UConn defeats Alabama in Final Four to face Purdue in NCAA championship: Highlights (2024)

There's more where that came from

Tomorrow's NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship is set to smash viewership records as star players and greater TV coverage drive more fans than ever to the sport.

The matchup between Iowa and South Carolina, both No. 1 seeds, is slated for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland.

Friday night’s matchup between Iowa and No. 3 seed UConn was themost-watched women’s college basketball gameever, and broke ESPN’s record as the most-watched basketball game in the network’s history, college or pro, with 14.2 million viewers and a peak of 17 million.

Read the full story here.

Mark Sears with the Crimson Tide led the game with the most points overall: 24.

And Stephon Castle led UConn with 21 points.

UConn was given a game by Alabama, but the Huskies still covered the gametime spread of 11.5 points, winning 86-72.

The game total under 160.5 narrowly cashes as well.

Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick will preview the national championship Monday on NBC Sports’ Bet the Edge at 6 a.m. ETright hereor wherever you get your podcasts.

The National Championship is set. The top seeds in the entire tournament will meet Monday night in Glendale, Arizona.

DraftKings has posted UConn as a 5.5 point favorite over Purdue with the game total set at 146.5.

Purdue will be gunning for its first national championship while UConn will be going for their sixth. The Huskies are 5-0 in national championship games.

UConn improves to 6-1 in seven all time appearances in the Final Four. Despite the game's back-and-forth feeling, tonight’s victory ends up as UConn’s largest Final Four victory in program history by point spread, 14. That’s one point larger than the Huskies Final Four victory last year over Miami (72-59).

UConn has never lost a national championship game, and faces off against Purdue on Monday for a chance at the program’s sixth title, all since 1999.

The Huskies are headed to the championship game, making a run for back-to-back trophies.

They’ll face Purdue in a battle of the one-seeds on Monday night.

Tonight's win means UConn is now 6-1 all time in Final Four games. In the five other times they've made it to the championship, they've won every time.

In the midst of an already prolonged offensive slump, Alabama's attack has been further hampered by the Crimson Tide’s second-half struggles in the rebounding battle.

Other than forward Grant Nelson’s admirable efforts, Alabama has seemingly been out-jumped for every 50-50 ball on both the offensive and defensive boards. Nelson has 12 rebounds alone— as part of a double-double — but the rest of Alabama has just 14 boards, and UConn is out-rebounding the Crimson Tide 35-26 with four minutes left in the second half.

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said ahead of her team’s NCAA Tournament championship game.

Staley made the comments during a news conference Saturday when asked by OutKick reporter Dan Zaksheske whether she believes “biological males” should be “included” in women’s sports.

“I’m on the opinion of if you’re a woman you should play,” Staley said. “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”

Staley was speaking to reporters ahead of South Carolina’s championship matchup against Iowa on Sunday.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder declined to answer the same question later on.

Read the full story here.

Bama scratched and clawed to get even, and then gave up 8 points straight. The Huskies lead 64-56 with 10:30 to play.

UConn is now favored by 9.5 points and the game total sits at 164.5 points.

Alabama forward Grant Nelson is starting to enter takeover mode, scoring Alabama’s last six points.

He’s had a couple breakout games in the NCAA Tournament, most notably 24 in an upset of No. 1 North Carolina, and will be needed down the stretch for Alabama to advance on Saturday night.

Out of the halftime break we’ve seen momentum chasing 7-0 runs from both teams.

Alabama used its 7-0 sprint to get as close as one point shy of UConn, at 48-47, including using its most impactful weapons tonight: the three-point shot.

But the Huskies’ anxiety was short-lived. UConn went on its own 7-0 run to extend its advantage to its current size, 55-47, accentuated by a Stephon Castle dunk.

Freshman Stephon Castle leads all scorers with 13 for the Huskies, and Mark Sears leads the Tide with 11 points.

The first half spread was 6.5, so those holding Alabama tickets gettingthe points after 20 minutes cashed.

