SB Nation Philly - NCAA Championship Game 2011: UConn Wins National Title With 53-41 Win Over Butler

How UConn Beat Butler to Win the National Championship

2011-04-05T04:21:34Z

Unranked to unparalleled. The UConn Huskies, after winning 5 games in 5 days to win the Big East Tournament, have won 6 more over the course of a few weeks to become the National Champion.

In one of the ugliest games -- let alone championship games -- in recent memory, Connecticut held Butler to 18% field goal shooting and used their superior length to win 53-41. UConn only shot 30%, but it was enough to carry them over the Bulldogs and win Jim Calhoun his third national championship since 1999 and make him the oldest coach to ever win a title. But if you ask him, this is his most rewarding.

"They're so special. Our players, our university, our fans. It may be close to the happiest moment of my life."

After being down 3 at halftime thanks to a Shelvin Mack buzzer-beating three, Calhoun made some of the best halftime adjustments in championship game history to give his team the edge. They started using the baseline to their advantage and got Jeremy Lamb involved, which immediately resulted in a change of momentum. Lamb proved to be most difficult for Butler to cover because they didn't have anyone who could physically match up with him. Khyle Marshall could have done a decent job, but Brad Stevens decided to stay with guards on him, which didn't really work. Lamb scored 12 big points on 9 shots, all of which came in the second half.

But the most valuable player on the night was UConn big man Alex Oriakhi. He scored an efficient 11 points and 11 rebounds, mixing in a few inside moves with a couple nice jumpers. Where he was most effective was on defense. He was responsible for 4 of the team's 10 blocked shots and threw a huge wrench into Brad Stevens' game plan. With he and Charles Okwandu patrolling the lane, Butler completely abandoned the inside - to the extreme of not scoring a point in the paint until halfway through the second half. They forced Kentucky into a terrible shooting night and did the same to these Bulldogs tonight. It continues to prove the theory that if you live by the outside shot, have a backup plan before you die by the outside shot. Butler did not have a contingency plan tonight.

While UConn got the win, a guy who did not play well is Kemba Walker. Though he graduates on May 8th in three years with a championship to boot (as Jim Nance reminded us again and again), he showed poor shot selection and a real inability to initiate the offense. Both defenses were swarming, but for a Most Outstanding Player candidate, 5-21 is completely inexcusable. He didn't record a single assist on the night. It's basically a foregone conclusion that he has played his last game at UConn, but for his pro prospects this game was not the best. He had a terrific year and this team would be under .500 if it weren't for him, but Kemba Walker was not the reason they won this game.

For Butler, it's a very tough pill to swallow. Brad Stevens may be the classiest guy in the world and continues to say all the right things that could get him elected President of the World, but he made a few really bad coaching decisions in this game. He needed to keep taking it to Oriakhi and Okwandu and get them in foul trouble or else they'd have to find a way to get outside shots to fall. And they didn't. Even though their defense was not the problem, with about 8 minutes to play, Stevens went to a zone defense, something he hasn't done much all season. The players were out of sorts and let up a quick, easy bucket to Oriakhi because they weren't covering the backdoor. Definitely had a white flag feel to it, as Clark Kellogg noted. It was a rare flustered moment for the normally cool Brad Stevens.

Once that happened, UConn did an outstanding job taking time off the clock, using at least 20 seconds of the shot clock and shortening the game. Then Butler started pressing and the shots kept bricking. It was all over too soon for the underdogs.

It's difficult to point out any Butler player who did well, because they all shot so historically bad. Matt Howard had the worst game of his college career, going 1-14 and getting completely manhandled on the inside. For a normally tough, gritty player, Matt looked soft and confused all game long. That was exemplified by his injury with 2 minutes that left him hobbled on the court until he was pulled by the refs for bleeding. He and Mack couldn't get anything going, and though they had a few good looks from the outside, the rim was sealed and they didn't do anything to break through.

