Changing UConn History

[DarthGrumpy]

I was at the George Mason game. It hurt. But that UConn team was fundamentally flawed and, I think, would have gotten beat up by Florida. I realize nobody here will admit that, but that's what I believe. Sure, we could have pulled the upset, but it was unlikely. Give me Donyell over Florida, Tate over Duke or Ray over UCLA any day of the week over that George Mason loss.

Have to agree. The UConn "team" that lost to George Mason deserved to loose. Reminds me of some of the Kentucky teams of today. A loaded roster with a lot of individuals who just don't get it. A team that I would root hard against if they were not UConn's own. The 6 OT game against 'Cuse, which I went too, was historical, win or loose. Can't stand Syracuse today; but it was an amazing night with friends and I would not to take any of that away from anyone. UNLV would have crushed UConn in '90. That leaves for me the '94 loss to Florida and then the '95 loss to UCLA, though, as I said, UCLA was the better team that year. Oddly, I don't remember '02; but, I was less than 2 months until my wedding and buying a house that year, so I was likely distracted. '96 also sticks out for me as that was a bad upset to Miss St in the regional Semi-final and I really wanted a crack at Coach Cal and UMass in the Final in New Jersey.

 

[CallMeBruce]

The garbage talked about the '06 team is ridiculous. They were one of the very best teams in the country all season, and a better team than Florida. Maybe they would have lost, because it's hard to win in the Final Four, but the idea that they couldn't have gotten past that Florida team is nonsense.

 

[CTBasketball]

06' George Mason without a question. They would have smacked Florida around - we outmatched them at every position.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Tate hangs on to it, gets fouled, hits both, UConn wins 80-77 in OT. That team deserved a Final Four. Christian Laettner's shot never happened.

Has to be the Laettner shot for me. Spent good money at the time to go to that game. Long ride home to Storrs after that stinging defeat.

 

[nomar]

The garbage talked about the '06 team is ridiculous. They were one of the very best teams in the country all season, and a better team than Florida. Maybe they would have lost, because it's hard to win in the Final Four, but the idea that they couldn't have gotten past that Florida team is nonsense.

We squeaked by Washington only because Roy got a T, which counted as a personal foul. We were down 12 to Albany in the second half, and only Marcus's amazing play bailed us out. We struggled handling and passing the ball all season against good perimeter teams because we only had one guy who could dribble. If AJ was playing that season, it would have been a different story.

Now, you're right, none of that means we weren't one of the best teams in the country. We were. After Nova made us look like we couldn't dribble, we clowned them in the rematch.

Nobody is saying we couldn't have gotten past that Florida team. It was just very unlikely. They were a much more complete team. Just better.

 

[Gurleyman]

The garbage talked about the '06 team is ridiculous. They were one of the very best teams in the country all season, and a better team than Florida. Maybe they would have lost, because it's hard to win in the Final Four, but the idea that they couldn't have gotten past that Florida team is nonsense.

They were down 12 in the second half to a 16 seed. Right after losing to Syracuse in a 1-8 quarterfinal. Which was right after being tied with 12-17 Louisville with a minute to go at home. Which was right after blowing a 17-point lead at 7-24 USF. And with all the near-misses and lucky breaks and miracle comebacks, we had five minutes to get to the FF against George Mason and were badly outplayed. Not one defensive stop.

That team was not playing at a championship level. It just wasn't. Was lucky to make it as far as they did.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

Has to be the Laettner shot for me. Spent good money at the time to go to that game. Long ride home to Storrs after that stinging defeat.

If we had won this game I don't think that 1999 Championship would have been quite as special. JC was so close to FF in 1990 he could taste it . I really think a lot of his fire and the future success of UConn came from that near miss "Dream Season" team. I was a freshman at uconn that year and remember being at the game. Those of us in student section really laid into Bobby Hurley..he had to leave the game at least 3 or 4 times to rush to the bathroom as he had food poisoning or a stomach flue or something.

 

[UC313]

1/22/05 UConn vs. Pitt in the snowstorm. Due to blizzard conditions they opened up the doors at Gampel. Place was knockin. I was 5 rows behind Dickie V. We go into halftime up something ridiculous like 20. Rudy gets lazy in the second half and we lose by a handful. Rudy makes my least favorite husky simply because of that game. That was the longest 30 mph ride home ever.

This is the first time ive talked about that game in 10 years publically.

