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Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in Advertisement Close The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness College Basketball CONNECTICUT UNLOCKED THE OVERWHELMING BEAUTY OF A TEAM GAME Perspective by Candace Buckner Columnist| Follow author Follow April 9, 2024 at 7:32 a.m. EDT Connecticut celebrates after beating Purdue in the national title game. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Listen 7 min Share Comment on this storyComment176 Add to your saved stories Save GLENDALE, Ariz. — In the end, the best player in college basketball didn’t stick around long enough to hear Freddie Mercury’s tenor. He never got to climb the stage that was constructed on the hardwood in haste between the final horn and the eruption of confetti. No one handed him a free T-shirt with “CHAMPS” written in big, bold letters. WpGet the full experience.Choose your planArrowRight When the “One Shining Moment” montage played on the State Farm Arena big screens, Zach Edey was not on the court, standing over all those small pieces of paper bearing his team’s colors. And so, the best player didn’t get to watch his greatest achievement play out in slow motion, set to college basketball’s favorite throwback jam. Instead, that special memory will forever belong to the best basketball team. The game happens like that sometimes. Maybe even most of the time. More than other team sports, basketball thrives on individual talent. Singular stars fuel intrigue. They make us sit up and pay attention. And the superstars make us believe that one vs. five maintains pretty good odds. Then a night like Monday comes along and wrecks the belief that without a superstar, it’s impossible to win. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement Because somewhere in the Purdue locker room sat Edey, his season having ended in disappointment and a lonely shower awaiting. Meanwhile, the Connecticut Huskies were busy changing clothes on the court. Their new shirts read: “2024 Men’s Basketball National CHAMPS” — that word more prominent than the others. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the sport’s biggest star did not leave the stadium wearing one of those nice, new shirts. Huskies Coach Dan Hurley predicted it during his pregame speech to his players. “The message was we’re the best team in the country,” Hurley told Turner’s Ernie Johnson after his team’s 75-60 win. “Purdue is clearly the second-best team in the country.” Story continues below advertisement The best team wins. And this team won its second consecutive championship, becoming only the eighth NCAA Division I men’s team to accomplish the feat. It may be even more impressive that U-Conn. had to go through the most dominant man in college hoops to do so. Advertisement This season, Edey toyed with opponents, almost like a bizarro Caitlin Clark. While she laid waste to the women’s game with her ability to shoot from obscene distances, he bodied the men’s side with his 7-foot-4, 300-pound frame for close-range looks. Make no mistake, a solid Purdue team surrounded Edey — the Boilermakers ranked second in the country in three-point percentage. Edey had backup all season as Purdue came within 40 minutes of its first national title. And yet the Boilermakers didn’t have nearly enough to be on Connecticut’s level. So many past college superstars can sympathize. Though Danny Manning was a supernatural phenomenon that propelled a lesser Kansas team to the 1988 title, “Reggie and the Miracles” at Georgetown had no such luck. Williams, an all-American, led underdog Hoyas teams to Big East titles, but not the big one. And while freshman Carmelo Anthony provided all the star power for the 2003 Syracuse national champs, Tim Duncan racked up the Naismith and Wooden awards, but Kentucky piled on his Wake Forest team in the Elite Eight his senior year. Story continues below advertisement For every Manning and ’Melo, there are many more Marburys: extraordinary players whose talent alone could not carry an entire roster. Advertisement Edey scored 37 points on Monday — sure, great — but his teammates wilted at the worst time. Starting guard Fletcher Loyer went scoreless for the first time in his career. Two other starters, Lance Jones and Trey Kaufman-Renn, combined for nine points. And this Purdue team that had been efficient all year from the arc finished with just one made three — the lowest total in a national title game since 2011. “We knew he was going to get his points. It took him 25 shots to get 37 points,” Huskies guard Tristen Newton said of Edey. “That was the game plan, just limit the guards.” Story continues below advertisement Or better said: Just defend everyone not named Edey, and win the game. It’s why Hurley — and not his capable counterpart, Matt Painter — had all the fun posing for photos with the trophy. Only when it was time to hold a smile did he stop chewing his gum, like he did when he invited Jim Calhoun on the stage for a pic. The program now has six national titles, largely due to those two men. Advertisement “Calhoun is our GOAT,” said Rudy Gay, a former Connecticut star, responding to a question on where Hurley now stands. “[But] new generation, okay we’ll give it to Hurley,” said Charlie Villanueva, who won a title with Calhoun in 2004. Since arriving at Connecticut, Hurley has constructed a blueprint for this era of college basketball with a mix of old-school values and an innovative offense. He’s the son of a coach, and a Jersey City guy. During the recruiting process, Hurley has said, he doesn’t kiss derrières — of course, he didn’t use that word, but the other one. And he’s not always so eager to exit off the trusted road of success when he sees bright, neon lights flashing over a five-star recruit. Connecticut, clearly, has elite players. After last year’s title, the Huskies signed a top-five recruiting class. However, Hurley has said he goes after “our type of people.” Case in point: Stephon Castle, a McDonald’s all-American whose radiant wattage Hurley couldn’t ignore. He started slowly Monday night, but moments after committing an offensive foul late in the first half, there was Castle working through a crowd of bodies to tip in a missed shot. On the next Purdue possession, Castle intercepted an interior pass, then tiptoed the sideline to stay in bounds. Two winning plays that will never make a highlight reel, but Hurley’s kind of plays, from one of his people. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement Though Castle eventually surpassed his average with 15 points, he wasn’t alone. Four Huskies starters reached double figures, prompting the night’s biggest question: What’s more unstoppable — a 7-foot-4, two-time National Player of the Year? Or a balanced offense that’s as overwhelming as it is aesthetic? U-Conn is a back-to-back champion because the answer is “B.” “The one thing that I’ve always said about this team,” Villanueva said, “it was different than most of the other teams because this team was well balanced.” On Monday night, Villanueva proudly wore his U-Conn. basketball alum T-shirt. He celebrated on the confetti-covered court with several other Huskies who went on to have long NBA careers: Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Emeka Okafor and Gay. But Villanueva wasn’t looking back, nor did he did pull that O.G. move of comparing the new kids to his own team, a tactic that tends to shower more praise on the past. Much like the other alumni in attendance, Villanueva simply recognized the greatness of these Huskies, a group that unlocked the beauty of a team game. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “It could be AK, DC, Tristen. It was different guys every night and that’s what a team is really about: They don’t depend on one player. Or two players,” Villanueva said, using the initialed nicknames of sophomores Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan. “These are a collection of guys that you don’t know who’s going to bring it.” While “We Are the Champions” played over the speakers, and arena staffers set up ladders beneath both rims, the best player in college basketball was already gone. The court, instead, belonged to the best team in the sport. MARCH MADNESS The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have concluded. Get caught up with the men’s bracket and women’s bracket. Find all of The Post’s latest NCAA tournament coverage in our March Madness hub. 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