Dan Hurley calls Uconn's early defense on Zach Edey 'not sustainable'
Zach Edey scored 11 of Purdue’s first 18 points during the first half of the national championship game against UConn.
Huskies head coach Dan Hurley revealed the key to slowing the 7-foot-4 Boilermaker down in the paint.
“He’s a tough cover. We’re gonna have to mix it up a lot more,” Hurley said after the second media timeout. “We got to force him off his spot a little bit. We’ve got to dig more, we’ve got to trap more. What we’re doing right now is not sustainable.”
Physicality has been the name of the game on both sides of the court Monday night. Physical screens, hard fouls, and more littered the first half. At one point during a timeout that took place after the interview, Hurley went out to the middle of the court to tell the officials and Edey his thoughts on the play.
For the most part, the officiating crew has let Purdue and UConn play. Whether this continues to be the case remains to be seen. Catch the remainder of the game live on TBS.
Nate Oats: UConn ‘imposed their will’ on Alabama in Final Four
Alabama‘s historic NCAA Tournament run came to an end on Saturday after the Crimson Tide fell to top-seeded UConn in an 86-72 loss in the Final Four.
The Huskies were a heavy favorite to repeat as national champions once again entering March Madness, and they definitely showed why against Alabama in Glendale on Saturday night. As Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats diagnosed what went wrong for his team in their pursuit of a first-ever national championship game appearance.
“We wanted the pace higher,” Oats said after the loss. “Shoot, they kind of won out. 64 possessions is not ideal for us. They turn to speed them up, though. They don’t turn the ball over. They’re tough. They’re physical. Their sets take a long time to run. When you give up 12-0 boards, all of a sudden they take 20, 25 seconds off the clock, shoot, get a rebound, take another 15 seconds off the clock.”
Alabama entered the matchup as college basketball’s highest-scoring team in the nation, known for taking and making a lot of shots with an up-tempo offensive attack. But unfortunately, the well-roundedness of UConn for the better of the Crimson Tide as they played a phenomenal all-around per usual on Saturday.
“We had to do a lot better job on a lot of things. But they imposed their will on a lot of teams. In some regards, they imposed their will on us tonight, especially with the pace of play,” Oats explained. “Kept getting our guys to push a little bit faster. Seemed like there was always bodies in front of us. They did a great job in transition.”