After three weeks of madness, a champion has finally been crowned: the University of Connecticut beat the University of Kentucky to end the 2014 NCAA season. This year’s national championship had the highest combined seeds face off in history, for it featured the seventh seeded Huskies against the eight seeded Wildcats in matchup less than .3% of brackets predicted. During their championship run, UConn went on to defeat tenth seeded St. Joes, second seeded Villanova, third seeded Iowa State, fourth seeded Michigan State, and even the one seeded Florida Gators, who were the favorite going into this tournament. After losing to a hot Louisville team by an overwhelming score of 81-48, UConn was looked at as the underdog throughout this tournament, but then suddenly the magic of March casted its spell of confidence on both Connecticut and Kentucky. Later, both the Huskies and the Wildcats road that train of confidence all the way to the National Championship. After UConn’s close overtime win vs. St. Joes in the first round, the Huskies steam rolled to the national championship by defeating teams by at least six points, they even destroyed the top two seeds: Florida and Villanova. How could a team turn the clock around so fast? The answer to this puzzle is simple: Senior Shabazz Napier. Throughout the tournament Napier averaged 22 points, 5 assists, and 6 rebounds per game, the senior managed to score almost half of Uconn’s points during the entirety of the tournament. When Napier didn’t score at least 20 points, junior DeAndre Daniels stepped up by collectively scoring 47 points and grabbing 20 rebounds during those two games. The outcome to the National Championship wasn’t a surprise, UConn was blowing out Kentucky throughout the game until Kentucky decided to start playing basketball in the last couple of minutes. UConn went on to win by a score of 60-54, giving Head Coach Kevin Ollie his first national championship during only his second year coaching.

After this year’s spectacular season, the NBA draft is just months away. With the performances that these players put on, NBA general managers are salivating over the talent pool that is upon us. With the deadline to declare for the draft slowly approaching, (April 27th) players have to make up their minds soon. This week a couple of potential first round picks have made up their minds, as Michigan’s sophomores Nik Stauskas and Glenn Robinson III both declared for the draft. Both of these young stars are projected as lottery picks. Unfortunately we are still waiting for injured Mitch McGary’s decision. With Duke’s five star recruiting class that is coming in next year, everyone has been waiting to see if freshmen sensation Jabari Parker and red shirt sophomore Rodney Hood will stay with the team for next year. This past week both Jabari and Rodney recently announced that they would be entering the draft. Jabari is projected as a top three pick, meanwhile Rodney is projected as a lottery pick. With very few players waiting to make their decisions, I recently put together a mock draft after the NBA’s regular season. Assuming that this year’s lottery comes out respectively, here are my top 10 pick. First, Milwaukee Bucks, Andrew Wiggins of Kansas University, second, Philadelphia 76er’s, Jabari Parker of Duke, third, Orlando Magic, Joel Embiid of Kansas, fourth, Utah Jazz, Dante Exum of Australia, fifth, Boston Celtics, Julius Randle of Kentucky, sixth, Aaron Gordon of Arizona, seventh, Sacramento Kings, Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State, eighth, Detroit Pistons, Nik Stauskas of Michigan, ninth, Cleveland Cavaliers, Doug McDermott of Creighton and tenth, Philadelphia 76ers, Noah Vonleh of Indiana. Ultimately, this draft will be full of talented players that will constitute for the best rookie class since the 2003 NBA draft.