The matchup most people wanted in the NCAA men's basketball tournament national championship takes place on Monday. The Connecticut Huskies will try to become…
UConn's Donovan Clingan Keys Final Four Win vs. Alabama as CBB Fans Eye Edey Matchup
Apr 7, 2024
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - APRIL 06: Stephon Castle #5 of the Connecticut Huskies reacts in the second half against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four semifinal game at State Farm Stadium on April 06, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
For the second consecutive season, the UConn Huskies are headed to the national championship.
Alabama hung with the Huskies for the majority of the game but were unable to top the defending champions
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2024
The Huskies entered halftime with a 44-40 lead and only built on it in the final half. Alabama was able to remain close during the early stages of the second half, but several strong runs sealed the victory for UConn
Every starter for UConn registered at least 12 points, The attack was led by Stephon Castle, who had 21 points. Donovan Clingan had 18, Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer had 14 each and Tristen Newton had 12. Mark Sears led Alabama with 24 points.
Clingan's performance also included five rebounds, four blocks and one assist, and had several highlight plays.
UConn vs. Purdue, the game that the college basketball world wants and needs, is finally happening. Clingan is the only big man in college who can hang with Edey one on one, both teams have exciting guards, and the story of redemption vs. domination. It doesn’t get any better.
Edey and the Purdue Boilermakers will be looking to earn the programs first national championship in its second-ever trip to the game. UConn, on the other hand, is in a very different situation.
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2024
UConn won the 2022-23 title and have five total national championships in program history. It has never lost in the round.
Video: Iowa's Caitlin Clark Inspires Kristin Juszczyk-Designed Jacket for Final Four
Apr 6, 2024
ALBANY, NEW YORK - APRIL 01: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes looks on before a game against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at MVP Arena on April 01, 2024 in Albany, New York. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Iowa women's basketball star Caitlin Clark was the inspiration behind the latest jacket designed by Kristin Juszczyk, the wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk.
She revealed the jacket on Friday in honor of Clark leading the Hawkeyes to a Final Four appearance.
This isn't the first time that Juszczyk has been inspired by Clark, gifting a custom signature vest to the NCAA's all-time leading scorer ahead of her final regular-season home game on March 3.
Kristin Juszczyk designed a custom Caitlin Clark vest ahead of Clark's senior day and breaking of the NCAA scoring record.
"It's so special to me to be able to create, especially for a woman of her caliber," Juszczyk said, per Yahoo Sports' Cassandra Negley. "She's such a trailblazer in her league and it's special to be able to see her selling out these arenas and breaking all these records."
Clark's impressive 2023-24 campaign continued in March Madness, helping the Hawkeyes avenge their loss to LSU in the 2023 title game by defeating the Tigers in the Elite Eight. In 41 minutes, the senior finished with 41 points and 12 assists while shooting 9-20 from behind the arc.
As for Juszczyk, she signed a licensing deal with the NFL after her custom-made jackets were worn by stars such as Taylor Swift and Simone Biles before subsequently going viral.
Taylor Swift rocking a Travis Kelce jacket for Dolphins-Chiefs 🥶
Clark will attempt to lead the Hawkeyes beyond the Final Four in back-to-back years as they face off against UConn on Friday.
Purdue Boilermakers Are Being Seriously Slept on as a National Championship Candidate
Kerry Miller
Apr 4, 2024
Purdue celebrates reaching its first Final Four since 1980.
While the Connecticut Huskies have been a wagon in their quest to repeat as the national champion of men's college basketball, the Purdue Boilermakers remain on quite the train track to a redemption story that would have been unfathomable if it hadn't already happened just a half-decade ago.
At this time last year, this team was still licking its wounds after falling flat on its face in a stunning first-round loss to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson. But just like the Virginia Cavaliers from five years prior—who leveraged the motivation from a historic loss to UMBC to turn around and win the first natty in program history—here are the Boilermakers, still dancing into the Final Four, on the verge of officially turning UVA's miraculous coincidence into a trend.
