College basketball has a repeat national champion for the first time since 2007 after Danny Hurley and the UConn Huskies defeated Matt Painter’s Purdue Boilermakers, 75-60, on Monday night in Glendale.
The Huskies become the first repeat champion since the Florida Gators went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, and the third total since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The other was Duke in 1991 and 1992, led by point guard Bobby Hurley – Danny’s brother and the current head coach at Arizona State.
UConn, who lost five of their eight leading scorers from last year’s championship squad, secured the title on the back of a full team effort on the defensive end, holding Purdue to 44.4% shooting from the field and just 1-7 from the three point line.
Zach Edey was left in single coverage all night long, and while he had a productive night – finishing with 37 points and 10 rebounds on 15-25 shooting – the supporting cast for the Boilermakers did not step up to help him out.
Meanwhile, for the second year in a row Tristen Newton led UConn in scoring in a national championship victory, dropping 20 points and seven assists and cementing himself as among the best NCAA Tournament performers of all-time.
Newcomers Cam Spencer (11 points, eight rebounds) and Stephon Castle (15 points) had great games as well, while Donovan Clingan focused his effort on the defensive side of the ball while chipping in 11 points and five rebounds.
UConn not only won back-to-back titles, they finished the 2024 NCAA Tournament with the largest total margin of victory of all-time, and have now won every game they played in the last two tournaments by 13 or more points – a level of dominance that puts this program squarely in the dynasty conversation.
On the Purdue side, this ends their quest to do what Virginia did in 2019 – win a championship the year after losing to a No. 16 seed. It also keeps the Big Ten’s streak of not winning a national title alive, which dates back to 2000 when Tom Izzo and Michigan State got it done.