ESPN Men's Basketball

PITTSBURGH -- Quick thoughts on Gonzaga's 77-54 victory over West Virginia on Thursday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Overview: West Virginia traveled 75 miles for its second-round NCAA tournament game, Gonzaga 2,000. That was about right for the cruising speed for the teams, too.

While Gonzaga zipped, zigged and zagged, the Mountaineers looked like they were anchored to the court.

The Zags ate West Virginia up offensively, shooting 56 percent from the floor and a blistering 53 from behind the arc. They were also smothering defensively, forcing WVU out past the arc, from where the Mountaineers could hit only 3-of-17.

It was nothing less than a clinic from a team that, like West Virginia, is young, but is blessed with the one thing the Mountaineers have lacked all season -- decent shooting.

Senior forward Kevin Jones scored only 13 points -- and that’s not going to win many games for WVU.

Turning point: Approximately 16 seconds in. The Mountaineers led 2-0 ... and that was about the end of the highlights for West Virginia. By the end of the half, Gonzaga owned a 40-22 margin, completely dominating and outplaying the Mountaineers. It didn’t get better after that.

Key player: Robert Sacre came to Pittsburgh salivating at the chance to play some East Coast power ball. The Gonzaga forward didn’t really get that game, but he was important nonetheless, contributing 14 points and six rebounds. He got the outside part of the inside-outside compliment from Kevin Pangos (13) and Gary Bell Jr. (14).

Miscellaneous: The 23-point loss marked the worst for West Virginia coach Bob Huggins since a 21-point defeat to Duke in the Final Four in 2010, and nearly matched the 24-point beating Illinois handed his Cincinnati team in 2004. … This is the third year in a row Gonzaga has won its opening game in the NCAA tournament. ... These are two of the younger teams in the country. Gonzaga has three freshmen and four sophomores on its roster; West Virginia has seven freshmen.

Next game: Gonzaga faces No. 2 seed Ohio State, setting up a couple of terrific battles Saturday — between Pangos and Aaron Craft at the point and Sacre, who has been begging for more physical games, against Jared Sullinger.

When are two words worth $17.2 million? When you have many more millions -- correction: billions -- riding on this little thing called the NCAA tournament.

Yes, according to USA Today's Steve Weiberg, last October the NCAA quietly went about securing the trademark rights to the term "March Madness." The NCAA paid the sum to get sports and entertainment marketing company Intersport to stop using the term (most recently) in programming for mobile devices. Intersport is, according to its website, an "award-winning innovator and leader in the creation of sports and entertainment based marketing platforms" [sic]. More concretely, it plans events like the high school slam-dunk and three-point contests that take place the same week as the Final Four and, in fact, took out the original trademark rights on "March Madness" more than 20 years ago.

There have been other, smaller claims on "March Madness," particularly by the Illinois High School Association, which shared the trademark with Intersport before relinquishing control but retaining use of the term for its state basketball championship tournaments, according to Weiberg.

If $17 million seems like a lot of money for the rights to a popularly used phrase, consider the following: The NCAA has a $700-million annual budget. That budget was made possible almost entirely by the massive (read: 14 years, $11 billion) television rights fees CBS and Turner paid the NCAA to broadcast the NCAA tournament. The NCAA tournament is frequently referred to as "March Madness."

I'm not sure $17 million isn't disproportionate to the cause at hand here. After all, it's not like people are going to be confused when you say "March Madness" simply because a marketing company uses the words on an iPhone app. That term will always be associated with the NCAA tournament. It's not going away. But with that much money on the line, one can understand the vigilance.

With the college basketball season now in the books, let’s take a look at the final ESPN Stats & Information conference power rankings.

One quick note on the final ratings. We are not using the RPI or the Associated Press poll in the final ratings as we did earlier in the season, as neither publishes their results post-tournament. Thus, the human bonus is completely based on the coaches' poll, and the computer ratings (Pomeroy, Sagarin and Massey) are each given one-third weight.

On to the ratings …

After a basketball championship that saw only two of its 11 teams outperform expectations, the Big East falls to No. 2 in the final rankings. Although UConn did win the championship, it defeated only one school that was seeded better (San Diego State). The only other Big East school to reach the Sweet 16 was Marquette; however, it had to knock off one of the Big East favorites in Syracuse to get there.

If we look at how each school from the Big East performed in the tournament relative to what it was expected to do based on seed, we can see that the Big East had a horrendous tournament.

Two schools made it further in the tournament than they were expected to based on seed (UConn, Marquette).
Three schools made it exactly as far as they were expected to based on seed (Villanova, West Virginia, Cincinnati).
Six schools did not make it as far as they were expected to based on seed (Syracuse, St. John's, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Louisville, Georgetown).

Compare this to the new No. 1, the Big Ten, and you can see why the Big East fell. We will throw Northwestern into the mix as well, as it was the only school from either conference that competed in the NIT.

Two schools made it further in the tournament than they were expected to based on seed (Illinois, Northwestern).
Four schools made it exactly as far as they were expected to based on seed (Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Wisconsin).
Two schools did not make it as far as they were expected to based on seed (Ohio State, Purdue).

