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...

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Underdogs As Usual The Bulldogs Will Be Top-Dogs On Monday

It’s David VS Goliath all over again, two teams, near opposites in every way battling it out to be national champions. For Butler, another chance avenge their loss in last years national championship game, for UConn, a chance to ride their star player all the way to the top. The grizzled coaching veteran with violations hanging over his head vs. the baby faced 33 year old coaching his second Final Four. Kemba vs. the physical Butler defense. It’s no easy decision picking a winner in this one, but here’s why Butler will be cutting down the nets on Monday Night.

Butler Wins Close Games

There average margin of victory if only 4.2 points and this Butler team knows how to get it done in the closing seconds. Their 2 point win over Old Dominion, 1 point win over Pitt, and 3 point win over Florida make last nights 8 point win over VCU look like a blowout. The Bulldogs keep their cool late in games and can get quick buckets from Howard and Mack if necessary. The Bulldogs have a ton of experience in late game situations in the tourney, which helps prevent them from making boneheaded plays a la Texas in late game situations. The Huskies have only been involved in two real close games, against Arizona and Kentucky, while the Bulldogs have multiple options down the stretch that should help them out late in Monday’s game.

Their Physical Team D Can Stop The Huskies

Tom Izzo said last year after the national semi-final that Butler was the most physical team the Spartans had played and that style has been on display throughout the tournament. Brad Stevens’s intense defense has played a huge role in getting Butler to the national championship game. Their rotations at the end of the VCU game were things of beauty, as the guards clamped down on Joey Rodriguez in the paint and won the game convincingly. While Kemba is certainly is a step up, Butlers team D can contain Walker. Their man defense is strong and you can bet Brad Stevens won’t be playing a lot of zone and letting Walker stroll around the three point line. Butler can force Walker to take tough long jump shots, which he isn’t as strong at as his running drives to the lane. If they can keep Walker on the perimeter Butler should be able to win on Monday.

They Too Have A Star

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.

Brad Stevens Will Lead The Way

While Jim Calhoun has the luxury of having Kemba Walker, Butler relies way more on strategy and set plays to win which should bode well for them in the championship game. If Walker is contained Calhoun doesn’t have a lot of options while Butler is well prepared for basically any scenario. Stevens is certainly a big game coach, and Monday should be a shining moment for one of the games best coaches.

UConn Marches Past Arizona For 2nd Final Four Berth in 3 Years

Jim Calhoun and the West regional champs. (credit: Hartford Courant)

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."

Shabazz Napier
(credit: Hartford Courant)

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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5-for-5: Ten Thoughts On UConn's Record-Setting Big East Championship Win

UConn Huskies = 2011 Big East Champs (Credit: Hartford Courant)

A few hours ago, the Selection Committee announced that Connecticut will be the No. 3 seed in the West Region of the 2011 NCAA tournament, matching up with No. 14 Bucknell in Washington, D.C. during Thursday's first round.  Historically, UConn has fared well out West, winning the national championship in both 1999 and 2004.  Jay Bilas likes them in 2011 as well -- he recently picked UConn to be a Final Four team this year.

A fundamental law of nature is that controversy must surround Selection Sunday.  This year is no exception.  Bubble teams such as Colorado (six RPI Top-50 wins) and Virginia Tech (defeated then-No. 1 Duke in February, advanced to ACC semis this week) were left out, while unheralded UAB (one RPI Top-50 win) and VCU (finished 4th in CAA, lost their last 5 of 8, 11 losses overall, bad L's to Georgia State and Northeastern) somehow squeaked in.  At least UConn snagged a No. 3 seed.

Kemba Walker & Roscoe Smith
(credit Hartford Courant)

Some could argue that Florida, which finished first in the SEC but lost (decisively) for the second time to Kentucky in today's SEC championship, should not have received a No. 2 while UConn, which reeled off a magical five-game run to win the Big East championship, got stuck with a No. 3.  You could also argue that Pitt's one-and-done in the Big East should have dropped them from No. 1 to No. 2.  And so on.  But I think that the top of the bracket, for the most part, is pretty reasonable.  The only question mark is the absence of certain bubble teams, and why the East and West regions are so damn tough.