 

[Mots010]

The 2006 team could score at will, but that last month they just stopped defending all together. Look at some of the point totals we gave up. Part of that is guys like Marcus Williams, Rashad, Denham just were never great defenders, and the other part was they were just punched out. A big part of defense is just plain effort, along with communication/teamwork, and I'm not sure the chemistry was there to lock a team down. Florida would have handled us with relative ease I think.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

In order:

2006 - UConn vs. George Mason - Florida was the only team in the Final 4 that had a chance against us, and we matched up well with that team at every position. UConn beats George Mason, UConn wins the National Championship.

1994 - UConn vs. Florida - UConn should have beat Florida and would have killed BCU in the next round. This NC was winnable as soon as BCU knocked off UNC.

1995 - UConn vs. UCLA - One of the best performances by a UConn team in a loss. UConn would probably have beat Okie State, although Big Country would have shredded Travis, but a UConn/Arkansas matchup would have been a tossup.

2002 - UConn vs. Maryland - this team was more Caronsanity than a particularly good team. Okafor and Gordon were too young. I believe that Selvie was the #2 scorer on the team. I don't think UConn would have gotten by Kansas.

1990 - UConn vs. Duke. I hate Laettner as much as the next guy, but UNLV was waiting for UConn in the Final Four and there was no way UConn was beating that wrecking crew.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Gordon was the #2 scorer on the '02 team. Selvie was fourth in points behind Supertone, third in ppg. That was a pretty good team.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

We squeaked by Washington only because Roy got a T, which counted as a personal foul. We were down 12 to Albany in the second half, and only Marcus's amazing play bailed us out. We struggled handling and passing the ball all season against good perimeter teams because we only had one guy who could dribble. If AJ was playing that season, it would have been a different story.

Now, you're right, none of that means we weren't one of the best teams in the country. We were. After Nova made us look like we couldn't dribble, we clowned them in the rematch.

Nobody is saying we couldn't have gotten past that Florida team. It was just very unlikely. They were a much more complete team. Just better.

Agreed. I don't know about individual match-ups, that never seemed like the problem with that '06 team. But that Florida team had tremendous chemistry, tremendous toughness, and just clicked together. Obviously UConn could have won, but my gut says Florida puts them in a hole that they can't dig out of.

I don't know why people would say "beat George Mason, UConn wins the national championship." They were down 12 to Albany in the second half. They absolutely stole a win from UW. For all the talent they had the idea that matchups on paper are reflective of anything is silly.

 

[ASweet3781]

In order:

2006 - UConn vs. George Mason - Florida was the only team in the Final 4 that had a chance against us, and we matched up well with that team at every position. UConn beats George Mason, UConn wins the National Championship.

1994 - UConn vs. Florida - UConn should have beat Florida and would have killed BCU in the next round. This NC was winnable as soon as BCU knocked off UNC.

1995 - UConn vs. UCLA - One of the best performances by a UConn team in a loss. UConn would probably have beat Okie State, although Big Country would have shredded Travis, but a UConn/Arkansas matchup would have been a tossup.

2002 - UConn vs. Maryland - this team was more Caronsanity than a particularly good team. Okafor and Gordon were too young. I believe that Selvie was the #2 scorer on the team. I don't think UConn would have gotten by Kansas.

1990 - UConn vs. Duke. I hate Laettner as much as the next guy, but UNLV was waiting for UConn in the Final Four and there was no way UConn was beating that wrecking crew.

Agree with these 5 games being the ones I most go back and forth on.

1995 and 2002 played fantastic and lost hard fought games to the eventual champion. I wish we were in any other bracket and those teams could have made the final 4. And of course had they gotten by Maryland and UCLA, the teams remaining would not have been as tough to beat. Who knows. Ray Allen and Caron Butler deserved to make it to the Final 4.

1990 had no shot to beat UNLV but if we got the Final 4 monkey off our back that soon the pressure that decade would have been decreased so much. Around '96 and '98 the Calhoun will never make the Final 4 was repeated over and over again. The Gonzaga game in '99 was sheer torture because of that Laettner shot.

1994 and 2006 gave away games to teams they should have beaten in heartbreaking fashion and had manageable paths remaining. As bad as it gets

I think you can also consider 2003 Texas because it looked like we were going to come back and beat texas on their home floor but we had a real lousy final 2-3 minutes and than White's shot gets stuck. Another manageable path that year had we gotten by.

