Husky History - UConn vs Gonzaga 1999 Elite Eight | The Boneyard

Husky History - UConn vs Gonzaga 1999 Elite Eight

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Voskuhl didn’t get with the program to get his head shaved like everyone else.
 
BGesus4 said:
Rewatched the 99 title game the other day. KFree was an absolute beast. Obviously gets outshone by KEA and Rip but he was a huge impact guy in his own right.
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Almost every championship college team has a “glue guy” veteran three or four year player. Freeman is one of my favorite Husky players of all time. He did whatever was asked and needed.
 
HuskyNan said:
Love the Calhoun body English on the sidelines.

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To this day that game still irritates me a little, kind of like a pebble in your shoe and you have to walk a little way to get to where you can stop and take it out.

We couldn't shake that damned team. Every time it looked like we about to put some distance between us on the scoreboard they'd somehow keep the game in reach. Outside of that game I had never been more confident of our winning anything than I was about our winning it all that year. I spent quite a bit of the second half of that game bordering on a panic attack as it was clear that one wrong bounce, one call going the wrong way, one shot of ours going 3/4 down, then bouncing out, one wild half court shot by them going in. As the game wound down, any one or two of those things could have left us outside of the final four once again.

Fortunately we did shake that team and turned cutting down the nets at the end of the season into a habit.
 
Watched that game at a corporate retreat locked away alone in my hotel room. After the game I found out that most of the other folks, there were only a few of us, had done the same thing.
 
One of my fave alltime Huskies for many reasons.
I was in a 15 person poli-sci class with K Free and he singlehandedly changed my view on star athletes and academics. He was the most knowledgeable kid in the class, and was the biggest contributor. I would stay after class sometimes to talk to the prof and Free seemed to be there everytime, just yapping about the coursework. I started staying after class more often, obviously.
 
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BGesus4 said:
Rewatched the 99 title game the other day. KFree was an absolute beast. Obviously gets outshone by KEA and Rip but he was a huge impact guy in his own right.
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Freeman saved their arse on a few occasions, especially in the first round of the Big East Tournament against Seton Hall. Who was the winner of MOP of the Big East Tournament? It was Hamilton or El Amin. It was Kevin Freeman.
 
FfldCntyFan said:
To this day that game still irritates me a little, kind of like a pebble in your shoe and you have to walk a little way to get to where you can stop and take it out.

We couldn't shake that damned team. Every time it looked like we about to put some distance between us on the scoreboard they'd somehow keep the game in reach. Outside of that game I had never been more confident of our winning anything than I was about our winning it all that year. I spent quite a bit of the second half of that game bordering on a panic attack as it was clear that one wrong bounce, one call going the wrong way, one shot of ours going 3/4 down, then bouncing out, one wild half court shot by them going in. As the game wound down, any one or two of those things could have left us outside of the final four once again.

Fortunately we did shake that team and turned cutting down the nets at the end of the season into a habit.
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I get slightly irritated too. I watched that game for mojo before UConn played Gonzaga in the Elite 8 this year. If UConn lost that Elite 8 game in 1999 to Gonzaga El Amin would have been the biggest scapegoat and his legacy would have been much different. He absolutely sucked that game. If he even shoots 25% in that game (3 for 12) instead of the 0-12 that he shot UConn would have won comfortably by 10-12 pts.
 
I remember that game. We were living in Idaho and had satellite TV with no local stations. I had to go to a bar and I was the only one cheering for UConn.
 
HuskyNan said:
Love the Calhoun body English on the sidelines.

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I was at the game. Tremendous experience but extremely draining. Wonderful experience in Arizona. I think we won because my friend Brian and I visited the vortex and got some positive energy going!!
 
Waquoit said:
That game was torture especially since it led to our first Final Four.
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I remember an interview with Jake (before the NC game?) and the clueless interviewer asked him about the Gonzaga game and why did we have such a difficult game with a lesser opponent, like we should have blown their doors off. It was the Zags coming out party if memory serves. Jake looked surprised and said something like, "Geez, they were one of the best teams we faced all year."
 
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gsmooth said:
I get slightly irritated too. I watched that game for mojo before UConn played Gonzaga in the Elite 8 this year. If UConn lost that Elite 8 game in 1999 to Gonzaga El Amin would have been the biggest scapegoat and his legacy would have been much different. He absolutely sucked that game. If he even shoots 25% in that game (3 for 12) instead of the 0-12 that he shot UConn would have won comfortably by 10-12 pts.
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That was just a bad matchup for KEA. Gonzaga had a small, super quick PG that was just bad for KEA.
 
That game was the ultimate root canal. Everything was wrong, everything was a war. Khalid was not good ( being generous with that statement) but we got there. And as soon as we won that I knew we were winning natty duke be damned
 
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Excalibur said:
I buzzed it but didn’t shave it with a razor.
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Nobody used a razor. Your "buzz" was probably with a fairly wimpy attachment.

I, and the strong among us, went full "opening of Full Metal Jacket scene" You, not so much.
Excalibur said:
With good reason, apparently. Seems like yours never grew back.
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Let's not jump into the "negative changes since college" pool, shall we? :)
And, for the record, my hair is easily above average for age. Stuff it, barrister.
 
HooperScooper said:
Yup, I always say that game took 5 years off my life.
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The Hall three that closed it to one with 35 seconds left nearly killed me.

In retrospect, a hugely consequential game for the sport. That game established Gonzaga and launched UConn.
 
Fishy said:
The Hall three that closed it to one with 35 seconds left nearly killed me.

In retrospect, a hugely consequential game for the sport. That game established Gonzaga and launched UConn.
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I remember before 1999 my friends at my university and others who knew I was a big UConn fan would never give the respect to UConn. I remember one Kentucky fan saying "UConn is a good Big East school that's it. They are not a big time national powerhouse-they don't get it done during the Big Dance". Now 24 years later, that tune has completely changed and UConn is now entered the blue blood club as a new blood. Other fan bases hate UConn for how good they are. Just read Friar Talk, Devils Den, Villanova SB Nation, Blue Jay Underground especially in the week leading up to the Final Four where they all were resigned to the undesirable and inevitable result, to them, of UConn winning a fifth national championship.

Gonzaga got on the big stage got national attention in 1999 as the loveable Cinderella. But in 2000 when they beat #2 seed St. John's as the #10 seed and got to the Sweet 16 2 years in a row that really got fans to notice Gonzaga and not dismiss them as a one hit wonder or a flash in the pan. Conversely, St. John's who had a great chance to make the Final Four in 1999 and in 2000 (field was weak this year) hasn't come close to sniffing relevancy since then.
 
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