LATEST: Zach Edey and Caitlin Clark have the ability to break the curse of Purdue and Iowa in the Big Ten’s basketball championship drought.

The Big Ten has a big weekend. In a literal sense.

For the first time since 1980, Purdue big man Zach Edey, a 7-foot-4 center, guided the Boilermakers to the men’s Final Four. The nation’s most famous college basketball player, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, guided the Hawkeyes to the women’s Final Four.

They can now end the conference’s respective droughts in both sports. They have been the biggest stars of their respective tournaments and are set to be unanimous Players of the Year. The Big Ten’s drought seems to be coming to an end after the Michigan football team won the national title for the first time since 1997.

A look at Edey, Clark and those national championship droughts in both sports:

When was last time Big Ten won Final Four?

No. 1 Michigan State beat No. 5 Florida 89-76 in the 2000 NCAA men’s national championship game on April 3, 2000. Since then, the conference is 0-7 in national championship games.

A look at those games:

Big Ten in national championship games

Maryland was in the ACC when it beat Indiana in 2002-03. In fairness, No. 1 seeds have defeated the Big Ten in all of those championship games, and Wisconsin (2014-15) was the only one of those teams that was favored.

Even yet, given that the Pac-12, which had last won a national championship with Arizona in 1998, is no longer in existence, it’s a protracted wait for titles. The other major conferences are ahead of the Big Ten. Examining the most recent national title won by those conferences:

Will Purdue – which hasn’t made the Final Four since 1980 – be the one to break the Big Ten curse?

Zach Edey’s stats in NCAA Tournament

Edey – a two-time Sporting News Player of the Year — has been dominant in this NCAA Tournament run. He led the Boilermakers to the Final Four with a 40-point, 16-rebound performance in the 72-66 victory against No. 2 Tennessee in the Elite Eight.

In four tournament games, Edey is averaging 30 points, 16.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks. He’s 42 of 62 (67.7%) from the field and 36 of 54 (66.7%) from the line.

Edey has 120 points and 65 rebounds in the tournament. He has a chance to break Michigan’s Glen Rice’s NCAA tournament record 184 points – which was set during the Wolverines’ national championship run in 1989.

Edey also could become just the second player to have 150 points and 80 rebounds in the NCAA tournament. Houston’s Elvin Hayes scored 167 points with 97 rebounds in a legendary performance in the 1968 men’s basketball tournament.

That is the company Edey keeps heading into the Final Four matchup against NC State.

When did the Big Ten last triumph in the Women’s Final Four?
The only other Big Ten university to win a women’s national championship is Purdue. On March 28, 1999, at San Jose, California, the Boilermakers, who were seeded first, defeated Duke, who was ranked third, 62-45.

It’s a much smaller sample size because the NCAA women’s basketball tournament has only been around since 1982. In 1993, No. 1 Ohio State participated in the conference’s first-ever national title game, losing 84-82 to Sheryl Swoopes’ No. 2 Texas Tech squad.

WOMEN’S MARCH MADNESS HQ
Three Big Ten teams have advanced to the national championship game since 1999. In 2001, No. 1 Notre Dame defeated No. 3 Purdue 68-66. In 2005, No. 2 Baylor defeated No. 1 Michigan State 82-64, while No. 3 LSU defeated No. 2 Iowa 102-85 last year.

After serving as the Hawkeyes’ head coach from 2000 to 2001, Lisa Bluder has a chance to end the team’s losing streak.

The NCAA Tournament stats for Caitlin Clark

With 3,900 career points heading into the NCAA women’s Final Four, Caitlin Clark has broken multiple NCAA records this season. She scored 41 points, dished out 12 assists, pulled down seven rebounds, and helped Iowa defeat No. 3 LSU 94-87.

This season, Clark has averaged 32.3 points per game in the tournament. In addition, she is averaging 7.5 rebounds and 10 assists. In the tournament, Clark is making 20 of 54 (37.0%) 3-pointers and 25 of 28 (89.3%) free-throw attempts.

The record for the most points scored in the NCAA women’s tournament might be reset by Clark. Sheryl Swoopes of Texas Tech set the record in 1993 with 177 points, but she broke it last year with 191 points. Clark has four games remaining and 129 points. With 32 last year, she also holds the record for most 3-pointers made in a tournament.

In the women’s NCAA Tournament, there have been 14 games in which a player has scored 40 points. Three of those games belong to Clark. Would she attempt to break Drake’s Lorri Bauman’s single-game record of 50 points, which she established on March 21, 1982, against Maryland?