Countdown: 1
by Kevin Meacham on Nov 12, 2009 4:00 PM EST
3 comments
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.
On this, the final day before Basketballmas in Connecticut, we post you two simple videos - one above, and one at the very end of the post.
These videos are the inspiration for our obsession over opening night, the reason we lose our minds after great victories, why we are inconsolable after crushing defeats.
With one day remaining until UConn kicks off its 2009-10 basketball season, what else could represent it besides One Shining Moment? It seems only fitting that we begin 2009-10 where we ended 2008-09 (or, as the case may be below, 2003-04).
UConn fans have been blessed to have had two such shining moments, and over the past 30 or so days we've celebrated those moments. We've also taken time to tip our caps to those who have made their indelible mark on the UConn program, from the day Connecticut Agricultural College played its first game in 1901, to the night I watched Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet - fresh off a Final Four loss - mournfully trudge up the steps at Ford Field, together as a team for the final time.
But we celebrate the past only in the context that the future will reward us in new, joyous ways.
Will this edition of the Huskies prominently feature in the next One Shining Moment? The odds are against them, much as they are against any single team. But at 0-0, we shun oddsmakers and pundits. Destiny remains in our hands - as in 2004 and 1999 - until it is wrested away from us. And come March, our oblique determination to watch our team's heroics be captured in "One Shining Moment" takes precedence over all else.
In the meantime, we have 30+ games, numerous rivals and an intriguing mixture of new and old faces to distract ourselves. Beginning in exactly 24 hours.
Game on, you magnificent men of the blue and white.
Let's go Huskies.
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MERRY BASKETBALLMAS.
I’m finally down off my Yankee 27 high, and just in time for the one and only Coach Calbertus Magnus. This blog will not get rid off me until early April. I’m also happy that the Damnable Usurpers keep throwing away close games. It’s karma for Edsall never responding to my detailed proposals that outline the quickest way for him to fold the football program and folow his true calling as Pat Calhoun’s servant-maid.
Now, I’m not as irrationally sanguine as Meacham about this year’s team, but I AM looking forward to the season more than last year. Last year was freaking gut-wrenching. The 5-Year Plan in full force, then…the Dyson injury and the utter devastation that ensued. Then, the slow climb back to hopefulness, and then the even more devastating utter devastation (on my deathbed I will cling to the notion that with Dyson, Cal wins #3).
This year’s all gravy, though. I’ll be happy with a 6 seed in March and a nice but not overwhelming year in the BE. It’s about potential, and seeing the future in Alex Uruk-hai, JCM, Ater (in December) and Smith. Also, it’s seeing the really really quick domination that will be Kemba running fast breaks on his own.
And of course, the Sticks “Dunk-Yell” and Jerome “Angry Stare-Off” in their last year.
Can they go far? Probably not. No frontcourt depth, and it’s been awhile since Cal didnt have a team with good, experienced big men to plan his D around. Edwards and Big Chuck will suck and piss us off all year. At least Austrie wont be around to suck for 25 minutes a game, though.
In sum, this will be a really fun, non-pressurized year, that, barring something crazy like Chuck becoming really good, will end a couple rounds in during March Madness. I can’t wait to see all the freshman, and prognosticate about whether Kemba will stay or go.
And we can only hope that Brandon Knight will watch those same young guys, and see his future in them and the burly arms of Coach Cal. Because I think the only way Cal’s career ends the way he wants it to is if Brandon Knight is involved.
Finally, TheUconnBlog: y’all better liveblog all the big games this year.
by gxpanos on Nov 12, 2009 5:54 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I’m really excited about Alex Uruk Hai as a nickname.
Aboot the frontcourt: Is not our front court deeper than it was in 2008? I think it is, and we got a sort-of-undeserved-four-seed that year with an offensively weak Hash and steady Adrien, with a less-good Gavin and equally dominant Dove.
So this year we have Uruk Hai, who I think can fill in for Adrien okayly, given that he has better handle is actually 6’8," and a slightly better Gavin. And then Ater Chuck and Dove are all seven feet tall and know what a basketball is. I imagine Ater or Chuck will put something nice together. The starting two won’t be as good, but I think we’ll be deeper.
As for a backcourt and sticks: Kemba as a sophomore will be as good or better than Price as a junior. Dyson as a senior will be better than Dyson as a sophomore. Sticks as a senior will be better than Sticks as a sophomore.
The point is, I’m really glad that who ever I’m stealing wireless from has ESPN360.
by pont on Nov 13, 2009 12:03 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
Man, that was a cogent argument. What I’m saying is I think we have a realistic shot to get passed the sweet 16.
by pont on Nov 13, 2009 12:18 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
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