Dominance is winning at an elite level and while that rarely ever changes, how it’s done comes in different ways. There are dominant teams that quickly run you over and give you no chance to recover. Then, there are those like the now back-to-back US NCAA champions UConn Huskies, who give you a glimmer of hope before wearing you down to submission.
It’s been nearly two decades since the NCAA had back-to-back champions in Men’s Basketball and the Huskies put themselves in elite company: Only UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8) have more NCAA titles than UConn, who now shares third place with UNC at six NCAA championships. Huskies head coach Dan Hurley was right in saying that UConn has been running college basketball, given the Huskies’ six titles are the most in the last 25 years. Add the Women’s 11 championships and it only cements UConn’s status as the best college basketball school in recent memory.
The Huskies’ hallmark all throughout this season has been their defense, but they were relentless on both ends of the floor, setting a flurry of screens and attacking the paint on every offensive possession, while putting a ton of pressure on defense. Last season, UConn was already a solid defensive team with a +120 point differential, but what’s remarkable is that they were able to repeat and even better the feat with a +140 point differential despite losing significant pieces from their championship roster.
The Huskies slowly but surely punished opponents for their mistakes and apart from fouls, the Huskies beat the Purdue Boilermakers in every traditional statistic during the championship game. The fouls didn’t even seem to matter as Donovan Clingan, one of UConn’s best players, was saddled with foul trouble for much of the game and yet the Huskies continued to march on thanks also to 2024 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and First-Team All-American Tristen Newton. The Huskies even fielded a seven-man rotation during the competitive portions of the game, while the Boilermakers put in nine players.
Zach Edey, a Wooden Award finalist, still got his double-double (37 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks), but it wasn’t easy and with the way the game went, that barely made a dent against UConn compared to the three turnovers he had.
Key for the Huskies was to wear everyone else out, whether that was by letting Edey’s teammates chase them off screens or by forcing the Boilermakers to make ill-advised shots that prevented them from generating any momentum. In the end, Edey’s teammates combined for 23 points, 17 rebounds, and eight assists, a far cry from hot shooting days that came with crisp ball movement.
The UConn Huskies are a no-name team and they’re fine with that. Their names will fly above every casual fan, and it’ll be surprising if they have more than one NBA first-round pick, but these Huskies players will beat every player and team you cheer for and do so with a thousand cuts. And on top of that, they’re back-to-back champions.
