UConn Huskies Win the National Championship 53-41

The UConn Men have defeated the Butler Bulldogs won their third national championship in school history. All three have been since 1999 when coach, Jim Calhoun won the Huskies' first title. Connecticut has more titles since 1999 than any other school. Not Duke, not Kansas, nobody. At 68, Calhoun is the oldest coach to win a championship and is the fifth coach ever to win 3 titles or more. With this championship, Calhoun enters a very select group of coaches that includes, John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski and Bob Knight.

This UConn team finishes the season on an 11 game win streak and 14-0 overall in tournament games this season. From Maui to New York to Houston, no one could beat the Kemba Walker and the kids.

This game will be remembered most by the great defensive play by both teams and by Butler's notoriously horrific shooting. UConn saved themselves from matching Butler's shooting performance by playing a great second half that won them the game. Overall, Butler shot 18.8 percent, the worst ever in a title game. They made just 12 shots of their 64 attempted. Thirty-three of those attempts were three pointers of which they made 9. The Huskies shot terribly as well, but were able to have a 34 point second half to finish the game with a 34.5 field goal percentage.

Another aspect of this game that made it memorable was how uncharacteristic it was of a game. Usually when a team outrebounds and scores more points in the paint than the other team, you can expect them to win. Until the second half, Butler defied all logic by winning 22-19 at the end of the first half, despite having 0 points in the paint and getting dominated on the glass. What made the game more bizarre was how Shelvin Mack went off in the first half making threes well beyond the arc, yet they couldn't score a single point in the paint or make any other jumpers. While watching in Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, CT I was thinking, what did Butler do, practice half court shots after last year's title game? I bet the other 8,000 plus students there were thinking along the same line. It certainly seemed like it. Mack's three pointer to finish the first half and send the Bulldogs up 22-19 was such a buzzkill in Storrs. It seemed they had momentum going into the 2nd half. However, in the end, the Huskies were able to prevail after dominating the paint scoring 26 points to 2 and outrebounding Butler 51-40.

Kemba Walker finished what he started. He led his team with 16 points and 9 rebounds. It wasn't his prettiest game as he shot 5-19 and missed all 4 of his three point attempts, but he made 6 of his 7 free throws and his leadership on the court is unparalleled, especially with such a young UConn team. Jeremy Lamb was ice cold to start the game, but came out of halftime on fire as he would score all 12 of his points in the second half. His second half play is what we expected all game and it just came 20 minutes too late. Better late than never for UConn. Sophomore, Alex Oriakhi was a monster. He had the paint on lockdown with 11 rebounds and 4 blocks. On top of that he scored 11 points. There couldn't have been a better time for him to play his best. It only sets him up for next year to play even better.

It was a fairy tale ending to a fairy tale season. Coming in, no one gave the Huskies a shot at anything. They were projected to have a mediocre finish towards the cellar of the big east, no NCAA Tournament bid and they were supposed to have an early exit in the Maui Invitational that they were invited to for some reason. Right off the bat, Kemba Walker told UConn Country this season was going to be different. All the more reason for Storrs, CT to celebrate. Storrs went wild and after storming the floor after the big win went outside to celebrate. A perfect ending to a shocker of a year. As a freshman, I've been very spoiled this year with such great sports success for the Huskies. Hopefully next year the UConn women can get in on the championship. Whether Kemba comes back next year or not, look for the Huskies to be a contender next season. As the academic year wraps up, there is no better way to end it.

Here's some videos to get the sense of how it was in Storrs: