Connecticut wins NCAA title, 60-54 over Kentucky

[alp227]

Source: AP

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — No conference wanted them. Several teammates and their coach left them. The NCAA kept them out for a year.

UConn won it all anyway.

Shabazz Napier turned in another all-court masterpiece Monday night to lift the Huskies to a 60-54 win over Kentucky's freshmen and a national title hardly anyone saw coming.

Napier had 22 points, six rebounds and three assists, and his partner in defensive lock-down, Ryan Boatright, finished with 14 points.

Read more: http://collegebasketball.ap.org/article/connecticut-wins-ncaa-title-60-54-over-kentucky

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More coverage by Connecticut media:

Hartford Courant; New Haven Register; (Bridgeport) Connecticut Post

Kentucky media:

Lexington Herald-Leader
Louisville Courier-Journal

Since this game took place in Dallas, here's the recap by the Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

[BlueStreak]

1. Was this really the best college hoops has to offer?

That was one terrible game. I couldn't watch it continuously. I probably watched a total of 13 minutes off and on. In that entire time, I only saw one shot made over 4 feet (a completely uncontested 3-pointer.) And they were missing all sorts of junk right at the basket and that is without a whole lot of contact.

This one-and-done business is really ruining college basketball.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. Its been one and done for 75 years.

It's not "ruining" anything, it is what it is.

[tarheelsunc]

3. Freshmen weren't even eligible to play varsity basketball until the 1970s. eom

[ForgoTheConsequence]

4. I thought he was referring to the single elimination tournament structure.

I agree that the NCAA needs a major enema and the NCAA as a development league for the NBA nonsense is hurting the sport.

[tarheelsunc]

5. One and done typically refers to freshmen going pro.

A lot of players throughout college basketball are not well-coached due to the relative youth of today's rosters, and that causes some sloppy looking games at times. The funny thing is the NBA HAS a development league but it hasn't been propped up enough to be attractive for top high school players. The NCAA would be a lot more fun to watch if the big universities weren't caught up with having to recruit 1 and 2 year players just to compete against each other and those players went to the NBDL instead.

As far as single elimination tournaments, I agree with you. No one is seriously going to say UConn didn't deserve this championship. NCAA basketball champions are determined on the court, whichever team can win 6 (or 7) straight games deserves it. It's much better than college football's old screwed up BCS system or the new 4 team playoff.

[BlueStreak]

13. The NBA has its own D league, and many of the one-and-doners end up

in the NBA D league. Their rationale is that if they are just working their way toward the NBA, they might as well get paid something. The first three years, most NBA players have relatively low pay. It isn't until your 4th year that you typically have some bargaining leverage. So if you are good enough to eventually end up at the end of the bench on an NBA team, there is a strong incentive to go ahead and get your three years out of the way, even if it means playing in Bakersfield, Ft. Wayne, or Reno.

Look at Kentucky's team. They started 5 freshmen, I think. That's because most of their starters jumped to the NBA last year. And they will do it again. They are great athletes -- totally undeveloped basketball players, and it showed. But the same thing is happening in all the other top teams, so none of them are very good anymore.

The NFL has rules that don't allow anybody to be drafted until the 4th year after their HS class graduates:
https://www.nflregionalcombines.com/Docs/Eligibility%20rules.pdf

This is all about the strength of the player's unions. The NBA union fights this hard.

The NCAA needs to fight back. The NCAA could make one simple rule change that would end all of that and drastically improve the quality of their games. They could say that once you award a player a scholarship, if that player leaves to play professional ball, that scholarship cannot be used for the rest of the time the kid should have been in school. If that were the rule, then these top programs would have to start looking for payers they thought had the character to stay in school 3 or 4 years, because if they had more than one 1-and-done player a year, this would really leave them hamstrung on scholarships.

[KamaAina]

14. UConn is a senior team.

It's Kentucky that's loaded with one-and-done wannabes. And look who came out on top!

[lovemydog]

6. Napier was awesome

& should be great in the pros too.

I love hoops. Gonna watch the women's final tomorrow night on espn. U-Conn vs. Notre Dame, both undefeated!

[ctsnowman]

7. Ha Ha

[theHandpuppet]

8. The game I'm looking forward to happens tonight

Two undefeated teams meet tonight in the women's championship -- UConn and Notre Dame.

As for the men's championship -- I think the maturity of UConn is what finally exposed the weakness in Kentucky's game. And Napier, as usual, was amazing.

[VWolf]

9. Yep. Tonight will be epic.

Nice war of words going on between the two coaches.

My nephew started at UConn this year - lucky bastard!

[CTyankee]

10. The UConn women's team is one of the best things about living in CT.

Altho I am not a sports fan, my husband is a UConn fanatic, along with lots of other men and women here in the state. Gino Auriemma is probably the most respected public person in CT. The dignity and respect that he has engendered by his coaching is a model for the rest of the country.

[theHandpuppet]

12. A late friend of mine was a fanatic about UConn women's basketball

He was more passionate about that team than any other and in his memory I will be cheering for them tonight.

[CTyankee]

15. I just hope they're not over confident. I'll bet Gino has warned them...

[former9thward]

11. Clinton and Bush were having fun at the game ....

http://static1.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1749018.1396924979!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/ncaa-kentucky-uconn-final-basketball.jpg

Discussing 2016?

[LanternWaste]

16. Cool prophecy...

"Discussing 2016?"

Cool prophecy...

[johnstyle]

17. thanks

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