Favorite UConn team ever?

[nelsonmuntz]

Either this year or the Dream Team. I think this one carries the day. I think people knew the Dream Team would be good, they just hadn't factored in Henefeld. This year's team, with nothing to play for and a new coach, is completely unexpected. And they play the way I want my kid to play.

1999 and 2004 were actually exhausting seasons. While I like winning it all, it is more fun to be the underdog than the favorite. 1999 and 2004 weren't really fun until after the season was over.

 

[Gurleyman]

Either this year or the Dream Team. I think this one carries the day. I think people knew the Dream Team would be good, they just hadn't factored in Henefeld. This year's team, with nothing to play for and a new coach, is completely unexpected. And they play the way I want my kid to play.

1999 and 2004 were actually exhausting seasons. While I like winning it all, it is more fun to be the underdog than the favorite. 1999 and 2004 weren't really fun until after the season was over.

No Internet at the time, but nobody I knew thought the Dream Season would amount to anything. We won the NIT in 1988 but lost every close game that was humanly possible the next year to finish second to last, and then lost to Alan Ogg and UAB in the NIT. Then Cliffy and Phil Gamble graduated and the cupboard looked kinda bare. Cliffy was considered as good as it gets here talent-wise at the time, and the Ewing Theory wasnt a thing yet. Smitty looked ok as a freshman, but not a superstar in the making, and we caught a break when Burrell didnt play baseball, but that wasn't expected to make a huge difference.

We started out with a loss to a bad Texas A&M team, and then got a woodshed treatment from St. John's in our first or second Big East game, who had a layup drill against the press and won 90-50 or so. The gradual rise from there was unreal. Kept expecting to come back down to earth and we never did.

2002 and 2011 were fun years too, even though they had their low points (St. Bona in 2002, 9-9 regular season in 2011). Most of 1995, but man that team wouldn't mess around when they lost.

 

[Horatio]

1. 2004 champs. They were a band. Rashad played lead guitar. Oak was the drummer . Ben played sax. Taliek was lead singer. Etc...

2. 2009 Overcomers. The team ran like a finely tuned machine before Dyson went down.His injury during that run probably robbed him of an opportunity to be a Uconn legend without debate . Some believe that if he were there he would've gotten us to the final game. Doug wiggins was supposed to be there. People often forget that Kemba won two final fours.

3. 2006 losers. Bastards. No leadership. Rudy hardly showed up. Not enough pure ball handlers . We needed "circuit city" AJ that year.

4. 1994 . That missed foul shot probably haunted Donyell until we won in 1999.

*Favorite players- Super Tony Robertson and Dyson. Look up "combo guard" in any dictionary / search engine , etc. and you'll see a picture of Super Tone and Dyson in a Uconn dorm room , smoking a little weed, smiling.

 

[TheChamps990411]

I think my favorite team would have to be the dream season. that was when i first became a fan in the 7th grade and have been hooked since. that season just had a magic to it that no other season has come close too. yes including the 3 championship seasons.

a close second would be `11. that team had ZERO expectations going in and to see what they did was UNBELIEVABLE. im still in disbelief when i think of that season or see games from that season. we beat so many great teams throughout the season it was crazy.

third would be 2004 because they were so dominant once they started running on all cylinders. ok4 got healthy and rashad became a starter and it was over. i remember some espn guys reffering to the tourney that year as the uconn invitational. id feel confident lining up that team against any champion in the last 30 years because i think we`d beat many of them.

 

[mauconnfan]

It's not close....89-90!

No clue after they lost to a Texas A & M team early they would be that good.........they played together, with heart and pressed people to death. I mean in all honesty they beginning of a basketball dynasty, what's not to love about that team?

 

[boog204]

89-90 by far... I was in the fourth grade and the season became part of our curriculum (my teacher was a UConn alum). We had a huge bulletin board (that was in the Horde days), we wrote letters, it was great. I was obviously very young, but I remember having zero expectations going into the year and after losing Cliffy and Gamble thinking that would suck.

