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The Final Four is officially over
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Well, maybe not officially because the national title is technically a part of the Final Four weekend
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But nonetheless, today in this video, we are going to recap the two Final Four games from Saturday
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and then give a prediction for the national title game. Let's get right into it
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This video is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy. If you haven't heard of it, it's an app that allows you to pick higher or lower on your favorite players from your favorite sports
0:24
And to celebrate the national championship on Monday, they are giving away $1 million
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airdropping it into random accounts throughout the app. All you have to do is sign up using my code, hardwood
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You'll get a full deposit match up to $100. And as long as you place a pick them entry or you have in the past, you're good
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You're eligible. Shout out to underdog. Let's get back to the video. One more thing. I just launched the hardwood discord
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I would love it if you would join. I'm trying to continue building community as we build this channel
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We do watch parties for games and we'll continue to do it throughout the NBA playoffs
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Plus, we are doing an NBA 2K tournament this weekend and I'll be streaming and commentating
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in the Discord, the semifinals and the finals of that tournament. The link to join is in the description
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We'll see you over there. Let's start with the first game of the day. One seed Purdue versus 11 seed, the darling of the tournament, the NC State Wolfpack
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NC State started off slow. they would get down 12 to four to open the game, but they would show the resilience they have all
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tournament and battle back to a six point deficit at half. They'd actually gotten it to three with
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a DJ horn jumper, but then they gave up this Fletcher lawyer three that I thought was an
1:36
absolute momentum killer. And that's just what happens when you don't have an answer for Zach
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Eadie. You need to double in the post and Eadie has a bunch of 40% three point shooters. He can
1:45
kick it out to then in the second half, while Purdue struggled from the field as well, NC
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state would score just four points through the first seven minutes going just one for 10 in that
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stretch and although they were only down nine still they'd get it to as close as seven they just
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didn't have enough offensive firepower in this game to make it really that close in the second
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half purdue would win by 13 making their first ever national championship in school history i said
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before this game that in order for nc state to win dj horn would have to go off for 25 he did his
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absolute best he scored 20 he only shot eight for 21 from the field but honestly he was the only
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player on this team that could create his own shot i don't think dj burns was as bad as the box score
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suggested he had eight points went four for ten from the field had four assists but only one board
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he did get in foul trouble which limited some minutes but they really need a better game from
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casey morsel he went over five from the field finished with zero points in 31 minutes as a team team that would go five for 19 from three which when you shoot 26 versus one of the best teams in the nation
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from beyond the arc, you're probably not going to win. But honestly, that was not the main problem for NC State
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They only shot three for 13 from the field versus Duke and still scored 76
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They went three for 17 from the field in the ACC semis versus Virginia
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and still won that game scoring 73. The problem was that they only got
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to the free throw line four times. versus duke they got there 23 making 17 marquette was an ugly game they only got there 12 times but
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marquette also shot four for 31 from three and then versus oakland 12 for 16 from the free throw line
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versus texas tech 21 for 26 unc in the acc title game 22 for 29 but it gets worse than just the
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raw numbers their free throw rate was 7.0 which is by far the worst in their nine game win streak
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since the ACC Conference Tournament, with their lowest rate before being the Marquette game at 21.4
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If you're not going to shoot it well from three and you're not going to get to the free throw line
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you're not going to win many games. It's a big time bummer that Michael O'Connell went down with an injury
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And offensively, we knew this was always going to be such a hard matchup for DJ Burns
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He's a post player. He had a couple plays too. A couple hook shots early in this one
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I was so impressed with. They were 10 to 12 feet away over Zach Eadie
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Just incredibly difficult shots. that he did have go down, but at the end of the day, what are you going to do against a 7'4"
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300-pound monster when you're 6'9", and your main offense is in the post? I thought DJ Burns held
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his own versus Zach Eadie for the most part. There were numerous times where he walled Eadie up
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would not let him get closer to the basket when backing him down, but Eadie still just rose over
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him from eight to nine feet away and would just make those hook shots, which there's nothing you
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can do at that point. NC State did try to double quite a bit, and the problem with doubling Edie
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is that he has a bunch of 40% three-point shooters that will just knock down threes
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which is exactly what happened at the end of the first half. At the end of the day, the pick I had for NC State was absolutely an emotional one. I mentioned that in the video
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Purdue is a freaking good basketball team, and I'm excited to talk about their chances in the
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national title game at the end of this video. One last thing about this game, I don't even think Purdue played that well. They shot 40% from the field, had 16 turnovers. Braden Smith shot one for
5:02
nine from the field. However, we have to talk about the fact that Zach Eady played every minute of
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this game. He played 40 minutes at 300 pounds. And this isn't just one game. In the Sweet 16
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he played 38 minutes versus Gonzaga. Tennessee, 39. That is utterly impressive for a guy of his
