It all comes down to Monday night, as 68 teams entered the Big Dance, with only two remaining after approximately three weeks of competition. The UConn Huskies and Purdue Boilermakers will meet off at 9:20 p.m. ET at State Farm Stadium to decide the 2024 NCAA Tournament champion.
For the most of the season, these two teams were probably the best in the country, with each spending multiple weeks as the AP No. 1.
While each club followed a distinct path to the championship game, they share many characteristics, including powerful big men. Zach Edey became the first repeat AP Player of the Year since Ralph Sampson earned it three years in a row between 1981 and 1983.
Donovan Clingan, meanwhile, has been predicted as a consensus lottery pick owing to his defensive dominance and outstanding athleticism for a 7-footer.
FOX Sports Research chose to dig more into Edey and Clingan’s statistical dominance.
2: In Purdue’s first-round victory over Grambling, Zach Edey became the first player to have 30 points and 20 rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game since Maryland’s Joe Smith in 1995. Edey and Smith are the only two players to have such impressive stats in the NCAA Tournament during the last 50 years.
1968: Edey had 140 points and 77 rebounds through five games of this year’s NCAA Tournament, making him the first player since Elvin Hayes in 1968 to do so.
4: In Purdue’s Elite Eight victory over Tennessee, Edey became the fourth player with 40 points and 15 rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game over the last 60 seasons, including Bo Kimble
(1990), Elvin Hayes (1968), and William Bradley (1965).
6: In Purdue’s Elite Eight victory over Tennessee, Edey became the sixth player in history to score 40 points in a game that advanced his team to the Final Four (Dennis Scott (1990), Bill Bradley (1965), Oscar Robertson (1960), Don Schlundt (1953), Clyde Lovellette (1952).
45: In Purdue’s Elite Eight victory over Tennessee, Edey became the first Division I player to achieve 900 points and 450 rebounds in a single season since Larry Bird of Indiana State in 1979–45 years ago.
20: In Purdue’s Elite Eight victory over Tennessee, Edey became the first player in NCAA Tournament history to try more than 20 field goals and free throws.
