Butler has big edge in experience. No team with a freshman starter has won in 6 years, UCONN has 3 freshman starters
BUTLER
Location: Indianapolis.
Record: 28-9.
Nickname: Bulldogs.
Coach: Brad Stevens.
Conference: Horizon League.
Bid: Horizon champion.
Seed: No. 8.
Tournament record: 18-10, 11 years.
Scoring: Team 72.1, Matt Howard 16.7, Shelvin Mack 16.1, Andrew Smith 8.6, Shawn Vanzant 8.2.
Rebounds: Team 34.7, Howard 7.8, Smith 5.5, Mack 4.4.
Assists/Turnovers: Team 12.1/11.1, Mack 3.5/2.4, Ronald Nored 2.4/2.1.
Three-pointers: Team .355, Mack 83, Howard 52, Zach Hahn 46, Chase Stigall 37.
Skinny: Butler is on a 14-game winning streak that gave it regular-season and conference tourney titles, and four NCAA tourney wins.
It is the first Indiana school to reach back-to-back Final Fours. In the tournament, Butler beat Old Dominion with a second-round buzzer-beater and top-seeded Pitt in a wacky foul-filled finish. It survived a late rally from Wisconsin to become the only 2010 Final Four team to make the regional finals and rallied from an 11-point deficit in the final 9 1/2 minutes to beat second-seeded Florida, 74-71, in overtime. Then, in its Final Four semifinal, Butler’s defense frustrated VCU, 70-62.
The Bulldogs are the third team in tourney history to knock off No. 1 seeds in consecutive years before reaching the Final Four.
UCONN
Location: Storrs, Conn.
Record: 31-9.
Nickname: Huskies.
Coach: Jim Calhoun.
Conference: Big East.
Bid: Big East champion.
Seed: No. 3.
Tournament record: 51-28, 30 years.
Scoring: Team 72.8, Kemba Walker 23.7, Jeremy Lamb 11.1, Alex Oriakhi 9.6, Shabazz Napier 7.9.
Rebounds: Team 39.3, Oriakhi 8.7, Walker 5.4, Roscoe Smith 5.2, Lamb 4.4.
Assists/Turnovers: Team 13.2/11.4, Walker 4.6/2.3, Napier 3.1/1.8.
Three-pointers: Team .333, Walker 75, Napier 46, Lamb 45.
Skinny: UConn is the highest seed to make this year’s Final Four. It’s the first time that neither a No. 1 nor No. 2 made it to the final weekend since seeding began in 1979. UConn also made the Final Four in 1999, 2004 and 2009 — all three times out of the West. The Huskies, 9-9 in the Big East this season, have won 10 games in tournament play since March 8.
UConn won five games in five days at the Big East tournament. In the NCAA tournament, the Huskies beat Bucknell, conference foe Cincinnati, second-seeded San Diego State, Arizona, 65-63, and Kentucky, 56-55.
UConn has three freshmen starters: Lamb, Smith and Tyler Olander. Walker, a junior, is UConn’s first All-America since Emeka Okafor in 2004.
