FanPost

UConn Basketball's 2014 Award

Yes, it is that time of year. The time all us "sports writers" make our yearly picks. I'll be writing about the UConn Men's Basketball team's total play in the calendar year of 2014, which includes both this season and last. Let's get started.

Best Player

Shabazz Napier: Is there any question here? Shabazz led the 7 seed Huskies to an improbable tournament run, while beating the champions from the A10, Big East, Big 12, Big 10 and SEC. Absolutely no arguments here.

Best Play

UConn's 11 point run in less than two minutes in the Final Four: In the calendar year of 2014, there wasn't a singular play that stood out above all others (besides Amida Brimah's three point play, but see below). Had I decided to include all of the 2013-2014 season, it would have been Shabazz's buzzer beater. Instead, I picked the 11 point run the second game against Florida, in the Final Four. 11 minutes into the game, UConn had only scored 4 points, and it looked as if their magical run was coming to an end. But with the help of a few threes, some great defense, and some more buckets, UConn quickly closed the gap to one. This finally got the Huskies going, and they would eventually go on to beat Florida, and well, you know the rest.

Biggest Play

Amida Brimah's Three Point Play: Ok, I'll admit. I added this category just for this play. However, no single play was more important. Had Amida not gotten the rebound/put it back up/made the shot/gotten fouled/made the free throw, there's a big chance UConn doesn't even beat St. Joseph's, let alone win the National Championship. But he made the free throw, and will forever go down in UConn lore.

Best Game

UConn vs Cincinnati, AAC Tournament: In their third meeting of the season, the Huskies and Bearcats faced off in the AAC Conference Tournament in Memphis having split the season series. Earlier that week, Shabazz Napier edged out Bearcats star guard Sean Kilpatrick for the AAC Player of the Year. After a missed free throw from Shabazz Napier to give the Huskies a three-point lead, Sean Kilpatrick drove to the hoop with less than five seconds and put up a potential game tying laying, which sat on the rim for what felt like an hours, only to fall out as time expired to give UConn the win.

Best Moment

Shabazz Napier calls out the NCAA: I decided to go with something more specific than "winning the National Championship", so I picked Shabazz's postgame "rant" aimed at the NCAA. "If I don't have your attention, let me get your attention," said Napier (don't lie, you were instantly drawn to the TV no matter what you were doing). "This is what happens when you ban us! Last year, two years, we worked so hard for it," Napier yelled into the mic to all of AT&T Stadium and the rest of America. The moment is something that, unless you are a UConn fan, you may not understand. In 2013, UConn was banned from the NCAA Tournament due to low APR scores. These scores were from the 2009-2010 team, before these standards even existed. This ban led to an all-out exodus from Storrs, as Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith, and Michael Bradley (Family reasons) transferred, and Andre Drummond and Jeremy Lamb left for the NBA. Also that year, Jim Calhoun retired, and was replaced by long time NBA Guard, and former Husky, Kevin Ollie, who was only given a six-month contract at first. Those who remained and stayed with the program during it's darkest times, were rewarded with being with the program during its highest moment. These Huskies, Shabazz Napier, Tyler Olander, Niels Giffey, DeAndre Daniels and Ryan Boatright will forever be remembered in UConn history as those who stayed.

Most Improved

Kentan Facey: After consulting Twitter, the general consensus seemed to be that Ryan Boatright/Niels Giffey was the most improved player in 2014. However, after watching a few games, Kentan Facey's game struck me the most. Facey, a forward out of Jamaica was regarded as the top recruit in Kevin Ollie's 2013 class. Facey had a few elgibility issues early on in the season, but really never played unless it was a blowout. He only played one minute in the NCAA Tournament. When the 2014 season came around, he was viewed to be a key player in the 2014 season, and has showed flashes of why he was the top recruit. He scored a career high of 15 points against Coppin State in early December, and is tied for the team lead with 6.0 RPG. Facey has clearly progressed farther in terms of minutes and production than any other player on the team, and that's why he wins this award.

Worst Game
Final Game of Regular Season vs Lousiville: There's easy wins. There's big wins. There's blowouts. There's routs. Then there's fifty feet of crap, then there's this game. UConn came into the game looking to avenge it's earlier loss to Louisville at Gampel Pavilion, a game the Cardinals mostly controlled, and where Kevin Ollie went berserk and got ejected. Instead, UConn left counting the days to Louisville leaving the AAC. Ironically, Louisville was considered a National Championship contender after the game, and UConn had all but written off. Funny how things work. As for the game, I've blocked it out of my memory, so you'd have to google it if you want to know what happened.

Worst Moment

Loss to Yale: Coming off a heartbreaking loss to Texas at Gampel a week earlier, UConn was hoping for an easy win over an Ivy League school, as they were without G Omar Calhoun and G Rodney Purvis, and with pretty much without star PG Ryan Boatright, who injured his ankle in the game against Texas. Yale refused to go away, and with little time remaining, Yale hit a game-winning three from the EXACT SAME SPOT ON THE COURT. Although unfair to judge the team without three of it's best players, it is one of the worst losses in UConn history.

Side note: At an open practice for season ticket holder, Kevin Ollie stated that he wanted to "cut that corner of the floor out".

Best Tweet/Best Twitter

These tweets comes from the King(s) of UConn Twitter themselves, the tandem of We Take the Stairs, aka @NoEscalators. About 90% of their tweets are UConn related/Ripping a UConn rival for something. Anything they tweet is drop dead hilarious. A must follow. One of them brings a very valid point up in the first tweet, as UConn beat Duke in the National Championship in 1999 and the Final Four in 2004, and Kentucky in the Final Four in 2011 and the National Championship in 2014. Also, by doing some basic math, Tyler Olander's 2011 and 2014 National Championships are more than Jim Boeheim's 2003 title. These two tweets were by far the most RT/Fav tweets, according to Favstar.

Author's Note

While UConn made their incredible run in March, I was in the thick on it on Twitter, going by Biased UConn Fan, @BiasedUConn. I created that account (which I still use today) in December, and gained a lot of followers and a lot of popularity. When I began writing this article, I was stuck on a few places: Most Improved, Best Play, Worst Moment. I just want to thank all those on UConn Twitter, including, but not limited to, @NoEscalators, @TheUConnBlog, @Russ_Steinberg, @sohri, and 13 others who gave me recommendations for this piece. Thank you.

Post orginally published on TopSportsReport.com