A (Potential) Matchup for the Ages
The Story: UConn center Donovan Clingan and Purdue center Zach Edey are on a collision course at the Final Four, as only one game separates two of the more debated players in the nation from playing for the national title on Monday night.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Edey and Clingan are Nos. 1 and 2 in efficiency, per Basketball Reference, and are by all accounts the two most impactful players in college basketball. How did they get there? Well, the two monstrous centers are so different that an Edey fan can’t really see what all the fuss is about in Clingan — and we can assuredly say vice versa.
• We’ll start with Edey, who at 7-foot-5 has put together one of the most dominating two-year runs in college basketball history. Edey, the returning Wooden Award winner, is a shoo-in for the award again. He’s averaging 25 points and 12.2 rebounds per game and coming off a career-high 40 points with 16 rebounds in the Elite Eight win over Tennessee.
• Then there’s Clingan, who has become one of the most dominant players in the NCAA Tournament. He had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in a rout of Illinois and held the Fighting Illini to 0-for-19 when he contested a shot on Saturday. That’s an incomprehensible level of effectiveness at an elite level. He’s averaging 12.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
• There’s a ton of debate about which center is better, and while we wait for the Saturday matchups of Purdue vs. N.C. State and UConn vs. Alabama, we can dream about a matchup between the two most impactful players on Monday night in Glendale, Arizona.
THE CASE FOR EDEY: Rare has it been that a player has dominated for two consecutive years as Edey has. He’s a highly skilled post player — the kind of center your grandpa liked — and is the focal point of the Boilermakers’ offense. He’s the most dominant player since Virginia center Ralph Sampson in 1981 and 1982.
• Edey is, in a word, huge. He dominates in the low post and leads the nation in scoring and is second in rebounding. He does it with a back-to-the-basket game that is reminiscent of the 1980s. He has a soft touch with either hand and is nearly impossible to move out of the deep post.
• Defending Edey is not just about his scoring. He’s adept at passing out of double teams and finding shooters as Purdue is among the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation. That’s in large part due to wide-open shots off the double teams created by Edey.
• Edey plays more than 30 minutes a game and averages 2.2 blocks. There’s no defensive 3-second call in the NCAA, and Edey camps in the paint and makes it difficult to get to the rim.
THE CASE FOR CLINGAN: Clingan is a metrics darling who has such an impact on a per-minute basis that NBA scouts drool. His per-game stats are modest, but when you consider he’s doing it in about 22 minutes a night, he’s extremely productive.
• At 7-foot-2 and 280 pounds, Clingan is a defensive-oriented rim-running center who’s elite at pick-and-roll drop coverage. His ability to retreat and recover makes him the anchor of UConn’s defense and he’s able to move his feet and affect shots when he’s out there more than any other player.
• We know what you’re thinking. Are Edey and Clingan that similar of a player? The answer is yes, but with a caveat — playing time. Let’s adjust apples to apples and see what they produce in similar minutes.
• Per 40 minutes, Clingan is averaging 23.4 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. Edey’s at 31.3 points and 15.4 rebounds per game. Other advanced metrics are closer. Edey’s player efficiency rating, which measures a player’s total statistical output adjusted for pace, leads the nation at 39.7. Clingan is second at 35.5. These are the two best players in the country in terms of efficiency heading into the Final Four.
WHAT DOES THE NBA THINK? Here’s what a lot of fans struggle to understand: Edey is the most dominant player in perhaps a generation or more, but Clingan is looked at more favorably in NBA circles.
• ESPN’s most recent mock draft had Clingan as the No. 3 pick, and his performance in the NCAA Tournament has put him in contention to go No. 1. Defense remains at a premium in the NBA, and Clingan’s mobility on the perimeter and his rim-running capability on offense (essentially on a screen and roll) are tailor-made for the pro game. Clingan has drawn comparisons to some of the better NBA defensive centers in Walker Kessler, Brook Lopez and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. Offensively, Clingan is a work in progress but possesses nice form on his jump shot, leading to hope that he can develop into a distance shooter.
