Sometimes a team just clicks

[karstenkibbe]

Religion and desire for a Jewish community are not necessarily the same thing.

I can say to you with incredibly high confidence that I am probably one of the most aware people on the Boneyard re this subject matter. I can also tell you, as someone who was in college at the same time Nadav attended UConn, that UConn offered very little in the form of a Jewish community. It’s one of the reasons I attended a NY state school as a CT resident.

Also, @nelsonmuntz stated that he heard Henefeld was “fairly religious”. Most fairly religious Jewish kids do not have UConn on their radars even today, where the Jewish community on campus is bigger than it was in 1990. At the time, the “community” of Jewish kids on campus was disorganized and not active. My sister has first-hand experience and it wasn’t positive.

 

[August_West]

I can say to you with incredibly high confidence that I am probably one of the most aware people on the Boneyard re this subject matter. I can also tell you, as someone who was in college at the same time Nadav attended UConn, that UConn offered very little in the form of a Jewish community. It’s one of the reasons I attended a NY state school as a CT resident.

Also, @nelsonmuntz stated that he heard Henefeld was “fairly religious”. Most fairly religious Jewish kids do not have UConn on their radars even today, where the Jewish community on campus is bigger than it was in 1990. At the time, the “community” of Jewish kids on campus was disorganized and not active. My sister has first-hand experience and it wasn’t positive.

He had Manchester families involved. I was on Campus then too.

 

[Waquoit]

Henefeld may have liked green and trees, but I think the driving factor for him going to UConn was that it was high level but there was playing time available.

I agree. Even real time, the "this what a college campus looks like" story never rang true. And as a reminder, that team was "booed off the court" in December.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I can say to you with incredibly high confidence that I am probably one of the most aware people on the Boneyard re this subject matter. I can also tell you, as someone who was in college at the same time Nadav attended UConn, that UConn offered very little in the form of a Jewish community. It’s one of the reasons I attended a NY state school as a CT resident.

Also, @nelsonmuntz stated that he heard Henefeld was “fairly religious”. Most fairly religious Jewish kids do not have UConn on their radars even today, where the Jewish community on campus is bigger than it was in 1990. At the time, the “community” of Jewish kids on campus was disorganized and not active. My sister has first-hand experience and it wasn’t positive.

We are going down a weird rabbit hole of counting the number of Jewish kids at UConn in the fall of 1989. That was never the point of anything I said.

Either you think Henefeld was smart enough to pick a team with a frosh swingman and a 6'8, 185 pound center as having more opportunities for playing time over a team with a frontcourt of three future NBA players that were all sophomores or juniors, or you think Henefeld really liked trees.

 

[SportsFan88]

As a UCONN fan through and through that’s under 40, I truly appreciate this post, especially with the potential of history repeating itself in terms of catapulting our program and coach to another level long term like the Dream Team season did for Calhoun

 

[80shusky]

Great write up. I was at UConn at the time and it brings me back to waiting for the student lottery to get tickets and piling into whoever had a car to go to HCC games. I had John Gwynn in one of my classes. I have been exactly 6' tall since I was a senior in high school. I don't think he was 6' tall.

 

[TheChamps990411]

My favorite team. Had two older siblings attending UConn at the time so I went to several home games that year including Opening Night at Gampel. They didn’t do anything spectacular but they did everything well and played together. Cuse and Gtown were perennial national powerhouses and we took them down in the same week.

F Laettner

That was when i became a fan. My friends were talking about the upcoming Cuse/Gtown games so i tuned in and i was hooked. Been a love affair ever since.