The Connecticut Huskies Are the 2011 National Champions

The 2011 edition of the NCAA Tournament has concluded, and it was the UConn Huskies cutting down the nets in Houston last night, with a 53-41 win over the Butler Bulldogs in the national title game.

If you didn’t see the game, then yes, that was actually the score. And ya know how scores are a little misleading sometimes? Well, this one wasn’t.

From a basketball purist’s standpoint, this game was extremely ugly.

Butler shot an atrocious 18% from the field, and it should come as no shocker that 18% is the worst in the history of the title game. UConn wasn’t that great themselves, shooting only 35%.

We came into the game knowing that both teams brought tremendous defensive pressure in the half-court, but in all honesty, it really wasn’t about great defense in this game. Butler had open shots. They simply could not find a way to put the ball through the net.

After Shelvin Mack hit the long three before the half to give the Bulldogs a 22-19 lead at the half, you sort of felt like momentum was swinging just a little bit, and that would come out and shoot a much better percentage in the second half.

Well, momentum certainly shifted alright. UConn went on a 22-3 run in the second half, and that was all she wrote. Especially considering the shooting woes of Butler. Even though they were only down five or seven here and there, it felt like a hundred with the way their jump shooting was going in this game.

Enough about the bad shooting of Butler though. Let’s give credit where it’s due.

The Huskies completely dominated the game in the paint. It was sort of stunning when you looked up at one point, and the points in the paint statistic was 22-0 in favor of UConn. Going into the game, we all knew Alex Oriakhi had to be huge for this team, and he was, with 11 points and 11 boards on the night.

Oh, and there was this other guy that had a pretty good game too. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. His name is Kemba Walker.

We’ve said this time and time again heading into the Final Four this weekend, and even more so once UConn beat Kentucky on Saturday. The run that Walker led this team on through this post-season was absolutely remarkable.

Not only did the Huskies run the table by winning five games in five days in the Big East tournament, but they found a way to keep the juices flowing, and win seven more games in a row to win the ultimate crown in college basketball.

It’s a feat that may never be replicated again. I mean, think about that. How many teams are gonna win the Big East conference tournament by winning games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday? Much less how many teams are gonna do that…..and then turn right around and run the gauntlet in the NCAA Tournament to win the national championship.

This particular run shows just how special of a player Walker is. And to think, not only was this team not ranked heading into the regular season, but he wasn’t even pre-season first team All-American. Now, he’s led his team on one of the greatest post-season runs we’ve ever seen. Pretty special, to say the least.

And how about Jim Calhoun? Despite all the talk about talk about NCAA allegations and violations early in the season, he’s managed to lead this team that no one thought was even close to one of his better teams in recent years to a national championship. Make that title number three for Calhoun since 1999.

Now the question becomes whether or not he returns next season, given everything that is going on regarding possible violations and things like that for the program. There’s no way to really gauge this, so we’ll just have to wait and see if Calhoun wants to keep pushing forward, and try to defend the title in 2012. No one would blame him if he wanted to step down at this point. That’s for sure.

But again, just a special run for this UConn team. That’s really about all you can say. It’s unfortunate that Butler shot they way that they did in their return trip to the national championship, but it is what it is.

Despite not playing all that great themselves, the Huskies made the plays they had to make to win. And because of that, they’re your 2011 national champions.

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