The spread is now UConn laying 9.5 points with the game total sitting at 168.5 points.

Iowa’s71-69 winagainst UConn in Friday’s NCAA Final Four game drew 14.2 million viewers, the most in women’s college basketball history, according to ESPN.

The matchup produced the highest audience for a basketball game — college or professional — and the second-best non-football telecast ever on the network.

Friday’s figure is higher than every World Series and NBA Finals game last year. ESPN said the game peaked at 17 million viewers.

Read the full story here.

As Alabama's Mark Sears shines on the floor, Ian Eagle has been similarly shining court side.

After sinking some threes, the commentator declared, "Sears is showing off the full catalog" and later said the guard was "willing to go to the tower," referring to the Sears Tower in Chicago.

It hasn't been an easy feat for the Huskies, though, who have been battling against the Alabama Crimson Tide on the court.

The score sits at 44-40 with just 20 minutes separating one of these two teams and the national championship game.

As the broadcast has mentioned, UConn has had a tough time from three-point range so far this evening. The Huskies have hit just five of 15 attempts from deep, or 33%.

For a team as vaunted as UConn for its offensive attack that might seem out of character. But the Huskies have struggled all year from beyond the arc.

In fact, UConn shot just 36% from out there during the season, 77th in the country. For comparison, Alabama was 24th-best in the nation in 3-point efficiency, and is shooting 70% from deep so far tonight.

Unlike the first semifinal tonight, the pace is end-to-end in this game with UConn leading 35-31 with 3:12 remaining in the first half. The Huskies are now favored by 8.5 points and the game total is 164.5 points.

Alabama and UConn are knotted up at 28 with 7:30 left to go in the first half. The back-and-forth pace of this game is reminiscent of last weekend’s UConn-Illinois Elite Eight showdown, where the teams were tied up at 23 with less than two minutes left in the first half.

That was, however, the last time UConn felt much pressure against the Illini, scoring five unanswered to close the first and exploding out of the gate in the second half, scoring 25 more unanswered to close the door on Illinois and clinch its spot in tonight’s Final Four.

After trailing for a whopping 2:50, UConn reclaimed the lead on a dunk from Donovan Clingan. The Huskies are now favored by 8.5 points. The game total remains 168.5 points.

With 10:30 remaining in the first half, Alabama leads UConn by 3.

Before tonight's game, the Huskies had trailed for just 29 seconds in the entire NCAA Tournament.

The Spread still sees UConn favored, but by only 5.5 points. The game total is now 168.5 points.

It was no easy feat to make it to the Final Four tonight.

No. 1 UConn, who earned the number one overall seed, beat Stetson in the first round, Northwestern in the second round, San Diego State University in the Sweet Sixteen and Illinois in the Elite Eight to earn their spot in the Final Four. Last year, UConn faced SDSU in the championship and won 76-59.

No. 4 Alabama knocked out Charleston in the first round, Grand Canyon in the second round, UNC in the Sweet Sixteen and Clemson in the Elite Eight to make it to the Final Four for the first time ever.

The point-heavy start to this second Final Four game is no surprise: Alabama and UConn are the top two teams in the country in offensive efficiency, according to Ken Pomeroy's ubiquitous college basketball rating system.

In other words, the Huskies and Crimson Tide get buckets, and in large quantities.

The third-best? Waiting for the winner of this game — the Zach Edey-led Boilermakers of Purdue.

Alabama is making its debut in one of college basketball's most-watched games tonight, in a field in which all the other teams have been there three times or more.

In its first Final Four, the Crimson Tide are taking on the UConn Huskies, who are making their seventh Final Four appearance. The Huskies' first was in 1999.

UConn has gone on to win the championship five times, including last year when they beat San Diego State.

The Crimson Tide scored the first points in the last Final Four game of the weekend, with Grant Nelson starting off strong with a three.

UConn quickly followed suit, tying up the game.