98-99... My freshmen year at UConn and as good as were at times during the 90s, I never thought we'd take it to the next level as JC was labeled as the coach who couldn't win the big one. I remember having an enormous sense of relief when we just made a final four and was expecting us to get waxed by Duke.

93-94... My third fave and most disappointing team as I thought this might have been our most talented team. Donyell, Sheffer, Ollie, Donny, freshmen Ray, Travis, the Big E... We started off the year absolutely destroying Virginia in their place and I thought we were going to win it all. I still can't believe Donyell missed those free throws.

 

[mauconnfan]

89-90 by far... I was in the fourth grade and the season became part of our curriculum (my teacher was a UConn alum). We had a huge bulletin board (that was in the Horde days), we wrote letters, it was great. I was obviously very young, but I remember having zero expectations going into the year and after losing Cliffy and Gamble thinking that would suck.

98-99... My freshmen year at UConn and as good as were at times during the 90s, I never thought we'd take it to the next level as JC was labeled as the coach who couldn't win the big one. I remember having an enormous sense of relief when we just made a final four and was expecting us to get waxed by Duke.

93-94... My third fave and most disappointing team as I thought this might have been our most talented team. Donyell, Sheffer, Ollie, Donny, freshmen Ray, Travis, the Big E... We started off the year absolutely destroying Virginia in their place and I thought we were going to win it all. I still can't believe Donyell missed those free throws.

Guy went 20 f0r 20 in a game vs the Johnnies......who woulda thunk it boog.......

 

[Husky]

Only one person has the 2011 roller coaster? lmao

2006 and 2009 were awesome, it amazes me that the 2011 wins it all, but STACKED teams like 2006 don't. Shows that you gotta respect cardiac. Khalid El Amin's teams were absolutely awesome as well

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Ill always have a soft spot for the 2009 team. That was my senior year at UConn and Adrien will always rank as my favorite Husky (just ahead of Ray and Rashad).

My only regret is that from 05-10 we barely won a game in The Big East, so that core of players never got to experience MSG at it's best.

I still say we win it all that season if not for Jerome's injury.

 

[Vuce]

I am also going with 1989-90. I was a student up at Uconn then. The first year or two I had no problem getting student season tickets. After the 1989-90 season it was ridiculous demand and they needed to have a lottery for the 1990-91 season. To feel the momentum build that year and the buzz on campus, the media attention for being the new kid on the block, improbable wins, etc. Cuse was in the finals in 1987, Gtown was still a top 5 program, Seton Hall was in the finals in 1989, even PC was good! I know it has been talked about a lot but it is true - the regular season wins at HCC versus Cuse and Gtown are the measuring stick for games there. Then you throw in a come out of nowhere talent like Henefeld and you just cant make stuff like that up. They cap it off with the BET wins and back to back buzzer beating win and loss in the NCAA Tourney - amazing season.

 

[dogpause]

Any team with Khalid, but 2004 was the best for me.

 

[upstater]

1A. 2004 wins it for me.
1B. 2011
3. 1999
4. As a Vern Giscombe and Mike McKay fan, 1981-1982 will always be big for me, and Corny Thompson, Stormin Norman and Aleksinas weren't bad either, not to mention a little guy who is sitting on UConn's bench currently.

 

[CTMike]

I won't go so far as to say that this year's crew is my favorite... But for all the reasons mentioned, it has definitely rekindled my love for Husky Hoops...

 

[UChusky916]

While I like winning it all, it is more fun to be the underdog than the favorite.

That's what made 2011 so AWESOME! We were the underdog and still won it all!

2011 takes the cake for me, although I've only been watching UConn basketball since '95. How can anyone not fall in love what the 2011 team did?!

-Won Maui early on (beating Izzo and Calipari!)
-Picked 9th preseason in BE, finish 9th
-BET run (5 games in 5 days vs 4 ranked teams after not winning a SINGLE BET GAME in 5 years)
-NCAA run (beating UK AGAIN along the way)
-Undefeated in tournament games all year

This all happened in the wake of the Nate Miles and APR garbage in a year that we were supposed to be rebuilding.

