Best In Show: UConn Huskies Defeat Butler Bulldogs To Win 3rd NCAA Championship

UConn Huskies: 2011 NCAA Champs!  (Credit: Hartford Courant)

Five months ago, who saw this coming?  Not Sports Illustrated, which didn't put UConn in its preseason bracket of 68.  Not the Big East coaches, who predicted that UConn would finish 10th in conference play.  Not even me, a lifelong Huskies fan -- I was just hoping we could avoid the NIT for a second straight year.

But these puppy Huskies, led by embattled head coach Jim Calhoun and transcendent superstar Kemba Walker, believed they could be something special.  It was just a matter of harnessing young talent, balancing strengths (defense, speed, Kemba) with weaknesses (penetrating the zone, inexperience, shallow bench).  After a strong start (17-2) the team cooled off (4-7 down the stretch), and the question became: could they put together a sustained run in the postseason?  Well, now we know.

Without further ado, let's take a look at how UConn won tonight and where the program will go from here...

Suck it, Charles Barkley

Despite all the trash talking Charles Barkley did about the Big East this postseason, a Big East team went and won the national championship.  Ha!  Sure, UConn finished 9th in the cannibalistic Big East with an unimpressive 9-9 record.  But they went 17-0 against non-conference opponents, and a perfect 14-0 in tournament play.  That undefeated neutral-site record is amazing.  Connecticut won the Maui Invitational, the Big East tournament, and the NCAA tournament by beating teams such as Michigan State, Kentucky (twice), Tennessee, Texas, San Diego State, Arizona, and Butler.  So yeah, I think the Big East is pretty legit and Connecticut represented it pretty well.

Butler Sets All Kinds Of Bad Records

Going into the championship game, it seemed like everyone outside UConn Country wanted to see Butler win it all.  Lots of experts picked the trendy mid-major.  Even our own Russell Simon predicted that the Bulldogs would be top dogs.  That prediction turned out to be very, very wrong.  Exactly how bad was Butler?  Well...

• Butler shot 18.8% from the field -- worst in NCAA title game history.
• Butler scored a total of 41 points, the lowest in an NCAA title game since 1950 (which predated the shot clock).
• Butler scored just one field goal in a span of 13 minutes and 26 seconds in the second half.  Over that same time period, the Bulldogs' 25-19 lead became a 41-28 deficit.
• Butler missed 23 of its first 25 shots in the second half, and shot 8-of-14 from the free throw line in the game (by contrast, UConn went 14-16 from the line).
• Butler shot 9-of-33 from behind the arc, and converted only 3 FG's inside the arc.
• UConn outscored Butler 26-2 in the paint.

Quite frankly, I was a little embarrassed at times for the Bulldogs.  Anyone who touted Butler as the first mid-major to defeat an elite program like UConn probably feels rather stupid right now.  Unlike last year, when Butler never trailed Duke by more than six points, the Bulldogs played themselves right out of this one.  Everyone knew this team would live and die by the three pointer, and sure enough, 27% killed them.

Meanwhile, Over On The Connecticut Bench...

A lot of people are saying this was an ugly game.  It was.  I've never seen my Twitter feed blow up with such venom.  This was arguably the best and most exciting NCAA tournament in history, and it deserved a better ending.  But a win is a win, and I can think of 67 other teams who would kill to have UConn's trophy right about now.  So what did the Huskies do right?

Let's not start with Kemba Walker for once.  He got his 16 points and 9 boards, but this game was won on the glass and on the defensive end.  Alex Oriakhi (11 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks) and Charles "Don't Call Me Chuck" Okwandu closed down the lane and controlled the boards (UConn had a 51-40 edge).  They are the sole reason why Butler only scored 2 points in the paint.  Shutting down the Bulldogs' inside game forced Butler to hoist three after three, and most of those threes were low-percentage shots.  Especially because the long arms of Jeremy Lamb, Roscoe Smith, and even Shabazz Napier (who is simply a suffocating defender) were constantly in the face of Butler's shooters.  Tough to win in those conditions.

I realize that Butler just couldn't knock down shots tonight.  That's how history will remember this game.  But credit UConn for making Butler's main goal -- hitting threes -- really, really hard.

One more thing on UConn's defense.  Our man Russell spoke at length about Butler forward Matt Howard:

While he’s no Kemba, Matt Howard is also a dominant offensive player, and his physicality on the defensive end has made him one of the best players in the tournament. Howard leads the team in points and rebounds, and gives Butler a great chance in beating the Huskies.  He can make big shots (Old Dominion) and timely buckets (the rebound put back that helped seal the deal against VCU).  He’ll probably be guarded early on by Roscoe Smith, who is 6-8 but certainly lacks the speed to keep up with Howard.  Howard gets rebounds and scores, and Butler should win if he goes off for a big game.

Matt Howard shot 1-of-13 for 7 points and 6 rebounds.  He made no big shots and no timely buckets (only two points in the second half).  With four blocks each, Roscoe Smith and Oriakhi totally and completely shut Howard down.  Calhoun's coaching job, and his players' ability to execute the game plan, was perfect.

