Donovan Clingan and No. 1 Connecticut. Zach Edey and No. 1 Purdue.

Getting the no-doubt top two teams of this season to meet for the national championship is enough to make Monday night must-see TV. Adding in this matchup of big men might make this one of the most exciting pairings in recent NCAA men’s tournament history.

Edey is the most decorated player in program history. The two-time Naismith player of the year stands with Bill Walton and Ralph Sampson as the only multiple winners in the award’s history.

Edey against Clingan ranks among the most highly anticipated frontcourt matchups in championship game history.

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Here’s more on Monday’s tilt and four others from the past 40 years:

2024: Donovan Clingan (Connecticut) vs. Zach Edey (Purdue)

This will be a ‘battle of the giants,’ Connecticut coach Dan Hurley said. ‘I think it’s just great for college basketball to get the two big dogs playing on Monday night.’

Edey, 7-foot-4, and Clingan, 7-foot-2, are special defenders capable of controlling the paint. Edey averages 24.9 points per game and is the more polished scorer, but Clingan’s game has stepped up in the past month. Where Clingan may have an advantage is in transition; his ability to get down court led to a pair of dunks that sealed the deal against the Crimson Tide. Will he play more than his customary 25 minutes? Edey has been on the court for every key minute of play during Purdue’s run to the championship game and could take advantage of Clingan’s absence.

2006: Joakim Noah (Florida) vs. Greg Oden (Ohio State)

Oden’s freshman year at Ohio State remains one of the great debuts by a big man in NCAA history. The future first-overall pick averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game to earn All-America honors. But he was held in check by Noah in the championship game, picking up just seven points and six rebounds while battling foul trouble in the Gators’ 86-60 win.

1990: Larry Johnson (UNLV) vs. Christian Laettner (Duke)

This one was all UNLV: Johnson poured in 22 point and pulled down 11 rebounds as the Rebels beat Duke 103-73 in the biggest blowout in championship game history. Just a sophomore, Laettner had 15 pounds and nine rebounds to go with five assists. (Tournament heroics were just around the corner for Laettner.) Johnson was an All-America pick in 1990 and the national player of the year in 1991.

1988: Danny Manning (Kansas) vs. Stacey King (Oklahoma)

Manning carried Kansas all the way to the national championship with one of the great individual performances in tournament history. That was capped by a 31-point, 18-rebound performance against King and the Sooners, in the third matchup on the year between the two conference rivals. King averaged 22.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game that season and was even better as a senior, when he finished with 26 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. But he managed just 17 points and seven rebounds in the 83-79 loss to the Jayhawks.

1984: Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) vs. Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston)

There may never be a matchup of centers that pitted the 1984 head-to-head tussle between Ewing and Olajuwon, who would repeat this battle a decade later in the NBA Finals. Ewing is one of the greatest players in NCAA history, a dominant post presence who led Georgetown to three appearances in the title game. Olajuwon and the Cougars played for it all in 1983 and 1984, losing both times. The two played to a draw in the Hoyas’ 84-75 win, with Ewing clocking in with 10 pounds, nine rebounds and three assists, and Olajuwon finishing with 15 pounds and nine rebounds.

CLEVELAND — Caitlin Clark wanted the title. Anyone who plays this game would have.

Her legacy was secured long ago. When people recall this year’s tournament years from now, they will remember Clark’s logo 3s and the scoring records she set. (Not to be confused with the ones she set during the regular season.) They’ll remember the blockbuster ratings and the electric games Clark and Iowa played against LSU and UConn and South Carolina. They’ll remember how this was the tournament that put to rest the notion that women’s sports are somehow “less than” and the absurd claim that no one cares about them.

They’ll remember Clark and her impact. Far more, even, than the South Carolina team that actually did win this year’s title. Becoming only the 10th team to finish the year unbeaten in the process.

‘There’s not a regret in my mind of how things went,’ Clark said after Iowa came up short in the title game for a second year in a row, losing this one to overall No. 1 seed South Carolina 87-75. ‘I’ll be able to sleep every night even though I never won a national championship.

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‘That’s the thing about everything I’ve done, there’s so much to be proud of. I don’t sit and sulk about the things that never happened.’

Because what did happen? What was she able to accomplish? That will affect the lives of little girls, and little boys, long after Clark is done playing. Women’s sports, and the athletes who play them, finally have the attention and the spotlight they deserve, and they aren’t going backward.

