It was another year for Butler basketball: another year as the Cinderella team, another appearance in the national championship game and another year falling short.
The University of Connecticut Huskies won the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship against the Butler University Bulldogs 53-41 on April 4.
All-American guard Kemba Walker, named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, lead the way for UConn by scoring 16 points and pulling down nine rebounds.
Sophomore Ryan Cesario said a big reason Butler lost is because they shot a low field goal percentage. Butler shot 18.8 percent during the game, which is a NCAA basketball record for the lowest field goal percentage in the national championship game and only made two shots from two point range, an NCAA tournament record.
“They were losing confidence in everything they did. They couldn’t get shots inside,” Cesario said, “and for some reason, they felt pressured to chuck up contested 3 pointers when they needed to work the ball around and find the open shot.”
Butler’s star players, forward Matt Howard and guard Sheldon Mack, combined for a 5-28 shooting effort. Despite the shooting problems, Howard looked at this effort in a different light.
“I felt like we kept trying to go back inside. We had quite a few pretty good looks. They just weren’t going in,” Howard said in the press conference after the game.
Even with Butler’s shooting effort, credit could not be taken away from UConn’s offense. Jeremy Lamb opened the second half scoring six points en route to an 11 point run.
“I really think Jeremy Lamb stepped up. Lamb was there when Kemba wasn’t and he had a very good second half which helped UConn pull away from Butler,” Cesario said.
UConn head coach Jim Calhoun became the oldest coach to win the national championship and is the fifth coach to win three national championships.
“[The team] truly were brothers, they truly were trusting in each other, and that was very, very special.” Calhoun said in the post-game press conference. “This group has taken me on a very special journey, better than I could possibly imagine.”