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size and such an advantage for Matt Painter to not have to get him multiple rests throughout the
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Our second game of the night UConn versus Alabama This game was definitely a lot more fun than the first one And honestly it also was just a better game in general It had more competition in it Alabama definitely held their
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own in the first half. They shot an incredible 7 for 10 from 3 but still found themselves down 44
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to 40 at the end of the half. They would cool off in the second half only going 4 for 13 but at the
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same time they still shot 48% from 3. Problem is UConn was hitting their threes for once. They went
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10 for 25. And we all know UConn is just such a versatile team. I love this thread from Ryan
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Cassidy. He pointed out that the game plan from Bama early on was to make Stefan Castle
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the freshman, beat you. And that's exactly what Castle did. He tied his season high at 21 points
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on an efficient 7 for 13 from the field. Per stat head, Castle became just the eighth freshman ever
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in Final Four history to score 20 plus points. And if you look at the names on this list
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he's in some pretty good company and unfortunately for Bama they just got ran down in the second half
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would lose 86 to 72 keeping UConn's 13 plus margin of victory win streak alive dating back
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to the 2023 tournament I do have to give Mark Sears his flowers he went out balling had 24 points
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on 9 for 14 from the field the thing that impressed me the most about Sears was that he was able to
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get to the rim, even with clinging around it and still lay it in. He's just so crafty and he doesn't
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waste a step. Alabama plays at one of the fastest tempos in the country, ranking 14th in adjusted
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tempo, but UConn dictated the pace of this game, holding Alabama to their lowest adjusted tempo of
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the season at 63. Matter of fact, Alabama had zero fast break points in the entire game. I truly
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thought Wrightsville would be more of an X factor in this one, but it only went two of five from the
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field scoring six points. Grant Nelson had another good game, 19 points, 15 boards, but he's just too
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small on the other end for Klingen. Meanwhile, on the UConn side, Cam Spencer had 14, Tristan
7:28
Newton 12 and 9, Caravan 14, Donovan Klingen had 18, 5 and 4 blocks, and both teams only had one
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player off the bench score. This was a little bit of an anticlimactic final four, but I'll tell you
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why that is okay because it gives us the best possible scenario for a national championship
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both Purdue and UConn have been top three in Ken Palm all season long above that elite plus 30
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adjusted efficiency margin alongside Houston but here's the thing Purdue matches up so much better
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with UConn than Houston does they're gonna give up athleticism on the wing but they have one of
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the best three-point shooting percentages in the country and they have the national player of the
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year one of the only players that I think could potentially handle Donovan Klingon I be super interested to see how you can play ZD Will they play him straight up with Klingon Will they try to use their athleticism to double him and get back out
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to those three-point shooters when he kicks it out? This is just the fifth ever all-time number
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one versus number two Ken Palm matchup in national championship history. With the last one taking
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place in 2021, which was an anticlimactic title game as well, Baylor blew out Gonzaga. But if you
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Take a look at 2016, 2008, and 2005. You have Villanova versus North Carolina
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arguably the best national title game of all time. You have 2008 Kansas versus Memphis
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another incredible game that went to overtime. And then 2005 North Carolina versus Illinois
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another incredible national championship. As much as I wanna see upsets, this is going to be such a fun national title game
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Right now on FanDuel, the line is minus six and a half in favor of UConn
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which I think is absurd. That is so many points to give up for Purdue
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And I think a lot of people are writing off how hard of a time UConn will have guarding Zach Eady
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I get it. Klingon's great. He's 7'2". Eady is finally getting someone
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who matches up with him in height versus getting guarded by 6'9 DJ Burns
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However, Zach Eady's 300 pounds. He still has 20 pounds on Klingon
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Like I said earlier, UConn is going to have to use their wing athleticism
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to their advantage. Meanwhile, Purdue is going to have to let the threes fly
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I'm iffy on this one. Obviously, UConn is the favorite, but I think I'm going Purdue
9:48
They have the shooting. They won't be able to match up athletically, but I think Zach Eadie gets the best of Donovan Klingin
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solidifying himself as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time
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I really don't understand the Zach Eadie hate. He is a monster to be reckoned with
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and I think he is going to be a steal late in the first round of the NBA draft
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Zach Eady has a chance to beat Glenn Rice of Michigan's 1989 point record of 184 points in a tournament, but he would need to drop 45 on UConn to do so
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He's also only the third player in tournament history with at least 140 points and 70 rebounds, joining legends Jerry West and Elvin Hayes
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On the Yukon end, I don't think Purdue would have an answer for Stefan Castle, but we shall
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see tomorrow night. I got Purdue winning by 378-275, completing the ultimate redemption for a second time
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as a one seed, losing to a 16 in the previous season
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Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video, head over to the Discord
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We do a lot of live streams in there and just overall community building
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I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And check out the video I just made on the last time each school made the Final Four
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As always, we'll see you on the hardwood
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