Butler will lose seniors Matt Howard, Shawn Vanzant, and Zach Hahn, but will get bigger contributions next year out of promising freshman Khyle Marshall and sophomore Andrew Smith, who looked totally overmatched tonight. If Ronald Nored and Shelvin Mack return, they could be making a similar run next season. Brad Stevens will be getting offers from everywhere on the planet and it remains to be seen what will play out with him.

UConn will celebrate for a few days or a few weeks but next season comes soon, and next season will be without Kemba. If Calhoun decides to put off retirement for another year, he'll have to rely on Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier, and Alex Oriakhi to take on a leading role in bringing the Huskies back to the promised land. You can't say enough about the role Kemba Walker played in carrying this team throughout the season. He's done some of the most impressive work in college basketball history here.

But the story is tonight, and tonight UConn was the better team. Are they the best team in the nation? Probably not, but they got hot at the perfect time and rode that wave all the way to cutting down the nets on the biggest stage. On a game when Butler was hitting shots, everything would've been different. That doesn't take anything away from either team because they're both spectacular in their own right. Congrats to UConn and Butler, Jim Calhoun and Brad Stevens, Kemba Walker and Shelvin Mack, and everybody else involved.

The countdown to the 2011/12 season begins....now.

NCAA Championship Game 2011: UConn Wins National Title With 53-41 Win Over Butler

2011-04-05T03:43:09Z

The UConn Huskies defeated the Butler Bulldogs 53-41(yes that is the final score) to secure Jim Calhoun’s third national championship since 1999 making him the oldest coach to ever win the title. It wasn’t the prettiest title game, in fact it was arguably the ugliest, but that certainly won’t matter to a guy like Kemba Walker, who will likely now exit college as a champion.

For Butler, this is going to be a bitter pill to swallow. They captured everyone’s imagination last year when they went on their magical run which ended with them giving Duke everything it could handle in the title game. This year, they proved that run was no fluke by getting back to the title game. However, their performance in the game was nothing less than an embarrassment.

Butler shot 18% from the field, which was the lowest percentage in championship history. Kenny Smith said of Butler’s performance "By far the worst performance in a championship game I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately we all had to watch it."

UConn wasn’t a whole lot better to be fair. They managed just 19 first half points and won with the least amount of points since the forties… They shot just 30% from the field including 1-14 from three point range. The difference in the game really was Jeremy Lamb’s performance in the second half. He scored all twelve of his points in the final frame, which ended up being the margin of victory.

The awfulness, and it really was awful to watch, of the final doesn’t change what an incredible run the Connecticut Huskies went on to finish their season. They started by winning five games in five nights to win the Big East tournament, the first team to do so, then followed that up with a NCAA Tournament win. It will certainly go down as one of the great late season surges of all time. They won 11 games in 27 days and every single one was an elimination game. That's incredible.

NCAA Championship Game Time

2011-04-04T23:11:25Z

UConn vs Butler tips off at 9pm eastern on CBS to decide the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion. Be sure to check out our full predictions and preview story.

The game is very much a contrast between the upstart and the traditional power. Butler is a mid major team that came into this conference as an #8 seed, but despite those credentials Cinderella probably isn’t the right word to describe them. Coach Brad Stevens and his team are making their second straight NCAA championship game after losing to Duke last year. They may be from a small school, but this a tournament tested squad. As much as any in the country right now. Stevens talked about the core that has been so successful for Butler.

For me personally, the core of my first team was as important for me in transitioning into coaching as any group we’ve ever had just because we had five 23-year-olds, four fifth-year seniors and one fourth-year senior, and they were nothing but great to a young coach. I think when they left and turned it over to these younger guys, now older guys, they just continued to be great to coach and great to be around. It’s been collective all the way through. We’ve just had unbelievable people and it’s made my job a lot more enjoyable and a lot easier.

