NCAA Tournament Open Thread: The National Championship Game
by Chris Dobbertean on Apr 4, 2011 8:30 PM EDT
in 2011 NCAA Tournament
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PrintTonight, the season ends, with perhaps the most unexpected championship game matchup in the NCAA Tournament's modern era. The Southeast champion Butler Bulldogs return to the final for the second consecutive season, an unexpected repeat visitor. Since dropping three in a row to fall to 14-9 overall and 6-5 in the Horizon League, the Bulldogs have won 14 in a row. Their opponent tonight, the West champ Connecticut Huskies, are nearly as scorching. Jim Calhoun's team has won 10 games in a row, all in elimination situations. In fact, with their early Maui triumph taken into account, UConn is 13-0 in tournament games this season.
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National Championship Game SE No. 8 Butler Bulldogs vs. W No.3 Connecticut Huskies |
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My Pick: KenPom.com projects a 69-65 UConn win over 63 possessions. While I agree with the general margin and pace his model produces, I'm picking the opposite result. If the Bulldogs' can keep up their physicality on defense, they may be able to rattle the Huskies. The other key is, naturally, to keep the ball out of Kemba Walker's hands, particularly late. As I've said before, Brad Stevens' team just seems to be on a mission. I don't think they'll be denied for a second straight time.
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uconn won an extremely ugly game. i think butler shot around 20% for the game.
The University of Utah is off to the Pac-12 Conference and will be in the South Division. Hopefully we will get to the first ever Pac-12 Championship Game. Jon " Bones " Jones new light heavyweight champion. Even if Jones got struck flush in the face he would recover and defeat whoever is in front of him. I told everyone the fight would be easy. Almost felt sorry for Rua. Anderson Silva would never fight "Bones". He is too scared to fight the real P4P champion. The Cult of Personality is here.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Apr 5, 2011 6:42 PM EDT reply actions