‘I want to utilize this opportunity to thank Caitlin for what she’s done for women’s basketball. Her shoulders were heavy and getting a lot of eyeballs on our game,’ South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. ‘And sometimes as a young person, it can be a bit much, but I thought she handled it with class. I hope that every step of the ladder of success that she goes, she’s able to elevate whatever room she’s in.’

Staley, who’s in the Hall of Fame as a player and will be there soon as a coach, too, had said before the game she thought Clark needed a title to be in the GOAT conversation.

But debates about GOATs and where players rank are subjective and, ultimately, futile because everyone has a different measure of what defines great. Or what’s more important. Is it titles? Scoring? Dominance? You can ask 10 different people and get 10 different answers.

But no one can deny that Clark changed the game, and that is how she’ll be remembered.

‘I don’t really get offended when people say I never watched women’s basketball before. I think, one, you’re a little late to the party,’ Clark said, drawing laughter. ‘But, two, that’s cool. We’re changing the game. We’re attracting more people to it.’

Of course it would have been a storybook ending for her to cap her college career with a title. She and her Iowa teammates did everything they could.

They came out firing, just as they did against LSU in the Elite Eight. Kate Martin knocked down a 3, Clark ripped off 13 points in less than two minutes and before the stragglers had a chance to get to their seats, Iowa was up 20-9 on the overall No. 1 seed.

That 11-point deficit? It was South Carolina’s largest of the season.

But the Gamecocks didn’t come into the game unbeaten for no reason. Freshman Tessa Johnson made three field goals in a row between the end of the first quarter and the start of the second, and when Kamilla Cardoso made a free throw to convert a three-point play, South Carolina had erased the entire deficit and the score was tied.

The frenetic pace of the game seemed to take its toll on Clark and Iowa, and they fell behind by as much as 14 early in the fourth quarter. Clark and the Hawkeyes simply didn’t have the size, or the depth, to keep pace.

‘South Carolina is so good. There’s only so much you can do,’ Clark said. ‘(Kamilla) Cardoso has 17 rebounds. They have 51 as a team. We have 29. Hard to win a basketball game like that. You’ve basically got to shoot perfect at that point.’

They didn’t, shooting less than 40% for the game. After scoring 18 points in the first quarter, an NCAA Tournament record for a single quarter, Clark had 12 on 5-of-20 shooting the rest of the way.

The Hawkeyes never quit, however. A 3 by Clark and another by Gabbie Marshall pared the lead to 76-70. Sydney Affolter converted a three-point play to keep Iowa within striking distance, 80-75, with 4:13 left.

But they couldn’t get any closer.

‘That was a huge advantage because I think they played nine people in double figures. We had six. Just to have those extra fouls and extra legs — they didn’t have to play too hard,’ Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. ‘We did score pretty well. We scored 20 more points than other people do against South Carolina. … But, yeah, to be able to have all those fresh legs on Caitlin was really tough.’

Clark said she knows the emotions of losing in the national title game for a second year, of playing her final game at Iowa, will hit her over the next few days. Yet she and Martin were more pragmatic rather than heartbroken after the game, recognizing they still won even for losing.

‘When I think about women’s basketball going forward, obviously it’s just going to continue to grow, whether it’s atthe WNBA level, whether it’s at the college level. Everybody sees it. Everybody knows. Everybody sees theviewership numbers,’ Clark said. ‘When you’re given an opportunity, women’s sports thrives. I think that’s been the coolest thing for me on this journey. … It just continues to get better and better and better. That’s never going to stop.

‘When you continue to give them the platform, things like this are just going to continue to happen.’

And Clark made that happen. Others have had a hand, too, Staley and South Carolina included.

The Gamecocks are 109-3 with two national championships over the last three seasons. Staley has won three titles in seven tournaments. With the young talent South Carolina has — if you didn’t come away from Sunday’s game awed by freshman Tessa Johnson, you must have been watching golf — it is verging on Tennessee and UConn dynasty territory.

But it is Clark who’s been the architect of this movement in women’s sports.

‘She has raised the excitement of our sport,’ Bluder said. ‘She has done amazing things to grow our game.’

