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BRIAN LANDMANUCONN 82, GEORGIA TECH 73: Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon lift the Huskies to their second basketball title in six seasons.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Back in the fall, all Connecticut heard was that it possessed the blend of star power and quality depth to end up here in the Alamodome, scissors in hand, to cut down the nets in triumph.
"Not from November, but from September, we had folks on our campus taking pictures, talking about us being undefeated, talking about all the various things we were going to do, and we hadn't even touched a basketball yet," coach Jim Calhoun said.
He didn't disagree with the assessments. He added to them.
"From Day 1 I told you guys, I think our team could win a national championship," Calhoun said. "You know what? We did."
In a game not as close as the final score indicated, the Huskies rode All-America center Emeka Okafor and sharpshooters Ben Gordon and Rashad Anderson to an 82-73 victory Monday night against surprising Georgia Tech to win the program's second national title in six seasons. The Huskies beat Duke in the 1999 finale in St. Petersburg in their only other Final Four appearance.
"It just proves we can accomplish what we put our minds to; we are as good as everybody originally said we were. We're as good as what we thought," said Okafor, named most outstanding player in the Final Four after finishing with 24 points and 15 rebounds, both game highs.
"We just made history," added Gordon, who had 21 points and showed up at the postgame news conference with a net dangling around his neck. "After we're long dead and gone, we're still going to have this national championship banner. We just kind of immortalized ourselves."
UConn also become the first team to start No.1 in the Associated Press preseason poll and win the title since Kentucky in the 1995-96 season.
"There aren't many teams that can go wire to wire," Calhoun said. "It's another statement that there's something very special at UConn."
But a not-so-funny thing happened on the road to another "Shining Moment." The Huskies (33-6) were dubbed a disappointment a couple months ago after some unexpected losses, including 77-61 to Georgia Tech in the Preseason NIT semifinals on Nov. 26, then had Okafor hobbled by injuries (back spasms then a neck stinger).
This one looked nothing like the Preseason NIT, which stamped the Yellow Jackets (28-10) as a team to watch after entering the season with little fanfare. Okafor, in obvious pain with back spasms that day, had 13 rebounds and six blocks but managed just nine points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field.
"They hadn't seen Emeka Okafor," Calhoun said.
His star looked far more invigorated on this night, and his turnaround jumper gave UConn a 13-12 lead and ignited a 10-0 run that gave his team control.
"He's an outstanding player," said coach Paul Hewitt, who guided the Yellow Jackets into the Final Four for just the second time and into their first title game. "He's probably the player of the year in college basketball. ... I'm happy he's had as much success as he's had at UConn."
Reserve point guard Will Bynum, the star of Tech's 67-65 semifinal win against Oklahoma State with his driving layup in the final seconds, tried to work some more of his NCAA Tournament magic but came up short. And long.
Although he did hit a driving layup and a 3-pointer, he missed four free throws - including two one-and-ones - in the waning minutes. Bynum made nearly 80 percent of his free throws during the season.
It didn't help that forward Clarence Moore also missed a one-and-one. Georgia Tech was just 4 of 11 from the line in the half, 36.4 percent.
"It just happens like that sometimes," Hewitt lamented.
After Bynum's last miss from the line, Anderson, the former Lakeland Kathleen standout, hit a halftime buzzer-beating jumper for two of his 18 points to give the Huskies a 41-26 lead.
Before that the Yellow Jackets' largest halftime deficit in the tournament was 39-34 to Nevada in the region semifinals.
"We fought as hard as we could," guard Marvin Lewis said.
But UConn is not Nevada.
Okafor and Gordon kept it going in the opening minutes of the second half, and a dunk by forward Josh Boone made it 60-35 with 12:22 left. The Huskies led by 18 six minutes later but got passive and saw the lead dwindle to as low as seven in the final minute.
"Over the past four weeks we've been an amazing basketball team," Calhoun said. "When we're healthy, we're the best team in America. And tonight ... they proved we're the best team in America."