What Play Epitomizes Each Championship Run?

[Tenspro2002]

What play for you most epitomizes each of our championship runs. This isn't necessarily the most impactful play, situation-wise, or even the "best" play in a vacuum, but the play that most exemplifies that team and that championship. I submit:

1999: El-Amin diving on the floor for the loose ball and shoveling it to Hamilton for a fast break bucket against Duke. We relished the underdog role despite being the better team, and played accordingly.

2004: Boone and Okafor keeping the rebound alive for the go-ahead lay-in against Duke. (This may be the most impactful and the most epitomizing.)

2011: Kemba taking a fast break layup coast to coast to conclude an interminable period of action without a timeout against Kentucky.

2014: Against either Florida or Kentucky, maybe both, Napier bamboozling their guards on D, coming up with a steal, leading to a runout Boatright layup. Grittiness and craftiness on D.

2023: In the second half against Gonzaga, Hawkins misses a dunk, we get the rebound, and Hawkins splashes in a 3. We were toying with people.

2024: Near the end of our 30-0 run against Illinois, Newton half-court pass to Karaban for the dunk where he hangs on the rim, followed by the iconic shot of our fan in complete astonishment. A capstone of total domination.

 

[boog204]

Only going to do championship games

99 - KEA diving on the floor is probably the moment where I knew we could win the game. But, KEA taking Brand off the dribble to give us a 75-72 lead was pretty crucial.

04 - Honestly, this game felt over almost right away. But I think the one play that sticks out is Rashad hitting a J at the buzzer to make it 41-26.

11 - I think I remember an AO and-1 dunk early in the 2nd half that changed the momentum. But all in all, this was a gross game to watch.

14 - Boat's reverse spin layup with nobody on UK watching and Cal going insane. Bazz picking one of the Harrison brothers cleanly at half court.

23 - Andre between the legs, drop pass to Joey C for a 3. I think that was the championship game.

24 - Probably Samson back-to-back dunks over Edey off the screen/roll.

 

[JCSuperstar]

1999: When Souleymane Wane stole the ball Brand just rebounded and put it back it in. All the while Packer was going on about how he "shouldn't even try" to take it from "those big strong hands". Perfect encapsulation of how everyone outside of CT thought Duke was untouchable and actually trying to win was a fool's errand.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Only going to do championship games

99 - KEA diving on the floor is probably the moment where I knew we could win the game. But, KEA taking Brand off the dribble to give us a 75-72 lead was pretty crucial.

04 - Honestly, this game felt over almost right away. But I think the one play that sticks out is Rashad hitting a J at the buzzer to make it 41-26.

11 - I think I remember an AO and-1 dunk early in the 2nd half that changed the momentum. But all in all, this was a gross game to watch.

14 - Boat's reverse spin layup with nobody on UK watching and Cal going insane. Bazz picking one of the Harrison brothers cleanly at half court.

23 - Andre between the legs, drop pass to Joey C for a 3. I think that was the championship game.

24 - Probably Samson back-to-back dunks over Edey off the screen/roll.

If restricted to title games, pretty good list. The play you're talking about from 2004 was next on my list. Yes, Jackson with the behind the back pass to Calcaterra for 3 pushed our first half lead to 16 (high water mark for the game) against SDSU.

 

[auror]

2024 I'd say the Clingan block, come down the court post up dunk.

 

[TheHorde]

Ricky Moore forcing the travel call on Langdon with about 5 seconds to go vs Duke. Our lunch pail guys outperformed their heralded All Americans.

 

[Ricker]

99 - Khalid hitting his foul shots in the clutch with thousands of camera flashes going off in his face that you can even see the lighting change/flicker in the game replays. At the event I was dazed 50 rows off the floor. In the pressure moment of your life, with everything on the line, you come through with something like that working against you. BIG TIME gonads

14 - Boat's reverse spin layup with nobody on UK watching and Cal going insane. (agree w/ @boog204 )

A big ncaa non championship play - Brimah tying the (St Joseph's?) round 1 game to go to OT

Non-championship - Down big early to Nova and Bazz with the hand signal - don't worry I got this - amazing confidence that resonated to the team when they could have panicked.

 

[TheHorde]

2014 non championship game play for me was Giffey’s breakaway dunk that sent MSG into a frenzy vs Michigan State in the elite 8 and promoted the loudest U-C-O-N-N chant possibly of that tournament.

 

[HuskyFich]

2014:



1999: Ricky Moore locking down everybody in the arena

2004: Emeka's OREB Spin and putback to go up against duke w/ 30 seconds left

2011: Kemba dunking the ball vs. Louisville in the BET final. When I saw "wasted" effort play, I knew we had a special chance to run the table.

