The UConn Huskies Top The Purdue Boilermakers To Win A Second Straight National Championship

The University of Connecticut remains atop the college basketball world after another dominant run in the NCAA Tournament that’s seen them win a second successive national title. 

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The Huskies beat Purdue quite convincingly as they ran off to a 75-60 result that saw them become the first repeat champions since the Florida Gators in 2006-2007. 

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The game stayed tight throughout the first 15 minutes, with neither team leading by more than three points. But Dan Hurley’s side pulled away in the second half, leading by as much as 18 before they set themselves en route to confetti and net-cutting. The game also marked a 12th-straight win for UConn in the NCAA Tournament and cemented their legacy as collegiate greats.

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Apart from Florida, Duke had been the only other side to go back-to-back since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty won seven straight in the 60s and 70s. But Hurley thinks his team’s feat is even more impressive as they lost some of their best players after going all the way last year. 

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“I think it’s up there in terms of the greatest two-year runs that a program maybe has ever had,” Hurley said. “

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To me, it is more impressive than what Florida and Duke did because they brought back their entire teams. We lost some major players.”

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UConn did enter the tournament as the betting favorites, though other programs looked like they could threaten the push for a repeat. Purdue was by far the biggest threat but other teams such as NC State dared dream, having made a fairytale run to the final four that likely had the sports betting apps in North Carolina jangling. 

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One bettor will be laughing all the way to the bank following Monday’s result. Barstool sports founder and owner Dave Portnoy put $600,000 on UConn before the tournament started and has received a payout of a whopping $2.7 million off of the +350 odds. 

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Portnoy called the wager the “greatest bet I’ve ever made.”

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The Huskies won their March Madness fixtures by an average of 20 points per game last season but lost three starters. They managed to become even more formidable.

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“Not everybody can do what they just did,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “You have to give credit to their defense and their coach and how they’re wired.”

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Apart from their 15-point win over Purdue, they produced a victory margin of 23.3 points per game. Try as they might, the Boilermakers could not keep up the pace, even with the towering, 7ft-4 Zach Edey, who scored 37 points and added 10 rebounds in Monday’s contest.

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Edey, who likely played his last college game, was always going to be difficult to contain. But Hurley had a plan and has since boasted that the Boilermakers were never going to win no matter how well the center played.

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"We didn't care if Zach (Edey) took 28 shots to get 35 points," said. "The gameplan was, no (Braden) Smith, no (Fletcher) Loyer, no (Mason) Gillis, no (Lance) Jones. Keep them under 18 or 20 points as a group. They had no chance to win no matter how well Zach played."

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Hurley aims to keep it going, and there’s little evidence suggesting he won’t.

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“We’re going to be focusing on trying to put together a three-year run, not just a two-year run,” he said. “We’re going to maintain a championship culture. We’re bringing in some very talented high school freshmen. Our returning players, through player development, will take a big jump. We’ll strategically add through the portal.

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“I don’t think that we’re going anywhere.”

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It’s onward and upwards for Hurley and the Huskies, at least that’s how he sees it. While there has been some talk of the 51-year-old replacing John Calipari at Kentucky, one has to feel like that’s very unlikely to happen. 

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The opportunity to win three straight titles is simply too much to turn down.

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"Now you're thinking in your brain, as I'm looking at the locker room, about the chance to do it three times, like a dynasty in modern times," the coach pointed out. "I mean, that's what I'm thinking about."

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A men’s basketball three-peat would be unprecedented in this era. But if any team can, the Huskies can - they’re already two-thirds of the way there, after all.