UConn beats Butler to win NCAA title

HOUSTON -- For the better part of two seasons, Butler gave the lie to the notion that a mid-major couldn't play with the big guys. The Bulldogs went to the final buzzer before losing last year's national championship to Duke, then made a shocking run back to the NCAA title game this season as an eighth seed, knocking off plenty of big-name teams on the way.

But when Connecticut lined up 6-9 Alex Oriakhi and 7-foot Charles Okwandu under the baskets at Reliant Stadium Monday night and complemented them with such athletic leapers as 6-8 Roscoe Smith and 6-5 Jeremy Lamb, the Bulldogs finally had run into some guys that were just too big for them. The Huskies won coach Jim Calhoun's third NCAA title, 53-41, thanks to an incredible defensive job that limited Butler to just two points in the paint.

Calhoun, 68, thus became the oldest coach to win an NCAA title, and he joined a pantheon of five all-time greats to win more than two titles along with UCLA's John Wooden (10), Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (four), Kentucky's Adolph Rupp (four) and Indiana's Bob Knight (three).

"This group of kids have given me a year that every single coach should get at least one year like this,'' Calhoun said. "The championship is incredibly wonderful to bring back to Connecticut and our fans, but these kids, the work they put in, it's maybe, professionally, the happiest moment of my life.''

From an aesthetic standpoint, the game was an offensive eyesore. Connecticut (32-9) shot 34.5 from the field but made Butler (28-10) look much worse in shooting a finals record-low 18.8 (12-for-64). Huskies star Kemba Walker completed his magical postseason by totaling a game-high 16 points but shot 5-for-19. Lamb added 12 points and Oriakhi had 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

UConn won the rebounding battle 53-41 and totaled 10 blocked shots, including another four by Smith. Shelvin Mack was Butler's only double-figures scorer with 13 points, shooting 4-for-15. All but three of the Bulldogs' 12 field goals came from three-point range. Worst of all, big men Matt Howard and Andrew Smith totaled 3-for-22 shooting from the field. A late layup by Smith was the only basket in the paint, where the Bulldogs were outscored 26-2.

It almost seemed as if the Bulldogs were reduced to trying to win a national title almost exclusively from three-point range. "I felt like we kept trying to go back inside,'' said Howard, who was 1-for-13, with his only field goal a three-pointer. "We had quite a few good looks, but they didn't go in. We kept attacking, but when you can't score inside, it's hard to get going.''

The first half basically turned into hand-to-hand combat. UConn's Walker was limited to seven points. Butler's Mack got his first field goal from three-point range at 4:15 to tie the game at 19, and he hit another deep three at the halftime buzzer for a 22-19 lead.

Chase Stigall extended Butler's lead to 25-19 with a three to open the second half, but the Bulldogs' troubles getting to the rim manifested themselves as Connecticut went on a 22-3 run to take control of the game. During that stretch, freshman Lamb scored 11 points as UConn ran out to a 41-28 lead.

Finally, with 6:12 remaining in the game, Mack missed a three, and Smith made a putback for Butler's first points in the paint in the game.

Up to that point, the Bulldogs had shot 2-for-25 in the second half.

"I knew Howard was definitely a great player because he's been leading his team throughout,'' Oriakhi said. "So I just tried to put as much pressure on their bigs as possible and tried to alter shots, and I was able to do that.''