GLENDALE, Ariz. — Not even John Calipari's imminent sport-quaking move from Kentucky to Arkansas can truly overtake what an epic night awaits us Monday in the NCAA Tournament championship game. Sure, the buildup to tip-off is going to be overshadowed by one of the more shocking coaching escapes in the history of the sport. I don't deny that at all.
But Calipari hasn't coached in a Final Four in nine years; Kentucky, of course, hasn't been there in just as long. Arkansas hasn't been to this stage since the 1990s. We've got all week — we've got the whole offseason — to react to that volcano of a story.
This night is about UConn and Purdue and the biggest item on the sport's menu: a national championship.
What a stage that's been set for college basketball. Let's dig into that. Let's live in this space, because who knows how long it will be before we get another title game matchup as terrific as this one. Look at it this way: No matter how we work to an ending Monday, we are guaranteed a legendary finish to this tournament.
That's not always the case with a national championship game. Each one provides a different flavor, a different reason to watch. But they aren't manifested equally. Here we have something genuinely special, undeniably appealing and a throwback battle between two teams with two behemoths in the middle.
No. 1 seed UConn vs. No. 1 seed Purdue features a school 55 years removed from its most recent national title game appearance going up against another that is in this game for a second straight season. (And for the sixth time in its history — all since 1999.)
Of note: UConn is undefeated in Final Four/title games. It enters Monday night's heavyweight fight 11-0 on the sport's biggest stage.
Connecticut-Purdue marks the 10th championship affair in history between two top seeds. It's only the second one to feature a team looking to repeat as national champion (2007 Florida). It's the first one to feature a back-to-back national player of the year since UCLA's Bill Walton in 1973.
It's the second ever title game to pit two 7-footers vs. each other. Zach Edey vs. Donovan Clingan. The Big Maple vs. Cling Kong. Come on. How great is this?
"They understand what we're up against," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "They understand we haven't played anybody like UConn. They're not fools. We have cable where we're from."
It's Connecticut, riding a historic streak of 11 straight NCAA Tournament wins of 13 points or more. And it's Edey, who is doing things last seen in this tournament back when Elvin Hayes was playing, scoring more than 140 points and grabbing more than 70 rebounds through five games.
The unstoppable team meets the immovable man.
No matter the champion, college basketball wins. We all win.
"Humongous night and it's so great for college," Hurley told me. "It's the two best programs in the country the last two years that are going to play an unbelievable game. … I think it's fitting for us, as we're going for history, to have to beat a team of that caliber to get it, with Edey and that incredible team they've got, one of the best coaches in the sport, this is what I think we were hoping for."
Hurley also admitted he and the team "scoreboard-watched" Purdue all season. It was the team they vied against from afar. With no guarantee they'd ever meet, Hurley nonetheless used the Boilermakers as extra incentive for an all-time season.
"We've looked at them the whole year as motivation," Hurley said. "Because of their excellence and our excellence it's going to be a big-time game on Monday."
Then, there are the stakes and what will linger forever afterward.
If UConn wins by double digits again, it's going to secure claim to being a mini-dynasty. The blue-blood conversation officially ended with the 2023 title. This is for something bigger and more long-lasting. And if UConn wins but it winds up being close? Please. I'm begging for it. Almost all non-UConn fans are hoping to see this team catch a close game with a few minutes to go.
Will Purdue dare to get into a close game with the Huskies? On its side, Purdue is in search of its first national championship, but there's even more attached to a win, should it materialize in Glendale on tonight. A win would not just complete Virginia 2.0, it would do so just five years removed from the Cavaliers completing their circle of redemption.
To think that we waited 33 years to see a No. 16 seed beat a No. 1, only to watch that No. 1 seed come back to win a championship … and now we might see it again five years later? That's borderline unbelievable.
It's also really good coaching. Painter's a really good coach. Been true for a long time. This run eliminated all the ammo for the Purdue/Painter skeptics.
The Virginia analog is one Painter sees as apt.
"Sometimes people will pick up narratives out of thin air instead of doing their work," Painter said. "This is actually the right narrative."
Beyond the Virginia parallel, a Purdue victory would mean someone, you know, actually found a way to beat UConn in the NCAA Tournament. Hard to imagine; the Huskies haven't been able to find a close game. Alabama had it tied with a little more than 10 minutes to go on Saturday night … and still managed to end up on the wrong end of a 14-point margin.
"There's been some teams that have hung in there with them, then they've separated from them," said Painter, before getting to the heart of the matter. "There's some other teams that have gotten flat-out blitzed."
A Purdue win would also be iconic, in large part, because it would crumble UConn's quest to go back-to-back. Elite teams have withered against these rugged Huskies. To think of someone conquering Connecticut ... that's a title game epic, no matter what the final score reads.
If we're going to get that ending, the best player in the sport doing the job would be fitting. By nature of winning back-to-back NPOYs, Edey has already secured his spot among the all-time greats in the sport.
"You may coach or play your whole career and never coach or play against somebody of his stature," Hurley said. "Truly a giant player."
A national championship in Edey's final college game would be the defining iconic ending.
"I think that's the number one thing of not fearing your opponent but respecting your opponent," Painter said. "We have a lot of respect for UConn. They have great individual players, they have a great coach. So understand it, like absorb that, take that in."
This glorious tournament — near-perfect in its size of 68 and its three-weekend stage of descending bracket bedlam — often doesn't instigate itself to giving us the best team as champion. In fact, this gleaming bracket normally stubbornly rejects allowing the two best teams to find their way to a Monday night in April, face to face, with the national title on the line.
This year, they broke through. This year, the bracket gods deemed we'd get Connecticut and Purdue and all their size, all their brilliant coaching, all their shooting and dominance and allowed them to find each other.
For five months, UConn and Purdue (and Houston; Jamal Shead's injury lingers in this as a what-if) have tussled at the top of the sport's rankings and metrics. Purdue had the best résumé until March — when UConn surpassed it.
They were fated to meet.
It's as good of a build-up to a season finale as we've seen in a long time. If the game can match the hype, it'll be one of the best events for this sport in years. But the stupendousness of it all stands tall in the fact that, no matter how the game ends, this season will finish with an epic conclusion.
