Favorite UConn game (W or L) ever

[Scoe]

2011 BET final vs Lville pulling off the 5 games in 5 days
Of course this past title game, beating MSU and Florida was pretty sweet too silencing all the idiots
the Gonzaga game in 09
Indiana 08 beating a ranked team on the road without Dyson, does Wiggins count lol
Stanford 99 with Rip in street clothes
Pitt 99 Khalid ripping out hearts
Beating SDSU and Arizona in LA essentially 2 road games to get to the FF and people say our path was easy lol

 

[dsturdy5]

Absolutely annihilating BCU on Troy Bell's senior day.

 

[willie99]

maybe because it just happened, but beating MSU in the Elite 8 in MSG tops the list for me

1) the magnitude of the game
2) I was there
3) The basketball capital of the world
4) we owned the Garden taking the atmosphere off the charts

it was all kinda sureal

I was in MSG for scores of big games, but none were Elite Eight
We owned MSG in the BET Title game vs Louisville in 2011, but still not Elite Eight
I saw our victories against Dook and GA Tech in 2004, big games, the Dook game was a great game, but we didn't own the building and the atmosphere didn't compete with the magic of the MSU game in MSG.

 

[zymurg]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Gonzaga in 99. That was the over the hump game for UConn; Calhoun's first final four after so many
disappointments. It was Gonzaga's coming out party. They never made it further in the NCAAs , and you do know the UConn story.

 

[8893]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Gonzaga in 99. That was the over the hump game for UConn; Calhoun's first final four after so many
disappointments. It was Gonzaga's coming out party. They never made it further in the NCAAs , and you do know the UConn story.

For me, the Gonzaga game is in the pantheon of all-time, most painful UConn victories, along with the Big East Tournament Championship over Pitt in 2004 and the semi-final win vs. Duke a few weeks later.

Each of those three games took years off my life.

 

[mauconnfan]

The one's that create the tears of joy would be right up there battling in my mind………good news for us Husky fans is there's many to choose from. But if you have to go with 1 - 99 NC over Duke because just standing alone in my living room with my 5 year old son (now a huge fan) and my wife sleeping and feeling a little like Jim Valvano did running around looking for a hug? Didn't get one but man was it beautiful………never imagined being in that moment as a Husky fan of so many years!

 

[J187Money]

Beating Duke in 99 for our first title. Best feeling ever.

Absolutely the winner for games I didn't attend.

 

[J187Money]

That was my first game at MSG, not bad for a middle school kid. I thought the building was gonna come down at the end.

I think it was that game that showed the world that UCONN owned the Garden.

 

[pepband99]

For me, the Gonzaga game is in the pantheon of all-time, most painful UConn victories, along with the Big East Tournament Championship over Pitt in 2004 and the semi-final win vs. Duke a few weeks later.

Each of those three games took years off my life.

THIS. I'm the oldest looking guy my age due to 4 kids and these 3 games. The dook one was particularly painful.

 

[DOZE860]

surprised that no one mention Calhoun's 800 win against Marquette..

 

[Palatine]

The first game at Gampel. Dan Cyrulik goes off for 17, St. John's goes down and a new era is born.

Close second, Arizona in the elite eight in 2011. That ball is in the air for a year. It's right on line. It misses. We win. We're going to the final for (and going to win). The fact that ball didn't go in. I still think it will go in and crush our dreams. In moments like that I believe there is a God. One of the most important and amazing moments in UConn history, a missed shot.

 

[bturn]

best game i ever went to was Arizona when we stormed the court for the first time ever

 

[UConnNick]

Pre-Calhoun:

1) Slowdown game vs. URI in 1970 to win YanCon title.
2) St. Patrick's Day victory over St. John's in 1974 NIT at MSG.
3) 1976 ECAC championship game drubbing of Providence at the Springfield Civic Center - signaled a changing of the guard in New England BB supremacy.

Calhoun

1) 77-74.
2) 2004 - semifinal win over the Evil Empire after being down eight with 3:29 left.
3) 2011 - 5 Ws in 5 days at the BET.

