Forget Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, or New York. If you’re looking for the home of champions try Storrs, Conn.
This tiny and often forgotten town in rural Connecticut will forever be placed on the basketball map after the University of Connecticut became the first school to ever have both its men’s and women’s basketball teams simultaneously earn the right to be called champions of college basketball.
The men’s basketball team’s inside-outside punch of Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon combined for 45 points as the Huskies showed that they were the undisputed kings of college basketball with an 82-73 victory over Georgia Tech Monday night at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The women, behind a 17-point performance by senior Diana Taurasi, then put their paw print on the history books by defeating rival Tennessee 70-61 Tuesday night in New Orleans.
The Huskies, with balance scoring—four players finished in double-figures—won their third NCAA title in as many years, and beat the Lady Volunteers for the fifth straight time, firmly establishing themselves as the queens in college basketball.
Okafor, who was recently named a finalist for the John Wooden award—the honor bestowed upon the nation’s top college basketball player, posted a double-double with 24 points and 15 rebounds for the men, and may have secured the decoration Monday night.
Husky teammates Gordon and Rashad Anderson also totaled double figures, scoring 21 and 18, respectively.
UConn, who put together an impressive rally to squeak past Duke in the national semi-finals, was destroyed by Georgia Tech 77-61 in the Preseason NIT when they were currently ranked No. 1 in the country. However, the Huskies looked like a completely different team in this contest with the under-matched Yellow Jackets.
With the dominance of Okafor inside on both ends of the floor and the range and athleticism of Gordon, Anderson, and Taliek Brown, the Huskies dominated from the opening tap going on an 11-0 run and a 19-6 run early in the first half before taking a 41-26 lead into halftime.
Georgia Tech, who trailed by 20 or more several times during the second half, made a valiant, but nevertheless futile comeback effort. A late onslaught of three’s for the Yellow Jackets and poor Husky free-throw shooting allowed Georgia Tech to make the score look respectable.
The women’s title bout went much the same as the men’s as the Huskies roared out a 17-point first half lead.
Tennessee closed the lead to six at the half, and eventually got the lead down to just two with 9:50 left in the second half, but the combination of Taurasi, Barbara Turner, Ann Strother, and Jessica Moore proved to be just too much for the Lady Vols to overcome.
The Huskies proved they were, and might always be, the champions of women’s college basketball as they slowly pulled away from the determined Tennessee squad.
UConn, a school with little name recognition outside the Northeast, finally has something to put its name to, a record that is quite possibly untouchable.
And with the implications of Title IX and its attempts to bring equality to the sports world, Connecticut has set the bar to the highest level, a plane that every amatuer athletic department around the country should aspire to achieve.
UConn Men’s Head Coach Jim Calhoun and women’s Head Coach Gino Auriemma, along with the rest of the UConn athletic department, have created an environment of equal and expected excellence in which the men and women can stand side by side as champions.
Never before has a school been able to make this claim, and perhaps the spotlight, the praise, and sadly the money UConn will receive for the accomplishment of its players and coaches may just be the driver to push a sexist sports world closer to equality.
And while the giants residing in Durham, Lexington, and Chapel Hill may have more championships, Final Four appearances, and superstar talents on their rosters, none can claim that they once held total supremacy in college basketball as tiny Storrs now can.