Kemba Walker Wins Final Four Most Outstanding Player

Kemba did not have his best stuff on Monday night.  It's probably because he has played 384 out of a possible 405 minutes over the past ten games.  It's also because he twisted his ankle in the Kentucky game two days ago.  But he allowed other players to shine, such as Shabazz Napier handling the ball and Jeremy Lamb on defense.  That's not to say Kemba did nothing -- he led all scorers with 16 and his 9 boards were second only to Oriakhi -- it's just that he didn't have a classic Kemba night.  But he did leave us breathless with a twisting, scooping layup midway through the second half, showing that nobody can match his level of body control.  And at the end of the day, Kemba showed us why he's so damn likeable.  He doesn't care about his numbers or awards.  He just wants to win.  And had he not helped his young teammates (Lamb, Napier, Smith, Giffey, Olander) develop the way they did this season, they would not have won the championship.

Referring to how much Kemba improved from his sophomore season last year, Dick Vitale (I know, I know) said it was the most impressive one-year step-up he's ever seen.  And considering the season he had (which Vitale claims was the best performance by any player in UConn history), it is worth considering whether Kemba Walker is the Greatest Husky Ever.  You could make arguments for Ray Allen (best NBA player in school history, likely first HOFer), Donyell Marshall (put UConn on the map), Emeka Okafor (won a title and player of the year award), Richard Hamilton (won UConn's first national title in '99, hit one of the most famous shots in school history), and Ben Gordon (one of the best pure scorers).

But Kemba, in my book, tops the list because he did more with less.  Like Emeka, he won a national championship, but he didn't have Ben Gordon to back him up if he had a bad game.  Instead, he played alongside three freshmen, a sophomore big man, a local kid from Mansfield, and a German guy.  He was the runner-up for National Player of the Year.  He hit three buzzer-beating game winners against Texas, Villanova, and Pitt.  He swept the Big East tournament in five games.  And he took over whenever he wanted to.  He was intimidating.  He had a swagger.  He played tough.  And he put the entire team -- a team that nobody thought could even make the NCAA tournament -- on his shoulders and won them a championship.  If someone can make a better argument as to why Kemba isn't the best player in UConn history, then I'm all ears.

Last word before I move on: here are my Top 5 favorite "Kemba Walker Facts" from http://kembafacts.com/

1. Kemba actually won Big East Player of the Year but donated it to Ben Hansbrough so Notre Dame would stop complaining about never winning anything.
2. When John Calipari goes to bed, he checks the closet for Kemba Walker.
3. Death once had a near-Kemba Walker experience.
4. Kemba Walker ties his shoelaces with one hand.  The other hand is busy pleasing your girlfriend.
5. Sometimes, late at night, Ben Hansbrough puts on a Kemba Walker jersey so he can feel like a winner, if only for a few moments.

Jim Calhoun Does It Again

By winning his 3rd national championship, Jim Calhoun joined John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski, and Bob Knight as the only five coaches to win at least three NCAA titles.  That's pretty illustrious company.  Also, at age 68, he became the oldest coach to win a championship.  And he did it after beating cancer not once, not twice, but three times.  Wow.

But things really do come in threes, and Calhoun will be suspended for the first three Big East games next season.  He's getting old, his health is an ongoing concern, and the NCAA is constantly nagging with investigations into his program's alleged rules violations.  Calhoun is already in the Hall of Fame, and his place in the pantheon of all-time great NCAA basketball coaches is firmly established.  So will he stick around and keep fighting for a fourth title?  Or will he bask in the afterglow for a while, enjoy the fruits of his labor, and ride off into the sunset on an extremely high note?

CT Gov. Dan Malloy (blue shirt) watching with the fans at Damon's Tavern in Hartford

It's too early to know, of course, but my instinct is that he'll be back.  He started coaching in 1965.  It's all he knows, and it's in his blood.  He will stay at UConn until UConn says it's time to go.

And really, how can you blame him?  He out-coached Brad Stevens tonight.  (In the second half, Stevens switched to a zone defense, which the Bulldogs hadn't run on a single possession in the entire tournament, because that's what other teams used to beat UConn.  Nevermind that Butler was experimenting at the worst possible time with a new defensive game plan.  UConn adjusted, went on a 20-3 run, and never trailed again.  Game over.)  Taking a team seemingly destined for the NIT and coaching them to an NCAA championship has to be his greatest coaching accomplishment ever.  After a very disappointing 18-16 season last year, Calhoun completely outdid himself.  He'll turn 69 next month, but clearly he's still got it -- and he's got some great recruiting classes coming in.

So how will we remember these Connecticut Huskies?  We'll always remember Kemba Walker.  We'll remember their 17-0 nonconference record, 14-0 tournament record, the unprecedented five-wins-in-five-days Big East championship, and a group of young players that gelled at precisely the right time.  We'll remember how the NCAA champion Huskies went 9-9 in a brutal Big East.  And finally, we'll remember how a grizzled Jim Calhoun pulled off his greatest feat at the ripe old age of 68.

Once more, congratulations to the UConn Huskies on their 3rd NCAA championship!