By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Second chances don't come often in sports, especially intercollegiate sports, especially in basketball, where the best players barely stay around for one year, never mind two or three. Or four.
The kids at Wisconsin understand that. The coach at Wisconsin understands that.
© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s a lost art, or so we’re told. Nobody cares about free throw shooting. Flying dunks get you on instant replays. All free throws do is get you a national championship.
There’s a lesson to be learned and a skill to be practiced. University of Connecticut, UConn in the vernacular, was perfect from the foul line Monday night, 10 for 10.
That the Huskies were relentless on defense was something also to be recognized.
As UConn will be recognized for an NCAA title with a 60-54 win over Kentucky in a final game that had two former presidents of the United States, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, side by side and next to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
It was at Jerry’s place, AT&T Stadium, the huge spaceship of building on the plains — the networks call the area North Texas, like Southern California or Eastern Europe — where this final game of the 2014 college basketball season drew a record crowd, 79,238.
It was at Jerry’s place where that solid defense and that perfection from the line kept Kentucky behind from start to finish. Not once in 40 minutes did the Wildcats creep into the lead.
“The way we started really cost us the game,” said John Calipari, the Kentucky coach.
The Cats hit only 5 of their first 17 field goal attempts. The Cats trailed, 30-14, with a second less than six minutes remaining in the first half.
That they cut the margin to four, 35-31, by halftime verified the Calipari contention that his players never gave up. Huzzah. They just never got ahead, either.
“Why?” asked Calipari, rhetorically. “Duh. Five freshmen in their first final. Give Connecticut credit. They were the aggressor. I told my team we had to be aggressive, sprint the ball up the court, to attack them and not let them attack you. We jogged. But again, these kids fought and tried.”
So did UConn, which had senior leadership from guard Shabazz Napier, a brilliant defender, hawking the ball, battling through screens, and an excellent shooter.
He was 8 for 16, 4 of 9 beyond the 3-point arc. He had three steals. He had three assists. He was selected outstanding player of the game.
“Napier impacted the game,” said Calipari. "He impacted every game he’s played. Terrific player. He has a swagger about him, and he deserved to have the swagger.”
UConn had some failings, missing 10 of its first 11 shots in the second half. But when Kentucky came close, 48-47 late in the second half, there was Napier, swish, with a killer 3-pointer.
“He made a play,” Calipari said. “He made that dagger."
UConn, at No. 7, is the lowest seed ever to win the championship. The Huskies had trouble overcoming St. Joseph’s, 89-81, in the first round of the tournament and during the season they lost three times to Louisville, one time by the score of 81-48. So they finished with an overall record of 32-8.
Still, they are No. 1 at the end, which counts, doesn’t it?
“I said in the beginning 18 months ago,” second-year UConn coach Kevin Ollie told CBS-TV, “when we started the process was going to be first. We was last. Now we’re first.”
Ollie, who grew up in the tough part of Los Angeles and went to Crenshaw High, doesn’t always speak the King’s English, but his thoughts are well understood. And after spending years in the NBA, a journeyman going from one team to another, he understands winning basketball.
His teams swarm on defense — the Huskies shut down No. 1 Florida in Saturday’s semifinal — and they are fundamentally sound. Ten for 10 from the line. Only 10 turnovers.
“Coach Jim Calhoun, the greatest coach ever, paved the way,” said Ollie, who was recruited by Calhoun and then before the 2012-13 season replaced him.
This was the fourth national championship for UConn, each of its last three coming in Texas — one in San Antonio, one in Houston and now one in the suburbs of Dallas.
“We ran out of time,” said Calipari.
More accurately, they ran into UConn.
Final Four, Kentucky, Kevin Ollie, UConn articles, basketball Email Article By Art Spander
Featured Columnist
ARLINGTON, Texas — No one knew what DeAndre Daniels wanted. Maybe not even DeAndre Daniels. He was a 6'8" kid with a fine shooting touch and very little sense of direction.