I'm already holding a Futures Ticket on UConn (-105) to win the national championship.

In looking for value heading into the Final Four, the NBC Sports Betting bet on UConn's Donovan Clingan (+340) to be named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. That value is long gone but he still sees value on Clingan where it sits currently (+180).

Two-time National Player of the Year Zach Edey (+220) is also worth a look in that market.

Read the full story from NBC Sports.

Despite its promise of a battle royale between future pros playing for powerhouse squads, March Madness can still unleash games seen by some basketball observers as mismatches.

That's the case today, when UConn takes on Alabama. The defending champions from Storrs, Connecticut, are heavily favored against the Crimson Tide.

The Huskies (-600) are 10.5 point favorites over the Tide (+425) with the Game Total a robust 160.5 points.

The team's record appears to support such a wide spread. Since the 2022-23 season, the team has won 13 consecutive NCAA tournament games with a margin of 10 points or greater.

In February, UConn became the season's first unanimous No. 1 in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll.

The team obliterated a rising San Diego State last year (76-59) to take the men's Big Dance championship, and did so again in the Sweet 16 this month (82-52) to eventually advance to the penultimate matchup next weekend.

UConn posted a relatively easy win against Illinois last week, 77-52.

Alabama is a team with momentum, reaching only its second Elite Eight matchup when it squeaked by top-seeded North Carolina 89-87 before besting Clemson 89-82 in Los Angeles to achieve its first Final Four appearance.

The team earned its way with star guard Mark Sears, holder of the team record for scoring in a single season, and his teammates, known to unleash a barrage of 3-pointers — 16 in all against Clemson.

Just one year after crashing out of the NCAA tournament in notable fashion — by losing to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round —Purdue is on its way to the national championship game.

The Boilermakers were just the second-ever No. 1 seed to ever fall to a 16, but perhaps that should've been a sign of things to come. The previous team to suffer that fate, 2018's Virginia squad that lost to UMBC, turned around and won a national championship the next season. Purdue's triumph over N.C. State makes it two-for-two on upset sufferers getting to the next national title game.

Can the Boilermakers now take the final step the Cavaliers did in 2019?

We'll find out who will stand in Purdue's way starting in just a few moments when UConn tips off against Alabama in Phoenix.

No. 1 seed University of Connecticut Huskies will face No. 4 seeded Alabama Crimson Tide tonight at 8:49 p.m. ET.

The game will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

It airs on TBS, TNT and TruTV. The game will also be streaming on Max and the NCAA’s March Madness Live.

The first semifinal is in the books with Purdue cruising to victory over N.C. State. It was a low-scoring affair that sees the game total fall way short of the pre-game number of 146.5, but Purdue does cover the 9.5-point spread.

Player Props that cashed included DJ Horne, Fletcher Loyer, Mason Gillis, and Lance Jones all going over their point totals. Jones and Loyer each also cashed the over in rebounds and 3-pointers. DJ Burns Jr. cashed the OVER with 4 assists.

Ironically, Purdue rolls to a big win and two-time Player of the Year Zach Edey goes under both his points and rebounds totals.

No. 1 UConn will face No. 4 Alabama to claim the final slot in Monday's championship game. The matchup starts at 8:49 p.m. ET.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — While many college coaches passed on the unpolished Canadian prospect as the basketball world became enamored withperimeter play and 3-point shooting,Purdue coach Matt Painter took a swing on his third center in the recruiting class and found a gem in Zach Edey who led the Boilermakers totheir first Final Four since 1980.

On Friday, Edey collected his second Associated Press Player of the Year award, becoming the first back-to-back winner since Ralph Sampson won three in a row at Virginia from 1981-83. Edey received 57 of 62 votes from journalists who vote in theweekly AP Top 25.Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht received three votes and Houston’s Jamal Shead got two.

Edey is the fifth player to win the award in consecutive seasons though Lew Alcindor also won the award twice in non-consecutive seasons.

