Twelve consecutive NCAA Tournament games won by double digits.
A win differential of +140. The highest in tournament history (they were +120 last year).
Lost three guys from the 2023 team to the NBA and came back better.
THIS is what a dominance looks like.
The UConn men's team now has six National Championships in the last 25 years. The is tied for third all time with North Carolina, and trailing Kentucky with eight and UCLA with eleven. The notable piece here is how good UConn has been in era of the 64/68 team tournament. There have been two dominant teams since 1995 when the tournament expanded to 64 teams, Duke with five championships and UConn with six. No other team has more than three. And considering that UConn has done this with three different coaches, it is absolutely incredible what is going on in Storrs.
Oh, and just for giggles, the men's and women's teams combined are 17-1 in national championship games!
Purdue? Well, lets just add them to the long line of Big Ten "almost got one's." The Big Ten has now lost its last eight finals game appearances since Michigan State's national championship win in 2000. Unfortunately for the Big Ten, that isn't even the most recent national championship for one of its schools as the University of Maryland beat Indiana (yup, a Big Ten school) in 2002. They then joined the Big Ten in 2014.
I have spent years in this space trashing the Big Ten as a conference, and Virginia and Purdue as underachieving dogs in this tournament, but if you are gambling on them annually in this tournament, you likely also live on the streets since you can't afford anything else.
Congratulations to Andrew Capuana for winning the final game this year! With another successful Block Squares Pool in the books, we move on to the Master's. This truly is the best week in sports.
Thanks everyone! And see you next year.
--Your Tournament Host
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