South Carolina won the national title this year. What Clark won was so much bigger.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

CLEVELAND — Dawn Staley still goes over critical mistakes from 1991. 

It was March 31, 33 years ago. Staley was the point guard for the Virginia Cavaliers and the best player in America. 

The Cavaliers were up five with 1:25 to play in regulation in the national championship game against the Tennessee Lady Vols and legendary coach Pat Summitt. 

Then, suddenly, they were tied with four seconds to play. Then-UVA coach Debbie Ryan called a timeout and drew up a play for Staley to get to the rim. (You could not advance the ball in the final minute back then.)

Staley got the inbound, took off, got to the basket, stretched to the rim through traffic … and missed. Virginia got the board and another look, but couldn’t score. The game went to double overtime, Staley fouled out and Virginia lost, 70-67.

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Though she was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player – finishing that game with 28 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and three steals – the game haunted Staley for years. 

“To this day we talk about, she should have gone off of two feet because she was in traffic,” Ryan told USA TODAY Sports. “She’s as competitive today as she was then.” 

But “we resolved that with 2017,” Ryan said, referencing Staley’s first championship as a coach with South Carolina. 

And now, after leading the Gamecocks to their third national title, 1991 is a (very) distant memory.

On Sunday, Staley’s team won their third NCAA championship, topping Iowa 87-75. She became the fifth head coach, and the first Black coach, to win three or more women’s basketball titles, joining Summit (eight) UConn’s Geno Auriemma (11), LSU’s Kim Mulkey (four) and Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer (three).

Staley was noticeably emotional all game. She looked close to tears when arguing with officials in the first half, as Iowa built an 11-point lead, saying afterward that she was experiencing “a little bit of PTSD,” because “I didn’t want what happened last year (when Iowa beat South Carolina in the national semifinals) to happen this year.”

After South Carolina secured the win and a perfect 38-0 season, Staley was handed the trophy and she broke down for real. 

“You carry the burden of every single one of your players, all the coaches and staff members that put so much into our team,” she said. “And it’s a heavy load to be undefeated, to finish the job. You get emotional because you just want that for them.”

That Staley won her third championship in the last seven tournaments is a testament to the fact that one of the best point guards of all time now runs the best program in the current era of women’s basketball. South Carolina’s perfect 38-0 season is the 10th undefeated NCAA women’s basketball champion, and all the more impressive given the exploding parity across the sport.

Staley never got to experience the joy of winning a title as a player, but as the Gamecocks prepped Saturday to take on Iowa, Staley got reflective. 

“It wasn’t meant to be,” she said of the 1991 heartbreak. “The fact that we won in 2017 made it really special. … I didn’t think I was going to coach. I thought that was going to be that. But once I got into coaching, I wanted to check that (national championship) box off.’ 

She was delighted to find that as a coach, she enjoyed winning it just as much, maybe more, than she would have as a player. (Keep in mind that while Staley didn’t experience winning an NCAA title, she has plenty of personal accomplishments, including three Olympic gold medals.)

“There are many more people that you get to celebrate with when you (win) it as a coach,” Staley said. “It’s so gratifying.” 

For Staley, those aren’t empty words. When she won her first in 2017, she had mini replica national championship trophies made for her Virginia teammates and coaches because, “I wanted them to feel something tangible of winning the national championship, because they gave me a desire to want to do it.”

Ryan echoed Staley’s joy at sharing with others, saying that when you win as a coach “it’s a different dynamic.” She still has that 2017 trophy, and while she doesn’t need or expect any more replicas, Ryan suspects Staley is only beginning her collection. 

“She still has that drive in her that she did as a player,” Ryan said. “I always felt like she’d be a great coach. You almost could have predicted this. And she’s just now starting to dominate the scene.” 

There’s no question the 1991 championship hurt Staley deeply. It didn’t scar her, though. It bruised her, but those marks faded, with time and other trophies. 

Just imagine how distant they’ll feel when she wins her fourth. 

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Purdue’s 7-foot-4 big man goes by many names: Zach Edey, ‘Big Maple’ and… now ‘Zachille O’Neal?’

That’s the nickname Shaquille O’Neal bestowed on Edey in March after he became the first player to have at least 20 points and three blocks in three straight men’s NCAA Tournament games since O’Neal did so in 1991 and 1992 at LSU. ‘@zach_edey way to dominate im changing your name to Zachille O’neal,’ O’Neal wrote.

