- Joined
- Sep 28, 2012
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I was born in Connecticut, the first year of the Big East. My Dad however had been watching Uconn since the 50’s and their massive defeat against Duke in the NCAA tournament. Me personally, I never really got into the Uconn basketball until I actually moved away from Connecticut, shamefully. I moved to Maine in 1987, in the summer, the year prior to their magical N.I.T. run. Previously, my favorite sport had always been baseball. I was a die hard Mets fan and idolized Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. However I will always remember that first year of rooting for Uconn. I was only 8 years old and my older brother had watched the Huskies sporadically while still living in Connecticut. But sometimes when you move away from a place, you long for pieces of nostalgia. This is kind of how it started for me and my brother. I do not remember a lot of the season, besides the run, but boy was that a memorable run. One of my fondest memories of that season was the night Uconn defeated Syracuse 51-50. I actually had not seen the game. My brother stayed up that night with the radio on its side with an antenna contraption to get the intermittent sounds that would come through. Living such a long distance, made the reception horrible, but with a little patience, a little passion, you could hear about ¼ of the game. I remember that next day; my brother had done a recreation of the broadcast on a cassette tape and promised to play it for me after dinner. Of course he told me this was a real recording, being a young player who looked up to his brother, I did not question the validity of the tape. It was at that moment that I was captivated by Uconn for the rest of my life. It was tough being a Uconn fan in the early years living in Bangor, Maine. None of the clothing or sporting outlets sold any Uconn memorabilia. I was poor so getting stuff through magazines was too expensive for my family. When a game came on TV. which was rare, my mother would let me stay up past my bed time to watch the game. I remember the first one I saw was during the dream season. It was against Syracuse, of course. They ended up winning by around 11 points; maybe it was 70-59. I was so hungry for more and more Uconn. This desire for Uconn increased and culminated with their championship victory in 1999. However, maybe being spoiled with such great teams, and a busy life, getting married having kids, this desire began to wane a bit…So what is the point of this whole thing that I am writing…..My point is, I cannot wait for this season to begin. I feel like a kid again, there are a lot of question marks. Can Ollie be as good as Calhoun? Can they continue and become a solidified blue blood program. Can they turn and make this conference a great conference like they did in the late 90’s. Not to mention the disappointment of no post-season. I must say, I have not been as excited for a season, since at least 98. Please can we start the season now?
