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By Mark Button, CNNSI.com
It was one of the sloppiest, most uninspiring national championship games in recent history.
Credit Indiana for that.
It’s what the Hoosiers do. They make games ugly. They scrap and they hack, they hustle and they bang. They take teams out of their offensive sets and make opponents play you’re their worst game. They did it to Duke. They did it to Oklahoma.
And they did it to Maryland, too. The difference with the Terps, however, was that they were good enough to overcome Indiana’s uglyball. Maryland was unquestionably the best team in the nation this year. Juan Dixon and the meaty Maryland frontcourt was too much for the scrappy Hoosiers -- just as they were too much for Kansas -- and eventually the Terps pulled away.
Many will call Monday’s championship boring, dull or disjointed. They’ll be right, but we’re guessing Maryland fans couldn’t care less.
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Juan Dixon is absolutely fearless. No wonder why he beat out Jason Williams for ACC player of the year. Never mind Dixon’s 18 points. When Indiana took the lead 42-40, Dixon responded with a 3-pointer and the Terps never looked back.
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If this was indeed Jared Jeffries’ final collegiate game, he’ll want to forget it as soon as possible. The Indiana big man went 4-for-11 from the floor and scored only eight points in the Hoosiers’ biggest game in 15 years.
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Consecutive national-championship programs Maryland defeated en route to the title: Wisconsin (’41), Kentucky (’48, ’49, ’51, ’58, ’78, ’96, ’98), UConn (’99), Kansas (’52, ’88) and Indiana (’40, 53, ’76, ’81, ’87).
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"What hasn’t he done throughout his career?”
-- Maryland reserve Drew Nicholas on teammate and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Juan Dixon.
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