UConn Tops Butler to Capture Third Title UConn freshman Jeremy Lamb. With UConn’s star guard, Kemba Walker making 5 of 19 shots, Lamb shook off a languid first half to take over the game. He scored all 12 of his points in the Jim Calhoun became the oldest coach to win the national title and the fifth to win three or more N.C.A.A. championships.

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Coming off a season in which it lost in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament, the Connecticut basketball team was under N.C.A.A. investigation, was picked to finish 10th in the Big East and had a roster filled with inexperienced and unproven player. When the Huskies finished ninth in the Big East, their star guard, Kemba Walker joked, that they had overachieved.

But in an 11-game postseason run that began with five victories in five days in the Big East tournament and was equal parts stunning and historic, the Huskies transformed from mediocre to momentous.
Third-seeded Connecticut took advantage of No. 8 Butler’s record-low shooting percentage in a final for a 53-41 victory on Wednesday night and its third national title. At 68, Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun became the oldest coach to win the national title and the fifth to win three or more N.C.A.A. championships.
This will not go down as one of the more artistic games in Calhoun’s tenure, but national titles are not graded by style points. A brutish Huskies defense overwhelmed Butler with its length and physicality, holding the Bulldogs to 18.8 percent shooting from the field. Butler made three 2-point field goals in 31 tries.
Butler led at halftime, 22-19. But Matt Howard, the Bulldogs’ star forward, finished 1 for 13 from the field with 7 points, and the star guard Shelvin Mack was 4 for 15 with 13 points.
The Bulldogs scored the fewest points in a title game since 1949, when Oklahoma A&M lost to Kentucky, 46-36.
In a tournament in which Butler Coach Brad Stevens seemed to find all the answers, like a concise inbounds play or surprising substitution, he could only shake his head as Butler’s shots rolled in and out. The Bulldogs opened the second half shooting 2 for 25 from the field, which buried them in a double-digit hole from which they could never recover. Butler made only 6 of 37 shots after halftime — 15.2 percent.
While the Huskies’ stingy man-to-man defense proved the story, their most important performance came from the UConn freshman Jeremy Lamb. With UConn’s star guard, Kemba Walker making 5 of 19 shots, Lamb shook off a languid first half to take over the game. He scored all 12 of his points in the second half, wishing a 3-pointer, dunking off a steal and finishing an alley oop.
UConn (32-9) used its superior size to block 10 shots, alter countless others and not allow Butler (28-10) to gain any traction rebounding. UConn held a 51-38 advantage on the glass. Butler had no answer inside for Connecticut’s Alex Oriakhi, who finished with 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
Butler came from behind in four of its five N.C.A.A. tournament wins, but there would be no magic this time.
The loss ends the second consecutive season for Butler in the national title game; last year the Bulldogs lost to Duke, 71-69, when their midcourt heave at the buzzer missed.
The pace of the first half was in Butler’s favor, and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Mack gave the Bulldogs a 22-19 lead. It sent N.C.A.A. statisticians flipping through their history books, as it was the lowest-scoring half of a national title game since 1946, when Oklahoma State led North Carolina, 23-17.
UConn shot 29 percent in the first half, Butler 22.
Mack, who entered the tournament averaging 20.1 points a game, did not score his first field goal until 4 minutes 11 seconds remained in the first half. But with two 3-pointers and a free throw he tied for the leading scorer in the first half with 7 points.
Lamb blanketed Mack, who, like his teammates, struggled with UConn’s superior length and athleticism. Mack shot 2 for 7 but still accounted for one-third of Butler’s field goals. Howard hit only 1 of 6 shots in the first half, as UConn center Charles Okwandu bothered him.
Despite slowing Mack early, Connecticut could never take advantage. Walker missed his first five shots from the field, and the Huskies failed to hit a 3-point shot the entire first half. Walker scored 7 points, but shot only 3 for 11 from the field and looked winded at the end of the half. Lamb, who has been Walker’s sidekick throughout the N.C.A.A. tournament, did not score by halftime.
UConn seemed to control the game early, leading, 13-8, on Walker’s 3-point play with 12:34 remaining. But UConn scored only 6 points over the final 12:34, with a mixture of missed shots and turnovers that reminded everyone why they were picked so low in the Big East.
Calhoun joins elite company, as the only other coaches to win three or more national titles are John Wooden (10), Adolph Rupp (4), Mike Krzyzewski (3) and Bob Knight (3). But this championship season did not come without its share of problems.
Calhoun and his program were hit with N.C.A.A. sanctions this year for recruiting violations. Calhoun must serve a three-game suspension at the start of Big East play next season, and his program will have scholarship and recruiting restrictions and a three-year probation.
According to the N.C.A.A., Connecticut joins Kansas in 2008 as the only teams since 1990 to win the basketball championship while on probation for basketball-related sanctions.
The victory will certainly lead to speculation as to whether Calhoun will retire, as he is already secured a legacy among the game’s great coaches. He has said he will lean on advice given to him by the former North Carolina coach Dean Smith.
“ ‘Don’t ever make a decision on your basketball future right after a season, no matter how great it was, and don’t ever make it after a disappointing season,’ ” Calhoun recalled Smith telling him. “ ‘Give yourself some time, space, and distance and then make a decision.’ I do it every spring. I’ve done it every spring for probably the past five, six, seven years.”