Ranking the best era of UConn basketball
No program in college basketball has done it for both the men and the women the way UConn has. While other schools can point to one dominant program, the Huskies have built two of the most decorated programs in the history of the sport side by side, in the same building, under the same culture. Geno Auriemma and Jim Calhoun set the table.
Dan Hurley kept the men’s program running at the highest level long after Calhoun walked away. The question of which decade produced the best UConn basketball is genuinely hard to answer. Every era had Hall of Fame talent, tournament championships, and NBA and WNBA first-round picks coming through Storrs.
Some decades had more raw star power. Others had more hardware. A few had both.
SEE ALSO: Teams with the most NCAA Tournament championship wins Here is a ranking of the four best eras of UConn basketball, from good to greatest. 4. The 2000s Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi battles past Tennessee’s Kara Lawson as the Connecticut Huskies defeated Tennessee 79-56 during the NCAA women’s semi-finals at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on March 29, 2002.
Men’s titles: 1 (2004) | Women’s titles: 5 (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009) | Combined: 6 Key players: Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Rudy Gay The fact that a decade with six combined national championships ranks last on this list tells you everything about how spoiled UConn fans have been. The women were absolutely dominant, winning five titles behind Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Tina Charles in one of the greatest sustained runs in women’s college basketball history. The men added their piece in 2004, when Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon combined for 45 points in a championship win over Duke.
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