Daniels was the highest-ranked unsigned recruit in the Class of 2011 when he chose Connecticut. After almost opting for Kentucky. After thinking about Kansas. After decommiting from Texas, once his “dream team.”
Copyright © 2014 Bleacher Report, Inc.
DeAndre Daniels, Final Four, Kentucky, UConn articles, basketball Email Article By Art Spander
ARLINGTON, Texas — Big D they call this area, the Metroplex, the suburbs of Dallas. Big D, as in defense, which is what Connecticut, UConn, put up against Florida.
Which had won 30 straight games. Which had been ranked the best college team in the land.
Such a lark for the Gators. A 16-4 lead, a presumed place in Monday’s final. And then Big D from UConn, D as in difference, because on this Saturday night deep in the heart of Texas, that was the difference in the first game of the two NCAA semifinals.
They were at Jerry Jones’ “Joynt,” the massive, billion-dollar domed stadium on the plains, created by the Cowboys' owner, who along with 80,000 others — the majority of whom booed Jerry when he was shown on the huge TV screen — watched how defense could take control.
It was defense that took UConn (31-8) from that early deficit to a 63-43 victory and into the championship against Kentucky, which defeated Wisconsin, 74-73.
The Gators (36-3) couldn’t get the ball inside. Couldn’t get the ball into the basket.
UConn’s guards, Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier, pressured and hustled, swatted and flailed. And also scored, backing DeAndre Daniels’ 20 points, Boatright with 13, Napier with 12.
But that didn’t mean as much as the way they kept Florida from scoring.
They harassed Scottie Wilbekin, the guard who runs the Gators, limiting him to four points and one assist. They forced him into three turnovers. As a team, Florida had only three assists total. And 11 turnovers.
“The difference in the game,” said Florida coach Billy Donovan, “was Scottie Wilbekin couldn’t live in the in the lane like he had all year long for us.”
He had to take up temporary residence in a less advantageous part of the court, where the mistakes were greater than the contributions.
“That’s not what we usually do,” said Wilbekin. “That’s crazy. All credit goes to them and their guards, and the way they were denying and putting pressure on us.
“We weren’t taking care of the ball. When we would get by them, we wouldn’t keep the ball tight, and they would reach from behind. We were being too loose.”
Wilbekin had averaged 15 points, three assists and only one turnover in the seven postseason games Florida played before Saturday night.
“On offense,” he said after his last game as a senior, “we couldn’t get anything going. They were being really aggressive. A couple of us were having bad shooting nights.”
UConn’s guards were the reason.
“He couldn’t get off screens,” conceded Donovan.
Exactly the way Kevin Ollie, UConn’s second-year coach, had planned it.
“We just wanted to be relentless,” he said. “Wanted to make them uncomfortable. We wanted to challenge every dribble, every pass. They wanted to attack empty elbows, if you understand what I’m saying, where they’re coming off pick-and-rolls. So we wanted to keep them on the baseline.”
At the beginning of December, when both schools were searching for the future, Florida and UConn met at Connecticut’s Gampbel Pavilion, and Napier hit one at the buzzer for a 65-64 win by the Huskies.
That was Florida’s last defeat. Until Saturday night.
“Certainly we would have loved to have played on Monday night,” said Donovan, who coached Florida to NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, “and I told them before the game that the team that plays the best is going to play on Monday night.
“I thought UConn played better than we did.”
Did he expect that? No. Did we expect that? No way. We always figure that the favorite will end up the winner. Yet college basketball is a delightfully unpredictable sport, one with athletes leaping in celebration and pom-pom girls weeping in dismay.
The Florida cheerleaders paraded gloomily from AT&T Stadium, which is what the building has been named, only hours after arriving with a spring in their step. Their team would take another title. Except it wouldn’t.
“As the clock’s unwinding,” said Donovan of the final seconds, when defeat was unavoidable, “you’re kind of sitting there and kind of realize this is getting ready to come to an end.”
As it did, along with a 30-game unbeaten streak, a chance for the championship.
UConn stopped both. Big D in the Big D.