As you can see, the Big East underperformed in the postseason, while the Big Ten just performed. This is the reason for the switch.

The Pac-10 and SEC moved up one spot thanks in large part to Arizona and Kentucky each defeating two schools they were not supposed to. The SEC was also the only conference with two teams in the Elite Eight.

UConn returns home to rainy Connecticut as national champions.

As Connecticut is crowned National Champion, Andy Katz looks back on the season that was in college basketball.

Much of the spotlight is on the game's ugliness, but Hubert Davis points out players and performances that put the Huskies over the top.

ESPN.com bloggers Eamonn Brennan and Diamond Leung give their final thoughts on UConn's national title win over Butler.

HOUSTON -- It was a fun NCAA tournament.

It was a fun NCAA tournament.

It was a fun NCAA tournament.

Keep saying that for as long as it takes to rid your brain of the memory of how it ended. Otherwise, you might be scarred for life.

Through the first 66 games of the biggest and arguably wildest tourney ever, there was an abundance of excitement and drama and surprise. Then they played game No. 67, and the thing ended with a bomb of historic proportion. Connecticut capped its quantum leap from ninth place in the Big East to first place in America by beating bricklaying Butler 53-41 on Monday night, in a game that was so train-wreck terrible to watch it set the sport back to the hook-shot days.

Actually, that's an insult to the hook-shot days. Even back then, the ball went in the basket more often than it did in Reliant Stadium. The teams' combined field goal percentage of 26.1 was the worst in a title game since 1948, when Kentucky and Baylor shot a collective 25.9 percent but scored six more points without benefit of a 3-point line or a shot clock.

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The night of Jim Calhoun's third national championship ended the same way every game ends. Calhoun sat a podium. He leaned into his microphone. He talked about college basketball.

He enthusiastically broke down X's and O's like a 25-year-old assistant at a clinic. He praised his players with the glint of a proud father. He described his love of hard-fought basketball, even in games as ugly as Connecticut's 53-41 win over Butler Monday night. He chastised media members for taking "hurtful" "cheap shots" at him when the NCAA doled out its punishment in late February for failing to control violations within his program.

He was brash and defiant, loyal and loving, funny and combative.

He was, in other words, Classic Calhoun, as determined to prevail over any detractor -- perceived or real -- as the first moment of the first day of his career as a coach.

This day, of course, was different. On Monday, Calhoun won the title that indisputably cements his place among the greatest coaches in the sport's history.

On Monday, then, Calhoun got the last word.

"My dad told me something a long time ago: You're known by the company you keep," Calhoun said. "This is awfully sweet company."

The company Calhoun now keeps is a who's who of the sport's all-time greats, a college coaching Mount Rushmore. The scrappy Boston Irish kid who inherited Connecticut in 1986, when its days as a little-known Yankee Conference power were still fresh in the memory, is now one of only five men -- John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, Adolph Rupp and Bob Knight being the others -- to win three NCAA titles in his career.

"He's one of the greatest coaches that ever was," said UConn assistant George Blaney, who has served under Calhoun for the past 10 seasons. "He was before he won this third title, but this third title just validates everything. The wins, the titles -- there's no issue about it. He's one of the all-time greats."

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HOUSTON -- They gathered every weekend in Kemba Walker's apartment, chilling out in their captain's space to play video games, watch television, air grievances. Anything they wanted to do, anything they needed to say, they could do or say there.

At the end, Walker would serve his Connecticut teammates dinner, a home-cooked meal prepared by his own All-American hands.

And so to the litany of Kemba Walker's talents, we now can add chef. The player whose combination of will and skill hijacked college basketball's postseason apparently can mix up a mean batch of tacos and macaroni and cheese.

"Oh he can cook," Charles Okwandu said. "He can really cook."

It is not just in the kitchen, though, that Walker can concoct something delicious. He can cook up a mean basketball team, too.

Connecticut won its third national championship, beating Butler, 53-41, in a slugfest that offered few shining moments for the postgame video.

The Huskies won not because Walker stole the show. The junior had the offensive yips just like everyone else on the court, hitting just 5 of his 19 shots from the floor and none from the 3-point line.

No, UConn won because along with carving his own spot in basketball history, Walker empowered his team to carve their own identities. Ten players got into the boxscore for Connecticut and in a game where points and progress were charted on the Mendoza line all 10 were needed.

"Right now it feels pretty good," Jeremy Lamb said. "People said we were young. People said we were a one-man team. Kemba didn't have any help, no post players, anything like that. But as the season went on, we just kept working, kept working. We ended up being a pretty good overall team."

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HOUSTON -- This game, this historic poor shooting, is not how Butler's improbable two-year run should be remembered.

In case this is the last we've seen of the Bulldogs in the Final Four for awhile, then try to wipe from your memory the horrid offensive performance that was on display at Reliant Stadium Monday night in a 53-41 national championship loss to the Connecticut Huskies.

"Butler is amazing,'' said UConn junior and Final Four most outstanding player Kemba Walker. "Everybody says Cinderella and stuff like that. I think other schools are going to really look at Butler and think they have a shot too. Butler has a great coach. Coach [Brad] Stevens is one of the best coaches in the collegiate level at this point.''