Unlike Butler, Connecticut are hardly new to the national scene. They play in the brutal Big East every year, a conference they may well have redeemed with this finals appearance. They’ve been to four final fours and have two national championship banners hanging in their gym. They’ve got as many current NBA players as any other school in the country. They’re old money.

Despite that pedigree though, not a lot of people had UConn pegged as a potential national champion. They’d pulled off a huge feat in winning 5 games in 5 days to take the Big East title and many assumed they’d be out of gas for the tourney… but they kept winning. Alex Oriakhi was asked what point is that they started to believe they could win this whole thing?

I think after we was able to beat Louisville in the Big East championship. I did question our team. I said, Could we really win a national championship? But, you know, I said, We’re hot right now, playing great basketball. I definitely said, Why not? If we keep playing the way we’ve been playing, I don’t see why we couldn’t do it. I guess I was right.

NCAA Championship Game: UConn Vs. Butler Preview and Prediction

2011-04-04T16:28:33Z

Since October, championship favorites were getting tossed around like water balloons at a carnival. Ohio State. Duke. Pittsburgh. Kansas. UNC. Syracuse. BYU. Villanova. Texas. Notre Dame. Purdue.

At number 17 was last year's runner-up Butler. With 8 votes were the Connecticut Huskies. Two less than NC State which finished the season 15-16. Realistically, neither of these teams was supposed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen, much less the National Title Game.

But here they are, basking in the unlikely glory of March's shadow, the final two teams vying for a chance to cut down the nets in Houston. One of these teams will be your national champion. Before we get to who that will be, a quick scouting report on both teams.

Butler Bulldogs

Coming off a national title defeat at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils, the Horizon League champion Butler lost Gordon Hayward to the NBA and Willie Veasley and Avery Jukes to graduation. They weren't supposed to be as good as last year's team, and they weren't. And when tournament time came around, most people had them losing to Old Dominion in the first round. And if they did beat the Monrachs, surely they'd fall to the #1 seeded Pitt Panthers. No chance they'd even sniff Wisconsin or Florida to close out the region.

But behind the able backs of Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack, the pre-eminent underdogs took care of business all the way to the Final Four where they downed the ridiculously Cinderella'd Rams of Virginia Commonwealth. Both upperclassmen average over 16 points per game, double any other player on the Bulldogs. Mack gets the ball in big shot situations, counted on by Brad Stevens to deliver any way he can. He's good off the bounce and uses his weight to create space for his jumper. Think a taller but less lightning quick Sherron Collins. Howard's got a nice mid-range game that has improved over the season, and he's also added an outside game -- he shoots 41% from beyond. He seems to come up with every loose ball down low and will dive on the ground at least once per game on principle.

Though they're led by these two, they have the depth of a team from one of the power conferences, especially in the guard play. Shawn Vanzant handles the point guard duties for most of the game. He can also stroke it from the outside and plays really solid defense -- in the Final Four game he rose up for an athletic block on VCU's Joey Rodriguez. Zach Hahn is the best pure shooter left and does a great job passing on the perimeter. Though he doesn't excel on the offensive end, Ronald Nored has been a terrific glue guy for Brad Stevens and one who allows him to run a small lineup out there to spread the floor on offense. Chase Stigall is a sophomore that gets a good chunk of minutes and though he's not at the top of the rotation this year, he's got a bright future.

Howard leads a front court that can be inconsistent on the glass. While they dominated VCU inside, they let up a ton of offensive rebounds to Florida and Wisconsin earlier in the tournament and are susceptible to guards who can rebound. Khyle Marshall, though undisciplined, is an extremely effective offensive rebounder, having scooped 22 of his 32 rebounds in the tournament on the offensive end. He's a big x-factor that can match UConn's athleticism inside. Howard and starting center Andrew Smith rely mostly on positioning and anticipation -- Marshall can jump out of the gym.

The best way to beat them is to force Mack to try to do everything on his own and eliminate Howard from the equation. If Mack goes cold, his shot selection gets ugly and could start doing damage to his team. If Butler stays disciplined and keeps swinging the ball for an open shot, they'll stay in this game.

