What will you remember the most about this Championship Team? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

What will you remember the most about this Championship Team?

Chin Diesel said:
The early season dominance.

The adjustments offensively and defensively after the January swoon. Karaban started to be able to guard the 4 spot and that was huge.

The dominance in the tourney.

A three act play.
Expand ...
Great point re Karaban and his improved D
 
storrsroars said:
Probably more than anything, Adama and AJax. And I think Hurley's roster construction was the best of any team this program has seen. So many complimentary parts while also having redundancies.
Expand ...
What Hurley did after losing all those transfers and graduating seniors was an amazing roster construction job. He brought in high level transfers that were better than the guys he lost.
 
SallyH said:
Just how much they've grown during the course of the season. This is all Hurley. I don't want to revisit all the drama about Ollie's championship (while it's really Uconn's, as is this one) - it wasn't his recruits (ad nauseum).

And, for the record, I'm an enormous KO fan - UConn born and bred, as a player and a coach - just to clear up.

But WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NC#5
Expand ...
Hurley's player development this year was off the charts.
 
I would say their focus and togetherness specifically at tournament time both in the early part of the season the NCAAs. Hurley had this team absolutely dialed in for this tournament. You could see the switch turning on after the BET loss to Marquette. The timing was absolutely perfect. This was a team of answers, balance on both sides of the ball and depth. What an absolutely beautiful night in Houston and around UCONN nation. We are here! We are back!
 
.-.
B1GEast said:
All the shooters on the team, the two headed monsters in the middle, Sanogo and Clingan and the tears on the cuse board
Expand ...
Adama and DC were the backbone of this team. How demoralizing must it have been to try to compete! 25-30 points, 20 rebounds, handful of blocks… almost every game, against all comers.
 
Keep flashing back to the demolition of Oregon at PK when I realized "oh my God, every player on this team looks exactly how we hoped they'd be" and started telling doubting friends and family we were the best team in the nation. Just such amazing complimentary, selfless players, and Danny figured out all the buttons to push
 
They did it. They took their opportunity for greatness and achieved it.
 
Hawkins improving leaps and bounds from his freshman year. I admit, I never understood the hype after he was shaky with the ball in his hands last year. He turned into the best high volume 3 point shooter since Rashad Anderson and the best in college basketball. I'll never forget Newton playing tonight, how we wanted him to play all year. They took away a lot of our 3 pt shots tonight and he recognized that and took the ball to the rim against a smaller defender all night. MVP of the game.

In general, I'll never forgot how EASY and stress free this run was. Besides the first half of Iona and almost fainting when SD St cut it to 5, it was fairly stress free. Absolute wagon.
 
.-.
Just read that while the players were cutting down the net, Hurley walked around the court and thanked all the past Huskies that were there on the floor for all that they have done to build the program and for all they do to continue to support the program. That's awesome that Hurley did that. So many ex uconn greats at the game. That's family. A united Husky family.
 
Matrim55 said:
I'll remember the way they played -- the way they ran their sets, the way they hedged & recovered. It was all NBA-level execution from a bunch of 19-to-22-year-old kids.

You don't see that often. It was brilliant, and I'm so happy for these kids.
Expand ...
That's it, Matrim. It was team ball from start to finish.
 
There’s just something to be said about a team who just absolutely dominates in a dogfight. Having guys like kemba or shabazz take over is amazing, but when you have a physically imposing team like this it’s an awesome feeling knowing that you’re going into every game saying: “we’re going to grind you down and beat your ass”
 
.-.
Waquoit said:
That's it, Matrim. It was team ball from start to finish.
Expand ...
The selflessness extended beyond the court, too. I watched every single press conference this year, and every single player was loathe to take any credit. I could make a master mix of "credit to my teammates" that would easily go over 10 minutes long. It was really special how this team embraced #weseason and credit to Danny for getting them bought in, especially in this age of social media where it's all about building your brand, etc. He built the culture brick by brick, player by player, and it paid off in a massive way.
 
10-1 record overall in the final four is insane, wow! 5-0 in championship games, maybe even more insane.

Beating every OOC team by double digits is also crazy and speaks to the strength of the BE that UConn would have a tough time getting to 13-7. BE was a very good conference this year.