Post-Calhoun

1) Michigan State at beginning of the 2012-13 season - a clear message to the rest of the college BB world that UCONN wasn't about to fade away anytime soon.
2) Michigan State at MSG - first NCAA tourney regional there in over 50 years, with Huskymania in full blown, wall-to-wall throat.
3) Semifinal win over Florida - felt that if we could defeat them, Kentucky would not have the experience to beat us.

 

[Scoe]

Well the OP said a W or L so for a loss I will say 07-08 vs the D Rose Memphis team in MSG that was a fun game to watch seeing the Dyson dunk, I had to get up early the next morning to go to the Rent on senior day to watch Uconn destroy Cuse, thats when we were ranked in football and not ranked in basketball at the time I did put basketball on the back burner for a little bit and that Memphis game got me excited to watch Uconn basketball again.

 

[RichZ]

99 Championship and this year's Championship are probably a tie for me. In both situations, we were given no chance and no respect. Both were the first NC game for the coach. Both were against a hated team with a despicable coach that is somehow a media favorite. The difference was this year's team was expected to lose virtually every step of the way, while in 99, we were the odds on favorite to be the ones to lose to the supposed best team in college basketball history in the championship game.

By contrast, as much as I loved the 2004 team, and especially Emeka, that team was expected to win, and the championship game was anti-climatic after beating Duke. To me, the actual highlight of that post season run was beating ND in the 2nd round of the BE tourney without Emeka. But that probably has more to do with my deep seated hatred of anything and everything ND.

In Kemba's title, the actual championship game wasn't that great a game, and we were favored. I guess the Pitt game was my favorite of that run, but I have trouble not thinking of that team's tournament performance as a single entity, never losing a tournament game. Maui, BE, NCAA. A thing of beauty in its own right, but the individual games kind of get averaged out or watered down in the memory. The signature moment of Kemba's crippling step back VS Pitt will always stand out though.

 

[Scoe]

the Elite 8 against MSU was the ultimate revenge game not just because we beat MSU, it was also revenge for the Uconn fans that were treated like absolute crap by the MSU fans in the 09 FF. MSU fans complained about being outnumbered in MSG that tells you something.

 

[Brochacho]

It's going to seem like I just started following UConn this year by saying this, but Florida at Gampel and then MSU at MSG. I was fortunate enough to be at both games, and being there as opposed to watching on TV makes it even more special. I think I have to lean to MSU though, since the ISU game was on my birthday and then two days later MSU gave me the best birthday present ever. I was always bugging my parents that for my birthday I wanted to go to a UConn NCAA game, so combining that with MSG and how lovable this team was it was just all around awesome.

 

[Rico444]

For me, the Gonzaga game is in the pantheon of all-time, most painful UConn victories, along with the Big East Tournament Championship over Pitt in 2004 and the semi-final win vs. Duke a few weeks later.

Each of those three games took years off my life.

Speaking of painful wins, the championship game against Kentucky was pretty painful. Kentucky grabbed the momentum and got within one point at around the 8-minute mark; We were having issues stopping them on offense and they had locked down defensively in the 2nd half. That last 8 minutes was excruciating.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Mine has got to be the 6 OT game
and as a little extra: add in your favorite non-UConn game ever
Mine would be UCLA-Gonzaga when Adam Morrison had his breakdown

If I was Morrison I would have gone postal in that game, slugged all 3 refs. There are not many basketball games where the refs look like they have an agenda, but that was one of them. I don't know why they bothered playing the game. They should have just forfeited Gonzaga and handed the W to UCLA, because that is essentially what happened.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I will remove the 4 championship games and 2004 Duke (the effective championship game that year) and 2011 SDSU and Arizona (both tougher opponents than anything UConn faced in Final Four that year). One thing I will say, I thought UConn was the better team in all 4 championships, and the 1999 game was the only one of the four where I thought it was even close to 50/50.

My favorite regular season game was in 1993 I think when UConn had a mid season matchup against BCU. Bill Curley was on that BCU team. UConn is down 4 or 6 with about a minute left and BCU has the ball. I think Ollie steals it and passes up to a streaking Fair who hits a layup. Fair is standing under the basket as everyone runs down to set up the press on the inbounds, and Curley inexplicably basically just hands the ball to Fair under the basket. Fair hits a layup, and UConn gets another stop and goes on to win the game. I still laugh thinking about that game.

