In what was essentially a road game at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday night, the UConn Huskies
marched past the Arizona Wildcats to earn their
second Final Four berth in three years. Much to Charles Barkley's dismay, the 2011 Final Four features No. 4 Kentucky, No. 8 Butler, and No. 11 VCU, making third-seeded Connecticut the lowest seed left in the tournament, and the only Big East squad still standing.
File those last two sentences under "things I never thought I'd say five months ago when most of the college basketball world considered these same Huskies strictly NIT-bound."
Apparently the players never got the memo back in November. Instead, they locked in and became one of the greatest tournament teams in college basketball history. Seriously. It doesn't even matter whether they win the NCAA tournament. They've already sealed their place in NCAA lore by winning the Maui Invitational (3-0), the Big East tournament (5-0), and advancing to the Final Four (4-0 so far). Yes sir, the UConn Huskies are undefeated in tournament play with a 12-0 record (and counting). So can Connecticut keep its amazing streak going for two more games and close out this remarkable season by winning their 3rd NCAA championship?
Putting aside my obvious bias, I say yes -- and a plurality of Americans agree with me. (
ESPN's latest poll has UConn at 38%, Kentucky at 24%, Butler at 22%, and VCU at 11%.) Speaking of ESPN, here is an unbelievable stat. Out of the 5.9 million brackets submitted to the WWL's Tournament Challenge,
only two brackets got the Final Four correct. Two! In related news, Jay Bilas and Jay Williams were the only two ESPN experts who
picked UConn to reach the Final Four. Perhaps you should listen to people named Jay; we know what we're talking about.
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