- No. 1-ranked UConn stopped Purdue's quest for its first National Championship with a 75-60 setback to the Huskies, in front of 74,423 fans – the third-largest championship game crowd ever.
- The Boilermakers finish the season with a 34-5 record, setting the school record for wins in a season (34).
- The senior class of Zach Edey, Mason Gillis, Ethan Morton, Lance Jones, Chase Martin and Carson Barrett finish their careers with a 110-29 overall record (.791), the most wins by a senior class in school history.
- Purdue lost for the first time this season to a nationally-ranked team, ending the year with a 10-1 record against nationally-ranked squads.
- Zach Edey's 37 points are tied for the fourth most in a National Championship game (44 – UCLA's Bill Walton, 1973; 42 – UCLA's Gail Goodrich, 1965; 41 -- Kentucky's Jack Givens, 1978). It was the most points scored by a player in the National Championship game in 46 years.
- Edey is one of two players to have at least 37 points and 10 rebounds in National Championship game history (Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor).
- Edey's 177 points in the NCAA Tournament are tied for the second most in an NCAA Tournament, behind Glen Rice's (Michigan) 184 points in 1989. Edey's seven straight double-doubles in NCAA Tournament play are the longest in NCAA Tournament history.
- Zach Edey ended the season with 983 points and 474 rebounds. Edey and Houston's Elvin Hayes (1968) are the only players in NCAA history to finish a year with those numbers.
- Edey's 983 points end as the second most in both Purdue history and Big Ten history in a single season, behind Glenn Robinson (1994).
- Edey's 474 rebounds are the second most in Big Ten history behind Ohio State's Jerry Lucas (499; 1962).
- Zach Edey's 436 free throw attempts are tied for the second most in a season in NCAA history, tied with LSU's Pete Maravich in 1970, and only behind Furman's Frank Selvy (400; 1954).
- Edey's 30 double-doubles are tied for the fourth most in a season in NCAA history (31 – Navy's David Robinson, 1986; 31 – North Carolina's Armando Bacot, 2022; 31 – Akron's Enrique Freeman, 2024).
- Edey finished his career with 90 straight double-figure scoring games and 116 double-figure games in his career, tying E'Twaun Moore for the school record for career 10-point games.
- Edey finished the season with 84 blocked shots, tied for the fifth most in a season in school history.
- Edey and Shaquille O'Neal are the only players in NCAA history to average at least 25.0 points, 12.0 rebounds and shoot 60.0 percent from the field in a single season.
- Edey finished his career with 2,516 points and 1,321 rebounds. Edey is one of six players in NCAA history to have those numbers in a career (Lionel Simmons, Oscar Robertson, Elvin Hayes, Michael Brooks, Dickie Hemric).
- Braden Smith recorded 12 points, 8 assists and 3 rebounds, setting the Big Ten record for most assists in a season (292), passing Michigan State's Cassius Winston (291; 2019).
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Tristen Newton scored 20 points for the Huskies, who won their 12th straight March Madness game — not a single one of them decided by fewer than 13 points.
UConn was efficient on offense but won this with defense. The Huskies (37-3) limited the country's second-best 3-point shooting team to a mere seven shots behind the arc and only a single make, while happily allowing 7-foot-4 AP Player of the Year Zach Edey to go for 37 points on 25 shot attempts.
The 2024 Huskies are the sixth team to win all six tournament games by double-digit margins. They won those games by a grand total of 140 points, blowing past the 1996 Kentucky team, which won its six by 129.
In a matchup of two top seeds, they wore down the Boilermakers (34-5), who made it this far a year after becoming just the second No. 1 in the history of March Madness to fall in the first round. But Purdue left the same way it came — still looking for the program's first NCAA title.
Cam Spencer, a transfer from Rutgers, Stephon Castle, a blue-chip freshman, and Alex Karaban, a sophomore from last year's team, spent the night guarding the 3-point line and making life miserable for Purdue's guards.
This was only the second time this season Purdue didn't put up 10 3-point attempts, and how 'bout this final score: Edey 37, the rest of the Boilermakers 23.
How serious was Hurley about defending the perimeter? When Braden Smith wiggled loose for a semi-open look to make Purdue's first 3 of the game with 2:17 left in the first half, the coach bolted onto the floor and called timeout.
And that was that from behind the arc.
Hurley earned every penny in this one. In the first half, he begged with, swore at and generally berated the refs about over-the-backs, elbows and hip checks that weren't called.
Once, when that didn't work after Edey set a hard (and probably legal) pick against Castle, Hurley started in on Edey himself as the center walked toward the Purdue bench for a timeout.