UConn Men and Women Back on Top

UConn Men and Women Back on Top

Sam Berkrot, Staff Writer

After a shocking upset over the heavily-favored Florida Gators in the Final Four, the 7th-seeded UConn boys’ basketball team won the NCAA championship for the fourth time in fifteen years on Monday. Senior Point Guard (and future winner of the World’s Jazziest Name Award) Shabazz Napier, led the team with 22 points in a 60-54 win over the 8th-seeded Kentucky Wildcats, with the help of key players Ryan Boatright and Niels Giffey.

While UConn held the lead for the majority of the game (even by as much as 15 at one point), the Wildcats did not quit, and despite their dismal free throw shooting, they kept the game close right down to the final buzzer making the 2014 Finals one for the ages. With their win, they became the lowest seed to have won the tournament since 1985 (when 8th seeded Villanova took the title).

Yet despite the astonishment most of the world felt by their spectacular feat, SHS senior Steven Browning knew it all along, and had them going all the way in his bracket right from the start- climbing, with each miraculous Huskies’ victory, from dead last in his 18-man bracket group all the way first place. Said Browning: “Well I knew that UConn was a good tournament team, and they always rise to the occasion.” And this year, they did just that. Browning added in regards to our sports editor, “Plus I beat Derek aha.”

To top it all off, the undefeated UConn Women’s team managed to take the title themselves the following night, making UConn the only basketball program to have both men and women win the NCAA Championship in the same year (and it’s the second time they’ve done it). Seniors Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley led their team to cruise over the previously undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish with a 79-58 win in a fairytale ending to their college basketball careers.

With all this winning, the general feeling in Storrs this week can be described as nothing less than pure jubilation. Junior at UConn Storrs, Alex Salvatore described the night of the boys triumph as, “The most memorable night in my three years here at UConn.” The wild celebration that followed the game (or “riot” as Salvatore referred to it), consisted of thousands of kids dancing in the rain, people in all the trees, a DJ, jumping, hugging, kissing, and, of course, some illegal fireworks. This process was then repeated, down to the very last firecracker, the following night. As Salvatore put it, “I’ve never seen the campus so upbeat and happy and full of pride.”