I don't want to take anything away from this championship. It means so much to our program after everything we've been through, and I couldn't be happier for the guys on the team. Truly a special team.
But I'm going to be the one to say 2011. Remember how disappointing 2010 was? Coming back with some key pieces of a Final Four team, all a year older and some nice recruits coming in. That to me was UConn's most disappointing year since I've been a fan, and we lost three of our four best players from that team, and we missed on nearly all of the big recruiting targets we had. Coming into the season, I was worried it was going to be close to the 2007 season. But we had Kemba Walker who took an incredible leap; and that unheralded recruiting class came up huge. And there were problems with the program at this point too. Coming off a disappointing year with Calhoun getting up there in age, people becoming discontented over the seemingly lackluster recruits after the talent flock in 2006. The Nate Miles stuff had just come out the season before, and we were beginning to hear the rumblings of the APR business. There was a major dark cloud over the program and after 2010, it seemed as though UConn's best days were behind them. And then Maui. And the Big East Tournament. My god, the Big East Tournament. 5 games in 5 days? Unheard of. I would have been ecstatic as a fan if we had bowed out in the tourny after that. That BET run was legendary and made the season. But the team wasn't done, and they marched on to win the freaking National Championship?! I never thought it would even be possible to pass that moment as a sports fan.
The fact that this title ranks right up there with 2011 says a lot. The program was once again in a seemingly tenuous position and we proved doubters wrong all along the way. People say this run was more surprising than 2011; and I'll agree if the view was from the start of the NCAA Tournament. But before the season, I knew this 2014 team had talent and could make a run. I would've never imagined beating UK's super-hyped 'best ever recruiting class' and winning another championship... but we had established talent. Before the season, 2011 was basically an inconsistent but promising Kemba Walker going into his junior season, a McDonald's AA Oriakhi going into his sophomore year after a solid but unspectacular freshman campaign, and then a lot of freshmen. Freshmen who were not the first choices in our recruiting efforts (boy, how well did that work out?!). They were unranked and not expected to do much during the season.
In their own way, both of those championships came out of absolutely nowhere. And that's what made the runs so incredibly special. In 2011, I thought that run was a once-in-a-lifetime moment; and here we are three years later, celebrating the same thing. UConn is just a truly special program. We've had the best run of any program in the modern era. All we do is win. Having to choose a favorite between 2011 and 2014 should make us feel lucky as fans. How great is it to be a UConn fan?!