Rarely, does the winner of the annual 68-team men’s college basketball NCAA Tournament seem inevitable from the start, especially in this day and age of NIL money and the player transfer portal.

But that was the case this season when UConn was the heavy favorite to win its second-straight national title. The inevitable became a reality on Monday night when the Huskies, the number-one overall seed in the field, easily dispatched Purdue, the number-one seed from the Midwest Region, 75-60, in the championship game at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

It was UConn’s second-straight title, third since 2014, and fifth in program history.

The Huskies led by a score of 36-30 at halftime and outscored the Boilermakers by nine points over the final 20 minutes.

Believe it or not, Monday’s 15-point win was the Huskies’ second-narrowest of the tournament, barely beating the 14-point victory UConn had over Alabama in the semifinals on Saturday night.

Connecticut’s average margin of victory was 23 points over six games, and its players rarely experienced an unpleasant moment on their way to becoming a bit of a dynasty.

Who is going to win the national title next year? UConn is already a heavy favorite to three-peat, so I wouldn’t rule that out.

In fact, it seems rather inevitable as we sit here today.

Regardless of the inevitable feel of the 2023/2024 tournament, it did have its moments of unpredictability. Who could have thought that 14-seeded Oakland would knock out third-seeded Kentucky, a college basketball blue-blood, in the first round? Who would have predicted that N.C. State, a program that finished 17-14 during the regular season, would even make the tournament? Yet, the Wolfpack won five straight games to claim the ACC postseason tournament and an automatic bid, before rattling off another four victories in the NCAA Tournament as the 11th seed to clinch their first appearance in the Final Four since 1983.

This year’s tournament was just so much fun, and despite the predictable ending, it proved that sports are much more rewarding when you allow yourself to just enjoy the journey.