Huskies of Honor

[StllH8L8ner]

One day, Big Red should be an honorary member up there.

Agree he deserves something. Not to be on the Huskies of Honor wall per se, but something special in both arenas.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

The current criteria for getting your number retired is a joke. I don't even think they should have any numbers retired (Huskies of Honor is more than adequate, now weve reduced the meaning of that to some sort of second tier) but if you're gonna do it, at least have logical criteria.

We shouldn't be retiring players numbers because they went on and had a successful NBA / WNBA career that propelled them to Springfield. It should be 100% about what they accomplished in Storrs.

I think the criteria is damned near perfect. Having your number retired at a high-level program should be a damn high mountain to climb. It separates the greats from the greatest. I might add "was National Player of the Year", but nothing else.

There will be three additions soon enough.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

There is no #5 without Christian Vital. Remember that.

That's dubious at best.

 

[Waquoit]

There is no #5 without Christian Vital. Remember that.

Of course there is. Vital had nothing to do with it.

 

[Storrs South]

I think the criteria is damned near perfect. Having your number retired at a high-level program should be a damn high mountain to climb. It separates the greats from the greatest. I might add "was National Player of the Year", but nothing else.

There will be three additions soon enough.

Based on current criteria, Kemba, Shabazz, Rip and Emeka will not have their numbers retired.

That's your pantheon of players. If they aren't worthy then no one is.

I dunno...seems like a pretty dumb system.

 

[Palatine]

There is a reason that pro hall of fames have a waiting period. It rubs off some the bias of the new. UConn abandoned that idea with Kemba Walker and there is no set critieria for inclusion.

If you put in someone like Vitale because you're emotionally invested, then another 50 or 60 guys deserve to go up on the wall as well. You would have 200 HoH in the next ten years. If you put up every major contributor to a Natty or conference championship, there are another 40 guys to put up.

Put enough guys up there and it diminishes the honorees. But maybe that's what the fans want.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Based on current criteria, Kemba, Shabazz, Rip and Emeka will not have their numbers retired.

That's your pantheon of players. If they aren't worthy then no one is.

I dunno...seems like a pretty dumb system.

It makes the retiring of the uniform number duplicative and subjective to include others that don't make it on the Hall of Fame criteria.

 

[ctbbfn]

Of course there is. Vital had nothing to do with it.

"his legacy is a guy that when you look two-three years down the line when we win a championship, he’s going to have his fingerprints over it."
-Dan Hurley on Vital
Dan Hurley and UConn players on Christian Vital’s impact

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Based on current criteria, Kemba, Shabazz, Rip and Emeka will not have their numbers retired.

That's your pantheon of players. If they aren't worthy then no one is.

I dunno...seems like a pretty dumb system.

But they are/will be Honored. They aren't being ignored or forgotten. It would be a terrible criteria for HoH, but retiring a number should be the highest standard.

 

[Waquoit]

"his legacy is a guy that when you look two-three years down the line when we win a championship, he’s going to have his fingerprints over it."
-Dan Hurley on Vital
Dan Hurley and UConn players on Christian Vital’s impact

A rare example of Hurley coachspeak.

 

[gampelcrazies]

There is a reason that pro hall of fames have a waiting period. It rubs off some the bias of the new. UConn abandoned that idea with Kemba Walker and there is no set critieria for inclusion.

If you put in someone like Vitale because you're emotionally invested, then another 50 or 60 guys deserve to go up on the wall as well. You would have 200 HoH in the next ten years. If you put up every major contributor to a Natty or conference championship, there are another 40 guys to put up.

Put enough guys up there and it diminishes the honorees. But maybe that's what the fans want.

But again the Vital argument isn’t an emotional add. It’s because he’s top 10 on many stats list in UConn history. And besides Boatright I’m pretty sure everyone else is on the wall.

I understand and respect that people don’t think he’s worthy. Thats fine. But to say he can’t just because he was on bad teams or didn’t win anything is bs.

 

[AntG168]

Of course there is. Vital had nothing to do with it.

We’ll agree to disagree. He had a major role in resurrecting this program. The End.

I’d bet Hurley agrees with me

 

[DHL921]

Dude didnt get there because of Covid
Perhaps CV isn't HoH material but he was a great Husky even if the teams were not the best. Kelvin Sampson would take him any day any day and said so in a press conference. He was 1st team all AAC. Not a ton of Huskies can say they were 1st team all conference.
Check the attitude at the door

We're rewriting history here. The 2020 team was 10-8 in a conf that ended with 1 ranked team. Kenpom had them at 52, def not projected to make the tournament, I'm not even sure if you could call them a bubble team. Don't get me wrong, I wish CV had a chance at the conf tourney but no way we can assume they're running the table.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

We’ll agree to disagree. He had a major role in resurrecting this program. The End.

