Probably, there was no predicting how last night's championship game would go, much less the winner (for the record, I picked Kentucky). That the eight seed played the seven seed in a tournament with at least 24 other teams ranked higher counts as a defeat to the art of prognostication.

You couldn't have pointed to Kentucky's youth in big games because that wasn't a factor -- it may have even been an asset -- in their last five wins. You couldn't have pointed to the absence of Willy Cauley-Stein because the Wildcats won their last few games without him. You couldn't have pointed to Kentucky's superior talent base because UConn was suddenly showing pro potential at several positions.

Maybe you should have gone with UConn because they had the game's best (college) player in Shabazz Napier. Except Napier -- after a brilliant first half -- nearly let Kentucky come back in the second via turnovers and one curious sequence in which he passed on a wide open baseline jumper to set one of his teammates up for a contested three-pointer. Of course, Shabazz was still the game MVP (22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 turnovers).

As it had been all tournament, it was UConn's defense that contributed most to the victory. Several times, they seemed to allow Kentucky to drive baseline in order to stage a sideline trap. Only towards the end did the Wildcats begin to "lose themselves in the game" as Calipari termed it at half time and crack the Huskie's defense. By that time, however, it was too late. For the first time this tournament, Kentucky was held under 74 points. Meanwhile, UConn had played its last two games to similar scores (60-54 over MSU; 63-53 over FLA).

"We had our chances to win," Calipari said after the game, ESPN reported. "We're missing shots, we're missing free throws. We just didn't have enough."

Most accurate about Calipari's quote was the last statement. UConn outplayed them. They also missed their share of shots (41 percent FGs compared to Kentucky's 39), so it might be unfair to blame missed shots for the loss. (UConn did, however, go 10-10 from the line which definitely helped.)