UConn vs. Purdue? Yes, please.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Give thanks to the college basketball Gods. We’re getting a UConn vs. Purdue showdown on Monday for the national title. That’s a rarity in the NCAA Tournament, where upsets usually KO a would-be contender along the way.

But Monday? These are the sport’s top two teams (apologies to a healthy Houston team). UConn’s going for back-to-back titles, and Purdue’s chasing its first-ever championship. It’s gonna be a game to savor.

So let’s explore how Saturday set it up.

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1. UConn may as well be ‘bulletproof’

There’s a simple way to describe Connecticut’s 86-72 win against Alabama in Saturday night’s Final Four.

“They’re good,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “They’re close to being bulletproof.”

That’s not an exaggeration, either.

The Huskies (36-3) are now 11-1 all time in the Final Four, and are one win from becoming the first team since 2007 Florida to repeat as champs. Oh, and they extended their streak of NCAA tourney wins to 11.

“We make a hard tournament look easy,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.

The Huskies had four separate 7-0 against the Tide, all of which stemmed the repeated chances Alabama had to win. Hit a 3? UConn responds. Convert a 3-point play? There’s a couple of baskets. Grant Nelson brings down the house with a dunk (more on that later) leading to a tie game? Cue a 6-0 run for some breathing room.

That’s it. That’s the formula.

“It’s body blows,” Hurley said. “It’s continue to guard, continue to rebound, execute our offense. Eventually there will be a breaking point opportunity that will present itself.”

It also helps to have a freshman like Stephon Castle (season-high 21 points) a rim protector like Donovan Clingan (18 points, 4 blocks) and a team that can match Alabama from beyond the arc.

UConn was 10-of-25 from deep, and seemed to settle for 3s to start the game. Alabama’s defense kept sagging off players, daring them to shoot. It worked for a while as Bama (25-12) only trailed by four points as halftime. But when the Tide’s outside shots stopped falling (they were 8-of-11 in the first half only to finish 11-of-23), things got out of hand.

In many ways, it was prototypical UConn: relentless, efficient (1.36 points per possession) and inevitable.

“We never feel like we play our A game. We always feel like we could be better,” senior Tristan Newton said. ”We’re gonna go to the film session tonight, see what we did wrong and prepare for Monday.”

2. Edey remains an unstoppable force. Ask NC State.

Rule 1: When you’ve got the 7-foot-4, two-time National Player of the Year who leads the nation in scoring, you play him as much as possible.

It might as well be Rules 2, 3 and 4.

“We got the best player in the country,” said coach Matt Painter. “It’s a hell of a place to start, right?

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