Last Night's Winner: Suspense

In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like women's basketball fans, who experienced their first moment of uncertainty in two years. It only lasted a few minutes, but it sure was spooky.

Connecticut won its second straight national championship last night, beating Stanford by six points. Six! It might as well have been a half-court buzzer beater that clanged off the rim and sent the whole country into a blue funk. It's the only time in their 78-game winning streak that the Huskies won by single digits. Is that the way they drew it up?

UConn played the worst first half in Final Four history. It was the worst first half in school history. They scored an improbable 12 points in the first 20 minutes. At one point, they missed 18 straight shots. This team couldn't miss 18 shots in a row if they tried. So were they trying? Did they tank the first half just to make it interesting? Do they need to handicap themselves a nine-point deficit just to feel alive? I wouldn't put anything past Geno Auriemma, since he's got to do something to keep himself entertained.

Well, it worked. The nation finally paid attention this Connecticut team ... for about as long as it took to change the channel during a "Lost" commercial break. By the time they changed it back, Stanford's best player was ankled, the 17-2 run was over, and the Huskies were on cruise control again. That was quite a halftime though, wasn't it!