Georgetown and Syracuse wins in January of 1990 were pretty boss too.

My favorite loss was in 1994 when Calhoun was sick with something and Dickenman was coaching at Syracuse. Fair got the start, and torched Syracuse for about 25 points in a game UConn lost 108-95. Moten lit Fair up on the other end, but it was a fun game to watch.

 

[Hugo]

Absolutely annihilating BCU on Troy Bell's senior day.

1999 championship - first of 4
2014 - we are UCONN and proved we can never be dismissed as a contender
2011 - the run of 11 straight wins thru the BET and the tourney
2004 - proved we were the best team I the country and allowed EO to go out a champion

Above reference to BCU, this was payback to the beagles and kept them out of the dance
Anytime we beat BCU

Beating Bill Bradley and Princeton in the NCAA tourney in the pre-JC days

 

[60'sfan]

Pre-Calhoun:

1) Slowdown game vs. URI in 1970 to win YanCon title.
2) St. Patrick's Day victory over St. John's in 1974 NIT at MSG.
3) 1976 ECAC championship game drubbing of Providence at the Springfield Civic Center - signaled a changing of the guard in New England BB supremacy.

Calhoun

1) 77-74.
2) 2004 - semifinal win over the Evil Empire after being down eight with 3:29 left.
3) 2011 - 5 Ws in 5 days at the BET.

Post-Calhoun

1) Michigan State at beginning of the 2012-13 season - a clear message to the rest of the college BB world that UCONN wasn't about to fade away anytime soon.
2) Michigan State at MSG - first NCAA tourney regional there in over 50 years, with Huskymania in full blown, wall-to-wall throat.
3) Semifinal win over Florida - felt that if we could defeat them, Kentucky would not have the experience to beat us.

Wow! Did not expect to see the slowdown game against RI mentioned. I actually attended that game so it is probably the best game I ever attended. But the best game ever had to be our first NC vs Duke in '99 for all of the reasons mentioned above. All the baggage was left behind with that win and we entered into a new arena. Coming from behind and beating Duke in the semi's in 2004 was another great one. Almost every game in Kemba's marvelous run is up there. And the last six games of Shabazz's run is up there too. I recorded the games against Florida and Kentucky and may never erase them.

 

[Husky1964]

Was present for the URI slowdown game. But I can recall another URI game when Wes was a Soph. Down 10 at the half we won by 10. Game was diff in those days , no shot clock.

 

[breezy]

Aside from title games, MSU this year was pretty incredible.

Kentucky in Maui was great.

Remember beating the piss out of cincy at gample in 08-09? By like 50 points.

 

[Gurleyman]

Speaking of painful wins, the championship game against Kentucky was pretty painful. Kentucky grabbed the momentum and got within one point at around the 8-minute mark; We were having issues stopping them on offense and they had locked down defensively in the 2nd half. That last 8 minutes was excruciating.

While there's truth to what you're saying (plus the added angst of maybe losing to Calipari exacerbated the anxiety), Gonzaga is a separate category unto itself. The first 39:55 was the biggest hell I've ever been through in a sporting event. The prevailing attitude was that this HAD to be the year we made the Final Four or it would probably never happen - the bracket opened up like a red carpet to Tampa, and this no-name team would not go away. A loss was a very real possibility throughout. Right down to the Quentin Hall ridiculous double clutch three that brought them within one in the final minute. Between Gonzaga being tough to guard and El-Amin off in la-la land somewhere, we never had control of that game - in fact, Gonzaga had a three in the air to tie it with 10 seconds left. Fortunately, it was Santangelo trying to shoot over Ricky (so it was a brick) and the rebound caromed somewhere near Freeman (so it was ours). The first Freeman free throw with 5 seconds left that sealed it was a euphoric relief, but it took a lot of pain to get to that point.

I was never sure of the win against Kentucky until Boat dribbled out of the pack with the ball, but we were able to keep the lead bouncing back between 4 and 6 points down the stretch, which helped a little. There was never the heart in the throat moment in crunch time like there was against Arizona and Kentucky in 2011, although there was certainly anxiety that we could lose a game we led throughout. I had more "oh crap" feelings of doom against Michigan State (early 2H, down by 9) and Florida (early) when nothing was going right and it looked like we were reaching the end of our line.