Huskies: National Champs

Photo Credit Google Images sportsuntapped.com

The Connecticut Huskies won their third National Championship since 1999.  Coach Jim Calhoun now moves into elite coaching status with this being his third time cutting down the nets.

The Huskies won their 11th straight game in 27 days to defy all odds and capture the title.  

This was literally a dogfight.  UConn won the game with only 53 points, the fewest for a National Champion since 1999.  Butler shot only 18.8 % from the field, the lowest field goal percentage ever in a championship game.  This was not a pretty game to watch, not one bit. 

Butler, in the loss, went 12-64 from the field (18.8 %), 9-33 from three point range (27.3%), and 8-14 from the free throw line (57.1 %).  Just dismal numbers.  UConn, in the win, went 19-55 from the field (34.5 %), 1-11 from three point range (9.1 %), and 14-16 from the line (87.5 %).

All stats aside, UConn was the better team tonight.  The dominated the paint, out-rebounding Butler 51-38.  The points in the paint were tremendously dominated by UConn.  They showed a stat with only minutes left in the game, UConn had somewhere in the 30's as Butler had 0, yes zero, points in the paint.  That was the difference in the game.

Kemba Walker had 16 points and 9 boards in the victory.  Sophmore big man Alex Oriahki was huge in this game, logging 11 points, 11 boards, and 4 blocks for the Huskies.  Freshman Jeremy Lamb came on in a big way, scoring all 12 of his points in the second half.

Butler's star guard, Shelvin Mack, went 4-15 from the field, scoring only 13 points.  The other Bulldog star, Matt Howard, shot a dismal 1-13 for 7 points.

Congratulations to Kemba Walker and the rest of the Huskies.  Yes it was an ugly one, but I'm not sure you can ever call a National Championship win ugly.