UConn’s convincing victory over Purdue in the national title game capped a dominant season that few have ever topped.
The UConn Huskies are college basketball’s first back-to-back national champions in nearly two decades.
The Huskies cut down the nets after a convincing 75-60 victory over Purdue, dominating in the consistent fashion that has been the hallmark of this team. UConn gradually pulled away from the Boilermakers after a close first half, and before you knew it, a competitive game had turned into a blowout.
Thank the Huskies’ suffocating defense for that.
“They get a lot of credit,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said postgame. “We’ve played against athletes, played against some really good defensive guys this year and in the tournament, but not the collection of defensive players like UConn has.”
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UConn is now the first No. 1 overall seed to win the national championship since 2013 Louisville. You have to go much further back to find a team more dominant throughout the entire season.
The only teams with higher adjusted efficiency margins since 1997, per KenPom, are 2021 Gonzaga, 2015 Kentucky, 2001 Duke and 1999 Duke — and only that ’01 Duke team won a title. However, even those Blue Devils looked like mortals at times. They trailed Maryland by 22 points in the Final Four before coming back to win.
UConn never had those struggles. The Huskies won every NCAA Tournament game by at least 14 points, and 29 of their 37 victories this season came by 10 or more.
Even in UConn’s three losses, it took superhuman efforts to knock them off. The Huskies did not have Stephon Castle against Kansas, and the Jayhawks still had to shoot 64.3 percent from 3-point range just to win by four points. Donovan Clingan played in just 14 minutes against Seton Hall before getting hurt. Creighton went 14-of-28 from deep in their Feb. 20 win.
Aside from those anomalies, the Huskies had no trouble.
“Maybe [winning this title] feels a little bit better knowing how great this team has been,” Hurley explained postgame. “We’ve worn the ‘Everything’ shirts all year. Everyone in this organization gave everything so that we could win everything this year.”
This UConn team always had high expectations. Still, they lost the three best players from a championship team (Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo) to the NBA. Joey Calcaterra and Nahiem Alleyne also needed replacements in the rotation.
The Huskies were supposed to take a step back. Instead, they kept their foot on the gas.
Tristen Newton went from being the fifth scoring option to being a first-team All-American. Clingan and Castle emerged as likely lottery picks. Cam Spencer fit in seamlessly after transferring from Rutgers.
“It’s the best two-year run I think in a very, very long time,” Hurley said, “just because of everything we lost from last year’s team. To lose that much and, again, to do what we did again, it’s got to be as impressive a two-year run as a program’s had.”
This sixth championship pushes UConn into the most elite tier of blue bloods. Yet, those other title runs weren’t quite like this one. Kemba and Shabazz willed the Huskies to unexpected champuionships, and the 1999 team was a heavy underdog against Duke. Even last year’s team only faced one top-four seed on its path to the throne.
On the other hand, this team dominated against some of the best the game had to offer. UConn knocked off the reigning national runners-up in San Diego State, the Big Ten tournament champs in Illinois, a red-hot Alabama team, and finally, a 1-seed in Purdue that had the sport’s first two-time National Player of the Year in 40 seasons.
And UConn made it all look easy.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence,” Hurley stated following the team’s national semifinal win over Alabama on Saturday. “[Our] culture, the preparation, the commitment to every aspect of the game to keep ourselves as bulletproof as possible.”
Back-to-back championships are rare in any sport. That’s because some level of complacency almost inevitably seeps into a team’s mindset. Plus, it’s hard to keep up a run of good fortune going that long.
Complacency was never an issue with this team, though. Judging by the way Hurley was talking just minutes after winning his second straight title, don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
“We’re going to try to replicate it again. We’re going to maintain a championship culture,” he said.
“I know what our mindset will be. We’re going to focus on putting together a three-year run, not just a two-year run.”