“There were so many coaches that looked over me,” Edey said. "It’s kind of been the story of my life. People have doubted me. People looked past me. Can’t do that anymore."

No. 1 Purdue is going to the national championship game Monday. They will play the winner of the next game, UConn-Alabama.

The Boilermakers prevailed over the N.C. State Wolfpack 63-50.

Purdue is currently on a 15-1 run with just under 4 minutes to play, up 61-43. Edey has continued to dominate downtown and he's been surrounded by a bevy of 3-point shooters.

Timeout N.C. State.

If you've been hearing a lot about UConn and N.C. State during this year's NCAA tournament, there's a good reason why.

Both schools' men's and women's teams made it to their respective Final Four contests this year.

Last night, though, both the UConn and N.C. State women's teams were knocked out, paving the way for Iowa to face off against South Carolina in the women's championship.

There hasn’t been a lead change all game, and with less than eight minutes to go, the Purdue Boilermakers are still up 49-42, but the No. 11 seed Wolfpack is closing the gap.

If N.C. State can come from behind to win tonight, it will set a new record for the lowest seed to make it to a championship game.

No. 8 is the lowest seed to advance to the final round, and it's happened only four times —Villanova (1985), Butler (2011), Kentucky (2014) and North Carolina (2022), according to the NCAA.

Only one No. 8 seed has won the championship —Villanova.

N.C. State has been hanging around but Purdue has picked it up from long range. The Boilermakers now lead 45-33 with 12 minutes left after back-to-back 3-pointers from Lance Jones and Mason Gillis.

Purdue is 8-for-17 from 3 while N.C. State is just 4-for-15.

Edey just sunk his first basket of the second half, and the first time since the 4:42 mark in first half. We're nearing the halfway mark of the second half.

N.C. State’s DJ Horne is keeping the Wolfpack in this game. The senior guard, who averages 16.8 points per game, has 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting with 15 minutes remaining in the matchup.

He's been effective especially in midrange and has carried his team with DJ Burns struggling offensively.

Led by Edey, the Boilermakers are dominant on the boards, ranking sixth in the country in offensive rebound percentage. They’re also ninth in free throw rate and second in 3-point shooting percentage.

But Purdue is the most turnover-prone team at the Final Four, and the Boilermakers don’t force many themselves. They could be vulnerable to a hot-shooting opponent.

In the first half, Purdue turned the ball over 8 times, while N.C. State had 5 total turnovers.

In this tournament: Purdue had an uncharacteristically poor outside shooting dayin the regional finalagainst Tennessee, getting outscored 33-9 beyond the arc. The Boilermakers made up for that by attempting 33 free throws to 11 for the Volunteers, and they had 13 offensive rebounds to Tennessee’s six.

Zach Edey leads the Boilermakers with 14 points in the first half, and DJ Horne leads the Wolfpack with 13 points, making them the highest scorers on their respective teams so far.

Bet the Edge is your source for the day in sports betting.

Get all of Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick’s insight weekdays at 6 a.m. ETright hereor wherever you get your podcasts.

N.C. State doesn't have a single free throw in the first half. The Wolfpack hasn't made it to the line once in the first 20 minutes of play.

And Purdue only has four, proving that free throws are not going to be score-makers in this matchup.

The Boilermakers lead the Wolfpack by 6 at the half and thus cover the first half spread, which was 5.

Unlike their male counterparts, the NCAA women’s basketball teams play games of four 10-minute quarters. The men play two 20-minute halves.

The women’s rules were changed in 2015 to “enhance the flow of the game,” according to a 2015NCAA releaseannouncing the change.

Prior to the 2015 announcement, women’s college basketball also played in two 20-minute halves.

Both the NBA and WNBA play in quarters, as well: The NBA uses four 12-minute quarters, and the WNBA uses four 10-minute quarters.

Headed into the locker room, Purdue is up 35-29 against N.C. State.

