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UConn took down San Diego State 76-59 in the national championship game on Monday night, capping an incredibly dominant NCAA Tournament run. It won every game by double digits and scored 75-plus points in four of its six games.
It was the fifth national championship in UConn’s men’s basketball history. The 2023 banner will hang alongside the titles from 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014. The five titles have come with three different coaches.
Legendary coach Jim Calhoun led the Huskies to titles in 1999, 2004 and 2011. Kevin Ollie took over for Calhoun in 2012 and won the title in 2014. Dan Hurley now joins them as a UConn legend with the 2023 title.
With five national championships, UConn is now tied with Duke and Indiana for the fourth most all-time in men’s basketball. UCLA leads all programs with 11 NCAA titles. Kentucky is second with eight. North Carolina sits in third with six. Kansas is behind them all in seventh with four NCAA championships.
Villanova is in eighth with three titles. Louisville would also have three, but its 2013 title was vacated due to NCAA violations. Seven schools have two men’s basketball championships: Louisville, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Florida, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State and San Francisco.
UConn, which had never been to a Final Four until 1999, has ascended to become one of the country's most successful programs and belongs in the blue blood conversation. It was the only team in this year’s Final Four to have made the national semifinals previously. It has won five titles in 25 years. No other program has more during that span.
It is also second in Big East Conference championships with seven, trailing only Georgetown, which has eight. The Huskies have the most regular season Big East titles with 10. They have made six Final Fours and appeared in 33 NCAA Tournaments. The program has an all-time record of 1,733-987.
The program has also sent plenty of talent to the NBA. Fifty UConn players have been drafted. Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon, Rudy Gay, Kemba Walker and Andre Drummond are some of the highlights from those picks.
In 1999, UConn, in its first Final Four, was a No. 1 seed and took down Duke, the No. 1 overall seed, in the national title game.
In 2004, UConn was a No. 2 seed and took out Duke again in the semifinals before beating Georgia Tech for the title.
In 2011, UConn won 11 straight games in postseason play, led by Kemba Walker. It was a No. 3 seed when it beat No. 8 seed Butler in the championship game.
2014 was the Shabazz Napier-led squad that won the title as a No. 7 seed, beating Kentucky in the title game.
The UConn women’s program has won 11 national championships, all since 1995, and made the Final Four 14 times.
Guess the Lakers players!
