On March 5, UConn lost a close contest at home to Notre Dame, despite Kemba Walker's 34 points. It was the Huskies' fourth loss in five games and dropped them to a final regular season Big East record of 9-9, only good for a ninth seed in the next week's Big East tournament. Connecticut fell to 21st in the subsequent national poll, a status largely reflective of the Huskies' six quality wins in the non-conference season, and not the three weeks prior.
Then the Huskies got to postseason tournament play.
UConn had already had its successes in a tournament a few months earlier. In the infant stages of the season, Connecticut arrived at the Maui Invitational as perhaps the fourth or even fifth-favorite to win the tournament in a loaded field with Kentucky, preseason No. 2 Michigan State, Washington, and Missouri Valley favorite Wichita State all taking part. Kemba Walker, in a sign of things to come, scored 90 points in three games. A Maui Invitational win is obviously not the same as winning a Big East or NCAA title, but it is still a three games in three days gauntlet that is a predictor of future, greater success. With UConn's victory on Monday, three of the last seven national finalists won the Maui Invitational in the same season.
When UConn arrived at Madison Square Garden for the Big East tournament, it faced a near-bye against DePaul, and what then a probable win against a Chris Wright-less Georgetown team. The next three days, in winning nail biters against Pitt, Syracuse, and Louisville proved that UConn was not only a contender, but a special team in tournament situations. In all tournament games, in Maui, New York, and the NCAAs, UConn was 14-0.
College basketball can make you wary of the team that has one superstar mixed with various other talent who take far less shots and use less possessions. After all, the super-teams the sport has featured in the last 20 years like 1992 Duke, 1996 Kentucky, and 2007 Florida have all had multiple, extremely talented players who were among the best in the nation at their position. Yet, for nearly every example of those teams whose fourth option was nearly as dangerous as the first, there are instances of one superlative player leading a group to the highest prize. Kansas from 1988 and Syracuse's 2003 teams come to mind among those conditions.
The NCAA tournament has proven not only that a variety of players with differing talent levels can win a title, but that there are an infinite number of ways to win the necessary games.
The general formula UConn used to win the title was a unique one, bearing more of a resemblance to 2011 Old Dominion than to 2011 Ohio State, but still relying on an old Huskies staple.
Connecticut, as a team, didn't shoot particularly well and didn't get to the line that often. However, the Huskies were among the top teams in the nation in offensive efficiency, or points per possession. The Huskies were able be so efficient on offense thanks to the extra opportunities provided by rebounding nearly 40 percent of their own misses on the offensive glass. When UConn did get to the line, they made it count, shooting 76.3% at the charity stripe. Walker, on his own, shot nearly 82%.
It's no secret that UConn did not possess an Emeka Okafor, Hasheem Thabeet, or Josh Boone-caliber player in the middle that has historically made teams avoid going inside against the Huskies. However, two-point field goal defense for the Huskies was still a huge strength, as they allowed opponents to hit just 42 percent of their shots inside the arc. That strength turned into the game-changing factor during the Final Four.
In the championship game, UConn held Butler to 3-of-31 on its twos, a total that registered as the worst two-point shooting performance in any Division I game all season. In the semifinals, Kentucky registered just 12-of-35, giving UConn's defense a remarkable 22.7% clip on two-point shots in the two most important games of the year. Several players helped lockdown the interior for UConn, but Alex Oriakhi and Roscoe Smith were the two most important.
Walker was obviously the guy who made everything go for UConn, not only with his scoring prowess, but his leadership and hustle. Throughout the Big East tournament and the NCAAs, Walker made key deflections, dove for loose balls and did all the clichéd little things that help a team succeed in postseason situations.
While Walker deservedly won Most Outstanding Player for the tournament, a huge key for UConn offensively was the consistency of freshman wing Jeremy Lamb. In January, Lamb emerged as the second option to Walker, but faded during the Huskies' pre Big East-tourney averaging less than 8 points a game in the five games leading up to MSG. He scored in double digits every game thereafter and shot 50% or better from the field in all but one contest. His offense provided a necessary complement to Walker's, and made UConn anything but a one-man team in March and April.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't give Butler a great amount of credit for what it accomplished for the second year in a row. I'm not quite sure anybody can put the Bulldogs' accomplishments into proper perspective, since nothing like this has ever come close to happening in the big-money, at-large bid era of the NCAA tournament. Last season, Butler spent $2.8 million on basketball, ranking it 98th in the country in basketball expenses and behind every single BCS conference school. When Butler beat three straight teams from big six conference to win the Southeast Region, it was spending, on average, $4.3 million less on basketball than its opponent. Quite simply, Butler has done far more with far less over the course of the last two NCAA tournaments, and one awful performance on Monday night should not take away from its feat in the least.
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