The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game was the title game of the

2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2010-11 ...

and determined the national champion for the 2010-11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The game was played on April 4, 2011, at Reliant Stadium in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and featured the West Regional Champion, #3-seeded

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, versus the Southeast Regional Champion, #8 seeded

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

. For the first time since the 1989 National Championship Game, neither a #1 nor a #2 seed participated in the National Championship Game. UConn defeated Butler in a defensive battle, 53-41, to win their third national title. The Bulldogs became the first team to lose in consecutive title games since the Fab Five-era

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Participants

Butler Bulldogs

The Butler Bulldogs had made it back to the national championship for the second year in a row after losing their best player and eventual

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

star

Gordon Hayward Gordon Daniel Hayward (born March 23, 1990) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, and Oklahoma City Thunder. ...

of the

Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...

. In their opener, they squeaked past Old Dominion 60–58. In the following game, Matt Howard made the game-winning

free throw In basketball, free throws or foul shots are unopposed attempts to score points by shooting from behind the free-throw line (informally known as the foul line or the charity stripe), a line situated at the end of the restricted area. Free throws ...

against

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

to come out on top 71–70. After defeating the

Wisconsin Badgers The Wisconsin Badgers are the College athletics in the United States, athletic teams representing the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I ...

in the Sweet Sixteen 61–54, they took the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

into overtime, emerging victorious 74–71 to earn a spot in the Final Four. They would defeat the Cinderella of the tournament, VCU, in another closely contested game, 70–62, to return to their second consecutive national championship game.

Connecticut Huskies

After failing to make the NCAA tournament the previous year, UConn got off to a hot start, winning their first 10 games of the 2010–11 season – including victories over #2 Michigan State and #8 Kentucky in the Maui Invitational – and climbing as high as #4 in the AP poll. However, they went on stumble down the stretch, finishing 9th in the

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

with a 9–9 record in conference play. Nonetheless, they earned a #3 seed in the West Region. After coasting to an easy victory over Bucknell 81–52 in the first round, the Huskies defeated the Cincinnati Bearcats 69–58 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. After fighting past a dangerous San Diego State team that had entered the game with a 34–2 record 74–67, UConn faced off against Arizona in the Elite Eight. Behind the phenomenal play of Kemba Walker, the Huskies beat the Wildcats in a thriller 65–63 to advance to their 4th ever Final Four. They would pull off a 56–55 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats to set up a national championship match up with Butler.

Starting lineups

Game summary

For the first time since 1989 there was not a #1 or #2 seed team in the championship game. Butler was only the second #8 seed to make it the championship game after the 1985 Villanova team, who took down the top-seeded Georgetown 66–64 in the final. The 2011 national championship game was between

, a mid-major university team that was a surprise finalist in the 2010 tournament, and

The University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, a basketball powerhouse which had previously won the tournament twice under coach

Jim Calhoun James A. Calhoun (born May 10, 1942) is an American former college basketball coach. He is best known for his tenure as head coach of the University of Connecticut (UConn) men's basketball team. His teams won three NCAA national championships ( ...

but had had an average regular season, finishing 9th in the

before winning the conference tournament with five victories in five consecutive days (never before accomplished in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

history). The NCAA championship game was a very defensive contest, with UConn coming out on top 53–41 to win their third-ever national title and Butler scoring the fewest points in a championship game since 1949. The Bulldogs led at halftime 22–19, but suffered in the second half from poor shooting, making only 6 out of 37 shots in the second half. Butler's 18.8 percent shooting for the entire game was the lowest ever in the

final. UConn contributed to Butler's poor shooting by blocking 10 shots, also a championship game record. Butler was led in scoring by junior guard Shelvin Mack with 13 points, while UConn freshman Jeremy Lamb scored 12 points in the 2nd half. The win by the Huskies completed a season-ending 11-game win streak that had begun with the Big East Tournament. The game was widely viewed as a poor-quality final. In reference to the game's first half of play,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

analyst

Greg Anthony Gregory Carlton Anthony (born November 15, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Anthony also co ...

said, "This is the worst half of basketball I've ever seen in a national championship game.”

References

{{2011 Connecticut Huskies men's basketball navbox NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game NCAA Division I men's basketball championship games Butler Bulldogs men's basketball UConn Huskies men's basketball College basketball tournaments in Texas Basketball competitions in Houston April 2011 sports events in the United States NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game 2011 in Houston