Countdown: 5

(Can we just adopt this as the new fight song?)

In order to start the transition to basketball season, we’ll be counting down the days until the first game — in classic TheUConnBlog fashion (i.e. inconsistently) – and honoring our forefathers along the way. You can check out all of the entries here.

After almost a month of counting down to the first basketball game -- albeit with a few gaps along the way -- we are now just one business week away. Which is great, because it means more slamtasticness in the very near future. But it's also pretty awful, because it reminds me that I now measure my life by a standardized business schedule. God, I miss college.

Anyway, the number five is significant for the state university of Connecticut for many reasons. It was the number once worn by former Puerto Rican League All-Star Game MVP Marcus Williams. It also marks the day (April 5, 2004) the Huskies won their second title, establishing the program as the most awesomest around (or at least in the northeast part of Connecticut).

But it is most cherished by us Connecticutians as the amount of years it takes Coach Cal to mold a crop of normal high school b-ball players into rough-and-tough awesome-infused ass-kicking machines.

Yes, my friends, the number five stands for five-year plans.

After UConn won its first title in 1999, it took five years for Cal to regenerate and unleash the mighty forces that were Emeka, Gentle Ben, Rashad Anderson and the gang in 2004, ending in yet another title. Five years later, in 2009, whadayaknow? Another mon-star squad.

And while the 2009 Huskies were only able to make to the Final Four, it took the will of the entire automotive industry and Uncle Sam reincarnated in Kalin Lucas to stop Cal from cashing in on another five-year plan. Plus, 2006 never existed. So we should be right on track for another title this season.