GLENDALE, Ariz. — March Madness is in to the Valley of the Sun! After three weeks of exciting action in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, UConn and Purdue have emerged as the two teams that will play for a national championship at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
The game will take place at 6:20 p.m. on Monday and ahead of the game, here's what you need to know about the teams:
Let's start with the defending national champion UConn Huskies. The Huskies finished the regular season 28-3 and won both the Big East regular season and tournament championships. The players you'll want to watch from the Huskies are No. 2 Tristen Newton, No. 12 Cam Spencer, No. 11 Alex Karaban and No. 32 Donovan Clingan. Those four have combined to score 66% of UConn points this season.
The Huskies were built to win in the NCAA Tournament. Led by head coach Dan Hurley (the brother of Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley), UConn has a March Madness-record 11 straight double-digit victories stretching back to last year's NCAA Tournament.
Has a team ever won back-to-back national championships?
Yes, seven programs have won back-to-back championships, but the feat has not been accomplished in nearly 20 years.
Oklahoma State was the first team to do it, winning titles in 1945 and 1946. Kentucky soon followed, winning back-to-back titles in 1948 and 1949.
San Francisco (led by the legendary Bill Russell) won two straight titles in 1955 and 1956.
Cincinnati won back-to-back championships in 1961 and 1962.
UCLA won back-to-back titles in 1964 and 1965 and then won seven straight national championships from 1967-1973.
It would be 18 years before a team was able to win two straight titles again. Duke went back-to-back in 1991 and 92.
Florida was the last team to win back-to-back championships. The Gators did that in 2006 and 2007.
UConn is the first defending national champion to advance to the Final Four since Florida in 2007.
How many national championships has UConn won?
UConn has won five national championships. The Huskies won their first national championship in 1999 over Duke. UConn beat Georgia Tech for the 2004 national championship. They beat Butler for the 2011 national championship and then beat Kentucky for the 2014 national championship. Last year, they beat San Diego State for the national championship.
UConn is the No. 1 overall seed in this year's NCAA Tournament. To get to the Final Four, they beat No. 16 seed Stetson, No. 9 seed Northwestern, No. 5 seed San Diego State and No. 3 seed Illinois.
Who is Dan Hurley?
Hurley has been the Huskies' head coach for four years. The son of Hall of Fame high school basketball coach Bob Hurley Sr., Hurley played college basketball at Seton Hall.
His head coaching career began in 2001 at St. Benedict's Prep, a high school in Newark, New Jersey. Hurley's first college head coaching job was at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, where he coached from 2010-12. He then went on to coach at the University of Rhode Island for six years from 2012-18 before getting hired by UConn. Hurley has an overall record of 255-160 and is 104-55 at UConn.
Hurley's son, Andrew, is a junior on UConn's basketball team.
What is Bill Murray's connection to UConn?
You may have noticed actor Bill Murray in the stands cheering on the Huskies during the last two seasons. That's because his son, Luke, is an assistant coach for UConn. Luke Murray joined UConn's staff in April 2021 and worked with Dan Hurley at Wagner and Rhode Island.
Why is UConn the Huskies?
Huskies was chosen as UConn's mascot in 1934 in a survey in the student newspaper, The Connecticut Campus, according to the university's website. The mascot was named Jonathan after Jonathan Trumbull, the governor of the Connecticut Colony from 1769-76, in a student-naming contest.
Facts about the University of Connecticut
UConn was founded in 1881 and their main campus is in Storrs, Connecticut, a town about 20 miles west of Hartford. In Fall 2023, UConn had 24,356 undergraduate students and 7,976 graduate students. There are 287,244 UConn alumni worldwide, according to the university. More than 158,000 thousand of them live in Connecticut.
Now, let's move on and take a look at the other No. 1 seed to make the Final Four, the Purdue Boilermakers. Purdue finished the regular season 28-3 and won the Big Ten regular season title. However, the Boilermakers lost in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament to Wisconsin.
