Why UConn Wins

I told Pat that I would write the rebuttal to why the Connecticut Huskies will cut down the nets tonight in Houston, but as the day progresses, it's hard for me to cheer for UConn. I love Kemba Walker, but that's about it. I cannot stand Jim Calhoun and my hatred for Geno Auriemma carries over to the men's team.  I still think the Huskies will win tonight, but your boy Chuckie T will not be cheering for them.  I like to see the Big East take it, but I am a sucker for the feel good story. So here are the three reasons or ways that UConn can beat the Butler Bulldogs.



1.) Kemba, Kemba, Kemba- Of course, we are looking for comparisons for Kemba Walker, and no one is allowing him to just be Kemba. Is this one of the best 10 game span we have ever seen? Absolutely, but why do we have to say it reminds me of Pervis Ellison or Danny Manning? It's something that grinds me with the media sometimes.  Big East fans are not shocked at the things Walker does on the court. He made plays all season no matter who was guarding him during the year so I am not worried about Ronald Nored locking him up tonight. Not to mention, Walker is better when giving the ball to Jeremy Lamb or Alex Oriaki.  I told you that all throughout the tournament, and it took a couple big games from Lamb for people to believe me about the significance of the other Huskies.

2.) Keep Matt Howard Off The Glass and Court- I don't know if I can remember a player like Howard who is always attacking the glass and somehow finding the ball in his hands. He is guaranteed a double-double therefore it's imperative that UConn finds Howard on every rebound. When Butler gets those second-chance opportunities, they never lose. The other thing about Howard is he always finds himself in foul trouble, and Butler is an entirely different team when he is not on the court.  If I am UConn, I attack inside to start off the game and try to get a quick 2 fouls on Howard.

3.) Push The Ball- I don't know if there is a better player in the nation than Kemba in transition. If he controls the pace, Butler could be in big trouble. I like UConn much better running up and down the court than UConn playing in the half court letting Butler assembled their tough defense . Butler had some troubles with VCU's fast pace style of offense, same thing happened when Butler played Florida.  The Huskies need to find ways to sprint out whenever they get the defensive rebound.

I will take UConn 67-64, with Kemba hitting a three with under 10 seconds left. If I am a Butler fan, the last thing I want to see tonight is Mr. Walker have the ball in his hands with the shot clock turned off because there is no doubt that the ball is going in. If you need an example...

-Charlie.

Why Butler Wins

Well folks, the month of March has come and gone. However, just because we are forced to turn the page on the kitchen calendar, doesn't mean that March Madness hasn't crawled into the early part of April.  The madness continued on Sunday night when both #1 seeds in the NCAA Women's D1 Final Four lost.  The other thing that ruffled some feathers with Wisconsinites was the three-game sweep at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds.  Granted it was the first series against the reigning NL Central Champs, I don't think anyone was expecting an 0-3 start burdened by sloppy defense, bullpen troubles, and an besides Rickie Weeks, an offense that lacked any early April fireworks.  Let's hope that Miller Park gets the Crew back on track with a seven-game homestand against the Braves and Cubs.

The big ticket event of the day though is none other than the 2011 Men's NCAA Basketball Championship game.  Charlie and I had a little discussion about who we thought would win and it led us to preview the game in a different light.  I believe that the Butler Bulldogs will avenge last year's heartbreaking, buzzer-beating loss on Monday night.  Charlie envisions Kemba and the Huskies playing the role of "East Coast Villain."

Without further ado, here are my three keys to why Butler will be barking as the National Champs on Monday night:

1)  Ronald Nored vs. Kemba Walker: Ronald Nored didn't have glittering offensive statistics against VCU, but his defense is as good, if not better than his counterpart.  In the VCU game, Brandon Rozzell was the victim of Nored's torrid defense. Not coincidentally, Nored virtually shadowed Rozzell as each player slated 29 minutes in the contest.  Consider that Rozzell was the only other player on VCU besides Jamie Skeen to score in double-digits in the Kansas game, shooting 4 of 8 from the field including 4 of 7 from three.  Nored chased Rozzell all over and never gave him an open look in the semifinal.  Rozzell shot 1 of 5 from the field and 0-3 from beyond the arc limiting him to two points and warranting Virginia police to issue a missing persons report.  That being said, I think Nored can match Walker on the defensive side of the ball. Don't get me wrong, Walker will get his points, but he'll have to work harder than he has up to this point in the tournament.  I see Walker taking a lot of shots with less success and forcing up some shots when it comes to crunch time.  I think Walker goes 7-24 from the field, 2-8 from long range, and mirrors the last two games going 5 for 6 at the free throw line.  That gives him 21 points, but means that he took 6 to 7 shots more this game rather than getting the ball to his teammates.

2) Player X: I also think Butler will win because they tend to spread the ball around more on offense.  Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard are the unquestioned leading scorers for the Bulldogs.  The key here is that in every game of the tournament besides the Pitt game, Butler had double figures from Mack, Howard, and Player X. Against ODU, it was Andrew Smith.  When Mack struggled against Wisconsin, it was Shawn Vanzant that stepped up.  With a Final Four berth on the line, Khyle Marshall came off the bench for Butler and contributed 10 points and 7 offensive rebounds. In the clash on Saturday against VCU, Shawn Vanzant again stepped up, but it was the 8 consecutive points from Zach Hahn that willed Butler during a crucial stretch of the game.  I'll continue with the theme of being bold, even with the fear of looking like a amateur (which I am) and say that I expect Vanzant to be Player X for Butler on Monday with 13 points.

