Mar 18 2019
Off

Initially, I planned to create one column highlighting the top moments from all of the NCAA tournaments of the decade. I quickly realized that there was simply too many amazing moments and I didn’t want to leave anything out. Instead, I will be doing a shorter column on each NCAA tournament of the decade. In this piece, I take a look back at one of the maddest of all Marches in 2011.

2011 Tournament Summary

National Champion: UConn Huskies

Most Outstanding Player: Kemba Walker, UConn

Final Four: 3 UConn, 4 Kentucky, 8 Butler, 11 VCU

Major Upsets: 13 Morehead State over 4 Lousiville, 8 Butler over 1 Pittsburgh

Connecticut’s March for the Ages

When looking back on the 2011 NCAA tournament, there’s only one place to start. UConn’s illustrious run to the national title led by Kemba Walker was one of the most captivating and memorable performances of all time. After finishing 9th in the Big East, they kicked off the postseason with an absurd five wins in five days run to capture the Big East Tournament title. Cleary, these were the days before “load management”. The legend of “Cardiac Kemba” was born during the quarterfinals, when Walker hit this iconic game-winning, buzzer-beating step-back to defeat Georgetown.

After winning the Big East tournament, the Huskies were slotted as a 3-seed and danced all the way to the national title. UConn didn’t face any 1-seeds, but that does not mean their road was easy by any stretch of the imagination. In the second round, the Huskies grinded out a win over Big East foe, Cincinnati. Then, UConn took down Kawhi Leonard’s San Diego State squad in the Sweet 16. Arizona’s Derrick Williams, the second overall selection in the 2011 draft, waited in the Elite 8. Jamelle Horne’s missed three with only a few seconds remaining doomed the Wildcats and sent Walker’s Huskies to the Final Four in Houston.

The national semifinal featured two premier head coaches in UConn’s Jim Calhoun and Kentucky’s John Calipari. On the court, Walker was able to outduel Brandon Knight, marking the Huskies tenth consecutive postseason win and catapulting them into the national championship game. Brad Stevens’ resurgent Butler squad held a narrow lead at the half, but UConn pulled away in the second half to capture the program’s third national championship.

Walker, of course, was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and his back-court mate, Jeremy Lamb, joined him on the All Tournament Team. The Huskies eleven postseason wins cemented their championship run would have its own chapter in the history books.

The Other Final Four Teams

UConn will be remembered as a pseudo-Cinderella team after beginning the Big East tournament as a 9-seed, but the Huskies were actually the highest seed of any Final Four team in 2011. The Huskies were joined by 4-seed Kentucky, who were led by the freshmen duo of Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones. After losing Gordon Hayward to the NBA, Butler head coach Brad Stevens somehow orchestrated an even more improbable run to the national championship game. But even the 8th seeded Bulldogs weren’t the true Cinderella of the 2011 NCAA tournament.

The 11th-seeded VCU Rams crashed into Houston for the Final Four, led by head coach Shaka Smart. In the Elite 8, The Rams defeated top seed Kansas to clinch a berth in the Final Four. VCU was one of the last at-large teams to crack the field and had to play in the opening “First Four” round. Many college basketball analysts eviscerated the committee for selecting VCU in the first place. ESPN’s Jay Bilas said “I’m not saying I don’t care how these kids feel, but I don’t care how these kids feel. … We talk about the eye test, [but] this one fails the laugh test”. VCU proved the experts wrong en route to one of the most surprising Final Four runs of all time; they are tied for the lowest seed to ever reach the Final Four (three other 11-seeds have also reached the Final Four).

Random Tidbits

  • In the West bracket, each of the top 8 seeds advanced to the second round. While in the Southwest bracket, only the top 3 seeds did the same. Each of the 4 through 8 seeds were upset in the first round.
  • Despite the madness tournament is remembered for, there were almost no significant first round upsets. The only seed higher than 12 to pull off an upset was 13 Morehead State (shout out to my new Athletic Director, Brian Hutchinson) over 4 Louisville on an game-winning three-pointer.
A BYU Cougars fan holds up a sign supporting Jimmer Fredette
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
  • This tournament was the last time we saw BYU’s Jimmer Fredette. Fredette led BYU to a 3 seed and a Sweet 16 appearance with an incredible senior season, in which he averaged an insane 28.9 points and 4.3 assists per game. Fredette put up some monster performances his senior year, including a 52-point effort in his conference tournament and a 47-point bonanza that prompted this tweet from Kevin Durant. Fredette was a bonafide college legend, sweeping every significant individual award in 2010-11.
  • Looking back, Fredette was ahead of his time. I can’t imagine how much more successful he’d be in the modern NBA, where long-range threes are no longer frowned upon, but encouraged. The legend of Jimmer Fredette won’t soon be forgotten.

Legacy

Shabazz Napier and Kemba Walker celebrate after defeating the Pittsburgh Panthers during the quarterfinals of the 2011 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament
Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images

The 2011 tournament will be forever remembered as one of the craziest NCAA tournaments ever. It was only NCAA tournament to not feature a 1 or 2 seed in the Final Four – the average seed of the Final Four participant of 6.5 is the highest ever. Bleacher Report ironically predicted there would be no Cinderellas in 2011. This was March Madness at its finest.

For me, the 2011 NCAA tournament will always be one of my fondest college basketball memories. I had moved to Raleigh, the heart and soul of college basketball, in mid-2008, so this was only my third time truly experiencing March Madness. I may be a UNC fan, but Kemba Walker is the reason I fell in love with college basketball. I remember recreating his signature step back literally hundreds of times in my driveway. Every year, I look for players who could “pull a Kemba” and carry their teams to a title. (Looking at you in 2019, Markus Howard.)

Posted in2010's in Review Basketball College Basketball
Tagsbutler jimmer fredette kemba walker kentucky uconn vcu

35 thoughts on “The 2011 NCAA Tournament: The Maddest March of All Time”

Comments are closed.