And, oh yeah, we had a pretty special player that year too. Individually, it will be hard for anyother UConn player to even come close to what Kemba did that year ever again.

1999 and 2004 was fun, but again, we knew those teams were legitimate contenders. The run that the 2011 team made lead by Kemba was simply an incredible ride. I don't understand why it's not talked about more.

 

[gibhunter]

I liked the 1995 team that lost to UCLA in the elite 8. Had that game been played anywhere outside the state of California, UConn would have had its first championship then.

 

[Palatine]

My favorite will always be the 1964 team that made the sweet 16. My older brother took me to agame earlier that year and I started listening on the radio. Their upset of Bill Bradley's Princeton team was the first time Huskies basketball made a national ripple.

The next year a kid named Wes Bialosuknia started lighting up the scoreboard and I was completely hooked. But it was that 63-64 team that lit the match.

 

[Bryan Lord]

99 for me. I was 10 or 11 and ill never forget opening my front door and just screaming at the top of my lungs when we won it. That was my first UConn season I can really remember, even though I'm sure I had watched earlier seasons with my dad and papa.

When I was a kid my papa used to pretend he still worked for the phone company so we could get free parking at the civic center. I think it was SNET or something let their employees park real close for free. It was a thrill every time we encountered the lot attendant. Half the time we got turned away, the other half we convinced the guy. We did that for a handful of years in the 90s apparently.

 

[DMW88]

Hard to pick one...1990, 1995, 1999, 2004 for obvious reasons. But 2011 ...Kemba....would get my vote. So unexpected...BE then NCAA run!

 

[Dogdeacon]

I gotta go 1999 as my favorite team. The 1990 season was incredibly fun and unbelievable. At the end we all kind of realized that Calhoun was right and Dare to Dream didn't just mean we could compete with the big boys, but that we could win. If they had made the final four it might be slightly different.

So to me nothing compares to the first time you win it all and the fact that the team had a lot of 'we are the best but nobody else knows or believes it' made it all the more fun to beat the supposed super-team and hated Dookies.

 

[Hume]

1999 was my favorite. Their first championship and winning the Duke Invitational, shutting up all the talking heads with their "Duke being unbeatable" that year, made it doubly special.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I think you need to decouple the end result from the players personalities and the style they played.

I loved the 93'-94' squad. Maybe its because I was just getting old enough to really understand and love the game. Doron Sheffer will always be one of my favorite huskies. Cold blooded like Bazz; The Israeli Iceman. Kevin Ollie, obviously, is now held in even greater esteem. People always talk about 'Yell but Donny was my favorite Marshall. I loved how he would run the floor. Freshman Ray. Freshman Travis. Often forgotten in Uconn lore Kirk King. Great team.

 

[patrick]

I gotta go 04 and OKAFOR!

BUT I love em all even tho they make me brake stuff sometimes!!!

 

[DOZE860]

99 hands down for me.. i was going to Avery Point that year, and the next year was branchfering to the Storrs campus. that final four weekend was like the best time i had at Uconn, specially being in Gampel the night they won. that team was the epitome of what Uconn basketball is, lock down defense, get out in transition and RUN. also have to say the 04 team is up there along with 09 and 11.

 

[aceboon]

99, my UConn fandom didn't start until the 94 season when I moved to CT as a kid, and I didn't really develop an understanding of the game until around 96-97. Seeing that team be put together from start to finish with first Ricky and Rash, then the freshmen group of Rip, KFree, and Voskhul, and to finally cap it off with Khalid was special. Really my first UConn team that I was able to see put together from scratch and then for them to win it all will always put them over others for me.

 

[mcs333]

99 was great because it was our first NC. But 2011 was by far the best. No expectations, bunch of freshmen and Kemba who came into his own that season. Won all the close games. The perfect storm. 2011!!!