nelsonmuntz
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This was a fun week, and I definitely savored every minute I could. I love the endless national news stories about the Huskies. There is only so much anyone can write about UConn, or any of the teams, in a week that has not already been covered elsewhere, so the writers end up stretching for content, which is fine. Beyond the more inane stuff, like all-time starting lineups, there is the fun stuff. Rehashing past glories. Multiple GOAT sightings. Discussions of UConn's place in basketball history. It has been a while since UConn has been on the national stage, but not so long that we have forgotten when it feels like. UConn belongs here.
Every team that makes a run is different, has its own feel. 1999 had such pressure to get Calhoun and UConn our first title after being at the top of college basketball for almost a decade without making even a Final Four, that winning it was as much a relief as a celebration. 2004 carried the pressure of being the favorite for the whole season, and having to hold our breath every time Okafor arched his back and made a face. Once we had two titles, we enjoyed it a little. 2006 was infuriating, but we got over it quickly. We weren't particularly angry when the 2009 team came up short, we were just happy for another Final Four.
2011 was such a surprise that we couldn't really have any perspective, because almost every win in that 11 game stretch was a surprise. The run included wins over four ranked teams in the BET, followed by 3 ranked teams in the Sweet 16 through National Semis. The wins over Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville in the BET were by one basket or went into OT. SDSU, Arizona and Kentucky all could have gone either way. One more mistake or missed (or made) shot in any of those games and the perspective on the season would have been completely different. The 2014 run, post-GOAT, was 2011 on steroids in terms of how unexpected it all was. Amida Brimah made a crazy 3 point play off a Shabazz miss, or UConn does not get out of the first round. Ironically, the easiest win in that tournament was over one of the best teams UConn played, Villanova. There was no chance to sit back and absorb it that tournament because 5 of the 6 games in that Tournament came down to the wire. A different bounce here or there and the 2014 Tournament is just a solid performance by a program that was facing some major conference challenges as it was transitioning away from its legendary coach. Instead, it was UConn's fourth title.
This year was different. UConn Nation knew by the end of Thanksgiving weekend that this team was special. This team just clicked. After ripping through the non-conference schedule, UConn stumbled a bit in the conference schedule, mostly because there were quite a few road games against good teams in what appears to be, in hindsight, the best league in the country. After a 1 point loss on a weird bounce at Seton Hall on 1/18, UConn did not have another bad loss the rest of the season. The margins of victory started creeping up again, and UConn looked like the team in November that had potential to win it all. Long-time UConn fans know the difference between a team that is a legitimate threat to win the National Title, and a team that is pulling out close wins but maybe is not quite at that top level. This team always had "it" this season. I think we knew it from the beginning.
This has been a great year, and I think we all have enjoyed it a lot. It is nice to be back. I am going to enjoy the next 43 hours until tipoff, and hopefully the 48 hours after that until the Monday tip. I hope that around 11:30 pm EDT on Monday night the confetti will be swirling around Coach Hurley holding the championship trophy above his head with his players at NRG Stadium, and we will all be celebrating a perfect ending to a pretty awesome season. While it has already been a great year for UConn basketball, their work is not done. These seasons, where a program has the best team playing at a very high level, and a lot of the other top teams did not make the Final Four, happen very rarely, and this team and this program is in that position this weekend. Calhoun talked about forever in his speech to the players. That is absolutely true for the players, but it is true for the fans too. No matter what happens this weekend, UConn will have made Final Fours in the last 12 years under three different coaches. But that next level, winning a National Championship with a third different coach puts UConn at the very top of the sport. Calhoun will always be the GOAT, but three coaches winning titles in that short a period of time will mean we are not just a great coach, we are a great program.
If UConn can "win the double header" like Calhoun told them to, then 50 years from now, after most of us are long gone, some basketball nerd will be looking up the history of the sport and see that UConn won 5 titles in 25 years, with three different coaches. They will not know about APR or conference realignment or the 2018 season, they will just reach the obvious conclusion, that for that era of the sport, Storrs, Connecticut was the capital of college basketball. That is forever.
Let's savor every moment.
Every team that makes a run is different, has its own feel. 1999 had such pressure to get Calhoun and UConn our first title after being at the top of college basketball for almost a decade without making even a Final Four, that winning it was as much a relief as a celebration. 2004 carried the pressure of being the favorite for the whole season, and having to hold our breath every time Okafor arched his back and made a face. Once we had two titles, we enjoyed it a little. 2006 was infuriating, but we got over it quickly. We weren't particularly angry when the 2009 team came up short, we were just happy for another Final Four.
2011 was such a surprise that we couldn't really have any perspective, because almost every win in that 11 game stretch was a surprise. The run included wins over four ranked teams in the BET, followed by 3 ranked teams in the Sweet 16 through National Semis. The wins over Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville in the BET were by one basket or went into OT. SDSU, Arizona and Kentucky all could have gone either way. One more mistake or missed (or made) shot in any of those games and the perspective on the season would have been completely different. The 2014 run, post-GOAT, was 2011 on steroids in terms of how unexpected it all was. Amida Brimah made a crazy 3 point play off a Shabazz miss, or UConn does not get out of the first round. Ironically, the easiest win in that tournament was over one of the best teams UConn played, Villanova. There was no chance to sit back and absorb it that tournament because 5 of the 6 games in that Tournament came down to the wire. A different bounce here or there and the 2014 Tournament is just a solid performance by a program that was facing some major conference challenges as it was transitioning away from its legendary coach. Instead, it was UConn's fourth title.
This year was different. UConn Nation knew by the end of Thanksgiving weekend that this team was special. This team just clicked. After ripping through the non-conference schedule, UConn stumbled a bit in the conference schedule, mostly because there were quite a few road games against good teams in what appears to be, in hindsight, the best league in the country. After a 1 point loss on a weird bounce at Seton Hall on 1/18, UConn did not have another bad loss the rest of the season. The margins of victory started creeping up again, and UConn looked like the team in November that had potential to win it all. Long-time UConn fans know the difference between a team that is a legitimate threat to win the National Title, and a team that is pulling out close wins but maybe is not quite at that top level. This team always had "it" this season. I think we knew it from the beginning.
This has been a great year, and I think we all have enjoyed it a lot. It is nice to be back. I am going to enjoy the next 43 hours until tipoff, and hopefully the 48 hours after that until the Monday tip. I hope that around 11:30 pm EDT on Monday night the confetti will be swirling around Coach Hurley holding the championship trophy above his head with his players at NRG Stadium, and we will all be celebrating a perfect ending to a pretty awesome season. While it has already been a great year for UConn basketball, their work is not done. These seasons, where a program has the best team playing at a very high level, and a lot of the other top teams did not make the Final Four, happen very rarely, and this team and this program is in that position this weekend. Calhoun talked about forever in his speech to the players. That is absolutely true for the players, but it is true for the fans too. No matter what happens this weekend, UConn will have made Final Fours in the last 12 years under three different coaches. But that next level, winning a National Championship with a third different coach puts UConn at the very top of the sport. Calhoun will always be the GOAT, but three coaches winning titles in that short a period of time will mean we are not just a great coach, we are a great program.
If UConn can "win the double header" like Calhoun told them to, then 50 years from now, after most of us are long gone, some basketball nerd will be looking up the history of the sport and see that UConn won 5 titles in 25 years, with three different coaches. They will not know about APR or conference realignment or the 2018 season, they will just reach the obvious conclusion, that for that era of the sport, Storrs, Connecticut was the capital of college basketball. That is forever.
Let's savor every moment.