1996 Mississppi State season was vacated by the NCAA so it doesn't count even if it sucked at the time. And I think the notion the 2009 team had a shot against UNC is wishful thinking even with Dyson. That UNC team was loaded with guys still in the NBA and absolutely demolished the Michigan State team who bullied us most of the game. We have never done that well against UNC or Roy. I'll always be thankful to the basketball Gods that UNC choked away that game to a Niang-less Iowa State team last year.

 

[UC990411]

Is the 2011 Fiesta Bowl eligible?

That prolly would've put us in the ACC

 

[Inyatkin]

The 2006 team is somehow both overrated and underrated. Underrated in that it's ridiculous that people are so critical of a 30-win team that was one shot from the Final Four. Overrated in that they were, for all those wins, playing with fire the entire second half of the season, pulling out one close win after another against bad to mediocre teams. They had a lot of draft picks but only one guy who stuck in the NBA, and I wouldn't put them near my top 5 UConn teams.

 

[Gurleyman]

That UNLV team punked Duke and had a layup line against Loyola Marymount, but they beat Ball State (a 12 seed) by 2 in the Sweet Sixteen, and their FF game against Ga Tech (a 4 seed) was close (76-74 with five minutes left, before ending 90-81). It would have been a bad match up for us if we reached the final - we'd have obviously had a hard time pressing them, but we stopped pressing Duke too and got back into that one in the halfcourt.

But I wanted to see that 1990 team go as far as it could. Every time I thought they couldn't win, they won. That team beat Georgetown and Syracuse on back to back days - teams with Hall of Fame bigs - while Rod Sellers was out with a knee injury. Nobody should have given us a chance in those either.

 

[champs99and04]

I don't know why more people don't bring up the 2009 team in these discussions. UNC was clearly the best team that year, but we should have beaten Michigan State, and as good as the 'Heels were, they had lost, what, five games that year? They were damn good but not unbeatable. Michigan State was just overmatched.

 

[UConnNick]

I believe the NCAA has already taken care of this. Wasn't the 6OT game part of the forfeited games?

I believe so. What are the odds that Syracuse wasn't using an ineligible player in that game?

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I believe so. What are the odds that Syracuse wasn't using an ineligible player in that game?

About the same as when Syracuse won the national title in '03 that the NCAA somehow skipped over.

 

[Towney007]

Yeah thinking back.

'94 gets to me because that path to the final four was wide open. B.C. was awful that year and Indiana was hardly anything to get worked up about. I feel like we rip either of those teams apart. I think we were plainly better than Arizona and Duke - Arkansas though... meh.

'95 we got beat by the best team in the country. That UCLA team was awesome. We def. beat Oklahoma State in the Final Four even though I worry about Knight down in the blocks vs Reeves. Final would have been more of a push. Rasheed/Stackhouse UNC or more polished Arkansas is a push. I think we were one of the top four/five teams that year but I'm not sure we're better than UNC/Arkansas/UCLA.

'96 is weird because honestly - Mississippi State was REALLY freaking good. I have 4-5 pre season magazines from that year and Mississippi was considered a Final Four team in all but one of them. They played like crap all season long and finally found themselves in the SEC tournament. Don't forget - I believe they beat Kentucky in the tournament final that year, too. So in hindsight I guess I don't hate that loss as much as others do... If we beat them - we coast to the final vs UMass or Kentucky. Both those games are a pick 'em to me.

'98 was good, not a great Uconn team. I felt like we got knocked out where we should have been. Same with '02 and to a greater extent - '90 as well. Got an unfortunate draw in both but I think we get scalped hard by UNLV in the final in '90 and in '02 I think Maryland was flat out a better team.

'06 I think we beat George Mason, we win the National Title. Yeah, that team really rode the lightning down the stretch, but Florida was the only real competition at the Final Four that year and I still think we're better than they are.

'09 is what it is. We were a Final Four team. Not sure we were better than UNC that year, but I'm hard pressed to think of anyone else who I thought was better than we were...

 

[CallMeBruce]

Fun fact: Travis Knight was 9-2 against Bryant Reeves in his NBA career.

 

[CL82]

I believe so. What are the odds that Syracuse wasn't using an ineligible player in that game?

Zero.

About the same as when Syracuse won the national title in '03 that the NCAA somehow skipped over.

Yep. Kind of bugs me.

Regardless, if 4>1 then 4>>>>>1*