Wildcats Eliminated

HOUSTON -- When the options boil down to winning or heading home, nobody's better than Kemba and Connecticut.

Kemba Walker scored 18 points Saturday night to lift UConn to its 10th straight victory since finishing off a .500 Big East regular season, a 56-55 win over cold-shooting Kentucky that moved the Huskies a victory away from their third, and most improbable, NCAA title.


Walker, a quick-handed junior from the Bronx, added seven assists and six rebounds to help the young UConn team (31-9) extend a winning streak that started with a five-wins-in-five-nights leg-drainer at the conference tournament and now includes five more at the tournament that really counts.

The third-seeded Huskies -- lowest seed left in a tournament that has been as unpredictable as any in history -- will face No. 8 Butler, a 70-62 winner over 11th-seeded VCU in the first semifinal, on Monday.

"The guys decided they didn't want to go home; this is too much fun," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said.

But this win, which improved Calhoun to 5-1 in his four Final Four appearances, was not a work of art on either end.


Fourth-seeded Kentucky (29-9) shot 33.9 percent for the game and went 5:39 without a point late in the second half. UConn wasn't much better, but Walker, Alex Oriakhi and Shabazz Napier all made baskets to turn a 48-48 tie into a 54-48 lead with 2:29 left.

DeAndre Liggins made a 3-pointer for the Wildcats to cut the deficit to three, and Kentucky had its chances. But Brandon Knight, one of John Calipari's three sensational freshmen, barely drew iron on a 3-pointer. After Kentucky got the rebound, Liggins drew a foul but only hit one of two free throws.

Kentucky forced one more turnover and went for the win, but this time, it was Liggins whose 3-pointer was short.

"I should have drove it," Liggins said. "It was a good shot, but it fell short."

Napier made two free throws to make it 56-52, then Knight ended the game with a 3-pointer at the buzzer -- a meaningless make and a cruel close to what has otherwise been a remarkable season for Calipari and Co. -- Kentucky's first trip to the Final Four since winning it all in 1998. The Wildcats, the nation's all-time winningest program, stayed stuck on 105 NCAA-tournament wins in the program history, still tied for first with North Carolina, the team they beat to get here.


"We held a pretty good team to 56 points," Calipari said. "I hate to tell you, we talked about if we defend them this way, they're going to score around 56 points, maybe 60. I just didn't think we'd score 55."

The Huskies have won by one, by two, by three, by five and more on this unexpected postseason run. Before that, Calhoun's roster full of freshmen lived down to expectations by going 9-9 in their conference. But the Huskies haven't lost since falling to Notre Dame to close the regular season on Feb. 5.

UConn wasn't nearly as dominating here in Houston as in its 84-67 victory over Kentucky in November at the Maui Invitational. But a win's a win, and nobody does it better than UConn when it's all-or-nothing. Counting that relatively low-key get-together on the island, the Huskies are 13-0 in tournament games this season.

Next up: A meeting with Butler, the small school from Indianapolis that was last year's runner-up. But after this one, it was UConn sounding like the plucky underdog.

"We gonna shock the world," the Huskies chanted as they sprinted to their locker room.

Nobody's surprised by Walker anymore.

Kentucky did a decent job containing him with its zone, which forced the Huskies to be more patient and look for second options. Jeremy Lamb was the most obvious one. The freshman, whose father Ronaldo made a game-winning shot to knock Calhoun out of the tournament when he was coaching at Northeastern in 1984, had 12 points, including a fancy scooping layup with 2:29 left to put the Huskies ahead by six.

From there, it was a hectic, hard-fought finish that included few baskets and even fewer breaks. The teams played nearly five straight minutes without a whistle, and the 4-minute media timeout didn't come until there was a bit more than 120 seconds left.

The quick pace might have made some legs tired and had something to do with Kentucky coming up short on some of those key shots late. There wasn't much of an explanation, though, for the 9-for-32 shooting in the first half. The Wildcats trailed 31-21 at the break, their lowest first-half output of the season.

"I just think we missed a bunch of open shots," Kentucky senior Josh Harrellson said. "We had good looks, and we just weren't knocking anything down. ... We just couldn't make anything."

Knight finished 6 for 23 with 17 points, Doron Lamb had 13 on 5-for-10 shooting. But the Wildcats made only 21 field goals, only nine from 3-point range and shot 4 for 12 from the free-throw line.

Calipari barely lost this latest matchup against Calhoun -- a showdown between a couple of coaches who haven't hidden their dislike for each other, dating to the day when Calipari was at UMass in the 1990s and moving in on Calhoun's turf.

"We had our chance to win the game, and as a coach, that's all you can ask of these young people," Calipari said. "Give us a chance, and we had an opportunity."

While Calhoun has become a fixture at UConn -- in his fourth Final Four -- Calipari has moved around. This year, he joined Rick Pitino as only the second coach to take three different programs to the sport's biggest stage.

He said he'd prefer talent over experience any day. His ability to bring this group of freshmen this far was remarkable, given that this was considered something of a rebuilding year for the Wildcats, who lost John Wall and four others to the NBA draft after last season.