Despite a big run in the final minutes of the half, N.C. State was unable to close the gap on the scoreboard.

Under four minutes to go in the first half and the Wolfpack’s DJ Horne is leading an N.C. State rally. Purdue is still favored but the spread at BetMGM is down to 8.5 with the game total rising to 143.5 points.

The Wolfpack is on a 9-2 run against Purdue in the last couple of minutes, quickly shrinking the lead the Boilermakers have held on them all game.

N.C. State big man DJ Burns, who dropped 29 points in last weekend's upset against Duke, has been quiet so far against Purdue. With 6:29 remaining in the first half, he has 4 points and 2 fouls.

Purdue coach Matt Painter was asked about it during a timeout.

“He’s made a couple real nice plays," Painter said. "He hasn’t gotten it as much as he normally does. But we just want to push the ball when we have opportunities, and then if not, just establish Zach (Edey) on the block.”

Edey, an All-American center, has been major. He has 12 points and 5 rebounds thus far.

Two fouls on N.C. State’s DJ Burns Jr. is problematic.

He is the one player for the Wolfpack who has the size and weight to keep Purdue’s Zach Edey from getting to the rim.

Halfway through the first half, the Boilermakers have maintained their lead against the N.C. State Wolfpack.

Nearly halfway through the first half, Purdue is now favored by 12.5 points and the game total has dipped to 142.5 at BetMGM.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — DJ Horne has taken a long road to the Final Four.

The 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard has been the undersized, unoffered recruit out of North Carolina State’s base of Raleigh. He’s been the strong mid-major performer for two years at Illinois State, followed by the reliable scorer at power-conference program Arizona State.

And now, he’s the twice-over homecoming star: playing a lone season with the Wolfpack to netthe most improbable of Final Four runsthat has brought him back to the state of Arizona, less than an hour from his previous college stop with the Sun Devils.

“Everybody has their own path,” Horne said yesterday.

Horne has been a perfect fit for the Wolfpack entering tonight's game against Purdue. He’s been the explosive perimeter scorer as part of a 1-2 punchwith burly March Madness star DJ Burns Jr. in the paint.

The first points of the night go to Purdue, who snagged a shot on their first possession.

All Final Four teams were represented among a group who performed the national anthem on the court ahead of the first game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

I like Game 1 to go UNDER the total of 146.5.

Fair for me is closer to 141 and I think possessions will be at a premium, especially if it is a competitive game. N.C. State rebounds the ball well and Purdue has a tough time creating turnovers.

As a result, it’s unlikely we see much transition scoring or second chance points.

I'm holding a ticket on N.C. State’s team total OVER 31.5pts. in the first half (-122).

The North Carolina State Wolfpack head into tonight with a nine-game winning streak.

After losing their last four regular-season games, and seven of nine, they had to win five games in five days in the ACC Tournament, including a win over Duke in the quarterfinal round, just to get into the 68-team NCAA Tournament field.

NCAA men's basketball fans will have to pay top dollar to watch tonight's semifinals games — though it won't be as much as what some women's hoops fans paid yesterday.

Ticket site TickPick.com said Friday that the "get-in" price to see today's men's games was $416.

For the women’s, it was $451.

On Saturday, TickPick said the get-in price for tomorrow's women's national championship was $555 — a record.

We'll have to wait to see what the men's championship matchup looks like to see what the final get-in price will be —but it is unlikely to top the interest being generated by Iowa phenom Caitlin Clark.

Purdue has been to the Final Four three times, including this year. The first time the Boilermakers went to the Final Four, in 1969, they went on to the championship game but lost to UCLA.

North Carolina State is more experienced on this stage, historically, even if they were seeded No. 11 this year to Purdue’s No. 1.

N.C. State has been to the Final Four four times, including this year, and went on to win the championship in two of those years, in 1974 and 1983.

It's been 44 years since the Boilermakers were within two wins of a national championship.

