Nice article (Jacobs on '99 team memories).

[Marat]

It also mentions that Khalid would be interested in coaching (this is in reply to another thread).

http://articles.courant.com/2014-02-23/sports/hc-jacobs-column-0224-20140223_1_larry-brown-uconn-team-nba


I like this quote referring to the win over Duke:
"So how much do they still rib the Duke players about all this?
El-Amin: "Not only Duke players, Duke fans," El-Amin said. "I definitely rub it in whenever I can."

 

[RoderickSpode]

I remember Jacobs predicting a Duke win along with all the other sheep. Good article though.

 

[selles]

It also mentions that Khalid would be interested in coaching (this is in reply to another thread).

http://articles.courant.com/2014-02-23/sports/hc-jacobs-column-0224-20140223_1_larry-brown-uconn-team-nba

Thanks for posting. I know everyone's justifiably bummed from yesterday but this one's a must read.

I'm not usually a big Jacobs fan, but that's one of the greatest collections of quotes ever assembled in a single article.

 

[Frank06830]

I was at the game yesterday. Thinking about the halftime reception and celebration of the '99 team, I thought the crowd reaction was a bit more subdued than I expected. I thought they earned a bigger reaction. My mind flashed to their championship season and how BIG an accomplishment it was. How it answered the question whether JC was even capable of winning a NCAA. How being in St Petersburg that night before the game and seeing how confident the Duke fans were filing into the arena that night. How it was called the Duke invitational by fans and pundits. How nervous I was with each minute of play that I don' think I took a breath the entire game. How so intensely focused I was on each play that I finally looked looked up at the clock and realized,holy crap, we are down to the last 2 minutes of play. The exhilaration when Ricky stripped the Alaskan Assassain of the ball with the knowledge they finally did it only after KEA made the free throws.

In thinking about yesterday's reaction I come to opinion that the UCONN athletic department could have done a better job of setting the historic context of the accomplishment by simply doing a :60 or so video of that year's highlights. Not a big ask, but something I believe the team deserved. Seeing those guys yesterday sparked so many memories. Not just of '99 itself, but the crushing defeats to Mississippi State just a few years before,. Or the year before with the lost to NC and just how hard it was get back in position and to breakthrough to win our first....I just think they were deserving of a more enthusiastic reception. I know we are in a "what have you done for me lately" society, but at least the halftime event could have been better planned for a very special group. perhaps I was expecting too much???just my thoughts

 

[Gurleyman]

Kind of a huge mistake by Jacobs, though, when he says "everyone remembers El-Amin running with the ball, his hand raised, screaming..."

Not me. I don't remember that. I remember Khalid running all over the place like a maniac, including strangely running away from a photographer trying to take his picture - I've always wanted to know the backstory behind that one. Rashamel Jones, of course, was the one who had the ball. A poetic moment - a guy who sacrificed so much with nary a peep of complaint got the ball as the clock hit 0:00.

OK, maybe not a huge mistake, but I hold all facts of 77-74 to be sacred.

 

[selles]

Kind of a huge mistake by Jacobs, though, when he says "everyone remembers El-Amin running with the ball, his hand raised, screaming..."

Not me. I don't remember that. I remember Khalid running all over the place like a maniac, including strangely running away from a photographer trying to take his picture - I've always wanted to know the backstory behind that one. Rashamel Jones, of course, was the one who had the ball. A poetic moment - a guy who sacrificed so much with nary a peep of complaint got the ball as the clock hit 0:00.

OK, maybe not a huge mistake, but I hold all facts of 77-74 to be sacred.

The facts of 77-74 are indeed sacred, but what I love most about that article is Jake's quote about 1997. That's what built 1999, and my god was it painful. I remember well reading about the all-night practice after Seton Hall, I remember well the blonde surfer dude who poured on 3's against us in Miami that year, I remember well trying to find our NIT game against Bradley at a bar with satellite TV (rare in those days), I remember well watching us beat Arkansas in the NIT consolation game and thinking maybe we had something.

It ain't easy fellas, it isn't meant to be. Sometimes you just have to ante up and kick in and hope for the best.