Flashback Championship Huskies: Fondest Memories?

[Kitaman]

New faces, older transfers there was a lot of team building to do. I think for me it was the Georgetown game when we exploded in the 2nd half and Joey C was playing out of his mind. I saw the team screaming, hollering and cheering on the bench, especially the starters. The team was coming together that night. Hawk and Sanogo were bouncing like super cheerleaders, when Joey was making plays.

Another for me was when AJ's light bulb went off and Alleyne's confidence soared after our slide.

Here's my fondest memory:

 

[aburks41]

Joey California will go down as one of the coolest players to ever don a Husky uniform. What a legend

 

[InKembaITrust]

Sanogo dominating Kalkbrenner in the reg season after some unwise smack talk.

Hawkins absolutely flourishing in the NCAA tourney.

Every halftime buzzer beater Karaban hit.

The entire Phil Knight Invitational when everyone was clicking and leaving fans drooling.

AJ blossoming into an all-time Husky leader.

The list goes on and on and on. There were many moments this past season that had me grinning ear to ear.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Simply the serendipity of being on spring break and then having a trip postponed a week to allow the openness to drive up to Albany where UConn happened to be playing their first game.

It was just my second time at March Madness and the first time seeing UConn play in March Madness so it was really special being there for the start of their run.

 

[willie99]

Second half vs Iona followed by Second half vs St Mary's

I knew we had something special

So did Slick Rick

And Shaka Smart. Nobody can beat us when we're playing good

 

[gtcam]

Watching Hawk being unleashed from the ties that bound him and being the player I knew he would be.
Overall I loved the passion that JoeyC and DC brought to the program.

 

[bmayuc]

The Joey California scoring bursts

The Clingan defensive wall/dominance

Sanogo just crushing on the low block

Hawks momentum threes

Jackson doing 3-4 things a game where you are like - "ok literally zero other players in CBB can do that" in all three phases - offense/passing, defense, and transition

 

[Jaydumo20]

@Kitaman that Joey Goergetown came was the first that came to my mind.
The more I think about it, I think the best part of this season was watching the game with a sense of trust.
I'm a Rays fan but I imagine it's the same sense of trust that Yanks fans felt feel when Mo would enter a game.
It was great trusting that Sanogo, no matter who he faced, was not gonna be outmatched- trusting that we had a pit bull like AJ capable of making a big play- trusting Hawk and AK to hit big shots- and knowing that our bench wasn't a formality but a force. I've had this feeling with most of our JC teams but I lost it for years.
It's the best feeling to have as a fan.

 

[ucp990411]

Simply the serendipity of being on spring break and then having a trip postponed a week to allow the openness to drive up to Albany where UConn happened to be playing their first game.

It was just my second time at March Madness and the first time seeing UConn play in March Madness so it was really special being there for the start of their run.

Adrien, your scouting reports were fantastic. I looked for them and would call fellow Huskymaniacs with the report. They actually thought I knew what I was talking about and I owe it all to you. Brilliant stuff and I thank you for your efforts.

 

[Khal Drogo]

Joey California will go down as one of the coolest players to ever don a Husky uniform. What a legend

Thanks for posting Joey

 

[REB1094]

Love this thread idea. The things that stick out in my mind the most (in no order) -

• Andre's steal-into-spin-into-behind the back-into-fast break dunk against LIU. I know I said in no order but this was #1
• Hawkins second half vs. St Mary's
• Joey C taking over against Georgetown
• Newton's weekly random 28+ foot threes
• Sanogo shredding Castleton and Kalkbrenner even though he was giving up like 3-5 inches of height
• Blowing out Marquette at home to get our season back on track. I think that was also the Alleyne halfcourt buzzer beater game
• Going up like 40-5 against Depaul lol
• Sanogo taking over late against Alabama and Clingan dominating ISU the next night

Had to refresh my memory with a highlight video of Sanogo vs. Alabama and it was a drive from the perimeter, followed by blocking a layup, followed by a fast break dunk, followed by another monster block, followed by a 3, followed by a "let's f.... go" all in about 3 minutes

EDIT I'm ashamed that I didn't mention Hawkins' dagger 3 followed by Newton's double dagger layup against SDSU to seal the championship

 

[Frank06830]

Getting the 5 chips it immediately triggered a memory from 1995ish.
I actually had Christin Laetner’s backup from the Duke 1991 championship team working for me at a NY ad agency. I remember asking him if Calhoun/Uconn would ever win a championship. I think Mississippi St just knocked us out. He said no. Not in a smug obnoxious way. He wasn’t like that. Smart, humble nicest guy. At that time in 1995 we were closing in but his assessment as a Coach K decile and Duke player hit me hard. Obviously beating Duke in 1999 broke the ice, but now winning 5 and tying Duke sends me over the top

Winning brought me back to that time.

 

[ZenConn]

Doomed!

 

[Sick Puppy]

Hawk flashing his Ray/Rip coaching-non-stop-movement-fighting-through-screens, getting his shot off measured in nanoseconds, or less.

 

[XLCenterFan]

Have to agree with Joey C vs. Georgetown. It was the week before Christmas, and boy we needed that. I was calling him Joey Christmas that week. He would never pay for a drink again in CT after that game.

