In arguably the ugliest championship game ever played, UConn overcame a pesky, cold shooting Butler team to give embattled Head Coach Jim Calhoun possibly his last One Shining Moment, and Kemba and Friends the championship few could have forseen back in November

SCOTT JACOBS

The hats may read NO 1 if you look at them quickly, but it’s UConn that’s number 1 in all of college hoops for the third time after winning maybe the worst NCAA Championship game ever played.

There was nothing storybook about UConn’s grand finale, but for the team that refused to be eliminated all season long, it didn’t matter.  A championship is a championship, even if this one will forever be spelled U-G-L-Y.  For U-C-O-N-N it’s the hardware that comes after that hard work, and they are the only ones who can proclaim themselves basketball champs for 2011, even if this game looked like a dogfight between two chumps.

In basketball if you score more points, you win.  UConn’s 53 weren’t a lot, but they were 12 more than Butler’s embarrassing performance (more on that in a second), and one more than the number of shots the Bulldogs missed (52).  Yup, the Cinderella story all grown up got shunned at midnight again, devoured by the Huskies ferocious inside defense and shooting that abandoned them and headed for the hills.

Even though the game was by all accounts, a trainwreck, I’ve never seen a championship banner raised to the rafters with the final score (or the stats for that matter) and this one will be no exception.  But for a Huskies team that finished 9-9 in the Big East in the regular season, yet swept through two one and you’re done elimination tournaments to get to the NCAA tournament, their third tourney win of the season equaled an even more tasty third national championship.

Woof woof. For 2011 UConn proved that when the games mattered most, they had the biggest bark.  And bite.

“It’s one game and you’re done,” a composed Kemba Walker, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player (a surprise to no one) said after the game.  “Nobody wants to lose another.”

And UConn didn’t.  From Maui to NYC all the way to Anaheim and finally their championship landing spot, Houston, the Huskies were relentless in pursuit of the title no one thought they could win when this season first kicked off.

This is the same Huskies team that was unranked to start the season.

You know the expression, it’s not where you start, it’s how you finish?  Something tells me UConn has that down pat.

From none to number one, what a remarkable story.

“This group has taken me on one of the great special journeys,” said a calm, but incredibly grateful Jim Calhoun, after possibly his last game.  “I needed this team.  I know coaches don’t say that very often, but it’s the truth.”

Say what you want about the allegations, and Calhoun’s suspension (assuming he does come back for another year), but what the man did with this team was astounding.  At 68 years old, he’s the oldest coach ever to get his One Shining Moment: just times that by three.  With the win, Calhoun became just the fifth coach ever in the annals of college basketball history to win three titles.  The others: Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Bobby  Knight, and Mike Krzyzewski.  Not bad company for the notoriously grumpy New Englander.

Butler’s historically bad shooting night didn’t hurt either.  Shooting just 18.8% for the game, Butler made tournament lore for all the wrong reasons: the capper to a run that before that made the underdog in all of us feel good for all the right reasons.

It was bad.  Make that awful.  No, atrocious.  Okay I’m done.  And so is Butler, the team that got back to the championship game with gritty hard fought play and clutch shooting when it mattered most.  The hard nosed defense was there, and Butler scrapped and clawed for every loose ball, but the shooting was nowhere to be found on this night.

With a championship on the line, and leading by 3 at the break, Butler just didn’t have any magic left to beat the bigger, stronger destined for greatness Huskies.  Butler scored just 19 points (UConn’s first half total), went 2-18 from the field, 4-19 from 3 point range, and they were outscored by 15.  With those stats, to say they lost by just 12 is almost an accomplishment in itself.

“Tonight we had a lot of frustrating moments because we couldn’t score,” said classy Butler coach Brad Stevens, whose team fell just short in its quest for their own storybook ending. “It’s really hard, but I told them I don’t care if we make shots… I won’t love them any less.”

Call them the Minnesota Vikings of the 70’s, the Buffalo Bills of the early 90’s, or even Stanford’s women’s basketball team (which has now reached 4 consecutive Final Fours without winning one), but what Butler did this year was incredible.

On this night, unfortunately for them, they were anything but.

“Feels good to know that hard work pays off,” said Jeremy Lamb, who scored 12 points (the final deficit) in the second half.

“It was right,” said Walker.  “We unstoppable.  Best team in the country.”

Most importantly for UConn, they were the best team out of the final two on a bad shooting night.  That gets you the championship.

“Maybe the happiest day in my life,” said Calhoun.

We’ll deal with next year, later.

Photo: Getty

Popularity: 3% [?]