Glendale, Arizona — Two of the biggest bullies in this Final Four city, two big names with shining numbers, storied giants and promises to keep, made it through Saturday night to the final showdown. It's what everyone wanted to see, except maybe Alabama and North Carolina.
The normally solid point guard had a night out of Final Four hell as Purdue took the lead and beat North Carolina State 63-50 despite a lack of shots and total turnovers that pushed them close to the red zone. The Boilermakers relied on each other and found a way.
“That was it,” Mason Gillis said in the locker room. “That was typical of us.”
Next up was the University of Connecticut, and although it wasn't all smooth sailing for the University of Alabama, they finished 86-72. This means they can make it 11 straight times by double digits in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies are 40 minutes away from potentially winning their first straight title in 17 years and his second in 30 years.
“This is why everyone came to college, including me,” said Donovan Clingan, who tormented the Tide with 18 points and four blocked shots. “Trying to be part of history.”
So after five months of a winding road through college basketball, we ended up in this situation in the desert. A classic duel fixed around two towers. On the other hand, a team that many consider to be the best team. On the other hand, someone who many consider to be the best player. Meanwhile, the defending champions are eager to “make history in a place where it's hard to make history,” as their coach has said many times recently. On the other hand, it's a program that has waited 85 years to be the last team standing in the NCAA Tournament. I've been waiting a lot, especially over the past 12 months.
Monday night may present a rather pronounced sense of déjà vu. Is it really possible for Virginia to become the first No. 1 seed to suffer the humiliation of losing in the first round to a No. 16 seed, recover for the national championship the next season, and then Purdue win it five years later? I wonder. Would you do the exact same thing?
The 2024 Boilermakers are looking more and more like the 2019 Cavaliers every day, and they sound similar too. Especially the veterans who lived through Fairleigh Dickinson's nightmare in Columbus, Ohio.
So did Fletcher Royer, so he knows what Monday night means. “That's everything. It's all we've been working on, everything we've been thinking about. I often find myself thinking late at night and can't sleep. It's been tough. But we… We fought. We're going to keep fighting. We're 40 minutes away from winning the national championship. We're going to push everyone as hard as we can and play as hard as we can.”
Gillis did so and understands what it led to. “We didn't run away from it. We talked about how it felt to lose and talked about how to grow from it. We didn't just talk about it, we actually walked it. They I don't want to say we wouldn't be in this situation if we hadn't lost, but it definitely cheered us up. Sitting in that feeling of loss, watching it 24/7 on social media, watching it on TV. I'm watching it on .
“Even through this year, everyone wanted to say, oh, they did this, but last year they lost to FDU. Yeah, they did this, but they lost to FDU last year. So we We’re going to prove everyone wrong, we’re going to prove ourselves right, and we’re going to support each other and get the job done.”
Zach Eady did. He feels deeply his desire to make amends, and he knows there is only one acceptable ending. Virginia End. “Nobody's celebrating right now,” he said Saturday night.
The story of how the Boilermakers reached the championship game wasn't pretty. But who's to say that a Final Four win could turn ugly for a team that's infamously lost to double-digit seeds three years in a row? In fact, you could argue that Saturday night's heavy lifting was a vivid example of Purdue's growth since the 2023 disaster.
Turnover is known to be fatal to the Boilermakers' philosophy. One of coach Matt Painter's favorite statistics to mention these days is that his team is 27-0 when committing 13 or fewer turnovers this season. On Saturday night, Purdue had 13 turnovers with 13 minutes left in the game and finished with 16 turnovers. Point guard Braden Smith had five turnovers by halftime. Over-and-back violations are less common in the Final Four. Smith made two of them in the first five minutes. Not only that, but he was 0-for-6 shooting at halftime. Eady was also protected from bursts in the paint by NC State's defense. He was trying to reach 20 points and was good but not dominant.
“Everything that could have happened in the game has happened to us the last two years,” Smith said. “When our shots aren't falling and we're turning the ball over, we have to find another way to win. We have to pick up the defense, rebound and push the ball. Ta.”
So they did. They got some big shots from Lance Jones, who was a million miles away from the Final Four last year at Southern Illinois, with 14 points and four 3-pointers. “The moment wasn't too big for him,” Painter said. The defense held the Wolfpack to less than 29 percent shooting in the second half.
“I would like them to recognize our accomplishments by persevering and working hard to achieve something,” Painter said. “When you're free-spirited and scoring basketball, it's fun to watch, it's fun to play, it's fun to coach. In order to win six games, you have to have games where you don't play very well offensively. We're going to have a game or two. We've got to find a way to win.”
There was something else that stuck with Purdue. The chemical reaction of a team that came together despite adversity. As Smith's distress grew, his teammates rallied. “I was trying to stay in his ear the whole game,” Gillis said. “We have a little phrase, a strong face. We have to keep a strong face when things are going well, even when things are going bad. Body language, but strong Say it with your face. I kept telling him to keep a strong face and remember what you've been doing this past year.”
Smith's shot did not return and he ended up with one hit in nine at-bats. However, there were no turnovers in the second half. Afterward, he said how good it was “on nights like this, just having that group of players around me.”
And what about Monday's opponent, the No. 1-ranked team that was trying to make it through the bracket after a two-week trip? Apparently Alabama didn't get the memo that Connecticut was supposed to win every NCAA Tournament game by 30. The Tide led for 4 minutes, 18 seconds in the first half, which was 3 minutes, 50 seconds longer than the Huskies trailed in the first four games. A combination of tournament games. Still, I had to be a little disappointed that he was shooting 73% and he was still trailing by four points at halftime. And the Huskies weren't too upset.
“73 percent shooting is not sustainable,” Clingan said.
“I think the overall feel of the group is we keep body blowing, body blowing, we keep guarding, we keep rebounding, we keep running the offense,” coach Dan Hurley said. “Eventually, especially in this tournament, there will be breakpoint opportunities.”
Mark Sears, in particular, is a mid-major player on Alabama's roster who came here to prove a point. In fact, he scored 24 of them. They were tied 56-56 with UW midway through the second half, but they thought if they went far enough, Connecticut might give them some ground. It's unlikely. The Huskies had one of those very deadly little bursts – this is a mini version of 8-0 in 97 seconds – and they were in the lead to stay. Despite a valiant effort from Alabama, especially Sears, everything seemed that way. . . Inevitable.
“We're not going to collapse,” Clingan said.
“I think we have a lot of confidence,” Hurley said. “There's an element of the team right now where they're watching us play, watching us run away. I think the other team is disappointed because they've seen it and what we're doing. Because I've seen it many times.”
Connecticut is back in the title game, something no one has done since Florida in 2007. Although some of the lineup has changed from last season, the spirit of the program remains the same. “The culture, the preparation, the commitment to every aspect of the game will allow us to be as bulletproof as possible for this tournament,” Hurley said. That's crazy. “
Only Purdue remains. So, 7-2 Clingan vs. 7-4 Eadie, a match made in television network heaven. Clingan said in the locker room that he planned to watch a Purdue film on the bus back to his hotel Saturday. He said the possibility of facing Eadie had been in the back of his mind for several weeks. Far away. “
But now it's here. Clingan said the two have never met, but he remembers passing Eadie at last season's tournament in Portland. “I was walking by him and I thought, wow. I'm looking forward to the matchup. I have a lot of respect for Zach,” he said.
“When I hear that, it makes me want to go out and give my all. Monday night, I want to know in my head that I gave my all. Even if I can't get up off the floor, it's okay. .”
Edie too. “The reason I came back is to play games like this,” he said.
Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird? Maybe, maybe not so much. But college basketball was a big hit.