How the team overcame that 2-6 stretch and bounced back to kick butt and take names!
 
The smothering defense and offensive fluidity were fun to watch. The depth of talent was incredible.

But most of all, this year's squad was one of the most likable in terms of character, personality and team chemistry.

Fs2fmwfWcAMyWhd.jpg
 
I'll remember never being nervous. There were a few minutes tonight where I was banging my head we should be up 25 and we were only up 10. There was a 20 second point period were I had a sweat when Miami took it to 8. We responded when it mattered that game and we did last night, I knew we would.

Tonight was our C+ game and we beat them up. Our B+ or A game wins that by an easy 25-30.

What I'll remember most is my best friends having their best weekends ever. One of them a close 75 year old man, never thought he would see one national title and getting to experience #5...

Danny Hurley, a Jersey City kid who went through the ringer coming out on top. My dad and uncle grew up with Bob Sr. and went through the Prep with him (St. Peter's) they never could believe what he did with St. Anthony's

I cried a bit tonight knowing my dad would've shed some tears for UConn and for Jersey City (Hurleys.)

This is all very surreal and unbelievable but at the same time it seems like it's what was supposed to happen. This is a beast of a program.

I have more thoughts on all of this...
 
.-.
As was already said, the depth and consistent talent we had this year with the number of guys who contributed meaningfully.

When we went to our bench, we didn’t lose anything in production and if someone had an off night, someone else stepped up. Probably our deepest single team ever IMO.
 
So many huge moments, but when we came out in the 2nd half and opened a huge can of whoop ass on Gonzaga my jaw dropped and knew right then we'd never lose again.
Plus, every Ajax thunder dunk I'd actually laugh and scream like a kid!
 
What I will remember:
  • 14-0 start, winning the PK and hyped Alabama
  • Mid season stumble
  • Luke Murray coached at Seton Hall
  • Bill Murray!
  • Hurley paints!
  • Adama’s awesome skills under the hoop
  • Hawkins shooting
  • Joey C / Newton / Karaban shooting
  • Jackson’s dunks
  • Defense
  • Rebounds!!! This team got rebounds!
  • The fact that our second unit was practically another top 25 team.
  • Clingan- we have a giant, do you?!?!
  • The tournament- Albany/Vegas/Houston - double digit wins and explosive second 1/2s.
  • Danny Hurley- he learned to stop riding the team too hard
  • Danny Hurley!
 
Last edited:
superjohn said:
I'll remember never being nervous. There were a few minutes tonight where I was banging my head we should be up 25 and we were only up 10. There was a 20 second point period were I had a sweat when Miami took it to 8. We responded when it mattered that game and we did last night, I knew we would.

Tonight was our C+ game and we beat them up. Our B+ or A game wins that by an easy 25-30.

What I'll remember most is my best friends having their best weekends ever. One of them a close 75 year old man, never thought he would see one national title and getting to experience #5...

Danny Hurley, a Jersey City kid who went through the ringer coming out on top. My dad and uncle grew up with Bob Sr. and went through the Prep with him (St. Peter's) they never could believe what he did with St. Anthony's

I cried a bit tonight knowing my dad would've shed some tears for UConn and for Jersey City (Hurleys.)

This is all very surreal and unbelievable but at the same time it seems like it's what was supposed to happen. This is a beast of a program.

I have more thoughts on all of this...
Expand ...
I wouldn't call it a "c" game. Offensively, sure, missed some bunnies. Defensively I grade them an A.

On being nervous, this was the first NC game (or FF) of the 5 (6) where I had no worries. In 99 it was big, bad Duke. In 04 it was Emeka's back and foul trouble. In 11 it was simply difficult to believe the run wouldn't end, if only for simple exhaustion. In 14 it was WTH are we even doing here?

This year, I thought us and Bama were the best teams going in, and once Bama couldn't extract revenge, it was all ours.

My only regret is we didn't get to make a mockery of Edey and Purdue. All those writers who kept them #1 over us would've been mortified by the 40 point beat down UConn would've delivered.
 
.-.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,224
Messages
4,558,050
Members
10,443
Latest member
StatsMan


Top Bottom