Just one year after being banned from the NCAA Tournament for recruiting violations, the upstart Connecticut Huskies, led by Kevin Ollie, are sitting atop the college basketball universe after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats 60-54 in the lowest-seeded national championship in tourney history.
Shabazz Napier earned his second national championship in his final game with the Huskies, going for 22 points, six boards, three assists and three steals in the process. For Napier and other Huskies’ seniors, this game represented the end of what was an up-and-down run with the storied program.
UConn’s Shabazz Napier broke down after winning national championship http://t.co/hWqoKS8fhF pic.twitter.com/4oq4v5QHtl
— For The Win (@forthewin) April 8, 2014
Connecticut placed its basketball program on probation back in 2010 after an NCAA investigation on major recruiting violations, per Sporting News. The program was banned from postseason play until this year, the first full season for Kevin Ollie as the team’s head coach. He replaced Jim Calhoun, who quite prior to the 2012-2013 season.
Entering the tournaments as a No. 7 seed, Connecticut barely got past St. Josephs in the second round of the tournament by the score of 89-81 in overtime. It then defeated the highly-rated Villanova Wildcats to earn a trip to the Sweet 16.
Even then, not many expected Ollie’s group to make it to out of the second weekend of the tournament. After defeating Iowa State in the Sweet 16, Connecticut had to go up against a four-seeded Michigan State team. Napier put up 25 points in the impressive victory to lead the Huskies to the Final Four where they’d be taking on a Florida Gator team that had won 30 consecutive games.
Again riding the hot hand of Napier, the Huskies were able to pull of a stunning victory over the No. 1 seed Gators in a game that wasn’t anywhere near as close as many of us thought it would be. Which takes us to Monday night.
Taking on an eighth-seeded Kentucky Wildcat team in one of the most unexpected finals in tournament history, Connecticut game out on top in what has to be considered one of the most surprising runs to the national championship in the modern history of college basketball.
Just think about this for a second.
Aye Shabazz Napier.. imma let you finish, but James Young had the best play in the NCAA Championship https://t.co/hII5gEPsKk
— ✞ suıןןnɯ ǝɔʎɐɔ (@CayceMullins32) April 8, 2014
Connecticut’s win over Kentucky came nearly a month to the day after it lost 81-48 to the Louisville Cardinals back in March. It’s this type of turnaround that has led many to believe that Ollie’s performance on the sideline is among the best in tournament history. To be able to turn around a program that was falling on hard times in just the matter of a couple months is absolutely stunning. Not even the biggest Connecticut homer would have believed that this team could be cutting down the nets come championship Monday.
That’s exactly what it did.
In the process, Connecticut became the first No. 7 seed to win the title and allowed a senior class that has been through some difficult times to go out on top. It’s one for the record books, guys/gals.
Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA Today