A Grip on Sports: One player can dominate, but Connecticut proved once again a dominant team wins most every time

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Funny. The men’s and the women’s NCAA championship games were basically mirror images of each other. The best team won. Handily. The best player was, well, the best player. But not by enough to lift the trophy.

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• Donovan Clingan didn’t get a draw, per se. The numbers – 37 points, 10 rebounds – favored Purdue’s 7-foot-4 behemoth Zach Edey. But Connecticut’s nearly team-wide support overwhelmed the Boilermakers 75-60. Especially on the defensive end.

There are always two schools of hoop thought when playing a special talent. Let them get theirs and shut down everyone else or try to contain the top gun and see if the rest can beat you.

Dan Hurley and the Huskies chose option one. It worked. The Boilermakers, one of the best 3-point shooting crews in the nation, had just one made 3-pointer – in seven attempts. They just never got clean looks. The Huskies clearly didn’t care if Edey got his – and then some – whether it be in ball-screen actions – UConn always went over Edey to ensure no open long-range looks – or in post-up situations – Hurley didn’t have his defense double until the second half, when his post players were in deep foul trouble.

Purdue hit 10 3-points in its semifinal win. That’s 27 points more from beyond the arc than Monday night. In a too-simplistic-view-to-be-completely-accurate, that was the difference. A more defining statistics might be the assists number: eight – all from Braden Smith. The four guys who surround Edey didn’t help each other score – and he never found them either.

The 7-2 Clingan, with 11 points and five rebounds, and 6-10 Samson Johnson, four and one, didn’t match Edey, but they had enough to allow Stephon Castle and Alex Karaban and Tristen Newton and the pesky Cam Spencer to dominate.

And dominate they did.

Are the Huskies the most dominate group ever? That’s a long time. Certainly, in this century UConn, circa 2023 and 2024, holds the top spot, having won every NCAA Tournament game the past two years by no less than 13 points. The average NCAA margin in 2023 was 20.2 per game, in 2024, 23.3. That’s dominant. UCLA dominant.

In fact, only John Wooden’s 30-0 team that won the 1967 national title was more dominant in NCAA play than this year’s UConn team. With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) in the middle as a sophomore, the Bruins won their four NCAA Tournament games by an average of 23.8 points. And that’s mainly because the Bruins opened the tournament with a 49-point win over Wyoming.

• If you were wondering how many folks watched the women’s title game, ESPN announced the numbers Monday. Turns out 18.7 million people did on average, peaking at 24 million at one point.

It was the most-watched women’s game ever and it was on ESPN, a network that doesn’t have the availability of, say, CBS, which broadcast the 2023 men’s title game. That matchup, between UConn and San Diego State, attracted four million fewer viewers.

• We hate to bang the drum, slowly, but this year’s Mariners’ season isn’t getting off to the quick start most area fans were hoping for, is it? Monday’s 5-2 loss in Toronto showcased pretty much everything that’s gone wrong for Seattle thus far. In that we include starting pitching foibles – Luis Castillo was only average once again – and leaky defense – at least three makable plays were not when the game was on the line.

And the offense? The projections the M’s were entering the season one hitter short of having a complete lineup seem so naïve thus far.

Yes, it’s only mid-April. Early April, actually. When the weather warms and all that. Only problem is, Seattle has played all its games either at home or in a dome. The weather doesn’t get much better than that. The team? It better.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano covers the year ahead for Washington State and Oregon State hoops in his mailbag. … Another Oregon State women’s player is in the portal. … We cover the poll below in the Gonzaga section, but we wanted to point out six conference women’s teams were ranked with four in the top 10. … Arizona wasn’t one of them and it lost its leader to the draft. … We pass along the coverage of the men’s title game from the Phoenix area as well as Tucson. … Arizona is being hit pretty hard by transfer portal news. … On the football side, an Oregon player is headed out. … So is a Colorado safety. … Arizona expects to use more receivers consistently next season.

Gonzaga: The women’s final A.P. poll was released Monday. Gonzaga finished 14th, up two spots from the pre-tournament poll. … How about next season? The men look to be in good shape, pre-portal, as Jon Wilner has them sixth in his too-early look and The Athletic puts them second behind Duke. … Former GU center Oumar Ballo has decided to leave Arizona for his final season. He’s in the portal.

EWU: Two more Eastern men’s players entered the portal Monday. Ethan Price and LaJuan Watts are now free agents. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana picked up a promise from a Pepperdine transfer. … Montana State lost a freshman guard to the portal.

Indians: With the Northwest League season underway, we thought this would be a good day to remind you Mondays are off-days for the league. Most of the time anyway.

Mariners: We linked Ryan Divish’s game story above. We do it here again just in case you missed it. … The pitching injuries are worrisome to everyone.

Seahawks: It has been a hectic offseason. Now the work is underway. … How might the Hawks trade down, if they do, in the draft?

Kraken: We pass along one more unwritten rule to mull over.

Reign: Seattle has a quiet leader who is loud on the field.

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• It’s Masters week. Who will win? Us. This is such a fun weekend watching golf, whether it be online or on ESPN or CBS. Few commercials, a great course, understated analysis, a great course. Until later …