After being approached by a sideline reporter going into halftime, talking to him about how Kentucky has been a great second half team, Kevin Ollie, Connecticut’s head coach quickly responded, “Well we are also a good second half team. Whatever Kentucky comes at us with second half we’re prepared for it.”
Connecticut capped off an amazing tournament run with a wild win over Kentucky. At the beginning of the game the fans were ecstatic and ready for the most exciting day of the basketball year and everything was in full effect.
The game was dominated by Connecticut at the beginning with them at one point leading by 15 points. Kentucky would not go silently into the night as they were no strangers to this situation in the tournament as they would storm back to be only down by four at half, 35-31.
A lot of attention was built on Kentucky freshman, Julius Randle who seemed to be ailing the majority of the first half from leg cramps and a tweaked ankle from the game prior. Randle only took three shots from the court in the first half and seemed to be nervous.
When Kentucky coach John Calipari was asked about his freshman phenom’s play at halftime he stated, “He is only 18… he is nervous.” Also to add to the Kentucky front court turmoil was the news of Willie Cauley-Stein still being unavailable, even for the championship game having to rely on minutes by walk-on freshman Marcus Lee.
Although Kentucky being down at halftime by four, it felt like Connecticut should have been up twenty points, but being careless with the ball and a Kentucky run put them into a closely contested battle.
The second half started the same way the first half ended with Connecticut still being careless with the ball, but solid defense still kept their lead intact. A huge highlight from the game was Kentucky’s James Young’s dunk over Connecticut big man Amida Brimah, which triggered an 8-0 run by Kentucky to put them down by one point.
Kentucky would never come closer as nothing seemed to fall their way at the end of the game. The biggest part of the game was Connecticut making back-to-back threes with around two minutes left in the game. Napier would make the first and Giffey made the second to put Connecticut up seven when it seemed Kentucky was in position to pull off another comeback.
60-54 was the final score, and the main Achilles Heel for Kentucky this game was poor free throw shooting as they went 13-24 from the line while Connecticut went a perfect 10-10.
Although Kentucky was loaded with freshman talent, they did not have one thing, Shabazz Napier, who has been Connecticut’s undisputed leader in this run and came up huge for his team with 22 points, and walked away with the Final Four’s MOP award. Seniors Boatwright and Giffey also scored in double figures for Connecticut.
Connecticut’s run is chronicled by them being kicked out of the Big East and having to join the AAC, and losing long time head coach, Jim Calhoun, who had to resign for health issues. Then to add onto that they were not eligible for the tournament last year due to poor academic reports.
A year later, Connecticut is now the undisputed champions of college basketball. Kevin Ollie in his first tournament appearance went 6-0 with a championship, and Connecticut is still undefeated in championship games winning all four championships in the last fifteen years.
Randle and Young were the only players for Kentucky to score in double figures for Kentucky and a magical run for Kentucky ended in disappointment.