• Edey is more mysterious. Where does an old-school center fit in the NBA? Edey has improved his mobility, but after winning the Wooden Award last year, he was not guaranteed to be a first-round pick and returned to school. He has improved to the point where ESPN has him listed as a late lottery pick, though other scouting services have him going in the late first round and even the second round.
• Questions about Edey come down to his ability to play drop coverage in pick-and-rolls (where Clingan excels) and whether he can be impactful on offense. Purdue has geared its offense around Edey. That won’t happen in the NBA, where pace and space (think crisp passing and spreading the floor for shooting) are the preferred method of attack.
• One thing we know is that Clingan and Edey are going to be a focal point at the Final Four this weekend. The entire basketball world, outside of Alabama and a small part of North Carolina, will be rooting to see a clash between the two on Monday night.
— John Silver
Bueckers: Final Four ‘Rewarding’
The Story: After missing all of last season because of a torn ACL, Paige Bueckers shed some light on how she felt over the past 24 months following UConn’s victory over USC on Monday night — and although much about basketball comes easy to her, the recovery didn’t.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Bueckers tore the ACL in her left knee in August 2022 during a pickup game at the Werth Champions Center and wasn’t fully cleared until a year later. Although she led the Huskies to the Final Four as a freshman and played in the national championship game as a sophomore, Monday’s win was more special.
• Bueckers was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Portland 3 Regional after she finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in the Huskies’ 80-73 victory, which has them in line to face Iowa in the Final Four on Friday night.
• The redshirt junior said the last two years “have been really challenging on my mental [health]” and that she had to try to find joy outside of basketball through the adversity she faced. “But at the same time, I’m super blessed.”
WHAT DID BUECKERS SAY? “[Monday night] was one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve ever felt in my life, just seeing where I was a year ago today, doing individual workouts, starting to feel the basketball again, get the ball in my hands again and play. Now, I’m here with my teammates and coaching staff and going to the Final Four. It’s been a very rewarding journey. I’m super, super grateful for it all. The tough times made me who I am. It’s built my faith. It’s built my appreciation for life and gratitude for anything that gets thrown my way.”
AT ANOTHER LEVEL: Geno Auriemma praised Bueckers’ performance on Monday, saying that “she tries her damnedest to be superhuman” and that she plays the game “on another level.”
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “If you think about it, she came in as a freshman, and we went to the Final Four, and it was [in] a bubble. Her sophomore year she missed 15 games, I don’t know how many games, and we were in the national championship game without [Dorka Juhasz] our starting center. And her junior year, she missed the season completely. Now she comes back this year, and we’re in the Final Four. So it’s no coincidence that, when you have someone like that on the court, it changes everything about what you can do, and things become possible that weren’t possible before that.”
BUECKERS AND CLARK AS TEAMMATES? Geno said that part of the reason why he didn’t recruit Iowa’s Caitlin Clark that heavily is because Bueckers had already committed to play for UConn.
• Bueckers, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2020, committed to UConn in April 2019 — more than 18 months before her freshman season began. Clark, the No. 4 player in the class, chose the Hawkeyes over Notre Dame and Iowa State in November 2019.
WHAT ELSE DID GENO SAY? “I committed to Paige Bueckers very, very early, and it would have been silly for me to say to Paige, ‘Hey, listen, we’re going to put you in the same backcourt, and then I’m going to try really hard to recruit Caitlin Clark.’ I don’t do it that way,” Geno said. “Caitlin obviously is a tremendous player, generational player, but if Caitlin really wanted to come to UConn, she would have called me and said, ‘Coach, I really want to come to UConn.’ So, I don’t think that either of us lost out. I think she made the best decision for her, and it’s worked out great.”
— Zac Boyer
Morning Reads
• A passed ball and a throwing error, both in the sixth inning, proved to be the difference as the softball team lost 2-0 at Boston College yesterday afternoon.
• The baseball team’s game against Columbia was canceled because of the weather and will not be rescheduled.
• The women’s lacrosse team (5-5, 1-1 Big East) will host Villanova today at noon.
Top photo: Donovan Clingan drives to the rim during UConn’s game against Georgetown. (Ian Bethune for The UConn Daily)