Connecticut Huskies

At one point, Kemba Walker was the only player on this team worth talking about. That was until the freshmen grew up a bit. Jeremy Lamb has turned into a complete stud and if Walker goes pro, he'll take the reigns on this young team. He's got a bit of Rudy Gay in him, but with a more refined outside shot than when Gay was at UConn. He's an efficient player that has more athleticism than he lets on and when it becomes his team, he'll show it even more.

But for now, this is Kemba's bunch. They go as he goes. Not since Carmelo Anthony's 2003 Syracuse team has a championship team been more on the back of one person, and even Melo had Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara with him. Kemba shoots approximately 26 shots per game, including opportunities at the foul line. No one else shoots more than 11. He's going to break your ankles, and when you think he's taking it to the basket, he'll pull up on a dime and rise for the same mid-range jumper he beat Pittsburgh and Gary McGhee on in the Big East Tournament. He combines an unbelievable blend of speed and quickness with a motor that never stops and is just a really difficult guy to defend for any one person. The emergence of Shabazz Napier has allowed Kemba to play off the ball, which allows him to focus entirely on getting his own shot rather than initiating a whole offense in the half court.

Alex Oriakhi and Charles Okwandu have been playing much better of late, defending the interior and forcing teams like Kentucky and Arizona to shoot from the outside, closing off the lane. While Butler can shoot it, if they fall in love with the outside shot, it could be to their detriment when they go cold. Along with forward Roscoe Smith, the three of them are responsible for over 80% of all the blocked shots, and almost 50% of the rebounds. They tend to get into foul trouble at times, something Shelvin Mack will surely try to exploit.

Though Jim Calhoun had played Niels Giffey and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel more in the season, he has limited his rotation to really just 6 guys during the tournament.

Prediction

The teams are actually rather similar when you put them next to each other. If Butler's hitting outside shots, they'll be really tough to catch up with, but same goes for UConn at the rim -- Butler's going to have to find a way to limit the drives down the lane. This figures to be one of the best championships in recent memory, and I think it's going to come down to the last shot. My gut says Matt Howard will come up with the big play and crush the hearts of Huskie fans everywhere, giving the nation its first #8 seed champion since Nova beat Georgetown in 1985.

Butler 67, UConn 65

NCAA Tournament Final Four: UConn Eliminates Kentucky to Advance to Championship Game

2011-04-03T03:45:03Z

The Huskies continue to fight. This time it wasn't Kemba Walker who made the big shots, it was freshman Shabazz Napier. Only a few plays after turning the ball over to let Kentucky back in the game, Shabazz got the rebound off a DeAndre Liggins missed three and was fouled with 2 seconds left. Up 2 points, all he had to do was hit both free throws of a one-and-one and UConn would advance. He did just that, and though Brandon Knight hit a three at the buzzer, the Connecticut Huskies beat the Kentucky Wildcats 56-55 to move on to the title game.

Though Kemba didn't play his best game, a reasonably efficient 18 points (on 15 shots), 6 rebounds and 7 assists was enough to push UConn over the top. He did his best work on defense, where he and Napier held UK's freshman Knight to a completely miserable 6-24 shooting night for 17 of the worst points you'll ever see. He got tired, he lost his legs, and demonstrated poor shot selection all night long that completely derailed the efforts of fellow freshmen Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb, who both played much better games.

Jones should have gotten the opportunity to make more plays, demonstrating his X-factorness in 11 points on 8 shots and 16 rebounds. His biggest shortcoming was an embarrassing 0-6 night at the foul line, which adds to the mythology from the Kansas/Memphis Mario Chalmers championship game that John Calipari does not care about free throws. Normally reliable upperclassmen Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins each shot 1-7 on the night, contributing to the 33% field goal percentage which will not cut it on a stage like this. They're a better basketball team than UConn, but when they don't shoot well and their coach doesn't scheme the right plays, the Wildcats can look downright awful.

