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Big Ten Tournament Recap: Regular-Season Champion Buckeyes Make It a Clean Sweep
By Sharon Crowson
Correspondent
When the Big Ten Tournament was over, top-seeded Ohio State was the one team left standing. But the road to the tournament championship was not easy. Not easy at all. In the semi-finals, the Buckeyes got by a scrappy Wisconsin team, 82-73, in a game that was closer than the nine-point final margin would suggest. In the championship game, Ohio State did not take the lead for the last time until Jantel Lavender sank two free throws with 1.9 seconds left in the game to give the Buckeyes a 66-64 lead. Even then, they could not breathe easily until the final buzzer when Iowa’s Kamille Wahlin launched a 40-footer that had the correct distance but was off the mark.
To paraphrase Geno Auriemma in another context, in the final analysis, Ohio State won because they had Lavender and no one else did. Lavender, who impressed with her class after the final horn as much as with her play before it, dominated both teams and was an easy choice as tournament Most Valuable Player. In the three games she averaged 27 points, including a tournament-record tying 35 in the championship game. Over the same span, she averaged 8.8 rebounds a game and shot 50 percent from the field despite being the focus of everyone’s defense.
Big East Tournament Recap: UConn Takes It All, by a Wide Margin, Despite Terrible Shooting by Stars
By Jim Clark
Correspondent
Connecticut 60 – West Virginia 32
Those who have anointed Connecticut the best team ever; those who have already awarded the Huskies the National Championship; those who expect the past to be the future, take note: The imposters who took to their alternate home court in Hartford, CT for the Big East final Tuesday looked nothing like the best team anywhere, nothing like National Champions, and nothing like the team that reeled off 32 straight wins this season. In fact, they certainly did not look like a team with two first-team All-Americans, or like one with the two best players in the country. What UConn looked like in this game, and in yesterday’s semifinal, is a poor-shooting, sloppy, unfocused team that plays great defense. That amazing defense and Kalana Greene’s sense of responsibility for her team, brought UConn it’s sixteenth Big East Tournament Championship.
This was the 27th Big East Tournament final game. Connecticut has played in 20 of those finals, including the last six. The Huskies have won the last two finals, and four of the last five. (The loss was in 2007 to Rutgers). West Virginia, has played in 13 Big East Tournaments, including the last nine, and was playing its second Tournament final. The previous one, played against UConn in 2006, ended with a 50-44 Connecticut victory. The Mountaineers and Huskies have played 22 previous times. West Virginia won the first of those match-ups, 62-50 in 1982, and has not beaten UConn since.
Kalana Greene is the only player to have participated in the last final between these two teams. (She’s a fifth-year senior). Greene played in her 151st UConn game, breaking Renee Montgomery’s record for games in a career, set just last season. Greene’s experienced, blue-collar approach, and sense of responsibility made this victory possible.
Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Regular-Season Wrap
By Jim Clark
Correspondent
Did you miss me? Sometimes the rigors of everyday living can interfere with a person’s enjoyment of a good basketball game. During most of the month of February, I was traveling, and unable To report on the final eight games of the Connecticut season. The results, of course, were the same as they have been all year: The Huskies are now 30-0, and have one 69 straight games by double figures.
So, very quickly, what’s worth remembering about these final eight games of the Connecticut regular season?
- Coaches: You Gotta Dance with Who Brung You!
- The Big Ten As I See It: With a Mess of a Regular Season, Post-Season Chances Are Tough to Predict
- You Don’t Always Get What You Want ... You Get What You Need
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Connecticut 66 – St.John’s 52
- The Husky Report Heads South: Mississippi State 55 - South Carolina 53 (February 11, 2010)
- Jacki Gemelos Makes a Long-Delayed Collegiate Debut
- The Big Ten As I See It: Weekend Upsets Show There Are No Truly Bad Teams in the League This Year
- Does Coaching Really Matter?
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Connecticut 73, Rutgers 36
- True Confessions - Rating High School Basketball Talent is Far from a Science
- The Big Ten As I See It: This Year’s Freshmen Have the Potential to Upgrade the League
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: No. 1 UConn 70 v. No. 4 Notre Dame 46
- Coaches’ Corner: Putting the Basketball Back in Basketball Conditioning
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: UConn 88 - North Carolina 47
- Summing Up the NCAA Season—Domination and Parity Both on the Menu
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: UConn 84 v. South Florida 42
- Injuries—At All Levels—Must Be Taken Seriously
- 2009 Nike Tournament of Champions Kicks Off Friday—No “Gimme” Games Here
- Monarchs’ Dispersal Draft: Slim Pickin’s
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Connecticut 80 v. Hartford 45
- What’s Not Happening in Women’s Pro Ball
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Connecticut 84 – Vermont 42
- The Big Ten As I See It: Top and Bottom of the League Clear this Year
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Day Three, WBCA Classic
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Day Two, WBCA Classic
- Men’s or Women’s College Basketball: Who’s Better? Athleticism, Quality Play Do Not Go Hand-in-Hand
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: Day One, WBCA Classic
- The Big Ten: As I See It
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: UConn Notches 41st and 42nd Consecutive Double-Digit Wins
- Jim Clark’s Husky Report: UConn 105 - Northeastern 35
