Happy 82nd birthday

[CONN78SEJ]

I have a pretty long memory. I remember my freshman year in college, Mark Aguirre, cleary the top freshman in the country that year took a non-descript DePaul team to the final four. That same year, arguably the second best freshman in the country that year, who was a similar (slightly taller) size and had a similar game, Corny Thompson, took us to the tournament (sadly we lost to Cuse), giving me reason to believe we could make a reasonably deep run during my college years. Sadly, not only did we not make it back in any of the following three seasons, once the freshman classe of 77-78 exhausted their eligibility, the men's basketball program hit the skids to the point where there were a decent number of newspaper articles questioning if we should leve the Big East and move to a conference where we could be competitive.

Prior to when JC took over, the idea that in my lifetime, we would be tied for third most titles of all time and have won the most titles from my freshman year forward (we are one ahead of both UNC & Duke in that time frame and well ahead of all others) would have been (no exaggeration or hyperbole) a more ridiculous thought than today believing that in a couple of decades our football program will have multiple national titles under its belt.

When JC said "It's doable" when asked if UConn could compete with the best programs in the country, nobody who followed the sport would have viewed it as possible. We are where we are entirely due to the effort, the determination and the will of this man. He started with a pile of rubble and built an empire. We are all indebted to him.

Aguirre was great, but he did have help. IIRC Clyde Bradshaw and Terry Cummings also contributed.

 

[Scoe]

Happy Birthday to the GOAT, it’s crazy to me when the general sports fan talks greatest college coaches of all time Roy Williams, Izzo and Boeheim get brought up and Calhoun seems to be forgotten. When you bring up Calhoun you will get an oh yeah that’s right.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Aguirre was great, but he did have help. IIRC Clyde Bradshaw and Terry Cummings also contributed.

Cummings was still in high school that year. For the prior decade plus they weren't anything special, had been behind Marquette among midwest independents, Notre Dame was ahead of them for nearly a decade and even Detroit (coached by Dick Vitale) had recently moved beyond them (until the Pistons hired Vitale). Outside of the Corzine years, they were not a lot of games over .500 in the aggregate decade and a half before 1978-1979.

That doesn't change the where we were as a program when JC arrived in Storrs.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Cummings was still in high school that year. For the prior decade plus they weren't anything special, had been behind Marquette among midwest independents, Notre Dame was ahead of them for nearly a decade and even Detroit (coached by Dick Vitale) had recently moved beyond them (until the Pistons hired Vitale). Outside of the Corzine years, they were not a lot of games over .500 in the aggregate decade and a half before 1978-1979.

That doesn't change the where we were as a program when JC arrived in Storrs.

Not sure what year you’re talking about but I do remember Aguirre, Cummings and Bradshaw all playing together.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Not sure what year you’re talking about but I do remember Aguirre, Cummings and Bradshaw all playing together.

Two years later, when they were knocked off by St Joe's (the day when the term "March Madness" was coined) Bradshaw was a senior, Aguirre a junior and Cummings a sophomore. That was their second year together and second consecutive one and done in the tournament (there were 48 teams and top teams had byes in the second round).

The three together never won a tournament game (Cummings lasted one additional year and lost their first game again).

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Two years later, when they were knocked off by St Joe's (the day when the term "March Madness" was coined) Bradshaw was a senior, Aguirre a junior and Cummings a sophomore. That was their second year together and second consecutive one and done in the tournament (there were 48 teams and top teams had byes in the second round).

The three together never won a tournament game (Cummings lasted one additional year and lost their first game again).

Wasn’t that in the first round? That was one of the most shocking upsets in NCAA history. Wasn’t that Ray Meyers last year? Joey Meyer inherited the head coaching job IIRC.

 

[Omahabound]

We are all on the Yard because of him. HBD Coach! Thank you for building the best program in college basketball.

Very true

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Wasn’t that in the first round? That was one of the most shocking upsets in NCAA history. Wasn’t that Ray Meyers last year? Joey Meyer inherited the head coaching job IIRC.

Ray lasted a few years beyond that but DePaul had a three year run (1980-1982) where they entered the tournament top three in the regular season ending polls, but got knocked off in their first game.

Back then, there were 48 teams in the tournament but four in each region got a first round bye. DePaul, as one of the top teams in the country each year got a first round bye and then got knocked off by a team that won a first round game (UCLA 1980; St Joe's 1981; BC 1982).

In 1981, over the course of about 40 minutes real time, two top seeds (DePaul, Oregon St) and the defending champions (Louisville) got upset on last second shots and the term "March Madness" was born.

 

[TheChamps990411]

THE best ever. Enough said

Yeah. You have every right to think that and he has as good a case as anyone but its all subjective.