Alex Oriakhi played a huge role tonight for Jim Calhoun, who looks to win his third NCAA championship for UConn. Oriakhi and fellow big man Charles Okwandu completely outclassed Josh Harrelson and Eloy Vargas, who were basically non-factors all game long. They'll face a different kind of test in Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on Monday. Roscoe Smith and Jeremy Lamb also played well on both ends of the court and were mainly responsible for the poor shot selection of Kentucky's wings.

It's been a long time coming for the Wildcats, after almost losing to Princeton in the first round and squeaking by Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen. Even tonight they were down 10 at the half but came back strong in the early second to take the lead and battle the rest of the game. But they put a really nice tournament run together and it's up in the air as to which of their freshmen decide to hang around for another season under Calipari, especially with 5-star freshmen like Marquis Teague, Anthony Davis, and Michael Gilchrist coming in for next year.

It's all smiles for Kemba and the Huskies though, as they'll move on to the final college game for the next 7 months against Butler on Monday. We'll be previewing that game extensively over the next two days but for now it's time to celebrate the last two teams in the nation vying for a national title: Connecticut and Butler.

NCAA Tournament Final Four: Butler Ends VCU's Run, Will Return to National Title Game

2011-04-03T00:35:20Z

One of these magical runs had to end. For Shaka Smart and his VCU Rams, it was the wrong one.

As expected, VCU’s rebounding deficiencies were on full display tonight, surrendering 14 offensive rebounds and giving Butler tons of second chances to make up for their 34% field goal percentage. Jamie Skeen was a huge asset on the offensive end to the tune of 27 points on 19 shots, but he only pulled 6 rebounds, and foul trouble kept him from going full tilt on the glass. When both teams shoot terribly, it’s on the glass and at the foul line where games get decided.

Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack did what they do — scoring 41 points on 23 shots, getting to the line at a tremendous rate and making every play Brad Stevens needed them to make. The guard play of Butler was too much for the Rams to overcome, especially with a really awful game from Joey Rodriguez, who had carried VCU for much of the tournament. He was just 1-11 for the game.

The game was closer than the 70-62 final and VCU should have a ton of pride for the run they pulled off to get to this place. Defying logic and odds for two weeks, it’s unfortunate it had to come to an end.

Butler will continue to carry the Cinderella torch into the Championship Game against the winner of the Kentucky/UConn game which starts momentarily. They’re a tougher matchup for UConn because the Huskies can’t match the Bulldogs depth on the wings, while Kentucky has the personnel to do so. Brad Stevens and his bunch will watch the next game intently to see who they’ll get to face on Championship Monday.

Final Four Game Times

2011-04-02T14:48:43Z

The NCAA tournament resumes tonight as the Final Four tips off from Reliant Stadium in Houston Texas, normally the home of the NFL's Texans. First up is the Cinderella matchup between #8 Butler and #11 VCU. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:09 eastern on CBS as Butler will be looking to advance to its second straight NCAA championship game. Be sure to check out our full in depth preview.

Our own Michael Levin has predicted a 76-65 Butler victory.

when it comes down to it, Butler can comfortably go 8-10 deep, while VCU pretty much has a 6-man rotation. I think the Butler guards will be too difficult for VCU's to contain and with Howard, Marshall and Smith going after rebounds, the Bulldogs will force their way into the championship game again.

The second matchup of the night, scheduled for 8:49 eastern is basically the opposite of the night's first game. Kentucky and Connecticut are not Cinderellas. These are two major basketball programs with resumes of NCAA tournament success from power conferences. Check our full preview of this game.

Levin's prediction is a 71-68 UConn victory

While Kentucky goes deeper and probably is the more talented club top to bottom, I don't think they'll be able to contain Walker for 40 minutes, and Oriakhi cleaning up on the boards. If I'm UConn, I'm worried about how well Kentucky can space the floor and hit open shots, but ultimately it's going to come down to Kemba vs. Knight, and I'm taking the junior from the Bronx in that matchup. Kentucky, who almost lost to Princeton in the first round, will go down here to the last Big East team standing. A UConn-Butler championship game sounds good to me.

