8 of the best individual NCAA tournament runs ever

[Deadrody]

I disagree on Bazz having a much weaker supporting cast. Maybe a slightly weaker supporting cast. Bazz didn't have any other NBA players in the bunch but they were a veteran core and Boat was an outstanding second guard. Once DeAndre kicked it into high gear it was a truly outstanding three lead players. Kemba's team was as young as it gets, there was some talent for sure but they were all kids.

I'm not sure if DeAndre comes back in 2015, that isn't enough to put him over the top. You'd think if he had actual NBA level talent, that it would have shone through, but there's a lot to be said for coming back, improving your stock, and maybe getting a guaranteed NBA deal for being a first round pick. That alone could be the difference between an NBA career and no NBA career.

So you could make the argument that DeAndre still qualifies.

 

[Dogdeacon]

I'm not sure if DeAndre comes back in 2015, that isn't enough to put him over the top. You'd think if he had actual NBA level talent, that it would have shone through, but there's a lot to be said for coming back, improving your stock, and maybe getting a guaranteed NBA deal for being a first round pick. That alone could be the difference between an NBA career and no NBA career.

So you could make the argument that DeAndre still qualifies.

Definitely something to be said for right place right time. We apply this to most people, life in general, but then assume with athletes talent wins out and NBA players become what their talent dictates. Isaiah Thomas would be a perfect example of a guy that probably would have topped out as instant 6th man offense if you took away his Celtics stint and he kept bouncing around bad teams with coaching that didn't maximize his talent.

All that said, I just never saw NBA level speed in Deandre's game, but I've been right & wrong about plenty of guys that I thought would be good or not as pro's. Travis comes to mind as a guy that had better than expected NBA career due to right place/time, Emeka worse though at least as much due to injury as anything.

 

[Waquoit]

And yet the Kentucky frontcourt did absolutely nothing. Athletically we were overmatched but Niels took Randle out of the game and nobody else did anything.

Like that early block by Lamb on Mack set the tone of the Butler game, Daniels early slam against Kentucky rid me of any early jitters. Kentucky never had a lead.

 

[MadDogRevival]

Like that early block by Lamb on Mack set the tone of the Butler game, Daniels early slam against Kentucky rid me of any early jitters. Kentucky never had a lead.

Yes! I remember that block. I remember thinking that we had 'em because our D was very tough that year and they didn't have the athletes to shoot over us. We murdered them on D that game - had we not shot so poorly, that would have gone down as a lopsided blowout rather than one of the worst finals in history.
With Kentucky, however, I wasn't comfortable until boatright came down with that rebound in traffic. Kentucky was goooood that year, and they had won a couple games on last minute/second bombs. Butler didn't worry me at all. Kentucky worried me right til the end. I think if we played Butler 10 times, we'd have won 10 times. Kentucky? Not sure, but it may have been a coin flip.

 

[MSGSeven]

Me: No matter how many more titles we win, I will never be as proud of a team as I was in 2011

Bazz and Boat 2014: Hold my beer

As great runs go, it is Danny and Miracles and Kemba and the Kids. Those outshine the rest.

I still to this day think the 2011 team is a lot, lot, lot better than it's given credit for historically. They were a team where the wheels came off in the middle of the season, but bookended by two really, really dominant runs. Like some people have said - they didn't have the star power of past UConn teams... but they were solid almost everywhere. And I mean when you have far and away the best player in the country in a given year....

2014 was just an entirely different animal. It was a talented group, but they just couldn't get the engine to turn over all year. The pieces were there, they just couldn't find the right key. And while that team will always be remembered for Shabazz, I still to this day feel like that key was really D'Andre Daniels figuring everything out. Once he clicked, the whole thing came together really fast and then it was just off to the races.

2014 we were a 7 seed and won it all that's amazing. However, I thought our resume was more deserving of a 4 seed. We started off the season very well highlighted by wins over Maryland, Indiana and obviously Florida. The fact that we handed Florida their only two defeats of the season is very telling of how good that team was also. The only team I thought was better than us that year was Louisville who I thought was hands down the best team in the country. SMU was just a bad matchup. I thought the team raised their level of play at the start of the AAC tournament and then they took it to a championship level against Nova when Bazz went out with foul trouble. We definitely caught a big break playing regionals in NYC but that was a very special part of the experience and I'm very thankful for that as a UConn fan.

2011 I thought the BET was the bigger accomplishment especially considering how we ended the regular season. When the NCAAT started we were firing on all cylinders and playing at such a high level especially defensively. Kemba's play against Cincy, SDSU and Zona was probably the best basketball over a three game stretch ever played by a UConn player when you consider everything. Kemba's BET, Gordon's BET and Bazz's NCAAT are right there as well.

 

[BUConn10]

The 2011 run seems to overshadow the 2014 run in the media and casual discussion amongst fans for a couple of reasons. The first primarily being because of the BET Tournament. The BE before it's collapse was at its absolute peak and had a true gauntlet of powerhouses that was the true, unanimous Greatest basketball conference in America. It wasn't even close in terms of public perception, mixed in with the lore surrounding the Big East Tournament in MSG which to many was just as anticipated as the NCAA with a certain brand of ferocity in its signature play. Not only did they win the BET over the 2014 team which actually got clobbered in the final of a far more inferior bracket, but they did it in spectacular, almost Hollywood fashion. ESPN and the media was following the team at every step and hype was building exponentially as they kept knocking off ranked powerhouse after ranked powerhouse.

Second factor was The Shot. Kemba's shot against Pitt, one of the most feared teams in the country that year, in one of the most dominant single basketball moves in tournament history Kemba and the team went viral overnight. This shot and 5 games in 5 days gave the team a sense of "magic" and the viewers knew it. I remember UConn being the 3rd most picked team to win the NCAAT that year in all the bracket challenges, this meant the casual fans across the US were personally invested in the UConn run probably way more than 2014.

Finally Kemba was simply better than Napier, as great as the both were. America was enamored with Kemba in a way Napier never even got close to which is crazy since he was a 1st-Team AA. I remember there was a Reddit discussion on the cbb board THIS YEAR in 2017 asking "what player from any program simply made you go 'wow he really is the best in the country'?" And Kemba Walker had the most votes by a large margin, and this is from random fans 6 years after the fact.

2011 was indeed the better team with the more memorable post-season run, and that's all these lists are about.

 

[tcf15]

 

[willie99]

I'm sorry, but if Curry is on that list then it opens up the door to scores of other people who had great tournaments and didn't win the title or even make the Final Four. A Caron Butler in 2002 for example. And no, I'm not saying Caron belongs on that list

Maybe Bazz does

 

[SubbaBub]

2011 was a better team.

2014 picked up the MarioKart star (MSG) and became invincible.