The final result showed UConn winning its 11th straight NCAA Tournament game by at least 13 points. The reality: The Huskies were tested unlike any other time during their run toward a possible second straight national title. UConn kept its composure and its bid to repeat as national champion intact, getting 21 points from freshman Stephon Castle while clamping down defensively in the second half of an 86-72 win over
Alabama in the Final Four on Saturday night. STEPHON CASTLE GET UP 🗣️ The Huskies have answered right back with a run of their own 😮💨 #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/jMSajsgcmt — NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2024 “Our identity is to be pretty relentless,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “We might not break you for 18 minutes, 25 minutes, but at some point if what we’re doing at both ends and on the backboard is at a high level, it just becomes hard for the other team to sustain it.” The top-seeded Huskies (36-3) put on a March Madness show before arriving in the desert, a stretch that included a 30-0 run in a decimation of Illinois in the Elite Eight. This was more of a slow burn. Alabama (25-12) made the most of their first Final Four, hitting a flurry of three-pointers to go toe to toe with a team that trailed for 28 total seconds during their first four NCAA Tournament games. Crafty point guard Mark Sears did his best to keep Alabama in it, scoring 24 points. Grant Nelson had another big game in March Madness, finishing with 19 points, 15 rebounds and one highlight-reel dunk over UConn big man Donovan Clingan. GRANT NELSON OH MY GOODNESS 😱 #MarchMadness @AlabamaMBB pic.twitter.com/6qi24R5ZBm — NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2024 UConn, as they usually do under Hurley, wore the Tide into submission. Clingan started asserting himself in the post offensively, finishing with 18 points and four blocked shots. Castle and Alex Karaban (14 points) hit big shots as the Huskies stretched the lead. And one of the nation’s best defenses flexed at just right time, holding the Tide without a field goal for a game-turning five-minute stretch that put UConn on the cusp of becoming the first repeat champion since
Florida in 2006-07. “They’re close to being bulletproof,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. Next up for the Huskies is what should be a heavyweight bout in Monday’s national championship game against Purdue. It will not be for the meek, with the 7ft 2in, 280lb Clingan facing the rare person on Earth who’s bigger than him in 7ft 4in, 300lb Zach Edey. “A battle of the giants. I think it’s just great for college basketball. Us and Purdue have clearly been the two best teams in the country the last two years,” Hurley said. “I think it’s just great for college
basketball to get the two big dogs playing on Monday.” The Huskies spent the tournament’s first two weeks terrorizing opponents to the tune of a 27.8-point average margin of victory. Alabama stuck a stick in the spokes of the juggernaut by pulling Clingan away from the basket and burying 3-pointers. Clingan had two early blocks and appeared to be on his to duplicating his Elite Eight performance, when Illinois went 0 for 19 on shots he contested. Once the Crimson Tide started forcing Clingan into high pick-and-rolls, lanes to the basket starting opening up – as did the three-point line. Alabama thrived from three all season, taking down Clemson in the Elite Eight by making 16 shots from deep. The Tide kept it rolling against UConn, making 8 of 11 in the first half while Sears repeatedly got to the rim, putting the Huskies seemingly right where they wanted them. Nope. The Huskies kept their composure amid the Alabama 3-point barrage, calmly ran their offense and led 44-40 at halftime. “We just had to stay together, tighten up on the defensive end,” Karaban said. UConn kept rolling in the second half and Nelson kept the Tide within reach. His thunderous dunk over Clingan had Oats screaming and squatting like he was doing the Haka. Oats’ friend Hurley had the last laugh – or scream. Hurley has built UConn in arguably the best two-way team of a generation, and the Huskies showed off both sides in their closing flourish. UConn shut down Alabama’s open looks from the three-point arc and started getting the ball into Clingan, who overpowered the Tide when he got near the rim. “They’re a really great team,” Sears said. “We turned the ball over and they made us pay for it.” The Huskies gradually stretched the lead, pushed the Tide back every time they made a run and put themselves in position to make history. No 11 NC State 50-63 No 1 Purdue There was more than one team that came to the Final Four with a dream – more than one team hoping to add its own unforgettable chapter to college basketball’s colorful history book. Edey and Purdue have been thinking big all year, and after snuffing out North Carolina State’s magical season with a 63-50 victory Saturday, it’s the Boilermakers who find themselves a win away from the program’s first NCAA title. “It’s the one we’ve been talking about all year,” said Edey, who played all 40 minutes and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. For the past three weeks, though, a lot of the country has been caught up in NC State. The Wolfpack, 11th-seeded dreamers, were dialing up a classic reboot of 1983, when they won nine straight postseason games to capture an unlikely title that left their frenetic coach, Jim Valvano, running onto the court looking for someone to hug. In 2024, the Wolfpack went 9 for 9 under similar must-win conditions to get this far. Only this time, they came two wins short of glory. “Didn’t get the big one,” said NC State guard DJ Horne, who finished with 20 points. “But it’s definitely a big accomplishment in my career.” NC State aside, some might call this run by top-seeded Purdue as inconceivable as anything in college hoops this year. This is a program well-versed in the art of disappointment and missed expectations. Edey retuned for his senior season and led the Boilermakers to the Final Four for the first time since 1980 – one season after they became the second No 1 seed to fall in the first round. The Boilermakers (34-4), top-seeded again, will play Connecticut, an 86-72 winner over Alabama in the second semi-final, for the title on Monday night. “The reason I came back is for playing games like this,” Edey said. “It’s the reason I’m playing college basketball for four years, to finally get this game, big-time.”