But let's forget about the bracket for a moment.  There is plenty of time between now and Thursday's tipoff to hack it apart.  Let's just focus on 10 thoughts about UConn's incredible feat of winning 5 games in 5 days to become Big East champs...

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Sources: Kemba Walker Wanted For The Murder Of Gary McGhee's Ankles

Kemba Walker is so many things for the 2010-11 UConn Huskies.  He is their leader, their go-to scorer, their MVP, and clearly their best all-around player.  He should have been selected as the Big East Player of the Year (Ben Hansbrough?  Really?  Really??) and he will probably be selected as a first-team All-American in April.  Plus, as the consensus top point guard in college basketball, he is going to be someone's lottery pick in June.  You can take that to the bank.  (Minnesota, perhaps?  The Wolves do have a thing for PGs.  KAAAAAAAAAHN!)

Gary McGhee (bottom right) fell all the way into the lane on Kemba's step-back J.  (Credit: Pitt Post-Gazette)

But what is Kemba, really?  If you ask Brittany Griner's bizarro twin Gary McGhee, then Kemba is an ankle breaker.  If you ask Pittsburgh mob capo head coach Jamie Dixon, then Kemba is the best clutch player in the nation.  If you ask UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, then Kemba is the guy who gets the ball at the end of any close game, even though the entire arena knows who's getting the ball.

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UConn Men's Basketball: We're Going Streaking, Through the Quad and Into the Gymnasium!

Roscoe Smith (credit: Hartford Courant)

NYaT readers, we interrupt your regularly scheduled NFL programming to bring you this breaking news story: UConn men's basketball is for real.  And they're streaking, to the tune of a 16-2 record and the No. 8 ranking in both the AP and USA Today polls.

Oh, and with their 72-61 win over Tennessee yesterday, the Huskies finished with an undefeated nonconference record, beating such quality teams as Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas (on the road), Wichita State, and Tennessee, not to mention winning the Maui Invitational.  The last time UConn went 12-0 in nonconference play?  In 2008, when they reached the Final Four.

Leading the pack (get it?) is Kemba Walker, of course.  Walker, who ranks 2nd in the country in scoring with 25 ppg, is already leading straw polls for the Player of the Year, ahead of other big names such as BYU's Jimmer Fredette and Ohio State's Jared Sullinger.  Walker is also the unofficial leader in buzzer-beating, door-shutting, coffin-nailing clutch shots to win big games.  (See, e.g., the Villanova game, the Texas game, the Michigan State game.)

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Boom goes the dynamite: UConn upsets No. 2 Michigan State

Perhaps the 2010-11 Connecticut Huskies are for real.  They sure looked the part last night at the Maui Invitational, taking down No. 2 Michigan State, 70-67, in front of a packed crowd at the Lahaina Civic Center.  UConn is now 4-0 and headed for the championship game tonight against No. 9 Kentucky.

Kemba Walker. (Photo courtesy: Hartford Courant)

Kemba Walker was sensational once again: 30 points (10-19 FG, 6-7 FT), 3 rebs, 4 assts, 3 stls.  Alex Oriakhi is starting to look like a legit number two with 15 points and 17 boards.  And collectively, even as a team full of freshmen and sophomores, UConn is starting to play with the excellence that is expected of this prestigious program.

"We have Kemba Walker and Tom [Izzo] didn't," UConn head coach Jim Calhoun said. "I've had some pretty good players in my career. Kemba is developing into one of the great players and competitors."

 "We ask him to do nearly the impossible and he's producing," Calhoun continued. "Ray Allen to Rip Hamilton to all of the great UConn players. No one has made more progress than Kemba. No one has equaled the work he's done [on his game]."

You can bet Izzo noticed.

"Kemba Walker is a heck of a player. Let's face it," the MSU coach said. "He gets to the free throw line so much. I thought Kalin did a good job on him. Korie [Lucious] did a good job on him. On those 10 made buckets, he had to earn every one of them."

