It was fun while it lasted. With nearly every college basketball fan pulling for the little guy — Butler — it was big, bad Connecticut that waltzed away with the title.
There are more snapshots after the jump and still more at 30fps. Click an image to enlarge.
At the time of this post, Connecticut is a 3.5-point favorite over Butler. The prop bets posted after the jump are courtesy of the Las Vegas Hilton Race & Sports Book. Thanks to 30fps.
Joel Huerto is managing editor of One Man Fastbreak.net and a sports consultant with Opposing Views.com. He has been a member of the sports media for almost 20 years, which included nine years as a news editor at the Los Angeles Times. He will cover a variety of topics, from coach and player profiles to hot-button issues. Joel is also known as "maniLA ice" for his cool demeanor in the friendly confines of the YMCA hardwood. He loves to shoot the "tear drop" and prefers to play zone to hide his deficiencies on defense.
The game started on Thursday night and ended on Friday morning. It took six overtimes and nearly four hours of court time before Syracuse finally outlasted Connecticut, 127-117, at Madison Square Garden in the second-longest game in Division I history.
Only Cincinnati and Bradley played in more overtimes. On Dec. 21, 1981, Cincinnati defeated Bradley, 75-73, in seven five-minute overtime periods.
"I just got to tell you, I'm more proud of this team tonight than any team I've ever coached because we had nothing. We had nobody out there for a long time. Connecticut had their good players for a couple of three overtimes," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "The heart we showed coming back from six points down in one overtime, the plays we made ... I've never been prouder of a team than these guys tonight.
I'm still steamed over Jim Calhoun's arrogant and condescending response last week to a question about his salary and the disturbing response by the "journalists" in the room to free-lance reporter Ken Krayeske's follow-up line of questioning. Many bloggers gleefully jumped in, using works like "attack" and "ambush" to describe Krayeske like a jackal looking for an easy prey, saying he picked the wrong place and wrong time to ask Calhoun such questions.
Calhoun, of course, regularly has access to the biggest of bullhorns and he got another opportunity to sound off on the matter Saturday when CBS' Jim Nance tossed an easy lob to the coach. Calhoun refused to apologize for his outburst and was backed by Greg Gumbel, who was playing good cop-bad cop with Seth Davis.
Other coaches are now being asked to justify their sky-high salaries in the crumbling economy. North Carolina's Roy Williams was the latest, and he at least displayed sensitivity to the situation.
Then there is Southern Mississippi's Larry Eustachy, who said he was going to give back a $25,000 bonus to the school, partly because of the economic downturn and partly because he had not done a good job. Southern Mississippi athletic director Richard Giannini accepted Eustachy's offer.
"I respect him for what he did," Giannini said. "He knew the economic times we were having and we need to use every dime we can find."
Yes, rich people have problems, too. Jim Calhoun, the highest-paid state employee in Connecticut, gets testy when asked by free-lance reporter Ken Krayeske about his $1.6 million annual salary. Given that the state is facing a $944 million budget deficit, Krayeske asked Calhoun if he would consider giving money back to the state.
"Not a dime back," Calhoun said.
Way to go, coach. In your case, there is no "I" in team.
Of course, the gutless media is now playing defense and coming down on Krayeske for having the balls to dare challenge the multimillionaire coach, who claims his darling program brings in $12 million a year to the university — before expenses.
Hats off to Krayeske, who has bigger ones than any reporter in Connecticut. It's disheartening to hear the Calhoun lapdogs start to get on Krayeske's case near the end of the exchange.
Update: Regarding Calhoun's claim of his program bringing in $12 million a year. According to information Connecticut filed with the U.S. Department of Education as part of its Equity in Athletics Analysis, UConn men's basketball generated $7.3 million in revenue and spent $6.1 million in 2007-08. Maybe Calhoun's $12 million figure is from the men's and women's team combined, which totaled $12.6 million in revenue in '07-08. Nonetheless, it appears Calhoun is engaging in fuzzy math.