I’d bet Hurley agrees with me

And that is quite different than:

There is no #5 without Christian Vital. Remember that.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

But again the Vital argument isn’t an emotional add. It’s because he’s top 10 on many stats list in UConn history. And besides Boatright I’m pretty sure everyone else is on the wall.

I understand and respect that people don’t think he’s worthy. Thats fine. But to say he can’t just because he was on bad teams or didn’t win anything is bs.

(Francesa voice)

He's a compilah nawt a Halla Famuh.

 

[AntG168]

And that is quite different than:

Semantics. The program would not have been in the position to win #5 without guys like Vital, Whaley, and Polley. They stayed and dug this program out of the mud. Guys like Hawkins, Sanogo and AJax committed to this program because the aforementioned guys made us respectable.

 

[DHL921]

Of course there is. Vital had nothing to do with it.

Completely agree. We can appreciate the effort CV gave without lying to ourselves. There was one player on the championship team that had any overlap with CV and that was... Richie Springs. If we want to swap out CV with RJ, Tyrese, or Bouknight in that statement I can live with it. We need to connect a lot of dots between CV and #5.

 

[Hunt for 7]

This should be on two threads. But just to make sure I understand. The only men’s player to have their number retired is Ray Allen. The there is the wall of honor. Can someone list the men’s players on the wall of honor.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

But again the Vital argument isn’t an emotional add. It’s because he’s top 10 on many stats list in UConn history. And besides Boatright I’m pretty sure everyone else is on the wall.

I understand and respect that people don’t think he’s worthy. Thats fine. But to say he can’t just because he was on bad teams or didn’t win anything is bs.

This discussion shouldn't be continuing this long because it forces the kinds of posts some have had to make here that seem to demean Vital's accomplishments here. But alas...

When we're talking about a program of UConn's caliber that has as many titles as we do, and the number of ultra-high-end players we've had, that's the unspoken barometer to get on the wall.

Think of it this way, consider some other players there beyond the obvious top 5: Donyell, Smith, Caron, Gay. How often were those guys the best player on the floor against superior Big East talent? Often. How frequent was Vital the best player on the floor against mediocre AAC talent? Not often. That's only one completely subjective evaluation, but it is what it is.

CV does not deserve this kind of negativity - Dan's right that CV's fingerprints were all over the foundation he built on this program. But that's not enough. He had a fantastic attitude and is worthy of immense respect for sticking it out through the darkest years of the program. He deserved to play in the NCAA tournament, he deserved to experience some of the success he helped build. But he did not achieve the level of success that others on the wall did - he simply didn't. He cannot be up there just because he's beloved.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

Kemba Walker definitely carried that team in 2011 - both were equally heroic

Kemba probably had the best March in the history of marches.

The only other upperclassman on that team was Charles Okwandu. And he went through Kawhi Leonard and the #2 pick at the time Derrick Williams.

Shoutout to Roscoe Smith for taking on those defensive assignments too and holding his own.

 

[superjohn]

We’ll agree to disagree. He had a major role in resurrecting this program. The End.

I’d bet Hurley agrees with me

He had a role in making us respectable again as did Bouknight, Cole, Tyrese, Whaley, Polley etc.

He has no business being in the Huskies of Honor, there's far better players who don't have that honor.

 

[GlastonTim]

Ben Gordon deserves to be on the wall. Sadly his personal issues seem to have prevented it for now. Hope to see him up there sooner rather than later.

 

[Dove]

Adama is a 100% lock. I don't think Jackson or Hawkins get up there though.

Hurley loves Jackson. If he has pull, it will happen. Jackson gave us three seasons.

 

[Stew Crew]

We’ll agree to disagree. He had a major role in resurrecting this program. The End.

I’d bet Hurley agrees with me

If you consider that his play contributed to Ollie getting fired, then yes he had a role in resurrecting the program. His shot selection was terrible. He dribbled too much then threw up prayers as the shot clocked expired. His assist to turnover ratio was atrocious for a guard. Hurley inherited him and worked with what he had. There is no way Hurley would have recruited him.

 

[AntG168]

He had a role in making us respectable again as did Bouknight, Cole, Tyrese, Whaley, Polley etc.

He has no business being in the Huskies of Honor, there's far better players who don't have that honor.

If you look in the thread I never said he deserved to be in the Huskies of Honor. I agree with you..