NCAA Championship Game: UConn vs. Butler

Well we’ve finally made it to the destination all college basketball fan’s (including me of course) wanted their team to be, in the title game Monday night.  Unfortunately if you are not a fan of UConn or Butler, your team’s season has ended in disappointment.  Even if you are a fan of UConn or Butler, one of you will also be just as disappointed as the rest of us as you lie your head down tonight for some restless sleep.  Which fan base will be disappointed?  Well I’ve already made my pick, and since I got lucky and predicted the semi-finals correctly there is no need for me to make another prediction.  The question is; why do I think Butler will win?

Butler will win simply because better than anyone else in the past two years (including Duke), they play as a team.  Defensively and offensively they play together like no other team has.  There were a lot of ways, outside of Hayward’s half court heave that barely missed, that Butler could be defending their championship and not just trying to avenge their loss.  Duke has been the only team in the past two years now that has actually been able to beat Butler in the tourney. 

Like Duke, UConn without argument has more talent on their team than Butler.  Like Duke, UConn is led by a coach with multiple championships to his name.  This time though, Butler has been here before and you could see on Saturday night there is a determination to their play this year that they will not be denied. 

How to deal with Kemba?

Ronald Nored is the best perimeter defender in the nation.  He will be assigned the unenviable job of trying to slow down Kemba Walker tonight.  The great thing for Nored is that he will have a lot of buddies ready to help him.  Butler plays amazing team defense and the problem for UConn is that, outside of Walker and Jeremy Lamb, they are short on offensive threats.  They have made it to the championship game with only two scorers, but I think they have now run into their kryptonite in Butler. 

Nobody in the past two years (again, including Duke) has been able to get Butler to play any game other than the game Butler wants to play.  The same cannot be said for teams playing Butler, they always, unwillingly, begin playing the exact game that Butler wants them to.  Butler will not allow Kemba to do what he usually does, and outside of Provo, Utah no team relies on one guy to do what he does in order to win more than UConn.  Once off of their game, UConn will begin to fold and Butler will pull out the victory.

I look forward to tonight’s game.  I love watching Brad Stevens coach and I am hoping he will get the ultimate award for his hard work these past two seasons with a title.

Butler 62 – UConn 57