What was the best UConn Men’s Basketball team that didn’t win a national championship? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

What was the best UConn Men’s Basketball team that didn’t win a national championship?

Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
I think the 01-02 team (sophomore Taliek and Caron, freshmen Gordon and Okafor should be in this mix. Took loaded eventual champ UMD down to the wire in the Elite 8. Looked like the second best team in that tournament
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good catch, totally overlooked them
 
nomar said:
That team was GREAT. Doron, Travis and Rudy were seniors, Ray and Kirk were juniors, and Ricky and Rash were freshmen.

Brutal loss to Mississippi State.

The '94-95 team was also great. Lost to the eventual champ UCLA in one of the most entertaining losses we've had. Lost 5 games that season and 3 of them were absolute blowouts, including that humiliating loss to KU on national TV.
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1995-96 UConn Huskies Men's Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Check out the detailed 1995-96 UConn Huskies Roster and Stats for College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com
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32-3, 17-1 in the loaded Big East. Won Regular Season and Tourney.

94-95 was awesome too but junior year Ray and senior year Doron were insane.

They only had 1 big name, Ray Allen, so it's somewhat clouding people's view. That 95-96 team was awesome.

If you go by name recognition and pure basketball size and talent, 05-06 is the winner with 08-09 right there. But as far as best teams, 95-96 was scoring a hundy on people.
 
Thinking back on that 05-06 team and I'm annoyed that Marcus Williams didn't really make it in the NBA. He was easily the best passer we ever had and if he had Bazz's work ethic he would've been a stud in the NBA. I remember watching him a couple of times on the Nets where it looked like I was watching the start of a great NBA career but nothing ever materialized. He had Kidd to learn under that rookie year and still the light bulb never turned on.
 
ColchVEGAS said:
UConn was #1 when we went to their house and gave it to them. I believe L'ville was top 5 or just outside. Me and a couple friends left a party at Carriage House in the wee hours Sunday morning to drive to L'ville and attend the game. Left immediately following the game to get back for Tuesday classes.
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that's wild, and amazing
 
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In my heart I felt that if that 89-90 team had gotten past that damn Duke team they would have won out
The team had a real mojo working.
Were they the most talented? No, but it surely was on a mission and an extremely cohesive unit (in my mind, more so than some of the more talented teams)
UNLV was athletic beyond words but was no match for a technically proficient UConn team
 
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superjohn said:
Thinking back on that 05-06 team and I'm annoyed that Marcus Williams didn't really make it in the NBA. He was easily the best passer we ever had and if he had Bazz's work ethic he would've been a stud in the NBA. I remember watching him a couple of times on the Nets where it looked like I was watching the start of a great NBA career but nothing ever materialized. He had Kidd to learn under that rookie year and still the light bulb never turned on.
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how did he do overseas playing, if you know?
 
bill6319 said:
oh what I would've done to be at UConn during those times. I was a freshman in '15, tough years
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i was 04'-08' no titles during that time from men/women. 05'-06' was a lot of fun, but disappointing. I remember going nuts after that Washington game when Rashad got the handoff from marcus williams for that 3. The 2 years after were rough. Dyson was basically the guy on the team that had to do everything to get them going on offense.
 
ColchVEGAS said:
UConn was #1 when we went to their house and gave it to them. I believe L'ville was top 5 or just outside. Me and a couple friends left a party at Carriage House in the wee hours Sunday morning to drive to L'ville and attend the game. Left immediately following the game to get back for Tuesday classes.
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We shredded Louisville because they tried to press a team that played at times with 3 points -- AJ, Kemba and Austrie. The press had no chance of working.
 
superjohn said:
Thinking back on that 05-06 team and I'm annoyed that Marcus Williams didn't really make it in the NBA. He was easily the best passer we ever had and if he had Bazz's work ethic he would've been a stud in the NBA. I remember watching him a couple of times on the Nets where it looked like I was watching the start of a great NBA career but nothing ever materialized. He had Kidd to learn under that rookie year and still the light bulb never turned on.
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He also didn't have NBA foot speed, and the strength he had in college that let him go wherever he wanted the dribble didn't work against bigger and taller defenders in the NBA.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
I think the 01-02 team (sophomore Taliek and Caron, freshmen Gordon and Okafor should be in this mix. Took loaded eventual champ UMD down to the wire in the Elite 8. Looked like the second best team in that tournament
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I drove back home from Syracuse that night not at all depressed. Sure, I hated losing but it was a great game that night and I don't think we could have played better than we did. Just needed one more MD shot to rim out.

The drive home that night was the opposite of the drive home from DC after the friggin George Mason game, which may have been the most miserable I've ever been in a car for 5 hours.
 
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superjohn said:
Thinking back on that 05-06 team and I'm annoyed that Marcus Williams didn't really make it in the NBA. He was easily the best passer we ever had and if he had Bazz's work ethic he would've been a stud in the NBA. I remember watching him a couple of times on the Nets where it looked like I was watching the start of a great NBA career but nothing ever materialized. He had Kidd to learn under that rookie year and still the light bulb never turned on.
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Marcus is easily one of my favorite 5 Huskies, and I am with you ... I thought he was destined to become a stud in the pros.
 
Fatroony5 said:
Reading this thread just goes to show how many great teams Calhoun assembled. So ready to see UConn consistently make tournament runs again, nothing better than deep runs in March.
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So true, we'd have 3 GREAT teams, 1 down year of re-loading, then 2 more GREAT teams. It's wild from about 94 on.
 