The nickname is fine by Edey.

‘If Shaq wants to call me Zachille, I’ll take it. I’m Zachille. No argument here,’ Edey said on Friday. ‘All respect to him. He’s an all-time great player and he accomplished basically everything I want to accomplish in the NBA. You always got to pay your respect to the people before you.

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Edey got the opportunity to meet O’Neal following Purdue’s win over NC State in the Final Four on Saturday.

‘Great to finally meet you, man. It’s an honor,’ Edey told O’Neal as he shook his hand and greeted him.

‘It’s real cool,’ Edey said of the interaction on Sunday. ‘Before I played basketball my mom and dad would watch him and (Charles Barkley) do their segments and they’d be laughing all the time. So to have a relationship with them and talk to them on the side and message them, it’s cool.”

Edey described the advice O’Neal shared with him as ‘invaluable.’

‘He’s been through it all and had a whole career,’ Edey said. ‘Just kind of being able to pick his brain and understand how he went through some things and dealt with some things is invaluable.’

Edey has recorded Shaq-like numbers throughout the NCAA Tournament. He’s averaging 28 points and 15.4 rebounds through five tournament games. Purdue squares off against UConn for the national championship on Monday.

The long goodbye tour for Caitlin Clark ended Sunday, and the Iowa senior put a bow on it with a social media post on her Instagram story.

Clark, the all-time leading scorer in the college game, and the Hawkeyes lost to overall No. 1 seed and undefeated South Carolina in the national title game. She scored 30 points and passed Chamique Holdsclaw as the all-time leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament.

After the handshake line and post-game interviews and some tears, Clark took a moment to reflect on her four years in Iowa City. She posted a photo of her No. 22 jersey and her right shoe with the message ‘I’ll miss ya’ followed by seven golden hearts.

Later Sunday evening, Clark shared another message of love and gratitude for Iowa, this time on X (formerly Twitter).

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And while Clark missed the last training camp for USA Basketball, she could be added to the roster before the Paris Olympics, which begin July 21.

The story is finished.

The odds were stacked against him, but Cody Rhodes has ascended to the top of WWE by beating Roman Reigns to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion and capture the title he long sought in honor of his dad.

It didn’t seem possible since the match was under Bloodline rules, a no disqualification match in which all of the members of Reigns’ faction were allowed to interfere however they wanted. But Rhodes got help to lead him to glory.

Rhodes tried to bring weapons into the match early, but Reigns wasn’t having any of it. Instead, the champion used a kendo stick on the challenger. Rhodes was able to get out of the sticky situation and used Ric Flair’s figure four leg lock in an attempt to get a submission, which wasn’t successful.

The fight escalated into the crowd and Rhodes suplexed Reigns off the barricade. Once it got back into the ring, Reigns caught Rhodes with a power bomb and took control of the match. Reigns even took a page from his opponents book when he used a Cross Rhodes on the challenger.

Rhodes got on offense and delivered the bionic elbow on Reigns, leading to the match going outside of the ring. A low blow from Reigns turned the momentum again, and the champion did a power bomb to send Rhodes through the announcer’s table. He went to finish it off, but Rhodes kicked out. Rhodes then went the Reigns route with a spear on the champion, which ended in an unsuccessful pin.

Once Rhodes looked to be closing in, Jimmy Uso came to the aid to superkick Rhodes. Jey Uso came out to take out his twin brother by spearing him off the ramp in a crazy spot. When Rhodes got momentum again, Solo Sikoa came to Samoan spike Rhodes. A spear Samoan spike combo was used, but Rhodes kicked out.

Then came John Cena, who delivered an attitude adjustment to Reigns and Sikoa. But then The Rock showed up to deal with Cena in another epic faceoff between the two. A Rock bottom was hit on Cena, and Seth Rollins came in to help, but he was Superman punched. Then The Undertaker came out and choke slammed The Rock in a wild sequence.

Rhodes then finally got the three Cross Rhodes he longed to get on Reigns. He got the pin to become champion and finish the story.

When Rhodes returned to WWE in 2022, he said he came back because he wanted to win the WWE title his father, WWE Hall of Fame Dusty Rhodes, never had. Two years later, ‘The American Nightmare’ has achieved ‘The American Dream.’