Players that you'll want to watch from Purdue are Braden Smith, Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer and Mason Gillis. But there is one player you will especially want to keep your eyes on when watching the game Monday night. That's Zach Edey.
Who is Zach Edey?
Edey is Purdue's leader and the Boilermakers' best player. Originally from Canada, Edey, who is nicknamed 'Big Maple,' is also the first player to win the AP's Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons since Virginia's Ralph Sampson won the award three times in a row from 1981-83. Edey leads the nation in scoring (25 points per game), total points (926), field goals made (312), free throw attempts (424), free throws made (301) and offensive rebounds per game (4.7).
He was second in the nation in rebounds (452), second in rebounds per game (12.9), second in double-doubles (28), ninth in blocks (80) and 11th in field goal percentage (62.4%).
The 7-foot-4, 300 lb. center also won all six national Player of the Year awards last season (The Wooden Award, Naismith Award, Big O Trophy, NABC National Player of the Year and the Sporting News National Player of the Year).
During the 2022-23 season, Edey became the first player in NCAA history with 750 points, 400 rebounds, 70 blocks and 50 assists in a season, according to PurdueSports.com.
Who is Matt Painter?
Painter has been the head coach of the Boilermakers for the past 18 years. He has taken Purdue to the NCAA Tournament 14 times and the Sweet 16 six times, but this is his first trip to the Final Four. Painter has also led the Boilermakers to four Big Ten regular season titles and two Big Ten Tournament titles.
With 413 wins, Painter also has the second most wins as a head basketball coach in Purdue history, behind College Basketball Hall of Famer Gene Keady, who had 512 wins from 1980-2005.
Painter, who played for Keady at Purdue, was handpicked to take over for his former head coach when Keady retired after the 2004-2005 season. Painter officially took over on April 8, 2005.
Painter has been named the Big Ten Coach of the Year four times and was named the NABC Coach of the Year in 2019.
Before coaching at Purdue, Painter coached at Division III school Washington & Jefferson College, Division II Barton College, and in Division I at Eastern Illinois and Southern Illinois. He was the head coach at Southern Illinois from 2003-04.
What is a Boilermaker?
There is more than one answer to this question, according to The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.
The organization says a boilermaker can refer to a person who builds or repairs boilers, a member of the organization, a drink involving a shot of whiskey and a beer or a Purdue student or alumni.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, boilermakers are people who "assemble, install, maintain, and repair boilers, closed vats, and other large vessels or containers that hold liquids and gases."
According to PurdueSports.com, the nickname was first given to the school's football team in 1891 after a 44-0 win over Wabash College. The newspaper in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where Wabash is located, said the Wabash squad was "snowed completely under by the burly boiler makers from Purdue."
The idea for the nickname came from Purdue taught men and women from the working class, who "were considered beneath the high-born who attended liberal arts colleges such as Wabash."
Does Purdue have two mascots?
Technically, yes. The school's official mascot is a replica of a Victorian-era train locomotive called the 'Boilermaker Special.' The first version of the locomotive debuted in 1940.
There have been five versions of the train, but the bell, light and whistle on the current train all have been kept from the original 'Boilermaker Special.'
There is a smaller version of the train, called the 'Boilermaker Xtra Special,' that makes appearances at Purdue athletics events.
The mascot that you will see at the Final Four is 'Purdue Pete.' He has been around since 1956.
Facts about Purdue University
Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana, which is a little more than an hour northwest of Indianapolis. The school was founded as a land grant university in 1869 and was named after industrialist John Purdue, who donated $150,000, which would be more than $3.4 million today. The first degree was handed out in 1875 and gold and black have been the school colors since 1887.
More than 50,000 students attend Purdue's main campus in West Lafayette and the school has more than 600,000 alumni worldwide.
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. The Coyotes play at Mullett Arena on ASU's Tempe campus.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events on a yearly basis, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
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