On To The Final Game

Back in October, before this season started, Connecticut and Butler were in nobody's minds as to whether or not they had a chance to be playing on April 4, 2011. That is because the answer was a no from everyone besides people in that school or fan base. Butler was still a small school in Indiana, up the road from Indianapolis, who had lost their best player, and was starting a guys that had most likely been shown no interest by the college basketball power conferences. Connecticut was a team full of freshman, couple sophomores, senior here and there that is not a major contributor, and Kemba Walker, who was a good player but not elite at this point in his career. Then the season started.

As Butler's season started they struggled, they lost to Louisville, Evansville, Duke, and Xavier before putting together a win streak. Then came more losses though, this time to Milwaukee, Wright State, and three in a row to Milwaukee, Valparaiso, and Youngstown State. They were 14-9, in a three game losing streak, no longer with Gordon Hayward, and definitely not looking towards Houston. Then they turned it around and are currently in the midst of a 14 game winning streak. Butler doing it all over again.

The Connecticut season began and followed a much different curve. They entered the season unranked, unheralded, and underappreciated. They went to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational at 2-0, but with two mediocre wins, and teams still were not fearing the Huskies. Then they proceeded to beat the now newly crowned NIT Champion Wichita State, then number two Michigan State, and destroy Kentucky while Kemba burst onto the scene averaging 30 points a game in the tournament. They rocketed up to number four in the rankings and knocked off 10 in a row. Unfortunately for them then came league play, and they lost their first Big East game of the year to Pittsburgh, and they would go on to go only 9-9 in the league. During that stretch though they continued to dominate the out of conference, beating the likes of Tennessee and Texas (at Texas), and remain in the top 15 for a good chunk of that slide during the Big East regular season. Then came the Big East tournament and they began the Kemba Walker show all over again, pulling off the unprecedented and unbelievable five wins in five nights.

The tournament has consisted of different runs for the two as well, Butler has had three games decided by three points or less of the five played, and all five have been by eight points or less. They won on last second shots, last second free throws, in overtime, and by just holding on. Butler has forced their way back, by just being a tough, rugged, never say die team. Connecticut has sort of started out big and come back close in a way, beginning the tournament on that high from the Big East Tournament and winning game one by 29 points, and game two by 11. The margins of victory have gotten smaller and smaller though, as game three they won by seven, their Elite Eight match up with Arizona by two, and then Saturday outlasting Kentucky by one.

Yes, the paths to get here have been completely different from the two teams that really do not share too many similarities, except they have each gone 5-0 thus far in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Only one will be cutting down the nets in Houston, and either way, back in October people would have said you were nuts if you chose that team as the eventual National Champions.

Preview and Picking the Winner