Welcome to the Final Four.
Zach Edey has 1 seed Purdue back to the Final Four for the first time since 1980 with a 41 point and 16 rebound night against Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The Boilermakers will look for their first national championship title in program history. However, getting to the national championship game won’t be as easy as it seems for the Boilermakers, as Purdue has run into the Cinderella — and bracket buster — team of this year’s NCAA Tournament 11 seed NC State.
Kevin Keatts and Co. have ended up being one of the hottest teams in the country since March 12 — the start of the ACC Tournament — as the Wolfpack bring a nine-game winning streak into the Final Four. Edey will take on March Madness superstar DJ Burns, who has 18.3 points, five rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in the NCAA Tournament.
As for the nightcap between 1 seed UConn and 4 seed Alabama, there are plenty of storylines surrounding it.
First, there is the matchup between Tristen Newton and Mark Sears, two of college basketball’s top point guards, going up against each other. Then there is the Bobby Hurley coaching battle between UConn’s Dan Hurley, Bobby’s younger brother, and Alabama’s Nate Oats. Bobby, the coach at ASU, served as one of his brother’s assistant coaches when Dan was the coach at Wagner while Bobby was the coach who gave Oats his first Division I coaching job as an assistant when he was Buffalo. And of course there is the battle between the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense, Alabama, going up against a UConn team that has outscored each of its opponents this year in the NCAA Tournament by 27.8 points per game.
Should UConn get past Alabama, it will have the opportunity to become the first team since Florida to win back-to-back national championships. The Gators accomplished that feat in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons under now Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan.
All times are in Central
- (1) Purdue vs. (11) NC State | 5:09 p.m. CT | TBS (Sling TV)
- (1) UConn vs. (4) Alabama | approximately 7:49 p.m. CT | TBS (Sling TV)
How to watch, stream March Madness games
- TV channel: TBS
- Stream: March Madness Live App | Sling TV
The 2024 Final Four will be broadcast on TBS. It can be streamed on either the March Madness Live app or Sling TV. Ian Eagle (play-by-play), Bill Raftery (analyst), Grant Hill (analyst) and Tracy Wolfson (sideline reporter) will handle the broadcast duties.
