How bad do you want this one compared to the others?

[Jaker]

We win Championships, that's what we do!

 

[BugsyCT]

Every one I've wanted just as badly because you never know when the next opportunity to be in that position is coming.

But considering we have a chance to go back-to-back and would give us 6 titles (tied with UNC and only UCLA & UK would have more), and our starting center is a local kid that's not only from my hometown, but just 2 & 3 years ago I was driving him and his team to some big high school games (for the same HS I went to), I REALLY want UConn to win this one.

 

[Scoe]

I’m hungry I want it and I want it now I don’t wanna wait. I guess I gotta wait, so fired up for Monday night let’s go.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I want it because it's what this team can achieve. This team has been great all year and it's their opportunity to cement their legacy as a team.

 

[Bongo Fury]

Prove to Big 12 and ACC they are silly to undervalue UConn

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Prove to Big 12 and ACC they are silly to undervalue UConn

They know it. They just don't want to acknowlege it.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Prove to Big 12 and ACC they are silly to undervalue UConn

I think about this scene when I think about UConn dismantling the power conference dominance.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Did you ever think we'd get there in our lifetime?

Admittedly, I was an elementary school age kid when I started joining my dad on weeknights to go to my first Husky games, so my perspective on nearly everything has shifted across the better part of a lifetime.

I didn't see a UConn National Championship until I was 45 years old.

The next time, I was 50. Then 57, then 60, then 69. My father never saw one.

Like a meditator who is instructed to return to awareness of each breath and then gets distracted, and restarts, and gets distracted, and restarts, ad infinitum, I tell myself regularly, "One game at a time." That's all there ever is.

Tomorrow is the 'one game-est' one game of the season, which completes tomorrow, no matter what.

So tomorrow, I really, truly get to root for a National Championship without getting ahead of myself, or off purpose...but only as a byproduct of what I most wish for.

My wish is for this single-season team to play well, in a way that serves us (and all others who watch) another generous helping of something delicious we've been feasting on since November.

Tomorrow's the day to find out how much and how well the team fulfills my wish, against the counter efforts of its most highly-regarded competition across the span of the 2023-24 season.

I know I'll be sad when this team's game-play ends on Monday night. I believe that I have reason to think I have a good chance to be happy with the final score that I'll see, but I have no guarantees. Throughout I'll be grateful that I've been onboard for the journey, and I'm thankful for all of you who have been in it with me.

Go Huskies!

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I responded on the thread itself and the link below will bring you to the thread with an awesome (and nostalgic) article on that tournament win.

Thread on 1988 NIT win

If someone were to have told me during the 1984-1985 or 1985-1986 season that in my lifetime we would reach the point (where a win tomorrow would take us) where only UCLA and Kentucky would have more men's basketball national titles than us I would have felt they were either crazy or pulling my leg.

As eternal an optimist as I was in those days about what the basketball program could end up being with the correct leadership, viewing a consistency where over a decade we would finish in the top half of the conference more often than not, maybe make one run each decade at the conference title and going to a couple NCAA tournaments and a few NIT tournaments in a given ten year stretch as a legitimate goal.

I'm not sure that anyone that wasn't born before the mid to late 1970's can truly comprehend what a hurculean achievement this has been, the mountains that Jim Calhoun figuratively moved the massive rebuilding job Dan Hurley has accomplished.

One year before we won that NIT, Indiana, who had a strong a history as any school in the sport just won their fifth, with a head coach who was four years younger then than Dan Hurley is today. Not only were they not able to win another since then (I still find it surreal that we can pass them), they have yet to find a replacement for coach Knight who can consistently do anything. Yes, there are a couple of things that we have somehow made look easy (winniing natinal titles, finding coaches capable of building consistently elit programs) but the truth is they are not. Every school seems to run into some difficulty finding replacement coaches, we somehow have been blessed.

I want the W tomorrow night. I want it as bad as I've wanted any W that any team I've followed in ant sport was after. I want it because I appreciate how truly remarkable it is, which is something that some may not yet understand.

 

[Fishy]

1999…I was almost happy that we just go over that Final Four hump.
2004…wanted to win that one very badly.
2011…really wanted that one for Kemba.
2014…was just shocked we were there.
2023…I knew we were going to win.
2024…I really, really, really, really, really, really, really want this one more than any of the ones before it. I don’t know why, but I really want it for this group.

