FfldCntyFan
Texas: Property of UConn Men's Basketball program
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 13,366
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It is hard to believe that it's been thirteen years already.
To date myself, my junior year in high school was the year Al McGuire's Marquette Warriors knocked off Dean Smith's UNC Tarheels. I had seen quite a bit of college hoops over the years and throughout my college years (even wanting to believe that with Corny & McKay we had quite a bit of talent) I never fully believed that a northeast school could do what schools like UCLA, Kentucky & Indiana had done. I spent the last few Perno years just hoping that we could become competitive in the BE, win it on occasion, make it to the tiournament on a semi-regular basis and in a great year make a decent run (sweet sixteen, perhaps elite eight).
Leading up to the game I was convinced that the game was ours unless we beat ourselves (something that team did not do) and I was stunned at the comments made by so many experts. It wasn't until shortly before tipoff that it hit that we could possibly lose (not likely but possible). It was a great game and a few things will always stick out,... Rickey Moore, supplying so much energy and offense early on, every sub, Rash, Souley, Saunders, coming in and being all business, our overall performance not dropping a bit. One thing however was that I didn't grasp the magnitude of the game, it didn't initially feel that it was much more than another game until after the game ended. Almost immediatly afterward, Rash had the ball in his hands and he was screaming with joy everything hit me. He was the same kid that I had seen play when he was in HS in Stamford and now he was a member of the national championship UConn Huskies. I remembered seeing HS kids fifteen plus years earlier (Jensen & Smyth were the most prominent but likely the only two who were capable of playing at the highest level) who in my mind I would project as UConn players and in more of a daydream than anything else see as being a major cog in a turning my alma mater into a national championship program. All of a sudden it hit me that this was exactly what happened. The reality of the moment hit me and I was overcome by it.
There have been many moments, primarily the second and third titles, that will always have a special place in my heart but nothing will every compare to what it felt like that night.
To date myself, my junior year in high school was the year Al McGuire's Marquette Warriors knocked off Dean Smith's UNC Tarheels. I had seen quite a bit of college hoops over the years and throughout my college years (even wanting to believe that with Corny & McKay we had quite a bit of talent) I never fully believed that a northeast school could do what schools like UCLA, Kentucky & Indiana had done. I spent the last few Perno years just hoping that we could become competitive in the BE, win it on occasion, make it to the tiournament on a semi-regular basis and in a great year make a decent run (sweet sixteen, perhaps elite eight).
Leading up to the game I was convinced that the game was ours unless we beat ourselves (something that team did not do) and I was stunned at the comments made by so many experts. It wasn't until shortly before tipoff that it hit that we could possibly lose (not likely but possible). It was a great game and a few things will always stick out,... Rickey Moore, supplying so much energy and offense early on, every sub, Rash, Souley, Saunders, coming in and being all business, our overall performance not dropping a bit. One thing however was that I didn't grasp the magnitude of the game, it didn't initially feel that it was much more than another game until after the game ended. Almost immediatly afterward, Rash had the ball in his hands and he was screaming with joy everything hit me. He was the same kid that I had seen play when he was in HS in Stamford and now he was a member of the national championship UConn Huskies. I remembered seeing HS kids fifteen plus years earlier (Jensen & Smyth were the most prominent but likely the only two who were capable of playing at the highest level) who in my mind I would project as UConn players and in more of a daydream than anything else see as being a major cog in a turning my alma mater into a national championship program. All of a sudden it hit me that this was exactly what happened. The reality of the moment hit me and I was overcome by it.
There have been many moments, primarily the second and third titles, that will always have a special place in my heart but nothing will every compare to what it felt like that night.