NCAA Tournament Final Four Preview: Kentucky Vs. UConn

2011-04-01T16:52:05Z

In the left regional is a less unthinkable but still unexpected matchup between the college basketball powerhouses Kentucky Wildcats and Connecticut Huskies. It's unexpected because, though both teams have storied histories and top flight coaches, neither was expected to make it to this stage. Kentucky, though ranked for the whole season, lost a boatload of talent to the 2010 NBA Draft and relied on freshmen and role players in '11. UConn, meanwhile, did not receive a single vote in the ESPN preseason top 25 back in November after graduating Stanley Robinson, Gavin Edwards, and Jerome Dyson. On the resilient back of Kemba Walker, the Huskies leapfrogged over 50 or so teams with a strong showing in the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

The only time these teams faced each other this season was in that Maui Invitational, where Kemba owned UK freshman Brandon Knight to the tune of 29 points and a 17-point victory. Knight went an abysmal 3-15 from the field and turned the ball over 5 times. A full season has gone by since that meeting, and the freshmen on both teams have matured a great deal thanks to coaches John Calipari and Jim Calhoun.

UK has beaten all kinds of teams on their road to the Final Four, including the top two seeds in their region, Ohio State and North Carolina. But they haven't faced any point guard with this kind of playmaking ability since they faced Kemba in Maui. While Kendall Marshall, Erving Walker, Aaron Craft, and Trevor Relaford are nice players, neither the tournament teams nor the SEC teams the Wildcats have matched up against contain the sort of player Kemba Walker has become. And though Brandon Knight is a terrific freshman, he will be overmatched this game and, if they don't help on Kemba, he'll make them pay.

A few things have changed for UConn since the Maui Invitational but it's mainly been the development of Jeremy Lamb that has Huskie fans excited. The 6'5 freshman is going on nine straight games of double-digits in points, while shooting 55% from the field and forcing defenders to stay honest on him. Shabazz Napier has also become an integral part of this team's success off the bench. He's played at least 20 minutes per game during the tournament, which allows Kemba to play off the ball and focus on setting up his own shot. Napier has a 14/3 assist to turnover ratio in the tournament.

If Walker and Knight is the most important matchup, Alex Oriakhi and Josh Harrelson is an extremely close second. I'd also throw Charles Okwandu and Eloy Vargas into that mix as well. Both teams have given up an average of over 10 rebounds in the past three games of the tournament, which is a direct knock on the middling big men of both teams. While Oriakhi has the most potential of all of them, he often finds himself lost on the court, making mistakes he should have learned from last year. Harrelson is not the most talented player but sculpted himself into a hard worker on the court with a nice outside shot. He can be out-toughed inside and may find himself in foul trouble if Kemba commits to driving the basketball.

UK is going to have to match power with power -- and for Calipari, that means Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb. While Darius Liggins and Darius Miller represent the outside shooting and defensive studs, Jones and Lamb will be the guys who can create matchup problems for UConn and really stretch a Wildcat lead. Jones is going to be looking at Lamb's Oak Hill teammate Roscoe Smith while Lamb will draw some of everybody, including Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Donnell Beverly. Those two guys have the biggest potential to make this game very difficult for Calhoun.

Prediction

While Kentucky goes deeper and probably is the more talented club top to bottom, I don't think they'll be able to contain Walker for 40 minutes, and Oriakhi cleaning up on the boards. If I'm UConn, I'm worried about how well Kentucky can space the floor and hit open shots, but ultimately it's going to come down to Kemba vs. Knight, and I'm taking the junior from the Bronx in that matchup. Kentucky, who almost lost to Princeton in the first round, will go down here to the last Big East team standing. A UConn-Butler championship game sounds good to me.

UConn 71, Kentucky 68