Basically a nervous wreck 25 hours out.

 

[Senor Blue]

This one would potentially be the greatest back to back and greatest coaching job in college history.

How many teams have 3 NBA players? How many teams lose 3 NBA players at the same time, along with top bench options?

Those repeat teams had classes that grew up together. Senior led men that dominated as seniors.

This is a team that lost 5 of their top 8. They relied on a starting lineup of 2 sophomores and a freshman that replaced the NBA players. They somehow got better.

This would go beyond historic. And it would get the “UConn didn’t play anyone” crowd to stfu.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

1999 - It never occurred to me (save a panic attack against Gonzaga) that we wouldn't win that year. It was imperative as the possibility existed that we would never again be in that good of a position to close the deal. We had to win that one.

2004 - We had to win that one because a) once again we clearly had the best team and b) multiple titles moved us into a higher category historically.

2011 - I always viewed this as the redemption tour as during the roughly eighteen months from when Mich St beat us in Detroit and the start of practice in 2010, everyone in the sport was trying to put dirt on our grave. We showed the world we were still UConn and we (in more than a small way) redeemed the disater of 2006.

2014 - I called this the payback tour and we settled a number of scores in that run. In the elite eight we paid Michigan St back for 2009 in Detroit (at least we sealed the deal in our year). In the national semifinal, we paid Florida back for 1994 ( again, unlike them, we finished the job). For good measure, we settled with St Joe's for a tournament loss when they mattered and we didn't, with Iowa St for being so irritating (and beatinig us) in 2012 and Villanova for both secretly conspiring to leave us stuck with what became the AAC and for joiniing in the vote that kept us out of what would have been our last Big East Tournament. Finally, we for a second time we kept a trophy out of Calipari 's slimy hands.

2023 - With this one, we told the world "We're Back!". We've moved up another level historically and, to the dismay of so many, we are in position to continue to cause damage for the forseeable future.

2024 - This one is very important to me. We will have only UCLA and Kentucky ahead of us in total trophies after this. We will have caught UNC and passed Duke and Indiana. We also will have by far the brightest near future of any school in the country. I view this as analogous to when the Vanderbilts and Morgans built the Met. The old money snobs wouldn't let the nouveau riche become members of their opera house, so they built a far better one and forced the snobs to beg for membership once it became obvious which was the real quality opera house. Let them claim that their accomplishments from a twelve school tournament, form one bid per league, etc. have value. We'll continue to dominate and eventually they'll have to face the truth.

 

[gsmooth]

1999…I was almost happy that we just go over that Final Four hump.
2004…wanted to win that one very badly.
2011…really wanted that one for Kemba.
2014…was just shocked we were there.
2023…I knew we were going to win.
2024…I really, really, really, really, really, really, really want this one more than any of the ones before it. I don’t know why, but I really want it for this group.

Basically a nervous wreck 25 hours out.

I want the win for the championship tomorrow really badly as well. I will say, I want it more for Castle, Spencer, Stewart, Ross, and Singare than I do for me. I want them to taste what it is like to win the championship.

 

[Fishy]

I want the win for the championship tomorrow really badly as well. I will say, I want it more for Castle, Spencer, Stewart, Ross, and Singare than I do for me. I want them to taste what it is like to win the championship.

Yup.

Plus, this one just feels historic.

 

[DaMuttzNutt]

1999…I was almost happy that we just go over that Final Four hump.
2004…wanted to win that one very badly.
2011…really wanted that one for Kemba.
2014…was just shocked we were there.
2023…I knew we were going to win.
2024…I really, really, really, really, really, really, really want this one more than any of the ones before it. I don’t know why, but I really want it for this group.

Basically a nervous wreck 25 hours out.

Right with you on this one

 

[jleves]

Obviously wanting the first one will always trump the rest. 2004 was also huge getting a second. 2006 really hurt - the best team with the most talent and got beat way too soon for various reasons. I won't go through the rest.

I want this one the most since the first. Back to back is just huge and hasn't been done in 17 years and would be the first team to do it with 3 different starters in decades.

But more importantly, it would make us the Duke of the 2000/2010s. The face of basketball where we would be the focus of college basketball and the the place where elite players want to go.

This one is gigantic for our future.

