UConn Has Trailed For Just 4:06 Of Total Elapsed Time Throughout The Entire NCAA Tournament Going Into Championship Monday
Well. It's Championship Monday. The 63rd and final opening tip-off of the 2024 NCAA Tournament commences tonight as a formality of the inevitable. I mean, we all know what's about to happen, right? As impressive as Purdue has been in shaking off the Purdonts of year's past, they are not walking into a fair fight.
You've probably seen plenty of UConn stat porn on their conquests not only this NCAA Tournament, but last year's as well. So I tried my hand in adding one to the mix in the graph above that took way more time to work out the code script for than I care to admit. It shows how many total minutes of elapsed time each team that made the Sweet-16 trailed in the entirety of the NCAA tournament. Naturally, teams like UConn, Purdue, NC State, and Alabama have played more games than the rest thus more time to have little spells of falling behind.
But 4:06???
That's insane. This might be the most impressive four minute stat since Roger Banister. And pitting this against the other 15 teams gives another perspective on how dominant these good boys of UConn are. Think of it this way - if you were to randomly turn on a random UConn game from the tournament at any random moment of the game, there is only a 2% chance they'd be losing at that particular point in time.
Oh yeah. Forgot one little cosmetic tidbit. None of the 4:06 they were behind was in the second half. None.
Pretty much any time a UConn opponent got within a point or tied the game the Huskies casually went super saiyan and clobbered them to all hell. I mean, congrats to Alabama though for leading by five points for a hot second. Hang the banner, I guess??
Stats aside - let's talk about what Purdue is going to have to do to stand a chance tonight. Their strength is obviosly the height of Zach Edey so let's check in with Tracy Wolfson's post game interview from the Final Four to get the story on Edey's gameplan for UConn:
Tracy?
Oh, I get it! Be tall. That's the gameplan as Tracy was clearly illustrating.
But the whole "hey let's put the guy three feet taller than anyone else underneath the basket" play on the squiggly playcall board isn't going to fly when your opponent actually has someone who can match in Donovan Clingan. Seriously, this seems like an awful matchup for Purdue because Edey is as much of a tree in terms of agility as he is in height. That is not a compliment. And the entire Purdue secret sauce is to force a double-team on Edey to leave a wide open three for an Edeyette. I don't see that happening tonight. Dan Hurley is going to leave Clingan on him one-on-one with an occasional dig from a help man and everyone who thought Edey is NBA qualified is about to see what a future rotational big in Slovakia looks like.
UConn is winning tonight. Do whatever you want to try to jinx it. Drink Champagne before the game. Light a cigar. Tweet "thanks for coming out, Purdue". If Boeing couldn't even stop these sled dogs, nothing will. The only question for me is how long Purdue can at least hold a lead. If they bring their A-game, I think they can push UConn to 5:00. On the tournament, of course. Not the game.
PS: The only reason to watch the entire game of this sure to be blowout is to see what playcall Tracy Wolfson draws for the post game interview. After not even being visible on the Edey interview in the first game of the Final Four, she came prepared with a literal step ladder to interview Clingan after the UConn game. I think she should go full on stilts this time. Better yet, borrow Red Panda's unicycle. Anyway, we'll see what happens.