Billy Donovan, Final Four, Florida, UConn articles, basketball Email Article By Art Spander
ATLANTA – Sometimes it works out like this. Sometimes the biggest game of the season turns out to be the best game of the season, a game of emotion, drama and subplots that validates our love of sports, a game that, true to the mottos printed on the warmups of both teams, did rise to the occasion.
The preludes, the regionals, even the semifinals, were hesitant, awkward games, making us wonder what was wrong, instead of what was right, games when players couldn’t score, games that elicited criticism instead of the expected praise.
But on Monday night, the NCAA final swept away all the disappointment that had gone before, as Louisville, once trailing by 12 points, was able to sweep away Michigan, 82-76, and both take the championship and justify its overall No. 1 seeding.
It was a beautiful day for Rick Pitino, the Louisville coach, who in the late morning was chosen for the Basketball Hall of Fame and then so very late in the evening, just before the stroke of midnight because these games are staged for a maximum TV audience, watched and urged the Cardinals to their third title – and his second.
Thirteen years ago, at the only other school that counts in the state of bluegrass, thoroughbreds and college basketball, the U. of Kentucky, Pitino earned his other championship.
So Louisville, which at one time in the first half had trailed by 12, would come out ahead in the end, but the true winner was the sport, as wild and enthralling as only could be imagined by the record finals crowd of 74,326 at the Georgia Dome and the usual millions of television viewers.
“A lot of times when you get to championship games,” said Pitino, “the games are not always great, not always pretty. This was a great game.”
This was a game in which a kid nicknamed Spike, Michael Albrecht, a 5-foot-10 freshman, came off the bench for Michigan to score 17 points before intermission and then, as the media wondered if he were the stuff of fairy tales, slipped into oblivion.
This was the game in which a backup named Luke Hancock took the role of the injured Kevin Ware and not only led Louisville with 22 points but was chosen the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
This was the game in which players from both squads raced from one end of the court to the other at the sort of breakneck pace that had the screaming fans -- and oh, were they loud -- taking as many deep breaths as the athletes.
Michigan (31-8) was doing it for a while with four freshmen, and oh, are the Wolverines going to be strong in the future. Louisville (35-5) was doing it for a while figuratively without guard Russ Smith, who made only 3 of his 16 field goal attempts.
Yes, Ware was in the building, on the bench, the right leg in which he incurred a compound fracture 10 days earlier against Duke under sweat pants, his number “5” on the T-shirts of so many Louisville fans. He was given the opportunity to make the final snip, separating the net from the rim.
Louisville was not quite as ecstatic as it was relieved. The Cardinals gained control in the second half, as they did against Wichita State in the semifinal, but Michigan, shooting 52 percent for the game, wouldn’t fade until the bitter end.
“As fine an offensive team as there is,” Pitino said of Michigan.
The Wolverines with their happy ghosts from the past, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and others from, the ’93 Michigan finalists in attendance, would get 24 points from the new Player of the Year, Trey Burke – even with Burke out most of the first half with two early fouls.
That’s when Albrecht came in and came on, making 6 of 8 and getting his 17. That’s when Michigan zoomed to a 33-21 lead with 3:56 to play before halftime. But even more quickly, in three and half minutes, Louisville did its own zooming, and went ahead, 37-36. You sensed it had become the Cardinals' game.
“We feel bad about it,” Michigan coach John Beilein would say in retrospect. “We could have done some things better, every one of us. At the same time, Louisville is a terrific basketball team. I have not seen that quickness anywhere, and we played some really good teams. That quickness is incredible, and it got us a couple of times today.”
It got Louisville the victory, as one of Pitino’s horses, Goldencents, on Saturday got him the Santa Anita Derby victory.
“I think when you work as hard as we work,” said Pitino of his team, “it builds a foundation of love and discipline because you have to suffer together. You're always pressing.”
He meant for greatness. In this game, this great game, Louisville achieved it.
Final Four, Louisville, Michigan, NCAA, Rick Pitino articles, basketball Email Article