 

[Buzzyboy]

1999, the first, will never be surpassed.

But this team is such a delight, so unique, so special, that I want this one more than probably any other.

Yes, the 2004 team was excellent and Okafor in particular deserved it. Kemba's run was special and a terrific capstone on Calhoun's career. "This is what happens when you ban us" will live forever. Hurley making good on "you better get us now" and rescuing the program from purgatory was both amazing and a relief.

But this one, we have a chance to do something that few programs have ever achieved. We have a chance to cement our return to the top now and unequivocally stamp our place in the sport forever. We have a chance at immortality. And I want it bad -- for our players, for our coaches, and for us.

To be tied for the most national championships with North Carolina and only behind Kentucky and UCLA would be wonderful and that's what the win tomorrow would mean .... I love this team and what they've done and it may be a completely different team next year with so many players moving on to the NBA or ending their eligibility ... I'm inclined to think Donovan Clingan will be moving on as well as Stephon Castle and maybe Alex Karaban .... Cam is done as is Tristan Newton and Hassan Diarra

 

[Buzzyboy]

Right with you on this one

I'm with you BOTH ... just something about this group .... I'm so happy for Clingan who played a smaller role last year but has really grown so very much .... he quite possibly is leaving because of his potential spot in the draft

 

[Buzzyboy]

This one is big. It basically puts UConn in mini-"dynasty" status, considering the turnover in men's basketball. Ties us with UNC at #3 in terms of all-time Titles won, just behind Kentucky and UCLA

 

[Buzzyboy]

Maybe just a bit behind Kentucky but quite a long way from UCLA but most of their national championships were in a completely different era and a different environment and they've done substantially less over the past 25 years than has the Huskies

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Most since our 1st, 77-74

 

[jibsey]

Look, I want this for the kids who worked hard especially the ones who never experienced it like Cam, Stew, Ball and the rest.
I want it just because I’m a fan.
I want it because all of my jealous friends from Pitt and St. John’s are betting pool and rooting for Purdue (they can’t help it with their team’s failures).
I want it because I want to go to sleep happy tonight.
I want it because I want to wake up happy tomorrow…………

 

[Dibbie]

The most since #1 because:

• I’m 25 years older
• Expectations are so high
• There will be no denying our historical greatness
• Back to Back
• Cam, Steph, TNew, Alex, Clingan, Hass, Samson, The Freshmen, The Greek, AJ and The Son
• Chance for back to back to back

 

[businesslawyer]

How bad do you want this one compared to the others?​

1999 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven
2004 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven
2011 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven
2014 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven
2023 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven
2024 - On a scale of one to ten - This one goes to eleven

By the way, the same could have been said for another half dozen seasons over the years.

Thank you. If one wants to discuss historical importance, fine. But WANTING one more? Please. You want something with all your heart, soul and being or you don't. Once you do, there is no more.

 

[uconnfan68]

Admittedly, I was an elementary school age kid when I started joining my dad on weeknights to go to my first Husky games, so my perspective on nearly everything has shifted across the better part of a lifetime.

I didn't see a UConn National Championship until I was 45 years old.

The next time, I was 50. Then 57, then 60, then 69. My father never saw one.

Like a meditator who is instructed to return to awareness of each breath and then gets distracted, and restarts, and gets distracted, and restarts, ad infinitum, I tell myself regularly, "One game at a time." That's all there ever is.

Tomorrow is the 'one game-est' one game of the season, which completes tomorrow, no matter what.

So tomorrow, I really, truly get to root for a National Championship without getting ahead of myself, or off purpose...but only as a byproduct of what I most wish for.

My wish is for this single-season team to play well, in a way that serves us (and all others who watch) another generous helping of something delicious we've been feasting on since November.

Tomorrow's the day to find out how much and how well the team fulfills my wish, against the counter efforts of its most highly-regarded competition across the span of the 2023-24 season.

I know I'll be sad when this team's game-play ends on Monday night. I believe that I have reason to think I have a good chance to be happy with the final score that I'll see, but I have no guarantees. Throughout I'll be grateful that I've been onboard for the journey, and I'm thankful for all of you who have been in it with me.

Go Huskies!

"Throughout I'll be grateful that I've been onboard for the journey, and I'm thankful for all of you who have been in it with me.

Go Huskies!"

Perfect!