What Play Epitomizes Each Championship Run? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

What Play Epitomizes Each Championship Run?

If we're not limiting it to the tournament, the one moment that encapsulates 2024 is "Our toughness meter has risen. Now we'll kick their @s$ in basketball."
 
Will just comment on '24 since it's still fresh in my mind, but the FF game vs Alabama where Castle went up and grabbed an offensive board in the lane among 3 bama players, then thrashing around while those bama players were trying to strip him of the ball, fighting them off and eventually dribbling out around the FT line, then attacking the rim and getting fouled. Even though he didn't make the shot, that 1 play summed up the toughness and desire not just of him, but the entire team this year.
 
Underrated moment from the 2023 championship run: Against Arkansas, the Karaban 3/4-court football pass to Andre touch-pass for an alley-oop to Clingan. One of my favorite plays in UConn history purely because the ball never touches the floor.
 
If it can be anytime during a championship season, I always loved the end of the first Florida game at Gampel in 2013-2014.

 
Tenspro2002 said:
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.
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i Don’t know how you remember a single play .
In 1999 I thought the sequence that was critical was Ricky Moore beating his man a getting to the hoop to score early that set the stage and was totally unsuspected .

Emeka’s dominance over Duke after sitting with foul trouble in 2004 . I call it the grown man against boys sequence .

2011 one word “. Kemba”

2014 I do remember one play .
RB completely turned the Kentucky player around who totally lost him. I think that one play eroded a lot of their swagger .
They were the hottest team in the world filled with NBA players. 2014 maybe was not that talented but they were Junk Yard Dogs
2023 I can’t think of a post season sequence other than some incredible Jackson passes .
but Joey’s C off the bench in a game we had nothing going against Georgetown was Hollywood scripted.

2024 Late in the Purdue game with Karaban having to guard Edey ,When he scored their team and fans had hope of a comeback But everytime we came back with a long possession and an answer . after a few possessions you could sense defeat in their team and fans . They were a broken. Sometime it’s not the spectacular play but the methodical unstoppable perception .
 
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For the '23 and '24 titles, Big Rod giving Laettner a People's Elbow into the floor represents what we have been doing to teams the last two years come March.
 
Straight to the veins

6 championships in 25 years. The toughest, the underdogs, the best!
 
99 - Excalibur stole my exact thoughts. Hamilton’s 3 at 3:29 (he said 3:30 but I like mine because it was March 29) was the exact moment I felt we were definitely going to win. And the Saunders/Wane hoop vs Brand was the defining moment of toughness and depth that I think of as well.

‘04 - Rashad’s huge baskets in the final minutes against Duk to get UConn back within reach.

‘11 - when Kemba and Lamb started jelling in the second half against Butler.

‘14 - I really had little hope UConn would beat Mich St. The stats from that game were incredible. UConn crushed them in all the areas that were supposed to be Spartan strengths. I loved Ollie’s interview with Tracy Wolfson before the seconds half. “Mich St is known as a second half team”. That’s as far as she got. “No! We’re a second half team. We’re tough. They have to try to match us”.

Free throw shooting was unbelievable that run.

‘23 - I was astounded at how good the team looked at the Phil Knight tourney. Karaban’s end of the first half 3’s in back to back games were huge. They are always killers. And Hawkins 3 to get the lead vs SD St back up to 8. The portal players getting better and better as the season wore on too. There was a lot that year.

‘24 - Cam Spencer being the perfect fit for the team. The offense being noticeably better than any offense run by any other team. In the tourney it was every opponent’s top scorer being shut down. Edey was the exception but the game plan was to shut down everyone else in that one.
 
auror said:
2024 I'd say the Clingan block, come down the court post up dunk.

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I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is the best team in history of the Legendary UConn program.
 
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JCSuperstar said:
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.
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I hated Billy Packer calling UConn games. HATED. Nobody else comes close.
 
Ricker said:
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.
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The boat reverse waa a classic
 
TheRealKBuks said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is the best team in history of the Legendary UConn program.
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Clingan came in as a project and in two years left as a legend. I am going to go re-watch the Northwestern game.
 
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