3) Brad Stevens: For all the experience that Jim Calhoun has in his vault, recent success sides with Stevens and his Butler squad. I won't give you the whole script because we know how close this team came last year to winning the whole thing against arguably a better Duke team.  With a staggering 117-24 record already amassed in 4 years at Butler, Stevens has also become the youngest coach to reach back-to-back National Championship games at the age of 33.  I think the edge goes to Butler here because the players emulate and relate more to their younger coach than UConn does with their coach.  Stevens is a new-age of coaches that has taken more to statistical analysis than just your X's and O's system.  An article I read earlier noted that Stevens and his coaching staff will know where they want to force each UConn player and under what circumstance based on analysis that covers the entire season, highlighted by trends in postseason play. 

Therefore, trying to stay as far away from cliche as I can, I think this is the "underdog's" chance to bring home the National Title on Monday night.  I think Shelvin Mack will also have his struggles especially if Kemba Walker is the man guarding him, but for the three reasons above, I believe that Butler wins this one in the final minute, 68-64.

-Pat

The Good, The Bad, and The Dukies

Before the Sweet Sixteen started, I sat with a bracket that was in the 96 percentile. I started having dreams of getting a 10,000 dollar check from Yahoo! and laugh my way to not having a summer job this year. But Thursday hit me like a ton of bricks. There were some things I liked, but most of it was bad.  Thankfully the Black Rose on Oakland helped me drown my sorrows.

The Good

-Florida deserves all the credit in the world for how they played defense against Jimmer Fredette. It seemed every shot took a ton of effort to get off, and they completely gassed him by the overtime period.

-Since Jimmer is now gone, Derrick Williams is the new face of March Madness 2011.  The only comparison I have for him is a stronger Lamar Odom. He throws down some nasty dunks and can step outside to hit big shots.
-Let's not forget about the Kemba Walker Show, he scored 36 in a win for the Huskies. But like I talked about earlier this week, he got others involved such as Jeremy Lamb who dropped 24. Big time excited for Williams v. Walker on Saturday night.  
-Butler is the better version of Gonzaga, no longer underdogs.

The Bad

-Wisconsin did their usual Badger thing bowing out in the Sweet Sixteen. I know that will upset some Badger fans, but for whatever reasons, they cannot get to that next level. Additionally, this fourth time in five years that they have lost a lower seed. Questions have to start coming out about Bo Ryan. I thought Jordan Taylor forced a lot of shots like last Saturday. Also there is a missing person report out for Jon Leuer in New Orleans because you couldn't find him on the basketball court. This is something I saw on Twitter via the Big Lead about the Badgers recruiting budget, which is unbelievably low and makes more impressive of what they do every year. Think if they increased that by 50 percent. 


-You could tell San Diego State got tight in the final minutes. They couldn't do anything after the technical with 10 minutes left.  It seems like they froze up and didn't create the shots as they had in the first half.
-Jimmer got infected with the SI curse. Now, it understood the curse outweighs the Law of Gus. 

Dukies

-We here at SnoTap told you so. I felt uneasy about my National Champion pick after seeing the chemistry with Kyrie Irving. I wish I would have just went chalk with Ohio State, but now it's up to Kentucky to save my bracket. Eric nailed this a week ago and deserve credit
-Eric also had the comment of the day "Last night was a complete DOY game from Arizona." Agreed, human highlight reel from the Cats. 
-Duke decided to quit. No one can tell me otherwise either. Arizona had this epic run, but Duke did nothing to punch them back in the mouth. If I were one of the Plumlees' I would put Mo-Mo Jones on his ass during this run to show Duke was there.   
-Reminded me a lot of LSU knocking out Duke in 2006, but the Blue Devils were favored more in that tournament.
-Nolan Smith did not look like himself in the last two games, and that sent Duke off the tracks.
-I wouldn't call this a black mark on Coach's K career, but he could have saved this season if he limited the play of Kyrie Irving. It's more his fault than anyone else.

-Charlie.

An Ode To Kemba

The Connecticut Huskies burst on to the scene this year at the Maui Invitational because no one predicted the Huskies would be very good this year, rather people saw them as an average team who might slide into the NCAA Tournament. I really cannot blame people for thinking that way. Last year, Kemba Walker looked like a ball hog who forced bad shots all the time was the star of their team. I can remember begging Kemba to shoot the ball. This year has been a completely other story.  Walker made an Optimus-Prime like transformation into one of the best players in college basketball and I am convinced he will be a good pro for years to come. 

Walker plays his own forty minutes of hell by barely spending any time on the bench. It stunned me that the Huskies punched Bucknell in the mouth. Walker's motor is unbelievable unlike anyone in college basketball. Walker gives a team everything they want, and then some. Kemba is a lot of like Kobe Bryant in this small sense (NO WAY am i comparing these teams, no way.. just pointing it out). When he gets people involved and does not shoot over 21-23 times, UConn will win the basketball game. Some of the worst performances by the Huskies this year have been when Kemba does not try to get Jeremy Lamb or Alex Oriakhi involved in the game.

There is not a player who has more confidence and swagger than Walker. While Jimmer Fredette has some onions, no one's are bigger than Kemba. I remember watching an overtime game with Marquette-UConn, and could not have been more scared this season. I just waited for Kemba to shake and bake with a teardrop at the buzzer to seal a win for the Huskies. Thankfully, it didn't happen, but every time you play Walker, there is that fear. I am thankful for that college basketball delivers guys like Kemba. You can refer to him by first name and everyone knows who are talking about.

-Charlie.

I Told You So...

Kemba Walker just making people look silly.  Big East POY, no doubt about it.