Kemba Walker’s Wire-to-Wire Performance This Season Rewarded With National Championship

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Apr 5, 2011

Kemba Walker's Wire-to-Wire Performance This Season Rewarded With National Championship Editors note: At the conclusion of each day of the men's NCAA tournament, NESN.com staff will pick that day's "Biggest Winner."

Connecticut guard Kemba Walker's future is, at the moment, uncertain. While he's only a junior, he's academically set to graduate. His NBA stock will never be any higher. The real uncertainty is not if he'll leave college, but when.

But before he does, we should look back on what was truly an impressive season, a season in which he was arguably better than any other player in the country. Sure, Jimmer Fredette commanded a ton of attention with eye-popping stat lines in relative obscurity at BYU. And yeah, Jared Sullinger will probably be a higher draft pick than Walker when the forward decides to leave Ohio State.

But when you look back on Walker's season, you realize that what made it so impressive was his consistency and dominance from the beginning of the season until Monday night in Houston.

He and the Huskies burst onto the national scene early in the season while virtually a world away from Storrs. At the Maui Invitational, Walker took over the semifinals and finals, scoring 59 combined points to help the Huskies knock off No. 2 Michigan State and No. 9 Kentucky.

Even when UConn was struggling through the gauntlet that was the Big East regular season schedule, Walker was playing exceptional, save for one hiccup — an eight-point performance on 3-of-14 shooting against Syracuse in a loss February. After that game, Walker scored no fewer than 15 points in a game the rest of the way.

Walker was consistent all season, but he kicked things up a notch when it mattered most. His play in the Big East tournament was simply masterful. He set a new tournament record for points scored as he led the way for a UConn team that improbably won five games in five nights in the nation's toughest conference tournament.

He didn't let up in the Big Dance, either. He torched conference rival Cincinnati for 33 points. Five days later, he victimized San Diego State for 36. He scored when he had to, and then he distributed when he had to. He grabbed some rebounds here and there, and he locked in on defense when things mattered most. With Walker's help, Butler's three starting guards — Shelvin Mack, Shawn Vanzant and Chase Stigall — were held to just 9-of-26 shooting on Monday night.

In the end, he was just there, providing stability and a go-to option that he had provided all year. UConn finished the season with an 11-game winning streak. Walker averaged 37 minutes per game during that run.

Ironically, Walker struggled on Monday night to get going. He scored a game-high 16 points, but he wasn't the dominating force we had seen all year, though. Of course, his UConn teammates were there when he needed help the most. After all, he had been there all year for him.

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