Yet all anyone wants to talk about is Connecticut's back-to-back attempt and NC State's incredible journey to the point.
But for much of the first two months of this season, Purdue was the singular team to beat.
Remember that?
(Also, remember when we felt the same way about UConn for the first two months of last season?)
Zach Edey and Co. won that preposterously loaded Maui Invitational, going through three eventual Sweet 16 teams—Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette—to claim one of the most impressive MTE titles ever. Then, after getting clipped in overtime at Northwestern, the Boilermakers destroyed Iowa, beat Alabama in Canada and knocked off Arizona in Indianapolis in reclaiming their spot at No. 1 in the AP poll heading into the new year.
In the first half of January, though, UConn blew right past the Boilermakers in ascending to that throne of title favorite.
While AP Top 10 teams dropped games to unranked foes left and right—including Purdue getting smoked by 16 at Nebraska to lose its grip on the No. 1 spot in the polls—the Huskies became the lone bastion of hope; the one team that could be trusted, reeling off 14 consecutive wins during a two-month stretch without a loss.
Even when they did finally run into a red-hot Creighton-sized wood chipper in Omaha and got trounced by 19, they were already so far ahead of the pack that it hardly seemed to matter. They bounced back from that late-February misstep to enter the Dance on a seven-game winning streak—becoming the only major conference regular-season champion to also win its conference tournament—which made the NCAA tournament start to feel like a parlor game of UConn vs. The Field, with the vast majority of experts and analysts taking UConn.
But with just three games left to be played before crowning a champion, there is still an incredibly good Purdue team remaining in that dwindling field.
Were it not for UConn, Purdue would be leading the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom.
Which makes sense, right?
Purdue's Zach Edey
Edey is the most unstoppable big man this sport has known in decades, and Purdue spent this offseason making damn sure its powerhouse in the paint was surrounded by more support than he had last year.
Not only did Edey get even more dominant than he already was, but a Boilermakers team that shot 32.2 percent from three-point range for the year—and 5-of-26 in that reprehensible, never to be forgotten first-round loss—blossomed into darn near the best perimeter offense in the country, carrying a 40.6 percent three-point success rate into the Final Four.
After shooting a combined 134-of-386 (34.7 percent) from downtown last year, Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Mason Gillis each improved drastically to a combined 170-of-377 (45.1 percent) this year while adding veteran Lance Jones to the equation. Freshmen Camden Heide (46.2 percent) and Myles Colvin (42.9 percent) have also been great from distance, constantly giving Purdue at least three, often four lethal weapons from the perimeter, leaving opponents stuck between a two-point rock and a three-point hard place when trying to decide whether to double Edey in the post.
Frankly, it's hard to believe there is an offense out there more efficient than Purdue's, with UConn holding a slight edge (126.7 vs. 126.4) mainly because of its lower turnover rate. (Not that Purdue is particularly turnover-prone, but Connecticut averages fewer than 10 giveaways per game.)
Purdue's Lance Jones
Purdue is darn good on defense, too, as was the case last year.
Edey averages better than two blocks per game, but he impacts about a dozen others with his size at the rim. His ability to contest shots without committing fouls is second to none. And contrary to what the throngs of irrational Edey haters want to believe, it is, in fact, good, smart defense.
Adding Jones has been a big help on that end of the floor, too. The fact that he has turned into one of Purdue's primary three-point shooters is kind of a bonus, as Matt Painter mostly scooped him up for his defensive intensity and veteran leadership.
Between that great offense and darn good defense, Purdue has an average scoring margin of better than 14 points per game, this despite facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation and barely even bothering to feed Edey in the post in the few games where they knew they wouldn't much need him—AKA not running up the score as much as they easily could have.
Add it all up and Purdue is almost the second-most efficient team in the nation with an adjusted efficiency margin of 31.13, just a fraction of a unit behind Houston at 31.16. If the Boilermakers beat NC State on Saturday, there's a good chance they'll move ahead of the Cougars to set up yet another KenPom No. 1 vs. KenPom No. 2 national championship game...
