Huskies defy long odds

RALLYING behind their head coach who like all other devout Christians that believe in miracles, the University of Connecticut Huskies defied long, long odds to snare this year’s U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men’s basketball championship.

The Huskies, whom the Las Vegas oddsmakers before the tournament had picked a lowly 100-1 to win the NCAA title, scrapped their way to  a 60-54 decision over the favored Kentucky Wildcats in the national finals held at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas last April 7 (Apr. 8, Manila time).

Mentored by second-year Huskies bench tactician and former National Basketball Association guard Kevin Ollie, UConn, a regional seventh seed, scored six contrasting victories in the one-loss-and-you’re-out tournament to corral the fourth overall NCAA crown in school history – and the first since 2011 when Kemba Walker, the third-year 6-foot-1 playmaker for the NBA playoffs-bound Charlotte Bobcats, helped lead the team to the top and collected a Final Four Most Outstanding Player hardware for himself.

In the 2014 competitions, UConn (32-8) upended 10th-seeded St. Joseph’s University, 89-81, in overtime; second-seeded Villanova, 77-65; third-seeded Iowa State, 81-76; fourth-seed Michigan State, 60-54 (for the East Regional crown); nationally top-ranked Florida, 63-53, in the Final Four that shattered the Gators’ 30-game winning skein; and Midwest Region eighth-seeded Kentucky in the finals.

The Huskies were the highest seed to win it all since Villanova, an eighth seed, upset Patrick Ewing and the heavily-favored Georgetown Hoyas, 66-64, in the 1985 finals.

UConn finished the season with a 32-8 record overall. It lost to 2013 NCAA titlist Louisville thrice in the inaugural American Athletic Conference – twice during the double-round regular season (76-64 and 81-48 at Louisville on March 8) and in the AAC tournament finals (71-61).

In the NCAA championship game, multi-dimensional and Associated Press first-team All-American Shabazz Napier punched in 22 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals as UConn was ahead throughout.

The 6-foot-1 senior guard, who was on the Huskies’ 2011 national championship unit as a frosh, earned Final Four MOP honors.
UConn shot 10-for-10 from the foul line while Kentucky (29-11) went just 13-for-24 from the same area.

The Wildcats, who employed an all-freshman lineup (including NBA-bound Julius Randle), were also outrebounded for the first time in the tournament.

The two finalists did not even qualify for the NCAA tourney a year ago – a first since 1966. Kentucky played in the second-rated National Invitational Tournament (NIT) last campaign while Connecticut, which had hired Ollie on a five-year contract following the departure of Jim Calhoun (who steered the Huskies to the NCAA crown in 1999, 2004 and 2011) due to health reasons, was ineligible for postseason action due to academic issues.

UConn’s ineligibility resulted in the defection of five key players to the NBA or other schools and in its final year of Big East Conference play in 2012-13, the school went 20-10 under Ollie.

The 41-year-old Ollie, who as an undrafted NBA journeyman saw action with Dallas, Orlando (two tours of duty), Sacramento, Philadelphia (three tours), New Jersey, Chicago, Indiana, Milwaukee, Seattle, Cleveland, Minnesota and Oklahoma City in 13 seasons from 1997-2010 and averaged 3.8 points in 662 regular appearances, is the first coach to win an NCAA championship within his first two seasons as a Division I head coach since Michigan’s Steve Fisher in 1989 (he took over the Wolverines’ reins at the start of the NCAA tournament).

Ollie is also the 12th coach to romp away with the NCAA title at his alma mater (1991-95) and the first since Roy Williams steered the University of North Carolina to the national championship in 2005 and 2009.