Seeing the switch flip on the entire season in the second half at Gampel vs. Xavier. I know we lost the game, but the season and the team were different after that half. I'd be willing to bet that in the whole country, no team was better than us from that halftime on. We scored 55 on X in the half and almost came back from 17. When Ajax stole that ball at midcourt and threw down the dunk to cut their lead to 1....Gampel was going insane. We all felt was what was coming, and we all knew what was possible.

What I saw from Hawk at Depaul. It was that moment that I knew I'd never see him in a UConn jersey after this season.

The $2 beer night where PC got annihilated. Not only did we never have a $2 beer night before that, but we rightfully embarrassed them, and Cooley's post-game comments sort of turned our fan base on PC. Not in the sense that they are our rivals, but in the sense of..."wait, at first we were laughing at you, but now our goal is to destroy and embarrass you...forever."

When Ajax did small, tiny things that no one in the country can do, and you're like "OMG I am so glad he is on our team." The play at the end of the first half vs. Gonzaga was a prime example.

When the fan base kept showing up and selling out games even when we went through the rough stretch. We knew what we had and we saw what was capable. Even the casuals saw it.

All the former players and recruit showing up to games.

When we embarrassed MQ at the XL.

Sanogo owning Creighton after Kalk had some tough talk.

There was so much going on this season...what a ride.

 

[Gutter King]

New faces, older transfers there was a lot of team building to do. I think for me it was the Georgetown game when we exploded in the 2nd half and Joey C was playing out of his mind. I saw the team screaming, hollering and cheering on the bench, especially the starters. The team was coming together that night. Hawk and Sanogo were bouncing like super cheerleaders, when Joey was making plays.

Another for me was when AJ's light bulb went off and Alleyne's confidence soared after our slide.

Here's my fondest memory:

This was the moment that I knew this year could be different. It was also the moment that it felt like we got our swagger back.

When he landed that majestic one hander, I looked at my wife and told her it hasn't been this much fun since Bazz. Thanks Joey....your time was short, but everlasting. No doubt a legend in Husky blue.

 

[jibsey]

Gonzaga. The heads said we “haven’t played anyone of their quality” on both sides of the ball. After we pulverized them the bandwagon filled up.

 

[Blue Idiaco]

The Joey C explosion v GTown was my first thought, but when Adama twice made great passes out of a double to Andre for dunks I just smiled. No way to stop them and showed how much growth the team had exhibited. Very satisfying.

 

[ucp990411]

When Andrew Hurley dribbled the clock out and the scoreboard said 0:00 time left and the score was 76-59

 

[Martin]

When Khalid said “shock the world” and Trajon Langdon fell down.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

My favorite was something that occurred in every game (except Iona, I'll explain later), normally somewhere about halfway through the first half.

The opponent realized that a) they could not handle Sanogo with one defender and b) they couldn't double him because of our shooters. The dejected look on their collective faces, that it would take some miracle (or a couple miracles) for them to win, was priceless. I will add to this that if Hawkins ordered a cheeseburger instead of calimari, we would have won each final four game by an additional 15 points and, similar to Arkansas and Gonzaga, there would have been no point in the second half where Miami or SD St would have thought they could come back.

Iona didn't even attempt to double Sanogo. Their strategy was let him do his thing and hope they could do enough from three point range to make it a game. They were wrong, but they had no correct answers to begin with. Nobody did.

 

[SubbaBub]

Getting the 5 chips it immediately triggered a memory from 1995ish.
I actually had Christin Laetner’s backup from the Duke 1991 championship team working for me at a NY ad agency. I remember asking him if Calhoun/Uconn would ever win a championship. I think Mississippi St just knocked us out. He said no. Not in a smug obnoxious way. He wasn’t like that. Smart, humble nicest guy. At that time in 1995 we were closing in but his assessment as a Coach K decile and Duke player hit me hard. Obviously beating Duke in 1999 broke the ice, but now winning 5 and tying Duke sends me over the top

Winning brought me back to that time.

Send that guy a postcard.

 

[gsmooth]

Getting the 5 chips it immediately triggered a memory from 1995ish.
I actually had Christin Laetner’s backup from the Duke 1991 championship team working for me at a NY ad agency. I remember asking him if Calhoun/Uconn would ever win a championship. I think Mississippi St just knocked us out. He said no. Not in a smug obnoxious way. He wasn’t like that. Smart, humble nicest guy. At that time in 1995 we were closing in but his assessment as a Coach K decile and Duke player hit me hard. Obviously beating Duke in 1999 broke the ice, but now winning 5 and tying Duke sends me over the top

Winning brought me back to that time.

Was that Greg Koubek?

 

[Frank06830]

Was that Greg Koubek?

No. Clay Buckley

 

[g_smith]

This was the moment that I knew this year could be different. It was also the moment that it felt like we got our swagger back.

When he landed that majestic one hander, I looked at my wife and told her it hasn't been this much fun since Bazz. Thanks Joey....your time was short, but everlasting. No doubt a legend in Husky blue.

I was flipping out during the Gtown game. I can't really remember any time a UConn player made that 1 hander Joey C made against Gtown. It was such a unique play that most players would never practice. He just cut and the rest is history.