Min's basketball in the NCAA (national Collete athletic association) national championship is determined by a national tournament in which every team that qualifies is invited. Every team in the tournament is given a seed number. That number is how the experts predict that team will finish. Before the first ball is tipped every expert decides which of the four regions each team will play in. East, west, south east, and south west, the regions depend on the location of the school. There are a few ways in which a team may earn an invitation to the tournament. When a team wins their conference tournament they automatically earn a spot in the national tournament. There is also what is called an at large bid, which means if a team beats other teams that are bigger and more have a higher rank that team will also earn an a bid. The first round starts with 64 teams, but the national tournament is a win or go home tournament, so half of the teams are cut every round. The second round starts with 32 teams, then down to 16, 8, 4, finally the national championship game is played. Although the teams with a number one seed have the best chance to win but, there are some surprises every year. One of the biggest surprises of last years tournament was the small college of Vcu and Butler, Butler who played Uconn in the national title game. Vcu which made it all the way to the elite 8, before losing to 2011 champion Uconn (41-53). Although Butler made it further than anyone expected they were defeated by another power house school University of Connecticut. The fact that the small college of Butler made it to the final forces the public to wonder should more small schools be given the opportunity to show the country that they can play competitively with the powerhouse universities. Although it will not happen mostly because the major powerhouse schools bring in a larger audience to their games and also donate the more money, than a small school can.
The final outcome of the national championship would have been different had Butler been able to shoot the basketball a little better. But the fact is the game was taken over by the Connecticut big men, Kemba walker and Jeremy Lamb. Butler had only one player who could score as much as the Uconn big men and that was Shelvin Mack, who led his team in points, (13) and rebounds (9). But that is compared to Uconn's Kemba walker's (16) points and Alex Oriakhi (11) rebounds.
Had Butler had a big man that could score and play defense they might not have needed so, much from their star Shelvin Mack who must have been extra tired having too lead Butler in Scoring and rebounding. The fact is though that Butler did better than anyone had expected them too. But the fans of the University of Connecticut would say the biggest story of the tournament was the fact that for the first time a school,Uconn, who did not receive an invitation too the NCAA tournament the year before, came back as an at large bid and won the entire tournament. Never before has a school been able too accomplish that goal.
