The Meanest Things Said About Last Night's Ugly NCAA Championship

Ray Gustini
The Meanest Things Said About Last Night's Ugly NCAA Championship

The sheer ugliness of Connecticut's 53-41 win over Butler in the NCAA title game last night is difficult to convey to those who didn't watch. You can say Butler went only 1 of 8 on layups, but that doesn't capture the futile image of Butler star center Matt Howard consistently being rejected by the front rim of the basket. You can say there were ugly and pointless fouls, but that doesn't explain the goofiness of UConn forward Roscoe Smith picking up an offensive foul after swinging his arm like a scythe on a dunk. Here are six accounts that go a long way towards putting it in perspective

  • "It was a fun NCAA tournament. It was a fun NCAA tournament. It was a fun NCAA tournament. Keep saying that for as long as it takes to rid your brain of the memory of how it ended. Otherwise, you might be scarred for life." - Pat Forde, ESPN.com

  • "The first half was an absurdity. Butler made just 22 percent of its shots ... and the Bulldogs were WINNING by three at halftime. The score, 22-19, was like something out of time, as if a cobbler had shown up or the cheerleaders just started dancing the Charleston." - Joe Posnanski, Sports Illustrated

  • Did you see this esthetically unappealing mess on the court? No team ever shot this poorly...It was a physical scrum with no flow or rhythm for most of 40 minutes." - Mike Wise, The Washington Post

  • "In the end, it wasn't the storybook ending that everyone outside the insurance and hedge-fund capital of America was hoping for. And it was—pardon the pun—a dog of a game." - Darren Everson, The Wall Street Journal

  • Maybe the two teams were tight. Maybe there was some great defense being played out there. That isn't what it looked like. Whether in November in a half-filled gym or in April in a sold-out football stadium, bad basketball looks about the same." - Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer

  • "Trust me when I say this: Someday down the road, Butler players will laugh about this game. What else can you do? You look back on a night where your team committed just five turnovers in a game with a 35-second shot clock and you scored only 41 points? That's funny, and some day -- 10 years, 15, the day will come -- Butler's 2011 team will get together and giggle about this.  - Gregg Doyel, CBS Sports