That entire year felt like an NBA team that showed up drunk to games maybe sobering up in the 2nd half climbing out of holes.I don't think I slept well for a week after that GM loss. I was so mad at Rudy Gay I've never forgiven him. He had the talent to win that game 1 on 5. (some sarcasm)
But he just played like he was bored with college. Drank myself silly after that game.
That was black Sunday for me. I always went to this Salsa dance joint in Cambridge and the bouncer, who I was cool with, graduated from Villanova, but he grew up in Connecticut and as a Husky fan. So he was a fan of both teams. Both teams lost that day, UConn to George Mason and then Nova to Florida. As I soon as I walked in the door he told me "not a word. Not a word".I don't think I slept well for a week after that GM loss. I was so mad at Rudy Gay I've never forgiven him. He had the talent to win that game 1 on 5. (some sarcasm)
But he just played like he was bored with college. Drank myself silly after that game.
As great as Rudy was, I always felt that his sophomore year he was playing not to get injured since he was a sure fire lottery pick. Put up solid numbers but the pedal wasn’t always to the metal IMO.That was black Sunday for me. I always went to this Salsa dance joint in Cambridge and the bouncer, who I was cool with, graduated from Villanova, but he grew up in Connecticut and as a Husky fan. So he was a fan of both teams. Both teams lost that day, UConn to George Mason and then Nova to Florida. As I soon as I walked in the door he told me "not a word. Not a word".
I remember I didn't even go on the dance floor that night with all the good looking women on the floor, which I never hesitated to do ever, LOL. But on this night I just sat at the bar and drank and I am not an alcohol drinker at all.
2006 just seemed like a struggle after they peaked and beat Villanova in the revenge game at Gampel. After that they struggled. I remember after Rashad got benched for Denham in the 2nd round game vs. Kentucky, Mike Anthony stated in his article that Rashad sat at his locker and spoke in a very annoyed manner. Even though UConn won, Rashad was not a happy. Mike Anthony went on to say that he knew that team had issues and were looking out for themselves individually to the detriment of the team goals. I mean this team lost to a NIT bound Syracuse team in the BET and then they learned their lesson so well they fell down by 12 with 11 minutes left to #16 Albany. At that point I was hoping they would get to the Final Four, but I wasn't necessarily expecting.
That 2006 team doesn't sit well with me to this day and I like Rudy Gay, but I don't hold him in high regard like the other UConn greats.
That season didn't start of 14-0 nor did it have an Andre Drummond type of player on its roster. Plus that 2016 team started off like 0-3 and kept loosing throughout. Frustrating, but the expectations died faster then a fish out of waterThe fact that no one has mentioned the 2016 is interesting… that team was a full court heave away from not making the tournament. But alas, they did by winning the AAC.
Post season “success” cures all. Let’s see how this season finishes before we call it a disappointment. (FWIW it is frustrating we have lost a ton of winnable games.)
This is the only correct answer, and for exactly these reasons. This was the season it dawned on me that after NC #2, we had become exactly the type of program Calhoun loved to beat when he was on the ascent- a team of five-star, NBA-talent misfits who only saw college as a year to kill between HS and the NBA.The 2005-2006 season was just disheartening as throughout the season it appeared all too often that they were winning a lot of games in spite of themselves and there wasn't a whole lot of interest in putting more than a nominal effort into winning. The players that seemed to care the most were the players who played the least. I don't think anyone can find a team that ended up with a record that stellar that cared so little about winning. They won a lot of games solely because their talent was so superior (and from what I saw, evidently believed that would be enough to win a title).
This is a nice story, but the idea that Calhoun or anyone decided they'd rather have less great players rather than more seems questionable. Who are the five-stars we turned down in favor of a lower-ranked, grittier player?This is the only correct answer, and for exactly these reasons. This was the season it dawned on me that after NC #2, we had become exactly the type of program Calhoun loved to beat when he was on the ascent- a team of five-star, NBA-talent misfits who only saw college as a year to kill between HS and the NBA.
Calhoun could've had just about any recruit he wanted after Natty #2, and he almost did with Gay, Bynum, Durant, etc. I seem to recall an article or two after 2006 where Calhoun admitted that he had fallen too in love with the number of stars and rankings next to the kids' names, instead of finding the gritty, under-ranked players that fueled the program's rise in the '90s.
I do not think we build another championship-level team in 2011 or '14 unless we have the '06 disaster, and Calhoun ultimately has this realization.
Lots of people are saying 05-06. I'll agree that had the most disappointing ending, but I didn't find it to be a frustrating season. I think we had our best ever record that year and many games were filled with highlight reel moments.
Yeah, we could have been even better and we didn't quite jell as we should have and underperformed at times, but that's better than a losing season or one full of "moral victories" where we come up just short at the final buzzer. Don't get me wrong, losing to George Mason was an abysmal experience. Still, on the whole, it wasn't nearly the most frustrating season the vast majority of the time.
We Had Bazz, RB, Jeramy Lamb ,The year we got Andre Drummond and did nothing
Then we got blown out of the gym by a guy who was afraid to fly on an airplane.We Had Bazz, RB, Jeramy Lamb ,
Plus Andre . All first rounders
Roscoe, Alex second rounders
Plus RB , and DD prized freshman
We were under .500 in the BE
That’s the most talented underachieving team
2009-10
That was the year he was suspended. I may be a bit biased toward 05-06 due to the breakout season Hilton Armstrong had. He's my all time favorite Husky, so I really enjoyed that.05-06 is the only correct answer because... and someone correct me if I'm halucinating 15 years later, wasn't AJ Price a freshman on that team but had his brain aneurism?
Like all that team needed was 1 more ball-handler and playmaker with the absolute stud post/wing/scorers to be basically undefeated and he was sitting right there on the bench but was unable to play, and everyone knew it, and that sucked.
I disagree with the fail of the 05-06 season being about over ranked top recruits. Rudy Gay was the only top 25 recruit on that team. Hilton Armstrong was a developed player. Rashard Anderson, Denom Brown, and Josh Boone were all former champions and were that mid tier 30 to 60 recruit they built their program on. Gay scored 20 points in that game and carried them in second half. The team also featured blue collar hard worker freshman Jeff Adrien who was not a top recruit and who had a great game, and would later go to Final 4 With Thabeet.This is the only correct answer, and for exactly these reasons. This was the season it dawned on me that after NC #2, we had become exactly the type of program Calhoun loved to beat when he was on the ascent- a team of five-star, NBA-talent misfits who only saw college as a year to kill between HS and the NBA.
Calhoun could've had just about any recruit he wanted after Natty #2, and he almost did with Gay, Bynum, Durant, etc. I seem to recall an article or two after 2006 where Calhoun admitted that he had fallen too in love with the number of stars and rankings next to the kids' names, instead of finding the gritty, under-ranked players that fueled the program's rise in the '90s.
I do not think we build another championship-level team in 2011 or '14 unless we have the '06 disaster, and Calhoun ultimately has this realization.
I give 2005-6 a passThat was the year he was suspended. I may be a bit biased toward 05-06 due to the breakout season Hilton Armstrong had. He's my all time favorite Husky, so I really enjoyed that.
Calhoun didn't "turn down" five-star recruits; he simply recruited a different type of player after the 2006 debacle. With the exception of maybe Drummond- a local kid and a generational talent- he began to once again recruit guys who were projected to stick around beyond a year or two. He alluded to this many times after 2006, and this article I found would tend to support his philosophy:This is a nice story, but the idea that Calhoun or anyone decided they'd rather have less great players rather than more seems questionable. Who are the five-stars we turned down in favor of a lower-ranked, grittier player?