At Final Four, they turn back the clock with Purdue, NC Stat

The opener at the Final Four on Saturday might feel like a trip through a time machine. Yes, those are Purdue and North Carolina State — one program here for the first time since 1980, the other trying to write a 21st-century version of college basketball’s greatest story ever told. And yes, those are 7-foot-4 Zach Edey and 6-9 DJ Burns Jr., some 600 pounds worth of center patrolling the paint and dictating a style that has been out of fashion for a decade or more. The winner of the titanic collision will play the UConn-Alabama winner for the title.

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