and that Florida program perform at such a wildly higher level than these other schools? Coaching? Culture? Evaluation? Development? Some luck around the edges? My guess is that it is all these things.
Whatever it is, with all the changes in college basketball through the decades, and the dramatic and chaotic transitional period in which we are currently swirling, it is comforting and timeless to see pure team basketball played the right way, the way UConn has played the past two years, and the way they played again tonight.
UConn was too much for Purdue tonight. I was expecting a closer game, although I am not sure why. Zach Edey did everything he could – with 37 points (out of 60!) and 10 rebounds – except the thing he needed to do, which was to force UConn to double team him or foul Donovan Clingan out. It is hard to say whether Donovan Clingan played Zach Edey “medium”, as Tom Burleson played Bill Walton medium in 1974, but he played him medium enough. Enough that UConn could play the Pips straight up and strangle their three-point game so completely that a team that averaged eight three-point field goals a game took only seven and made only one. Braden Smith competed, with 12 points and 8 assists, but the other six Pips scored 12 points in 119 combined minutes. Purdue’s entire offense was predicated on total dominance by Edey in the post, freeing up the Pips to shoot wide open threes. With Edey merely great but not totally dominant, there was no plan B.
On offense, UConn was its usual patient, grinding, unselfish machine. UConn’s 14-9 offensive rebounding advantage was both a tribute to this effort and a by-product of the pressure it put on the Purdue defense. The Huskies 18-8 assist advantage was a tribute to their patience and unselfishness. Time after time, often after an offensive rebound, UConn would throw one more pass right at the end of the shot clock for an easy score.
Three faster developing post plays bear special mention, because they were exquisite examples of basketball intelligence, preparation, in-game coaching, teamwork and execution. Edey is in remarkable condition for a player his size. He played 39, 40 and 39 minutes the last three games, almost unheard of for an inside player. Purdue tried to steal a breather for Edey late in the first half. This was an understandable strategy but one that lasted only 33 seconds, because the second that Edey went out, UConn called and perfectly executed a set for a layup by Clingan who was fouled by the overmatched defender. In turn, UConn had its own overmatched defender, Samson Johnson, who fouled out in only five minutes of trying to guard Edey, even with more help than Clingan was given. But while Johnson’s lack of size and strength made for a short evening, his quickness was a problem at the other end, and, before he left, he was on the receiving end of two gorgeous screen and roll lobs for dunks that kept Purdue from gaining ground while Clingan sat with fouls.
All seven of UConn’s players had important roles tonight, as they always do. Tristan Newton was especially calm and productive tonight in winning his second straight Most Outstanding Player award for the Final Four. Cam Spencer, another transfer who was barely recruited out of high school, and a player I seriously underrated, was excellent in both Final Four games. Castle had 15 points and played his usual stifling defense, as did Karaban. Diarra contributed nine points off the bench. Everybody hit the boards.
UConn shot only 27-3% from three tonight (6-22) (still five more threes than Purdue) and only shot 11 foul shots. But the player movement, ball movement and offensive rebounding was so relentless that UConn was 24 of 40 (60%) from 2-point range, despite the looming presence of Edey, which had limited Tennessee to 13-36 from 2-point range and N.C. State to 16-38.
Add it all up and it was 75-60, a resounding victory by one of the greatest teams in the history of college basketball.
17-15
--this UConn team is one of the great teams in the history of college basketball.
--the two-year run of UConn –12 straight double figure victories, the first six as a 4-seed—is as dominant a run as there has been in the NCAA Tournament.
--with six national championships in the past 25 tournaments, UConn is the dominant program in college basketball.
You play in your own time. Over time, the rules of basketball have changed, the style of play has changed, the tournament has changed. Who is eligible to play, who goes to college, who stays in college, who is allowed to transfer and how often all has changed.
I have not seen them all. I only started watching the NCAA tournament in 1966. For me, nothing compares to UCLA’s seven straight championships and 10 in 12 years. There have been some other dominating one-year performances, such as Villanova’s beautiful team in 2018. But for a two-year stretch, in my opinion, there is only one team whose two-year performance in the NCAA tournament compares with UConn’s performance over the past two years:
UCLA 1967-68 (Coach John Wooden, Lew Alcindor, Lucious Allen) (Lew Alcindor’s last UCLA team almost lost to Drake in the 1969 Final Four).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_NCAA_University_Division_basketball_tournament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_NCAA_University_Division_basketball_tournament
Even that team had a nine-point win in a 58-49 slowdown game over Sam Lacey, Jimmy Collins and New Mexico St. in 1968.
Two other teams were close:
UCLA 1972-73 (Coach John Wooden, Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes) (tested by Florida State in 1972 (a five-point final but actually not quite that close) and Indiana in 1973 but still dominant))
Florida 2006-2007 (Coach Billy Donovan, Al Horford, Joakim Noah) (had four single digit wins over 2 years).
Here are some great teams that won multiple championships that were not as dominant as UConn has been the past two years:
Oklahoma A&M 1945-46 (Coach Hank Iba, Bob Kurland) (beat NYU by 4 in the 1955 Finals and UNC by 3 in the 1946 Finals)
Kentucky 1948-49 (Coach Adolph Rupp, Alex Groza, Ralph Beard) (beat Holy Cross with Bob Cousy by 8 in a 1948 game that was close at the end, in a tournament with only 8 teams.)
