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Message: [QUOTE="Travelman6, post: 3111268, member: 7597"] Not sure if you guys have seen this, but a very interesting read. [URL='https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/hc-sp-uconn-men-1999-ncaa-champions-oral-history-20190328-fpm3uobw55fr5bp4hmq7dyrnhy-story.html']The oral history of the 1999 NCAA Championship-winning UConn men’s basketball team 20 years later[/URL] This is a long article, two especially interesting quotes 1. [B]The ’99 title ‘wasn’t gonna happen’ Kevin Freeman, junior forward: [/B]It wasn't gonna happen. That was the original thing — it wasn't gonna happen. I was so exhausted and so defeated from that point in the season, and I felt like I was undervalued. Rip (Hamilton) was getting ready to leave (for the NBA). And (former UConn guard) Monquencio Hardnett, who was one of my favorite teammates and a close friend of mine, was [graduating]. Rip was torn. I didn't know if I was coming back to UConn. At that point, I had thoughts of leaving. There was a month or two where I didn't show up to practice, I didn't go to the workouts. Rip was saying he was leaving. So the journey hadn't started for that [championship season] yet. Carolina happens, it all pauses, and now I'm caught in self-reflection of whether I should come back or not. 2. [B]Richard "Rip" Hamilton, junior guard/forward: [/B]I was real close [to leaving]. I had talked to Kevin, who was my best friend. And I talked to my parents. I was really thinking about leaving after my sophomore year. And then I had a sit-down with Coach Calhoun. I was kinda dodging him and running away from him at the end of my sophomore year, because I knew that if anybody could convince me to stay, it was gonna be him. In some alternate universe I think they don't come back and Uconn struggles through the season. ha. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach