GLENDALE, Ariz. — 2007 has begun all over again.
For a team seeking history, even the best players had no chance of winning.
That year, Florida State defeated Ohio State and Greg Oden to win back-to-back national championships.
On Monday night, Connecticut joined the Gators as the only teams to repeat this century.
It did it in a more impressive way. The idea was to start three new starters and treat this NCAA Tournament like a series of scrimmages.
Purdue and Zach Eady held the top overall seed spot for the half, but when coach Dan Hurley’s team turned up its intensity, the Big Ten champions had no chance.
Boilermakers did not have such additional equipment.
The game got out of hand midway through the second half, with UW advancing to its sixth national championship with a 75-60 victory in front of a crowd of 74,423 at State Farm Stadium.
Defeating all six of their tournament opponents by double-digit scoring and an average margin of 23.3 points, the Huskies matched last season’s impressively dominant performance and won the Big East championship for the fourth time in eight years.
“I think this is up there with one of the best two years the program has ever had,” Hurley said. “I can’t say anything about Duke because it would piss my brother off. … To me, that’s more impressive than the University of Florida and Duke having their entire teams back. They lost some key players. Ta.”
Hurley, a former high school coach at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark and the son of legendary coach Bob Hurley Sr., becomes the third active coach to hold multiple titles. The others include Rick Pitino of St. John’s and Bill Self of Kansas.
Out of nine postseason games, Connecticut only beat St. John’s by single digits in the Big East Tournament semifinals.
Edie started fast but ran out of gas.
The repeat National Player of the Year award scored 37 points on 25 shots, most of which were missed.
When University took over early in the second half, he was quiet and was slowed down by Donovan Clingan.
“We have to play better,” Eadie said. “This is one of those games where you can’t have stretches that don’t work. We had some of those stretches today, and they were the game.”
Meanwhile, the Connecticut State (37-3) guard got better as the game went on, having his way with slower, smaller and less athletic Boilermaker opponents.
In the backcourt, it was a mismatch between a future NBA player and a talented college guard.
The collegiate trio of Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer and Stephon Castle dominated with length and explosiveness, outscoring Fletcher Royer, Braden Smith and Lance Jones 46-17.
Newton recorded 20 points, seven assists, and five rebounds in his final collegiate game and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Final Four.
UW’s game plan was for Clingan to defend Eadie one-on-one and let Eadie score by limiting everyone else.
The Huskies held Purdue (34-5), which ranks second in the nation in 3-point shooting, to just one 3-point shot out of seven attempts.
“We played athletes, we played some very good defensive players this year and in the tournament, but we didn’t have the same collection of defensive players that UW had,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. Told. “We’re going to play somebody and they’re going to have a lockdown defender. They’re bringing a lockdown defender off the bench.”
The first half was similar to Saturday. Alabama played its “A” game and did everything well, but still trailed at halftime.
Purdue set the pace, limited turnovers and Eadie played well.
Still trailing by six points at intermission, Connecticut State closed the gap after the break.
Samson Johnson, who changed the pace from Clingan, scored on consecutive alley-oop dunks and extended the lead to 13.
Eadie responded with four straight points, and then Connecticut responded with back-to-back baskets from Spencer and Newton.
There was still a 13-point lead with 11 minutes and 31 seconds remaining in the college basketball season.
But in reality, there was no longer any doubt about it.
Connecticut fans were outnumbered and screaming for most of the night.
With 36 seconds left, Hurley vacated the bench and inserted his son, Andrew, into the game.
For the 12th time in the past two years, Andrew ran out of dribbles in an NCAA Tournament game.
Hurley hugged the star and waved his arms as Huskies fans got louder.
For the first time in 17 years, college basketball has back-to-back champions, and Connecticut made it look easy.
But super-enthusiastic Harley didn’t seem completely satisfied. He was going to analyze next year’s roster on his flight home.
“I-I’ll try to recreate that again,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere.”
