Only one game remains in the 2024 NCAA Tournament after tonight’s second of two Final Four games. The winner of Monday’s game will be the new national champion.
UConn defeated Alabama 86-72 in the Final Four to advance to the National Championship Game. As the defending champions, they have a chance to be the first team since the Billy Donovan Florida Gators to win back-to-back national championships.
The Huskies will now face the Purdue Boilermakers, who earlier today knocked off Cinderella 11-seed N.C. State to clinch their first trip to the national title game in over 50 years. Led by national sensation Zach Edey, the Boilermakers have been knocking at the door for a while and are now ready to break it down and claim their first national title of the tournament era.
It’s been an incredible NCAA Tournament with over a half dozen upsets in the Round of 64, followed by N.C. State’s aforementioned Cinderella run to the Final Four with wins over Marquette and Duke along the way.
But with the way both teams have played these past two weeks, there’s little doubt that they’re both deserving of the chance to play for the national title.
As mentioned earlier, a win for Purdue will be their first of the NCAA Tournament era. They last played for the title back in 1969 in the unseeded era, losing to UCLA.
By contrast, the UConn Huskies are one of the NCAA blue bloods, with five national titles and vying to tie North Carolina for six and the third-most in NCAA history.
The game will be played on Monday at 9:20 p.m. ET and will air on TBS.