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South Carolina and Iowa will square off for the women's title on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm ET on ABC, while UConn and Purdue will decide the men's crown on Monday night at 9:20 pm ET on TBS, TNT and TruTV.
Forget all the upsets along the way. In the end, the men's and women's NCAA basketball championship games will be decided between the only 1-seeds that remained in the tournament.
The NC State men's and women's teams were both knocked out, while the UConn women were also dismissed as the men advanced.
On Friday night in Cleveland, the 3-seeds were eliminated as South Carolina remained perfect on the year by pulling away with a monster 3rd quarter quarter. The Gamecocks led just 32-31 at halftime, but outscored the Wolfpack 29-6 coming out of the locker room and moved on with a 78-59 victory.
In the nightcap that drew a record 14 million+ viewers, Iowa overcame a 32-26 halftime deficit and took a 71-69 win over 3-seed UConn. It looked like Iowa was going to pull away in the fourth quarter, but turnovers and missed shots helped the Huskies erase a 10-point difference and climb back into the game which wasn't decided until a foul call on Aaliyah Edwards with :04 left.
On Saturday in Phoenix (Glendale), Purdue ended the Cinderella run of 11-seed NC State with 63-50 win. A pair of Mason Gillis free throws with 2:52 to play opened up a 20-point lead for Purdue. “It's the one we've been talking about all year,” said Zach Edey after he scored 20 points and snared 12 rebounds while never taking a rest.
In the second game, UConn blew open a tight game with a 10-2 run after the Huskies called a timeout with 2:29 to play. The run pushed a 76-68 lead to an 86-70 advantage with 33 seconds left.
UConn (men) and South Carolina (women) were both listed as 6.50 point favorites at FanDuel.com Odds late Saturday night.
Sunday, April 7, 3 PM on ABC -
1-seed South Carolina (37-0) vs. 1-seed Iowa (34-4)
Monday, April 8, 9:20 PM on TBS, TNT, TruTV
1-seed Purdue (34-4) vs. 1-seed UConn (36-3)
South Carolina will be look to cap off a perfect season with a championship win over Iowa. Last year, South Carolina;s only loss came against Iowa in the Elite 8. Caitlin Clark, who owns numerous national records, scored 41 points in that game as she led the Hawkeyes to the upset.
Dawn Staley has built South Carolina into a perennial powerhouse that has gone 166-9 games in the last 5 seasons while capturing the 2021-22 title. Her team also won the 2016-17 championship.
Iowa will be look for its first national title.
UConn looks to go abck-0to-back as national champions after beating San Diego State 76-59 in last year's title game. The Huskies have played in five national title contests and won all five, with all of those occurring in the last 25 hears (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2023).
Purdue is hoping to lock down its first national title and the first for the Big Ten since Michigan State in 2000. Purdue's rival, Indiana, is the only other Big Ten team to win a national championship in basketball and the Hoosiers join UConn in owning five of those.