Amazing, Thinking Back...

[Deadrody]

At how frustrating it was to go from the Dream Season in 1990 through 1998, falling just short so many times.

Didn't it feel like a goddam ETERNITY ? The championship in 1999 was the sweetest nectar because UConn had been so good so many times and just couldn't quite get over the hump ?

Crazy. And now, here we are 24 years later and we've forgotten all about the 5 legitimate shots at the Final Four that weren't meant to be (nevermind the injustice of having to play Florida in Miami, UCLA in Oakland, and UNC in Greensboro), and instead, we have 5 Final Fours and 4 championships, more than any other school since we won the first one.

It's almost surreal

 

[Scoe]

At how frustrating it was to go from the Dream Season in 1990 through 1998, falling just short so many times.

Didn't it feel like a goddam ETERNITY ? The championship in 1999 was the sweetest nectar because UConn had been so good so many times and just couldn't quite get over the hump ?

Crazy. And now, here we are 24 years later and we've forgotten all about the 5 legitimate shots at the Final Four that weren't meant to be (nevermind the injustice of having to play Florida in Miami, UCLA in Oakland, and UNC in Greensboro), and instead, we have 5 Final Fours and 4 championships, more than any other school since we won the first one.

It's almost surreal

It really is, its easy to look at the great players who won us championships and rightfully so, as time marches on we tend to forget about the ones that put this program on the map, that did come short of making a final four. We can't forget about guys like Chris Smith, Depriest, Nadav, Cliff etc. They are all apart of it just like they were all a part of 99.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I told my son during the middle of the 2011 BE tournament (the evening after the Pitt win) that this was going to be our Redemption Tour. As UConn fans we were owed a BE title during a year that we weren't clearly (or at least slightly) the best team in the conference during the season and that we deserved a title run to make up for years like 1990, 1994-96, 1998, 2002, 2003, that there were too many tournaments when there was something working against us that had no right being part of a tournament. The OP is correct, it did seem like an eternity from 1990 to 1999 and whether it was a necessary step in our progression or merely a cruel reminder of how firmly against us the basketball gods were back then, the Gonzaga game, as the last obstacle before the promised land of a final four made it feel like an even longer journey.

There is something to be said about youthful enthusiasm but my son was convinced from around Thanksgiving that Shabazz was going to pull a Kemba and that once all was said and done we would be cutting down the nets. When the AAC tournament started my son asked "if the last one was redemption, what will this one be?". I replied "Payback!". This is where (to quote Michael Corleone) we will settle all family debts. In the tournament, St Joe's paid for the mid sixties tournament game at the neutral Palestra. Nova was likely due to our being told "don't bother showing up, you are not welcome" for the BE tournament last year. The win landing us in the Garden is evidence of that. I was convinced that we would pay back UNC (Greensboro 1998) and Michigan St (Detroit 2009) at the Garden but obviously the gods felt settling up on 2012 was far more important. Florida in the national semi-finals was for 1994, the fat ass who kept pushing his way through everyone close to the basket (how he didn't have many fouls called against him still amazes me) and the constant panning of Lon Kruger's kid. The championship game was merely reminding Calipari that all of the he pulled at UMass will forever haunt him. Yes, JC no longer walks the sidelines but the prodigal son (KO) will will be coaching at the highest level for nearly two decades after the squid hangs up his whistle.

There are many more to be paid back and I for one cannot wait for when we begin the next phase.