Mr. French said:
is it my imagination or is the 95-96 team constantly being overlooked? That team was really good. I'd say definitely better than 97-98 without question.
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94 was really good too.

as was 95


any of those couldve won a title.


96 was a bitter pill.
 
Letsgohuskies11 said:
i was 04'-08' no titles during that time from men/women. 05'-06' was a lot of fun, but disappointing. I remember going nuts after that Washington game when Rashad got the handoff from marcus williams for that 3. The 2 years after were rough. Dyson was basically the guy on the team that had to do everything to get them going on offense.
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a couple years too early and couple too late lol
 
Chin Diesel said:
That's the way I looked at it. Not just how good was the UConn team for the year, but who else did they have to go through.

Agree '09 with a healthy Dyson is maybe the best chance. But he wasn't healthy.
05-06 was flawed but still had talent to match anyone.
97-98 was screwed playing UNC in Carolina in E8 but I still think the Carolina team that year was slightly better.
89-90 was my favorite but that dook team that broke our hearts in the Meadowlands got curb stomped by UNLV. Would love to see the Dove and Scotty try and contain LJ, but I think the UNLV team that year runs layup drills on the 2-2-1 pressure UConn used so well that season.
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Yeah. I do think there is a difference between who was best and who would have gone the farthest.

It's all academic. 89-90 was the most fun UConn team ever. Never enjoyed a team more than that one.
 
I remember sitting in Hilltop Apts. watching UConn MSU in ‘09. It was the early of the two FF games and everyone I was with were ready to get after it that Saturday night with a win, which we all thought was a lock. Just a terrible feeling after the loss. Sucked the life completely out of the room. I think everyone retreated back to their places after, didn’t even want to go out after.

That team was so fun to watch. Tons of talent and athleticism (Sticks), an absolute dominating factor in the paint with Thabeet and typically UConn scrappiness with guys like Adrien. Throw in a young Kemba and it had all the makings for a championship team. Shame Dyson got hurt. I think we beat UNC in the title game.
 
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Probably the team that lost to James Madison, with Rudy Gay, etc. That was a miserably disgusting end to that season.
 
Best- 2009 with Dyson. Probably nostalgic in light of the Sticks news but they probably were the best overall UConn team to not win it. I don't think anyone was beating UNC that year though.

The 2 that came the closest had just 1-2 plays went the other way- 1995 (Screw you Missouri) and 2002 (if we closed out Maryland nobody left could beat us with the way Caron was playing. He was in Kemba/Shabazz mode).
 
ju6381 said:
That matchup was good for UConn. UNLV would have needed to keep the turnovers down. Reminds me of the UConn-UCLA game and we had a chance to win that game as well.
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What was our defense ranked that year?

The BE was solid that season and no one could stop turning the ball over when they played us. We had few weaknesses that year, and didn't need a shot blocker, although Burrell was quite often above the rim.

Love me some Microwave off the bench. He would come in when the opponent was gassed, frustrated from all that ball hounding and looking for a break.

That defense was never duplicated at UConn.
 
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businesslawyer said:
The '05 -- '06 team was short ball handlers. Really didn't have a back up PG -- Austrie did a great job babysitting the position in December, but he wasn't a true point and he was only a freshman -- and none of the wings were combo guards. Almost all of our other best teams played long stretches of the game with 2 players who could play point: George and Smitty; KO and Smitty; Moore and Sheffer; Moore and KEA; Brown and Gordon; AJ and Kemba; Kemba and Bazz; Bazz and Boat.

Basically every team we had that competed for a championship had 2 players who could play the point at a high level. 05--'06 was certainly a great team, with tons of great players, but the lack of ball handlers was an issue that everyone knew could lead to being upset in the Tourney when guard play becomes more important.
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Likewise, 09 was thin on wings, particularly shooting wings... which is why Dyson going down crushed us.

If everyone recalls, Stanley started playing well and with confidence after the Dyson injury and into the tourney, but before that he was so up and down, and those 2 were the only high caliber wings, neither a great shooter.

If they had 1 sniper in 09 they’d have been unstoppable.
 
I drove my buddy and brother to that 2009 Final Four. The buddy was a complete bitch the entire way. Didn't see that coming. What I remember (besides EVERY MSU fan being crap) from the game was that some big doof on MSU went Toby Bailey on us. Otherwise, we win even without Dyson. UConn never got going the entire game but they never put us away.
 
gtcam said:
In my heart I felt that if that 89-90 team had gotten past that damn Duke team they would have won out
The team had a real mojo working.
Were they the most talented? No, but it surely was on a mission and an extremely cohesive unit (in my mind, more so than some of the more talented teams)
UNLV was athletic beyond words but was no match for a technically proficient UConn team
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Dream Season was my first UConn love.

No way that UConn team beats UNLV or Arkansas that season.
 
Arkansas? Very good season but do not agree there’s “no way” UConn would have beaten them. The Huskies played Duke much tougher and that was the school that knocked both out of the ncaa tournament. We were 31-6, they were 30-5. UConn played in tougher league (Big East vs SWC). Would have been a very good game and far from no way that we’d beat them. We played 10 ranked teams that year (going 6-4) while Arkansas played 3 (and lost them all). Agree with you that UNLV would have been a tall order that year
 
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