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" UConn won a national title last night, gritting out its last win against a Kentucky team filled with NBA-bound bruisers and shooters. Hell of a Cinderella story \u2014 a 7-seed with a coach in his first NCAA Tournament and a couple of small, slashing guards rode a hot streak to a championship. Ryan Boatright, one-half of UConn&amp;#039;s toughest-in-the-country backcourt, scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting with three steals. He set the tempo for effort and defense early on, and it propelled the Huskies to an early lead that they never gave up. If the NCAA had anything to do with it, they would&amp;#039;ve liked it if he didn&amp;#039;t play for UConn at all. Boatright&amp;#039;s mother, the NCAA alleged in a memo in 2012, received $1,200 in plane and car rental expenses so she could accompany her son on tours of colleges in her senior year in high school. The money was said to have been given to her by his AAU coach. This was enough to get him suspended for six games to start that season. Again, Boatright himself did nothing wrong, but his eligibility has been in question ever since. This is a reminder of how the NCAA spends its money \u2014 hiring out a hit squad of small-time private investigators to look into alleged improprieties that break no American laws. It would be fine, too, if these investigations weren&amp;#039;t consistently wrong or vindictive. Former UCLA star Shabazz Muhammad, then the No. 1 recruit in the country, was in eligibility limbo to start his college career until the lead investigator into his college visits was fired. The NCAA investigator&amp;#039;s boyfriend was caught bragging on a plane about how Muhammad would never be cleared to play college basketball if she had anything to do with it. Meanwhile, yesterday, Boatright&amp;#039;s backcourt partner, Shabazz Napier, says he sometimes &amp;quot;goes to bed starving&amp;quot; because he can&amp;#039;t afford food. Napier had a team-high 22 points and 6 rebounds in UConn&amp;#039;s win last night. He&amp;#039;s currently projected to be a second-round pick in the NBA draft, which would not guarantee him an NBA contract. The NCAA alone made $841 million last year \u2014 and that doesn&amp;#039;t even count UConn&amp;#039;s athletic revenue. Napier and Boatright saw none of it of course, but each had to play more than just basketball games to win an NCAA Championship. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/news/a28076/ryan-boatright-ncaa/>