The admiration and respect Butler and Stevens have received over the last two postseasons from coaching colleagues and players is really unmatched for a team that is a two-time runner-up.

If you're a fan of the "little guy," try to put in perspective what Butler has done in the past two seasons and it'll make it a little easier to digest that horror show in Houston.

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HOUSTON -- Shawn Vanzant hung his head exiting the locker room, still unable to believe what a mess of a shooting night it was for Butler in the national championship game.

“Twelve-for-64,” the senior kept muttering as his teammates tried to console him.

One kissed Vanzant on the head, another told him it wasn’t his fault even as he claimed it was, and the senior walked out of Reliant Stadium after a 53-41 loss to Connecticut with a teammate's arm draped over his shoulder.

The Butler Bulldogs made back-to-back runs to the Final Four together, and together America’s underdogs licked their wounds after falling short for a second straight year.

“All the people that played feel like they let us down, and that’s ridiculous,” coach Brad Stevens said. “If someone has to go 12-for-64, these guys have the character to handle it.”

It won’t be easy for Butler to leave Houston without regrets and to make peace with the absolute worst shooting performance in the history of national title games. Butler shot 18.8 percent from the field for the lowest mark in a championship game and the lowest in any NCAA tournament game since 1946. The Bulldogs managed only three -- yes, three -- 2-point field goals.

Shelvin Mack scored 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting, admittedly missing open shots. Shaggy-haired forward Matt Howard finished his storybook career with a 1-for-13 performance and a blood-stained right knee. Andrew Smith, the team’s 6-foot-11 center, scored the team’s first points in the paint on a putback with 6:13 left.

Vanzant, who went 2-for-10, was despondent over the 52 missed field goals. Many of them were easy shots, but Butler also credited a UConn defense that blocked 10 shots.

In the other locker room, freshman Jeremy Lamb leaned back in his chair and extended a long arm to demonstrate how his length might have bothered Mack. “If I’m off you, people think I can’t contest, but I can.”

The Huskies’ frontline was especially good, with 6-foot-9 Alex Oriakhi and 6-foot-8 Roscoe Smith blocking four shots apiece.

“UConn is the best shot-contest team we’ve played, and it’s not even close,” Stevens said. “They’re long. They’re athletic. They’re active. He [Huskies coach Jim Calhoun] had freshmen playing like seniors out there defensively.”

Stevens indicated that UConn disrupted them by using the Butler Way on defense: “Guard so hard so when they get looks, it’s not as comfortable.” The Bulldogs proceeded to go out with a clank.

After Chase Stigall hit a 3-pointer coming out of the halftime break to give the Bulldogs a 25-19 lead, they missed their next 13 shots over the next 6:46 while the Huskies went on a 14-1 run.

“Coach kept us calm until we realized it was going to be tough,” Andrew Smith said. “It felt like we weren’t supposed to win that game.”

Said Lamb: “I saw one time we scored, one of them put his head down. I said, ‘We got ‘em.’”

Butler (28-10) loses five seniors and possibly Mack to the NBA draft after once again capturing the nation’s imagination with an unlikely NCAA tournament run. The Bulldogs had reeled off 14 consecutive wins, including upsets of Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Florida, to get to the Final Four as a No 8 seed.

Not every fairy tale -- or even its sequel -- can have a happy ending. Stevens still found a way to give solace to his players, telling them his only regret was being unable to coach on Senior Day due to blurred vision.

“The title, the net, the net, the trophy would be nice, but you still have the relationships,” said Stevens, the 34-year-old bespectacled baby face.

“It’s really hard, but as I told ‘em, I don’t care if they make shots. I don’t love ‘em any less because we lost.”

Said Howard: “Right now, it’s frustrating. It’s tough, but I know you’ll look back at some point and be pretty proud. The team believed down the very end."

The Butler Bulldogs just simply missed.

In total, 279,308 brackets, or 4.7% of the more than 5.9 million Tournament Challenge brackets correctly picked Connecticut to win the national championship. The Huskies were the fifth-most popular pick to win it all at the start of the tournament, the top pick after the No. 1 seeds.

This bracket finished with the most points in this year's Tournament Challenge game.

President Barack Obama's bracket:

He officially finished in the 87.4 percentile, ranked 746,806th overall.

Notable Brackets, final standings:

President Obama: 650 points, 87.4 percentile

Mike Golic: 580 points, 75.5 percentile

Colin Cowherd: 560 points, 68.1 percentile

Snoop Dogg: 500 points, 42.8 percentile

Michael Wilbon: 480 points, 33.6 percentile

Mike Greenberg: 450 points, 21.3 percentile

Dick Vitale: 450 points, 21.3 percentile

Bill Simmons: 430 points, 14.6 percentile

Tony Kornheiser: 420 points, 11.9 percentile

Matthew Berry: 420 points, 11.9 percentile

Michelle Beadle: 350 points, 2.6 percentile

Henry Hasselbeck (Matt Hasselbeck's 5-year-old son): He finished with 770 points, in the 93.4 percentile.

Dana O’Neil talks with UConn’s Alex Oriakhi following the national title game.