Where the Boilermakers would be a considerable underdog against the Huskies.
Heading into the Final Four, Connecticut is -195 to win it all, compared to Purdue at +205. The implied odds there have the Huskies with a 66.1 percent chance and the Boilermakers at just 32.8 percent.
DraftKings has already posted a line for each of the four possible national championship games, too, where Connecticut would be a 5.5-point favorite with a -250 moneyline against Purdue.
That's a little absurd, isn't it?
Yes, Connecticut is very good and deserves a lot of respect, but doesn't the same go for Purdue?
It's outrageous to think that the Boilermakers—at 33-4, as Big Ten champs, after beating five Sweet 16 teams in nonconference play—would be as much of an underdog against Connecticut as Grand Canyon was in the second round against Alabama.
This isn't some repeat of the 1999 national championship, when Duke was by far the highest-rated team in KenPom history, going up against a UConn team that had never even been to a Final Four before. It made sense that the Huskies were a 9.5-point underdog in that game.
Of course, UConn won that game outright as a nearly double-digit dog, and maybe in a few days Purdue can return the favor.
UConn Men's CBB Arrives for Final Four After Mechanical Issues with Plane
Apr 4, 2024
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MARCH 30: Head coach Dan Hurley of the Connecticut Huskies celebrates after defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at TD Garden on March 30, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The UConn's men's basketball team has finally arrived in Arizona after its original aircraft—which was set to depart Wednesday—was unable to fly due to mechanical issues.
Head coach Dan Hurley told Matt Norlander of CBS Sports that the plane expected to take UConn across the country was going to Connecticut from Kansas City but never made it due to mechanical issues.
Norlander noted that the Huskies would "have to trim its travel party, per a UConn source, but will still be a flight time decision as far as refueling" depending on the overall weight.
Alabama and Purdue already arrived on Tuesday, while NC State reached Phoenix on Wednesday afternoon. The Huskies will face Alabama on Saturday at 8:49 p.m. ET.
The NCAA is responsible for the travel arrangements for both the men's and women's NCAA tournament.
It hasn't been a banner week for the organization. Over the weekend at the women's tournament, the three-point lines at the Moda Center in Portland were not uniform, with one about nine inches closer to the basket than the other.
The issue wasn't noticed until ahead of the matchup between Texas and North Carolina State at the Elite Eight.
"The NCAA was notified (Sunday) that the 3-point lines on the court at Moda Center in Portland are not the same distance," the NCAA's vice president of women's basketball, Lynn Holzman, said in a statement. "The NCAA staff and women's basketball committee members on site consulted with the two head coaches who were made aware of the discrepancy. All parties elected to play a complete game on the court as is, rather than correcting the court and delaying the game."
The 2024 men's NCAA tournament field has been trimmed to the Final Four, and after zero No. 1 seeds advanced this far a year ago, both UConn and Purdue are…
March Madness 2024: Updated Men's, Women's Title Odds for All Teams Before Final Four
Apr 2, 2024
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MARCH 30: Donovan Clingan #32, Stephon Castle #5 and Alex Karaban #11 of the Connecticut Huskies look on against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second half in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at TD Garden on March 30, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Defending champion UConn is the heavy favorite with the Final Four field set in the 2024 NCAA men's basketball tournament, while South Carolina leads the way heading into the national semifinals of the women's tournament.
The Huskies are -195 at DraftKings Sportsbook, with Purdue the closest to them at +205. North Carolina State (+1600) and Alabama (+1600) are both considered to be long shots by oddsmakers.
The unbeaten Gamecocks (-195) claimed an even wider gap between themselves and second-favorite Iowa (+300). UConn (+600) is a credible threat, with the NC State women (+1600) as big of an underdog as the men.
Florida was the last men's team to successfully defend its national title in 2007, a drought that proves how difficult it is to stay on top when navigating a knockout format.
But the way in which the Huskies have steamrolled the competition in March Madness the last two years makes a second straight championship feel like a fait accompli.
