To have fun SLAM’s thirtieth anniversary, we’re spotlighting the 30 most influential males’s faculty groups from our previous 30 years. Stats, data and chips aren’t the principle issue right here, it’s all about their contribution to the sport’s cultural material.
For the following 30 days—Monday by way of Friday— we’ll be unveiling the full record right here. We’ve additionally bought an unique retro collegiate assortment, out now, that pays homage to every squad’s threads. Store right here.
Headed into the 2011 season, UConn was unranked on each preseason ballot and picked to complete tenth within the Large East. That they had simply come off a mediocre season during which they didn’t make the NCAA match for the second time in 4 years. So individuals had already written them off as a menace within the Large East, not to mention as a nationwide title contender.
In different phrases, an entire lot of gas was being added to the hearth already brewing in these Huskies—a Huskies squad led by a 6-foot, 172-pound star level guard from the Bronx.
All eyes pointed to Kemba Walker, who returned for the 2011 season, a junior with lofty expectations. He’d already develop into a fan-favorite confirmed to attain in bunches, all the time in a recent pair of retro Js, however may he affect profitable at a excessive degree? Might you rely on him to steer UConn again to glory?
Don’t get it twisted, although; Kemba had a well-composed squad round him. Amongst them had been two star-studded freshmen–level guard Shabazz Napier and swingman Jeremy Lamb–who would every develop into first-round NBA Draft choices themselves. However was it sufficient? Would their lack of expertise be a hindrance? UConn was very proficient, however how constant may they be?
A variety of questions, however UConn had the cheat sheet.
They made it by way of their non-conference schedule undefeated, profitable ten straight earlier than stepping into Large East play, together with wins over No. 2 Michigan State and No. 8 Kentucky. Throughout that stint, UConn ranked as excessive as No. 4 on the AP ballot and appeared primed to make a run on the Large East crown.
Anybody who is aware of something about faculty hoops of the 2000s and 2010s is aware of each Large East matchup was a dogfight. On any given evening, UConn may convincingly beat a top-10 crew like Georgetown or lose by 15 to an unranked St. Johns. It was that kind of up-and-down convention slate for them. They completed a disappointing ninth within the Large East and headed into the Large East Event, shedding 4 of its final 5 video games.
Nicely, the way in which March Insanity is about up, the Huskies had been in good place to take the nation by storm.
They breezed by way of their first two video games of the Large East Event, incomes a spot within the quarterfinals–a rematch in opposition to Pittsburgh (the Large East common season champs who blew them out again in December). This time round, in March, the stakes had been completely different.
The sport was tied at 74. Seven seconds left on the clock. UConn’s ball.
Everybody of their proper thoughts knew who was taking the final shot. It didn’t matter. With a mismatch on the high of the important thing Kemba hit a easy right-to-left hesi, took a tough attack-dribble left, stopped on a dime, stepped again and raised up for his picture-perfect jumper because the helpless defender stumbled to the bottom. The ball splashed by way of the web, Madison Sq. Backyard erupted and a university basketball legend was born.
“It was a particular second in UConn historical past; I turned to my assistants as we had been strolling off the court docket and stated, ‘We bought one thing particular occurring,’” Jim Calhoun, UConn’s retired hall-of-fame head coach, recalled in a 2016 interview.
Coach Calhoun couldn’t have been extra proper. Kemba and the Huskies sealed the deal two days later and received the Large East Event. That’s 5 days, 5 video games and 5 wins. A very unprecedented run. However subsequent up was the NCAA Event. They’d should win six extra video games in a row to be the final crew slicing the nets. Certainly, they couldn’t proceed taking part in with the identical degree of depth after having simply survived that Large East gauntlet, proper?
Uh-uh, incorrect.
Kemba performed like a person possessed; the crew went as he went. He averaged 23.5 factors, 6 rebounds and 5.6 assists within the NCAA Event en path to main this system to their third nationwide championship in a win over Butler–defeating future corridor of famers like Kawhi Leonard and bluebloods like Kentucky (for a second time) alongside the way in which.
The 2011 UConn crew epitomizes all the pieces we love about faculty basketball–the swagger, the tradition, the underdog story, the journey. From unranked to on high of the ladder, the 2011 UConn Huskies are ceaselessly immortalized in basketball historical past.
Images through Getty Photographs.