Despite 35 appearances at the Big Dance and hailing from the huge hoops state of Indiana, where Indiana University has two national titles and Butler has been to the Final Four twice, the brass ring has been just a hair too high for Purdue.

Possibly until now. The team has been fueled by the NCAA men's season-leading scorer, 7-foot, 4-inch Zach Edey, a monument under the basket.

This year, the Boilermakers have odds second only to UConn in the fight for men's college basketball supremacy and are roughly 9-point favorites against North Carolina State on Saturday in Arizona. A win would be big, even in Indiana.

Sports journalist Mike Lopresti notes in a piece published by the NCAA that Purdue's last Final Four appearance was eight presidents ago, a time when ESPN was new, a gallon of gas was $1, and a Big Mac was 28 cents.

Purdue has size, but North Carolina State has two DJs: Forward DJ Burns Jr., and guard DJ Horne. On Sunday, Burns scored a season-high 29 points and Horne had 20 to beat private university rival Duke 76-64.

In the postseason, N.C. State has proven almost anything is possible. It ended its regular season with four losses before brawling through the Atlantic Coast Conference, where it also beat Duke, before earning its ticket to the Big Dance.

If North Carolina State asks what Purdue has that it doesn't, there's an easy answer: 7-foot, 4-inch Zach Edey, the season's leading NCAA scorer.

While his planted, back-to-the-basket style is somewhat outdated in the NBA, where he's undoubtedly headed after this weekend, Edey's hulking, 300-pound presence has unraveled foes' defenses and led Purdue to its first Final Four appearance since 1980.

The Indiana team rode on Edey's career-high 40 points to beat Tennessee on Sunday.

As we sit just under two hours from tip-off, Purdue (-450) remains a 9.5 point favorite over N.C. State (+350) at BetMGM with the Game Total set at 146.5 points.

Before the Final Four tonight, both Purdue and N.C. state had to battle through four rounds of play to earn their spots in the semifinals.

No. 1 Purdue had to beat Grambling State in the first round, Utah State in the second round, Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen and Tennessee in the Elite Eight.

No. 11 N.C. state — in a surprising run to the second-to-last round of the tournament — beat Texas Tech in the first round, Oakland in the second round, Marquette in the Sweet Sixteen and Duke in the Elite Eight.

All but one of N.C. State's wins were upsets. The Wolfpack powered through to knock out a six-seed, a two-seed and a four-seed.

N.C. State made history by advancing out of the Elite Eight on Sunday to play Purdue, tying a record for the lowest seed to make it to the Final Four.

The upset against the Duke Blue Devils put N.C. State on a list of six teams that have advanced to the Final Four as the 11th seed, according to the NCAA.

The other teams to have done so are LSU (1986), George Mason (2006), VCU (2011), Loyola Chicago (2018) and UCLA (2021).

Though it's been a while, the Wolfpack are no strangers to the Final Four — they last played in the semifinal in 1983.

The No. 1 seed Purdue Boilermakers will take on 11th-seeded N.C. State Wolfpack tonight at 6:09 p.m. ET.

The game will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

It airs on TBS, TNT and TruTV. The game will also be streaming on Max and the NCAA’s March Madness Live.

Last night, the women's Final Four kicked off this championship weekend with two back-to-back games in Cleveland at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

First up was South Carolina-N.C. State. At the end of the first quarter, the teams were tied up, and by the end of the half, South Carolina only led by 1 point. In the third quarter, though, the Gameco*cks pulled ahead and outscored the Wolfpack 29-6, giving them a healthy lead for the rest of the game and assuring them a spot in Sunday's championship.

Shortly after, Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes faced off against Paige Bueckers and the UConn Huskies. After a slow start for Clark, UConn held a lead at the end of the first and second quarters. The Hawkeyes tied it up at the end of the third, making the last 10 minutes of play a nail-biter. Ultimately, the Hawkeyes pulled through, giving Clark one final game of her college career before she heads to the WNBA.