So how good has Kemba Walker been, exactly?  In UConn's first four games, he has already posted three 30-point games.  Only two other UConn players have put up three 30-point games in an entire season: Rip Hamilton (1999) and Ben Gordon (2004).  UConn won the national championship both seasons.

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Jim Calhoun announces he will return to UConn next season

It's official: Jim Calhoun announced that he will return as the head coach of UConn men's basketball next season and beyond.

Important side note: Calhoun has not signed an actual contract.  His current deal, which paid him $1.6 million this past season (making him the infamously highest paid state employee in CT...thanks for showing up, Ken Krayeske), expires this summer.  Sources have predicted that Calhoun's extension will be for 4 or 5 years.

But now it's clear that Calhoun will be back for at least his 25th season as the Huskies' head coach.  In response, the Hartford Courant ran an online poll asking "Are You Glad He's Back?"  Out of 1633 total responses, as of 10:05 a.m. this morning, 60% said "I'm glad the Hall-of-Fame coach is back" while 40% said "I wish he had stepped aside.  It's time for somebody new."

This just goes to show you -- despite the many people who will argue that Calhoun's credentials and track record have earned him "lifetime tenure" at UConn, much like a college professor might have, there are nearly as many UConn fans out there (such as me) who are ready for a change.**  Too bad it's not going to happen, possibly until he is 73 years old.

**Anyone else feel that this is just like Joe Torre after his 2007 season with the Yankees?  The guy was the non-Jeter face of the franchise.  He had made the playoffs all 12 seasons he managed.  He had won 10 AL East championships, 6 pennants, and 4 World Series.  Yet from 2004-2007, things were trending downwards, and Yankees fans and management began to sense that the team was ready for a change.  Sure enough, Torre did not sign a new contract after the 2007 season ended, and Joe Girardi was brought in.  After an adjustment period in 2008, the Yankees -- with fresh leadership and an influx of new talent -- were World Champs once again.

Tell me why that can't happen with UConn!  A new coach might bring a year or two of instability in the face of change, but with the new leadership and a fresh recruiting class, a national title in a season or two is not so far-fetched... 

UConn's season ends on a nailbiting 22-point loss to St. John's

Mercifully, the 2009-10 UConn men's basketball season has come to an end.  This uninspired team blatantly and profoundly quit on its coach, refusing to make a serious run at an NCAA tournament berth by losing its last four games.

The hard-to-swallow truth is that UConn, which entered today's first-round game as a 12-seed in the Big East tournament due to its awful 16-14 record (7-10 in conference play), was blown out by St. John's in a nailbiter, 73-51.

(H/T to the AP for the photo)

For those scoring at home, here are some of the grisly details.  Going into today's game, the Huskies had beaten St. John's 9 straight times...and managed to lose this one.  In the first half, UConn had 9 field goals and 8 turnovers.  In the second half, St. John's shot 60% from the field.  UConn has now lost 6 straight Big East tournament games (!!) including last year's epic 6-overtime loss to Syracuse.  That's impressive for a team that went to the Final Four last season.

UConn would have (probably) saved its season by beating Notre Dame on national TV.  Nope.  UConn could have (probably) saved its season by beating South Florida, a team that hasn't made it to the NCAA tournament in 18 years.  Nope.  UConn could have (probably) saved its season with a hail mary performance in the Big East tournament against St. John's.  Nope, not even close -- they lost by a whopping 22 points.  So, after all that ineptitude, can the Huskies still have a prayer on the bubble?  Joe Lunardi says "No, UConn't"

It is obvious that this year's UConn team gave up and failed to respond to coach Jim Calhoun.  This means very little for the current crop of players -- some are graduating, and the rest aren't likely to go anywhere.  But what does this mean for Jim Calhoun?  How accountable is he for his team's collapse?  How does this affect the 5-year contract extension Calhoun agreed to in December, since it is only a verbal agreement and not a signed contact.  Might Calhoun even be (gasp!) fired altogether??

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