Purdue star Zach Edey won the battle of the big men in Monday night's national championship game, but UConn center Donovan Clingan and his Huskies ultimately won the war. The 2023 champs strategically picked apart the Boilermakers with a defensive game plan so sound it made Purdue abandon one of its most potent weapons, the 3-point shot, and in the process scored a 75-60 win inside State Farm Stadium to become the first repeat title winners since Florida in 2007.
UConn could have helped Clingan handle the Naismith Player of the Year in the post. Instead, it allowed Clingan and Samson Johnson to go head-to-head with the 7-4 giant. Purdue, which entered the game second in the country in shooting 40.6% from 3, finished 1-for-7 from beyond the arc on the day. UConn cut off the shot menu almost entirely by daring Edey and his team to feast on a heavy diet of mid-range jumpers and Edey hook shots in one-on-one situations...
The "math problem" a/k/a any 3v2 discrepancy is wildly overrated in today's basketball, and what UConn did was basically just a variation of what Boston used to do to Jordan's Bulls back before Jordan became a complete player, but the overall point is valid. You try to limit the best player, but only in the loosest sense. Really, you don't care what he scores as long as you can shut down the rest of the team. If you need to limit your opponent to, say, 90 points to win, you're fine letting that one player get 60. You just make sure that the rest don't score more than that other 30.
