Zach Edey with a piano on his back

Why no rest?

BY HENRY ABBOTT

Purdue put their title chances on the back of Zach Edey throughout the entire NCAA tournament. JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES

For about 10 minutes, the game mirrored the hype. 

The media loves a clash of titans. UConn’s 7-2 bruiser, Donovan Clingan, was the nimble little one in this battle as the man trying to push him around the paint was Purdue’s 7-4, 300-pound Zach Edey.

Early in Monday’s NCAA championship game, Edey battled Clingan, Clingan battled Edey, and both made clear why basketball players lift weights. As arms snaked around torsos and through armpits, in the post game’s perennial efforts to snake-charm referees (he’s holding me alleges the player with his enemy’s arm clamped in his armpit), the actual battle was a yard closer to the ground. Clingan put one leg back, sank into his knees to make his body the strongest possible stool, onto which Edey would drive his 300 pounds. If the stool held up, and Clingan kept Edey a decent distance from the rim, UConn would win.

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