EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsINDIANAPOLIS -- In their last game together, Dan Hurley put his hand on Alex Karaban's shoulder as the senior wiped tears from his eyes following Michigan's 69-63 win over UConn in the national championship game on Monday.Hurley said he was still grappling with his emotions after his team missed out on becoming the first since John Wooden's UCLA run in the 1960s and 1970s to win three national titles in four years."Just what the group was able to overcome throughout the year, the growth, the way they played in March, just the whole experience that this team has given the coaches, the fan base, to play to the last -- to be one of the last two teams standing," Hurley, the UConn coach, said after the game. "A lot of people talk about, 'You're better off losing in the first game in the Final Four than losing in the championship.' That is the biggest bunch of crap of all. It is such bull. It is. It's like, this is where you wanted to be. It hasn't set in yet. On the flight tomorrow, it'll set in, on the bus ride back."Eventually, it'll hit you that you were close to pulling off what would have been a historic third championship. But this team just gave us so much this year. Just didn't make enough shots."Michigan had made history by becoming the first Division I team to score 90 or more points in every NCAA tournament game before the national championship. After an 18-point victory over Arizona in the Final Four on Saturday, the Wolverines were a strong favorite against the Huskies on Monday night.Hurley's squad managed to slow down the game against a Michigan team that prefers to run. The Wolverines didn't score a point in transition or off a turnover in the first half. Elliot Cadeau, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, faced foul trouble before halftime, and ankle and knee injuries affected Yaxel Lendeborg, who was 1-for-5 shooting in the first half. As a team, Michigan connected on 38% of its shots, but UConn made only 31% of its own.The Huskies, who were down by four points at halftime, scored 19 second-chance points in the game. They also finished 4-for-18 from the 3-point line after halftime."It's hard to have a level of disappointment where literally it just came down to we just didn't make enough shots in the basket," Hurley said. "To be able to keep that team under 40% from the field, 38%. This team has destroyed everyone they've faced in this tournament. Again, your team gives you 22 offensive rebounds. That's how hard we played."Karaban ends his college career as the winningest player in school history with 126 victories and two national championships."You know, blessed that I've been able to wear this jersey for the longest amount of time possible, the max amount, the max amount of minutes, the max amount of games this season," said Karaban, who scored a team-high 17 points Monday. "I came back ultimately to win [a third national title] and fell short, so it hurts right now. It hurts a lot right now. I'm just reminding myself right now that when I came into UConn how much I've grown, and I'm ultimately leaving UConn in a better place right now from where I started. I gave it everything I got. I gave it my heart. Now that I'm leaving and for UConn to be one of the best brands in college basketball and to be at the top, I left it better than when it started. I'm most proud of that."Hurley said Karaban was responsible for the program's rise in recent years."This guy changed my life, the staff's lives, the joy he's brought to the university, the fan base," Hurley said. "His decision to come to UConn has made us ... we're probably the premier program in college basketball right now, having been to three out of four national championship games, having won two of them. He's put UConn in that rarefied place in college basketball."
