College Basketball: 2014 Year in Review

The Defining Moment of 2014: Shabazz Napier Leads UConn

The Kentucky Wildcats were hyped in the preseason as one of the best team’s ever. T-shirts emblazoned with “40-0” were making their rounds on campus before the team even played a game. Their other-worldly recruiting class, which by the numbers was indeed the best ever, made them the embodiment of college basketball’s new normal. The Kentucky narrative was that the best college basketball team is a team of future NBA draft picks that have no intention of being on campus for more than a year, and fans of the sport bought in.

Despite early stumbles that saw them quickly fall from the ranks of the unbeaten in 2013, by 2014, Kentucky rounded into its most dominant form. Big Blue dispatched the likes of Wichita State, Louisville, Michigan, and Wisconsin on their way to the national championship game. Their opponent in the final was Connecticut, a team led by (GASP!) a senior, Shabazz Napier. On paper, the Huskies were set to be overwhelmed in every aspect of the game except for one — experience. Napier had been to the Final Four before. He shared the backcourt with Kemba Walker during his freshman year when it was Walker that willed the Huskies to a title. When the game finally got underway, it was Napier’s calming influence that allowed UConn to dominate most of the game and withstand a late flurry to win the title.

Napier proved to the nation that upperclassmen can still be the catalysts for national contenders even in the one-and-done era. The Huskies weren’t the best team in 2014, but they had the best leader, and that was enough to cut down the nets.