USF 1955-56 (Coach Phil Woolpert, Bill Russell and K.C. Jones) (beat Oregon State by 1 in the 1955 West Reginal Finals)
Cincinnati 1961-62 (Coach Ed Jucker, Paul Hogue, Tom Thacker) (upset Ohio State with Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek in overtime in 1961)
UCLA 1964-65 (Coach John Wooden, Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich, Keith Erickson) (played three close games in 1964.)
UCLA 1970-71 (Coach John Wooden, Sindey Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Steve Patterson, Henry Bibby) (played three close games including a 2-point win over Jerry Tarkanian’s Long Beach State team in 1971.)
Duke 1991-92 (Coach K, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill) (miracle win over Kentucky in 1992)
Notably, until UConn tonight, Florida has been the only repeat champions in the past 30 years. That Florida team also is the team that is most like UConn. While all four teams were beautifully coached and played pure team basketball at both ends of the court, the two UCLA teams were led by dominant big men and generational recruits, Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton, who are on any short list of the greatest basketball players of all time. Florida did not have that, and like UConn the past two years, was filled with good but not elite recruits. This may help explain why Florida was only a 3-seed in 2006, just as UConn was a 4-seed last year.
Here are the Rivals rankings for that Florida team:
Corey Brewer: 31
Al Horford: 36
Joakim Noah: 75
Lee Humphrey: 81
Taurean Green: 105
For UConn tonight:
Stephon Castle: 10
Donovan Clingan: 39
Samson Johnson: 70
Hassan Diarra: 74 (Texas A&M)
Alex Karaban: 75
Tristan Newton- zero star (East Carolina)
Spencer—one scholarship offer—Loyola (Maryland)
There probably are 20 or more programs right now that could put up similar recruiting rankings, and 5-10 who would have qualitatively better rankings. What is it that made this UConn program and that Florida program perform at such a wildly higher level than these other schools? Coaching? Culture? Evaluation? Development? Some luck around the edges? My guess is that it is all these things.
Whatever it is, with all the changes in college basketball through the decades, and the dramatic and chaotic transitional period in which we are currently swirling, it is comforting and timeless to see pure team basketball played the right way, the way UConn has played the past two years, and the way they played again tonight.
UConn was too much for Purdue tonight. I was expecting a closer game, although I am not sure why. Zach Edey did everything he could – with 37 points (out of 60!) and 10 rebounds – except the thing he needed to do, which was to force UConn to double team him or foul Donovan Clingan out. It is hard to say whether Donovan Clingan played Zach Edey “medium”, as Tom Burleson played Bill Walton medium in 1974, but he played him medium enough. Enough that UConn could play the Pips straight up and strangle their three-point game so completely that a team that averaged eight three-point field goals a game took only seven and made only one. Braden Smith competed, with 12 points and 8 assists, but the other six Pips scored 12 points in 119 combined minutes. Purdue’s entire offense was predicated on total dominance by Edey in the post, freeing up the Pips to shoot wide open threes. With Edey merely great but not totally dominant, there was no plan B.
On offense, UConn was its usual patient, grinding, unselfish machine. UConn’s 14-9 offensive rebounding advantage was both a tribute to this effort and a by-product of the pressure it put on the Purdue defense. The Huskies 18-8 assist advantage was a tribute to their patience and unselfishness. Time after time, often after an offensive rebound, UConn would throw one more pass right at the end of the shot clock for an easy score.
Three faster developing post plays bear special mention, because they were exquisite examples of basketball intelligence, preparation, in-game coaching, teamwork and execution. Edey is in remarkable condition for a player his size. He played 39, 40 and 39 minutes the last three games, almost unheard of for an inside player. Purdue tried to steal a breather for Edey late in the first half. This was an understandable strategy but one that lasted only 33 seconds, because the second that Edey went out, UConn called and perfectly executed a set for a layup by Clingan who was fouled by the overmatched defender. In turn, UConn had its own overmatched defender, Samson Johnson, who fouled out in only five minutes of trying to guard Edey, even with more help than Clingan was given. But while Johnson’s lack of size and strength made for a short evening, his quickness was a problem at the other end, and, before he left, he was on the receiving end of two gorgeous screen and roll lobs for dunks that kept Purdue from gaining ground while Clingan sat with fouls.
All seven of UConn’s players had important roles tonight, as they always do. Tristan Newton was especially calm and productive tonight in winning his second straight Most Outstanding Player award for the Final Four. Cam Spencer, another transfer who was barely recruited out of high school, and a player I seriously underrated, was excellent in both Final Four games. Castle had 15 points and played his usual stifling defense, as did Karaban. Diarra contributed nine points off the bench. Everybody hit the boards.
UConn shot only 27-3% from three tonight (6-22) (still five more threes than Purdue) and only shot 11 foul shots. But the player movement, ball movement and offensive rebounding was so relentless that UConn was 24 of 40 (60%) from 2-point range, despite the looming presence of Edey, which had limited Tennessee to 13-36 from 2-point range and N.C. State to 16-38.
Add it all up and it was 75-60, a resounding victory by one of the greatest teams in the history of college basketball.
17-15