Calhoun could tell the same story. He wasn't expected to do much this year and was depending mainly on his star, Walker, to shoulder the load. It worked early in the season, but teams figured out how to limit him in the Big East -- as grueling a conference as there is.

Walker has been electric in leading the Huskies this far in the tournament, though, averaging 26 points a game on the road to the Final Four. Did he think something like this was possible?

"Man, probably not in the beginning of the season because I wasn't thinking about it," he said. "As the season went on in the Big East and the first game in the NCAAs, I saw the teams that we could possibly play, I knew we had a chance."

Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press

Bearcats Eliminated

By:  Cooper Ledford


The 6th seeded Cincinnati Bearcats were taking on 3rd seeded Connecticut Huskies in Washington, DC.  Both teams were looking to advance to the Sweet 16 and avoid packing up and heading home.  UC is going home, while UC is celebrating their trip to the Sweet 16, but unfortunately the UC going home is the one whose mascot is a Bearcat.  Connecticut beat Cincinnati, 69-58.


The Bearcats did play a game with Kemba Walker and UConn though, for a while the game was going back-and-forth, but Kemba Walker shined at the end of the game, which allowed the Huskies to to have a comfortable lead and eventually win.


But, fellow Bearcat fans, we cannot hang our heads.  Cincinnati had a great season, a huge improvement from last season, and it looks as if they are back on track.  Expect great things from them in the near future, this is not the last we will see of the NCAA Tournament.


Rashad Bishop was the leading scorer for the 'Cats, as he had 22 points.  Behind him was Yancy Gates who had 11.  Those were the only Bearcats in double-figures, and neither one scored all that much, and that is one reason why they lost.


Kemba Walker, who I think is the best player in all of college basketball, had 33 points, a huge reason why the Huskies won this game.


So the Bearcats head back to the Queen City, as a team that lost in the 3rd round, but in my book, they are winners for having such a great season.

UC Huskies Defeat UC Bearcats

CINCINNATI (AP) - Don't get Kemba Walker riled.
Walker scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half, after a courtside fan took to taunting him, and 14th-ranked Connecticut snapped out of its slump by beating Cincinnati 67-59 on Sunday.
The Huskies (21-7, 9-7 Big East) were coming off back-to-back losses, including an overtime defeat at Marquette on Thursday without coach Jim Calhoun. The 68-year-old coach was with his family in New Hampshire after the death of his sister-in-law.
UConn hadn't dropped three in a row all season and came out with a little extra determination against Cincinnati (22-7, 9-7), which was on a hot streak.
The Huskies led for all but 29 seconds.
"We basically had to act like we had something to prove," said Shabazz Napier, who had 11 points and six assists. "We got a lead and kept on going with it."
Walker, who leads the conference in scoring at 23 points per game, had only nine when a fan sitting courtside started taunting him. Walker made three consecutive baskets that built Connecticut's lead to 11 points, then smiled at the fan as he went down the court.
"I missed a shot and he said, 'Chris Paul wouldn't miss that shot,"' Walker said, referring to the New Orleans guard. "That's all right. I came down and made the next one. It was fun."
Jeremy Lamb added 17 for the Huskies, who went 10 of 19 from behind the 3-point arc. Cincinnati set its defense to deny Walker, leaving openings on the perimeter.
"They were so worried about me, the other guys were able to get shots and they took it to them," Walker said.
Yancy Gates had 14 points for Cincinnati, which has lost three of its last four home games. The Bearcats had won their last three overall, including victories over Louisville and Georgetown that put them in position to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since Bob Huggins was coach.
Bearcats players spent an hour and 45 minutes in the locker room afterward, talking about their lost opportunity before meeting the media.
"Everybody was kind of disappointed in our overall play," Gates said. "It wasn't how we've been playing lately. We've worked hard to put ourselves in this position. We're not in bad position, but we should have been more focused on the opportunity we had."
Their guards couldn't keep up with the inspired Walker and company.
"Our guards got as outplayed as you possibly could today," coach Mick Cronin said.
Walker got rolling against the league's stingiest defense when a fan sitting in the courtside seats started taunting him in the second half. Walker made a 3-pointer from the top of the key a few seconds later, turned and smiled at the fan as he ran down the court. He had a steal for a fast-break score, then made another jumper for a 56-45 lead and said something to the fan, who wouldn't taunt him again.
It was a rough week for Calhoun, who took responsibility Friday for recruiting violations. The school was put on three years' probation, lost scholarships and received recruiting restrictions. Calhoun got a three-game suspension that he will serve at the start of the 2011-12 Big East season.
Calhoun referred to the emotional week and praised his young players for coming through.
"I've had some very good teams over the last few years," Calhoun said. "This is one of my favorite teams of all time."
The Huskies appeared to be in trouble when Walker picked up his third foul with 16:37 to go and Cashmere Wright made both free throws for a 33-32 lead, Cincinnati's only one in the game. It didn't last long.
The 3 got UConn back ahead. Roscoe Smith and Napier made shots from behind the arc during a 12-2 run that gave the Huskies their biggest lead, 47-37, with 12:18 to go. Then Walker made his three consecutive shots to put UConn in control the rest of the way.
The long-range shooting was quite out of character. Connecticut ranks 12th in the Big East, making 33.5 percent of its 3-point attempts.