2023: Andre's dunk against Miami hanging near the ceiling

2024: Clingan Block to Dunk vs. Purdue

 

[B1GEast]

1999 - Hamilton's last second shot vs Gonzaga

2004 - Okafor with early foul trouble vs dook spent most of his time on the bench. He goes off in the last moments of the game to help UConn come from behind to win.

2011 - Kemba's ankle breaker vs Pitt in the BE tournament

2014 - Napier performance in the overtime win vs St Josephs

2023 - Hawkins was in a zone vs everyone hitting three:s

2024 - Newton hitting key threes

 

[navery12]

Can only speak to the seasons I watched, so

2014 - Not really a play, but Calipari choosing not to foul with ~1 minute left. That team was lethal from the free throw line and is why they were so great closing out so many big games

2023 - Right before halftime of the Gonzaga game, the bounce pass to Jackson and the no look pass to Karaban who buried the 3. Highlights how great Hurley was with ATO plays, how Jackson adapted to the new role on offense when defenses were sagging off him, and it kickstarted the 2nd half run to bury Gonzaga

2024 - There's a bunch, the Karaban fast break dunk in the 30-0 run and the Clingan/Samson dunks against Purdue are good calls. For me, it was probably Newton driving straight into Edey's chest and hitting a tough layup. Game was still semi up in the air at that point with an 11 point lead, and at that point I knew it was over and Edey was done

 

[primus74]

My 2 favorite tournament plays were:

1) 2014 - Giffey's breakaway dunk at MSG against Michigan State. Will always be my favorite.

2) 2023 - Andre coming out of no where to pass to a wide open Karaban for 3 at the end of the half against Gonzaga that made it a 7 point game. You could see the life just taken from Gonzaga/Mark Few's bodies after that. They got the lead up to 30 in the second half.

 

[temery]

From the boneyard fan perspective each championship run was most like a middle school play where everyone showed up high. Mind boggling behavior, but pretty much everyone was happy. Of course there was always that guy who had a paranoid trip that crushed the filter between his brain and his keyboard.

 

[superjohn]

1999: When Souleymane Wane stole the ball Brand just rebounded and put it back it in. All the while Packer was going on about how he "shouldn't even try" to take it from "those big strong hands". Perfect encapsulation of how everyone outside of CT thought Duke was untouchable and actually trying to win was a fool's errand.

Edmund stole it from Brand and Souleymane put the hook shot in over Brand.

 

[Excalibur]

In the championship games themselves:

'99 -- There are lots of candidates, but I'll go with Hamilton's 3 with about 3:30 left. Hamilton faded off of the elbow screen (one of our bread and butter plays that year), Brand anticipated it, went for the steal and missed, and Rip drained a wide open 3 to put us up 5. That was the "holy #&$, we're actually going to win this game!!" moment for those of us who were there.

'04 -- Okafor's one-handed follow up of a Denham Brown miss. We murdered them on the offensive glass all game. This was just the most memorable example.

'11 -- Oriakhi devouring Matt Howard. He had chunks of Howard in his stool for the next few days.

'14 -- Cal not fouling because he knew we would hit the free throws.

'23 -- Hawkins' 3 to put it away after SDSU cut it to 5.

'24 -- Beginning of the second half, Clingan running past the statue Edey to grab an offensive rebound, kick to Newton for 3. Edey was gassed already, and you could sense the game was ours even though we were up only 9.

 

[temery]

Ricky Moore, 1999 final. He was trashed so much it was awesome to see his defense being a big part of the win.

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

Amidah Brimah's put back and one V. St. Josephs saved that entire 2014 tournament.

 

[EZPass]

Double dose of Karaban

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22-23 | We got another one at the buzzer!



23-24 …

 

[JCSuperstar]

Edmund stole it from Brand and Souleymane put the hook shot in over Brand.

I have shamed myself and my family, there is only one path left for me.

 

[HooperScooper]

Ricky Moore, 1999 final. He was trashed so much it was awesome to see his defense being a big part of the win.

What about his offense in the 1st half? That was a huge boost that kept us in the game there. And his offense was why he was "trashed", not his defense which was always great.

 

[temery]

What about his offense in the 1st half?

I forgot there was a first 1/2. The only thing I remember is the last six seconds.

 

[HooperScooper]

I forgot there was a first 1/2. The only thing I remember is the last six seconds.

Fair enough.

I realize that in the later years of life the full memory of events starts to fade.

 

[Spaceman213J]

For me, the play that epitomizes the 2023 championship run wasn't even in the tournament. Jackson's block which led to Clingan alley-oop at the other end. It showed had athletic they were and just how special the pieces that were in place really were.

 

[EZPass]

For me, the play that epitomizes the 2023 championship run wasn't even in the tournament. Jackson's block which led to Clingan alley-oop at the other end. It showed had athletic they were and just how special the pieces that were in place really were.

One of my favorite Clingan games; he dunked all over Florida

 

[caw]

2011 - Jeremy Lambs go-go Gadget arms steal against SDSU.

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