Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2013-14 season.
ARLINGTON, Texas - UConn senior guard Shabazz Napier had been waiting two years to speak his mind, two years to voice his opinion on the NCAA's decision to ban the Huskies from the 2013 postseason.
When he got the podium after the Huskies defeated Kentucky, 60-54, to win the NCAA Championship, he couldn't hold it in any longer.
"I want to get everyone's attention,'' he told Jim Nantz of CBS. “Ladies and gentleman, you're looking at the Hungry Huskies. This is what happens when you ban us.”
Napier used a national television forum to publicly point the finger at the organization that just handed UConn its fourth national championship trophy in the .last 15 years.
The Huskies were banned from postseason in 2012 as a result of APR scores that dated back to 2008 and 2009, long before Napier and anyone of the UConn roster were part of the program.
“I just told myself if I was in that position, that was what I was going to say,” Napier told reporters afterwards. “People know how I feel about the postseason ban. I really don’t think that it was our fault. We had nothing to do with it. Our APR is up there. I think it was 1,000 actually. It wasn't our fault.”
It was that kind of motivation that fueled Napier and the Huskies to new heights during this March Madness. And it was no surprise that Napier, the best player in arguably the most riveting NCAA tournament of all time, was selected Most Outstanding Player after he torched the young Wildcats for 22 points and made every big shot down the stretch, the same way he had during the previous four games.
Napier took a page out of Kentucky coach John Calipari's mantra at UMass and simply refused to lose. Junior guard Ryan Boatright contributed 14 points and the Huskies suffocated Kentucky, which had a history of second half rallies, limiting them to 7-for-21 shooting. The Wildcats suffered a total meltdown on the line, making just 13 of 24 shots for the game.
UConn's unexpected success story came just a month after the Huskies had lost to American Athletic Conference rival Louisville 81-48, in the final game of the regular season. And it points not only how good The American was in its first year but also that you can win national championships in men's basketball playing in this conference, which produced four NCAA participants and an NIT finalist.
UConn was a fifth seed in The American tournament in Memphis and didn’t beat either Louisville or SMU all season, losing a combined five games to hall-of-fame coaches Rick Pitino and Larry Brown. They were down by 20 with 10 minutes to play in the second half of a loss to Louisville in the tournament final.
But given the way their team played in the biggest moment of their season, they deserved to be up on stage, listening to "One Shining Moment.''
The Huskies are just the latest team to validate this league, which has suddenly become the flavor of the month and deserves enormous credit making converts of fans with its multiple national accomplishments and accolades. UCF won a BCS game, beating Big 12 champion Baylor in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Napier and guards Sean Kilpatrick of Cincinnati and Russ Smith of Louisville were all selected first team AP All Americans.
And now this for an undervalued seventh seed in the NCAA tournament and a conference commissioner, Mike Aresco, who always stayed positive about the health of the league. The fact that this went down in Dallas, where SMU created a huge buzz in its first year in the league seems only fitting.
Kevin Ollie and the players should take one more bow for writing the final chapter of this feel-good story that touched the hearts of America and left senior administrators in the American drying their eyes after watching their conference representative win it all .
"It's unbelievable because those guys, my players, stayed with the program,'' Ollie said.
After the sanctions came down, five players from 2012 -- including starting center Alex Oriakhi and forward Roscoe Smith -- transferred and Jim Calhoun announced his retirement. But those who stayed made history.
"We didn't come out here to get any revenge or anything like that,” Napier said. “We came out here to play. When you have the greatest fans to back you up, you're going to play for them.
“You got to continue to believe. We had faith in each other, and we are here. We won the whole thing. We didn't listen to any doubters."