Spring Break
Great games ahead for basketball teams
Kevin Meacham
Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: Sports
For the first time in a long time, all is right with the world. For the first time since about 2006, the center of college basketball is slowly gravitating toward Storrs.
It shouldn't be news to any of our regular readers. You know all about Hasheem Thabeet and Maya Moore. You know about the UConn men's 19-1 start, including nine wins away from home (four in Big East play). You know all about the women's team's trail of destruction, making top 10 teams look silly and ridding the country of all that national-championship-drama nonsense.
If you were going to make a novel out of the first 60 percent of the season, I'm not sure there would create a better scenario for either team.
I, and most of the current senior class, were freshmen the last time the men's team could say they were elite; the last time a really dominant women's team strolled around campus (2002), I was a freshman in high school. This little cow town can get electric when it senses a special basketball team. This year, UConn has two.
Take stock. Enjoy this moment. Use this feeling to forget that pipes are bursting in classroom buildings that should've been replaced in 1989.
And then ready yourself, because the 16-day period that begins Saturday is about as good as it gets before March. Two teams, both with Final Four aspirations, will combine for six big-time home games that will shape the rest of the 2008-2009 season.
Don't take my word for it, check this out:
Saturday - men vs. Providence (Gampel)
Let me bring special attention to the three-games-in-11-days swing for the men at Gampel Pavilion. UConn usually can't be bothered to schedule three games at Gampel in any given month. Thankfully, the schedule makers made it so the men play four of their next five games in Storrs, beginning with Saturday's game against the Friars.
By the way, is anyone else tired of Providence absolutely owning UConn? The Friars have won three in a row in the series (and beat the Huskies in the 2004 championship season) and I've seen more wide-open Weyinmi Efejuku dunks than I can stand.
It shouldn't be news to any of our regular readers. You know all about Hasheem Thabeet and Maya Moore. You know about the UConn men's 19-1 start, including nine wins away from home (four in Big East play). You know all about the women's team's trail of destruction, making top 10 teams look silly and ridding the country of all that national-championship-drama nonsense.
If you were going to make a novel out of the first 60 percent of the season, I'm not sure there would create a better scenario for either team.
I, and most of the current senior class, were freshmen the last time the men's team could say they were elite; the last time a really dominant women's team strolled around campus (2002), I was a freshman in high school. This little cow town can get electric when it senses a special basketball team. This year, UConn has two.
Take stock. Enjoy this moment. Use this feeling to forget that pipes are bursting in classroom buildings that should've been replaced in 1989.
And then ready yourself, because the 16-day period that begins Saturday is about as good as it gets before March. Two teams, both with Final Four aspirations, will combine for six big-time home games that will shape the rest of the 2008-2009 season.
Don't take my word for it, check this out:
Saturday - men vs. Providence (Gampel)
Let me bring special attention to the three-games-in-11-days swing for the men at Gampel Pavilion. UConn usually can't be bothered to schedule three games at Gampel in any given month. Thankfully, the schedule makers made it so the men play four of their next five games in Storrs, beginning with Saturday's game against the Friars.
By the way, is anyone else tired of Providence absolutely owning UConn? The Friars have won three in a row in the series (and beat the Huskies in the 2004 championship season) and I've seen more wide-open Weyinmi Efejuku dunks than I can stand.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Paul
posted 2/27/09 @ 9:12 PM EST
March Madness = Best sporting event of the year by far. Screw the Super Bowl. Give me the NCAA Tournament. And I'd give you the fact that a record 6th NCAA Championship seems like a foregone conclusion, if it wasn't for one thing. (Continued…)
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