Enough to make a basketball fan cry

The headlines may read that UCONN won a national title last night, beating the Butler Bulldogs en route to Huskies coach Jim Calhoun's 3rd championship, but the story in my eyes was them doing so in the worst single game of basketball I've ever seen.  94 combined points (good for lowest combined title game score in 61 years), Butler shooting 18.8% from the field (worst ever in a title game), and UCONN shooting 1-11 from 3 (worst ever from a winner).

Hey, look, another missed shot in the paint.

 Woof. 

This wasn't good defense as some would have you believe, this was two under-talented squads, exhausted from having played 6 games in 3 weeks, being seemingly unable to hit an open bunny layup.  Yes they were playing hard, but playing hard doesn't mean two teams combine to score under 100.  Time and time again I found myself saying "they can't screw this up," yet there the two teams would be, flailing about like they had just discovered this whole "basketball thing."   They knew this was a game for the national title, right?

U-G-L-Y, you aint got no alibi: you're ugly... you're ugly.

Butler was especially pathetic; their beautiful carriage turning back into a rotting-ass pumpkin in front of the whole nation.  Before Matt Howard put back a seemingly easy offensive rebound with 6:15 remaining in the second half, the Bulldogs had yet to score a basket in the paint.  They finished to shoot 3-31 from inside the arc (that's 9.7%).  High-school teams, playing in the same stage, could've shot on accident better than that.  Besides the fact that no one has ever shot this poorly in a title game, teams haven't shot nearly this bad since the '40s.  I'm not even sure they had invented the jump-shot back when Washington St and Wisconsin combined to shoot in the low 20%s in 1941.  Are you kidding me?  This was a team in our national final?  Normally I would feel bad for kids who lay an egg this bad, but shit was that painful to watch.  For 40 minutes of play I learned to hate the game of basketball, and it's all Butler's fault.

Hand UCONN the trophy, and lets never, ever, talk of that game again.

I have never been less convinced that the winner of the NCAA Tournament was the best team in college basketball.  A win is a win, however.

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Site-News note: With the end of basketball season, and the impending end of spring football, comes the long wait til fall for relevant Buffs news.  Unlike last year, I will continue to update my blog through the Summer, just a lot less frequently.  Every week I will have up a Monday Grab Bag and a Friday Beer Post, but Tuesday-Thursday will only feature sporadic updates as warranted.

Additionally, over the coming months I'll be putting together a series of longer wrapups and previews of Buffs basketball.  I'll be looking at the season that was, the players that are leaving, the team going forward, and what we can expect from the offseason.. In addition, I'll be covering the opening of the new practice facility, the future of Alec Burks, and the evolving 2011 and 2012 recruiting classes. 

I hope you'll stick with me.  Go Buffs!