Louisville, Connecticut Rule College Basketball

Louisville Cardinals athletic logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Louisville Cardinals won the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, and the Connecticut Huskies won the women's tournament.  What's news here is that the two schools' head basketball coaches reached important milestones with their victories.  Thus, this:

Louisville 82, Michigan 76

At the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Monday night, Rick Pitino became the first man to coach two different college programs to national titles (the other being Kentucky in 1996).  It was relatively close for most of the game before Louisville pulled away for the school's third championship, the last being in 1986.  Luke Hancock was the high scorer for the Cardinals with 22 points, while teammate Peyton Siva scored most of his 18 points in the second half.

Kevin Ware shares something in common with Minnesota high school hockey player Jack Jablonski.  Both became overexposed media celebrities because of horrific injuries suffered on the court or on the ice.  Both were reduced to sideline mascots cheering on their teams.  Both their teams went on to win championships.  Coincidence?

Unlike Jablonski's injury, Ware's was nationally televised as a bone protruded outside his leg.  Judging from the reaction, you'd have thought someone just died on the basketball court.  CBS showed the replay a couple of times, but then never again.  And neither did any other network or website.  You might argue that such a gruesome injury need not be endlessly shown.  But you should have the right to decide that, not some TV network who thinks its viewers are babies who can't handle the truth.

Rick Pitino, in addition to winning another college basketball championship, was just named to the sport's Hall of Fame.  His son, Richard, is the new University of Minnesota men's basketball coach.  He has a horse that's going to the Kentucky Derby.  And he has promised to get a tattoo.  So yeah, it's been a good week.

Connecticut 93, Louisville 60

The Cardinals had a chance to do what one other school had done before, and that is be title holder to both the men's and women's basketball crowns.  That other school was Connecticut in 2004.

Instead, the Huskies' blowout win at New Orleans Tuesday night gave coach Geno Auriemma his eighth national title, tying him with Pat Summitt and Tennessee.

Freshman Breanna Stewart led the Huskies with 23 points.  Unlike the great Huskies players of the past--Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Rebecca Lobo, Maya Moore--Stewart kind of snuck up on us.  All we've been hearing about were Brittney Griner of Baylor and Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame, but neither of them made the championship game.

Both of these schools were members of the Big East Conference, until everybody started going their separate ways.  Next season, the Big East becomes strictly a basketball conference dominated by Catholic colleges.  The remainder (including Connecticut) will go into the American Athletic Conference.  Louisville will be in the AAC for one season before heading for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Leagues may come and players may go, but there is one constant in college sports.  It's all about the coaches, as Pitino and Auriemma have just demonstrated.