It should simply be impossible for any team to reel off a 30-0 run in a regional final game, yet that's what the Huskies did against Illinois. And that followed a 30-point win over San Diego State in the Elite Eight.
Perhaps Alabama head coach Nate Oats has a formula to counteract UConn's size, or Purdue big man Zach Edey is just the player to neutralize Huskies center Alex Karaban.
On the women's side, South Carolina hasn't been nearly as dominant in March as UConn but keeps piling up the victories. The aura of invincibility that once hovered around the Huskies women's team has transferred to Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley and her squad.
Senior center Kamilla Cardoso is averaging 15.3 points and 8.7 rebounds during the NCAA tournament and anchoring the frontcourt in the same way Aliyah Boston did before her. MiLaysia Fulwiley's scoring average (12.8 points) in the Big Dance doesn't do justice to the way she can impact games.
Caitlin Clark and Iowa cleared a major hurdle when they beat LSU 94-87 in the Elite Eight, a game that saw Clark drop 41 points and 12 assists. But the Hawkeyes are probably still one bad showing from their best player away from falling short of a national title because she shoulders such a heavy offensive load.
If the two were to face off in the final, you'd favor South Carolina's collective strength over Clark's individual brilliance.
For all the latest betting information and reaction, check out B/R Betting.
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The Connecticut Huskies and Purdue Boilermakers appear to be on a collision course to meet in the NCAA men's basketball tournament championship game. UConn…
LSU's Kim Mulkey Told Caitlin Clark 'I Sure Am Glad You Leaving' in Post-Loss Video
Apr 2, 2024
ALBANY, NEW YORK - APRIL 01:Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates after beating the LSU Tigers 94-87 in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at MVP Arena on April 01, 2024 in Albany, New York. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LSU head women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey had a funny interaction with University of Iowa superstar guard Caitlin Clark following Monday night's clash in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA women's basketball tournament.
After Clark dropped 41 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds in the Hawkeyes' 94-87 win, Mulkey was seen embracing her in the handshake line:
Mulkey talked to reporters about the conversation she had with Clark after the game (beginning at the 12-minute mark of the video), and revealed the somewhat tongue-in-cheek comment she made to the likely No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft: "What did I say to her? I said, 'I sure am glad you leaving.' I said, 'Girl, you something else. Never seen anything like it.'"
The veteran coach also discussed the difficulties of defending Clark and how she makes everyone around her better, saying (h/t Zac Al-Khateeb of the Des Moines Register):
"There's not a whole lot of strategy [in defending Clark]. You've gotta guard her. Nobody else seems to be able to guard her. We didn't even guard her last year when we beat them. She's just a generational player and she just makes everybody around her better. That's what the great ones do.
"I think they had a kid that scored 21 [Kate Martin] and 18, she had 12 assists. Caitlin Clark's not going to beat you by herself. It's what she does to make those other teammates better that helps her score points, and them score points, to beat you."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YjfErppU5Y
Monday featured a rematch of last season's national championship game in which Mulkey's Tigers, led by 2023 NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese, beat Clark and the Hawkeyes 102-85.
Clark swept the player of the year awards last season, and all signs point toward her doing the same this season by virtue of her per-game averages of 32.0 points, 9.0 assists and 7.3 rebounds.
The 22-year-old Clark has established herself as one of the biggest stars in the history of women's college basketball, and she has helped generate a ton of interest in the tournament.
By virtue of Iowa's win, the Hawkeyes are in the Final Four, and they will take on third-seeded UConn on Friday, with the winner taking on either No. 1 South Carolina or No. 3 NC State in the national championship game.
A national title is the one thing missing from Clark's résumé before she makes the leap to the WNBA, and if she is able to win one, it will mark the first in Iowa women's basketball history.
Clark has little left to prove at the collegiate level, and while her departure will make life easier for the opposition, she will represent a significant loss for women's college basketball as a whole.
Only four teams remain in the quest to crown the 2024 men's college basketball national champion: Alabama, Connecticut, North Carolina State and Purdue. Just…
