Connecticut Wins 2011 National Championship

(Photo: ABC News)


Propelled by a whirlwind of scoring in the second half of the National Championship game, Connecticut captured the 2011 NCAA National Championship in men's basketball by beating Butler 53-41. The 2011 NCAA title is Connecticut's third National Championship in men's basketball. All three of Connecticut's Championships have come under the stewardship of head coach Jim Calhoun. Calhoun previously led Connecticut to NCAA titles in 1999 and 2004.

Duke Wins 4th National Championship

Add another National Championship banner to the three that currently hang from the rafters of Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. Last night, Duke captured the 2010 NCAA men's basketball National Championship by beating "Cinderella" upstart Butler 61-59 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. All four of the Blue Devils' National Championships have come under the stewardship of head men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Congratulations to Duke and to Coach Krzyzewski.

Drive and Dish picked Duke to cut down the nets in our 2010 NCAA Tournament Bracket. Duke seems like the obvious pick now, but when the brackets came out, Kansas and Kentucky were the popular choices to win it all. We, however, were never big believers in either of the schools whose are known by a combination of "K's" and "U's" -- UK and KU (Kentucky and Kansas), respectively.

On a side note, last night's Championship game served as something of a reunion for the Drive and Dish founders. We had a good time at the game. And as it happens, we sat in the vicinity of the ex-Duke players' seating section at Lucas Oil Stadium, so Duke super-fan Mark Buckets got to rub shoulders with some of his boyhood heroes. Strangely enough, Mark Buckets also got into an epic stare-down with Orlando Magic back up point guard Jason "White Chocolate" Williams. White Chocolate attended the game with his Magic teammate, former Duke All American shooting guard J.J. Redick. Apparently, White Chocolate didn't appreciate it when Buckets laughed at him for posing and trying to look "hard" (the Drive and Dish brain-trust disagreed over whether or not he successfully pulled off looking "hard," but we agreed that he looked a lot like post-90's, Nu-Metal-era Vanilla Ice). At one point, it almost seemed like an altercation was about to ensue between Buckets and J.Will.

It was kind of ridiculous.

Fortunately, nothing happened, because if it had, we would have been kicked out of the game for sure.

Funny stuff, though.

The following are pictures that the Drive and Dish cameras snapped at the game:


Photos © 2010 Trashtalk Superstar/Drive and Dish

Kansas Wins National Championship

By Trashtalk Superstar

Last night, Kansas beat Memphis 75-68 in overtime to win the 2008 NCAA National Championship. The Jayhawks overcame a 9 point deficeit in the final 2:12 minutes of regulation to tie the game--thanks to a Mario Chalmers three pointer with 2.1 seconds left on the clock--and force the overtime period. But in overtime, Kansas jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back.

As the Kansas City Star notes, Kansas senior Russell Robinson opined:

"You couldn't have written it any better."

In a year in which all four #1 seeds advanced to the Final Four (for first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament), many observers were surprised by how uncompetitive Saturday's Semifinal games ultimately proved to be. Despite many prognosticators' high expectations for a memorable Final Four, Memphis and Kansas had--for all intents and purposes--run their respective opponents (UCLA and North Carolina) off the floor. And on a larger scale, most observers were similarly disappointed by the lack of competitiveness of this year's Elite 8 and Sweet 16.

If 2006 was the year of the Cinderella, 2008 was the year of the blowout win by the higher seeded team.

But last night's Championship Game provided enough excitement and drama to make up for an otherwise disappointing Final Four.

Yet despite the game's dramatic finish, things didn't go according to plan for Memphis and Kansas:

"This was not the smooth-running, fast-paced, high-scoring game everyone was expecting to see. As happens more often as not, things didn't quite work out the way they had been envisioned. The 2008 NCAA Tournament Championship Game was such a thing...

The Memphis Tigers were denied passage to the lane most of the night. Kansas owned the paint on the opposite end of the court, playing their regular game. Even so, the game remained tight throughout, aided by some sloppy ball handling by both teams. Kansas was not hitting three-pointers and Memphis was. And Derrick Rose, Memphis' second leading scorer, went cold for 24 and a half minutes (16 and a half in the first half).

Memphis was definitely out of sync. Memphis' Joey Dorsey was not blocking out Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson like he did all those other big guys on those other teams. Kansas was simply denying Memphis their game."

(Hat tip: Associated Content).

More:

"And then Memphis' two best shooting guards, Derrick Rose, who had come alive with 12 minutes to go in the game and score a dozen points, and Chris Douglas-Roberts missed 4-5 from the line, giving Kansas a chance to tie the game with just a few seconds to go. And they did. With two seconds to go, Mario Chalmers hit an off-balanced three-pointer to tie the game. Memphis could not hit a subsequent half-court shot and the game went into Overtime.

Kansas immediately stole the ball -- after Memphis won the tip -- and scored. The momentum was all in Kansas' favor. Memphis "controlled chaos" style of basketball had lost its control. Kansas went on to win, 75-68."