NCAA Basketball: Programs who should be considered “blue bloods” in 2019

Connecticut

The Resume: 5 Final Fours, 4 Championships, 28th in All Time Wins (1714)

The Huskies could be considered an outlier here, but that is mostly due to recency bias. The University of Connecticut trails only Duke for titles won since 1990 with four. That number puts them one behind the Blue Devils and tied with North Carolina. In fact, if you start the clock from 1999, they have the most titles.

The problem with Connecticut is they don’t possess the storied history that some other schools on this list do. Before Jim Calhoun arrived in 1986, the Huskies had only been to a dozen tournaments since the year 1900.

Hugh Greer brought the school to national prominence in the late 40’s and 50’s as far as conference championships go and did lead the Huskies to their first seven NCAA Tournament appearances, but he was the only one. A legend in the Connecticut basketball community, Greer died of a heart attack while still the Head Coach in 1963. He compiled 286 wins in parts of 17 seasons.

After Greer’s death the program went back into hibernation, making the tournament only six times in 27 years. In 1990, Calhoun in his fourth season, led the Huskies to 31 wins and an elite eight appearance. He would win 27 games or more eleven times and win the NCAA Tournament championship three times (98-99, 03-04, 10-11) before retiring due to health concerns in 2012.

During his time in Storrs, Calhoun put a tremendous amount of talent in the professional leagues as well, including all-stars Clifford Robinson, Kemba Walker, Richard Hamilton and future Hall of Famer Ray Allen. In all, 30 players from Calhoun’s Connecticut  teams made appearances in the NBA.

Kevin Ollie would then take the reins at his alma mater. A former UConn point guard, Ollie was also one of the players Calhoun put in the league. He made a huge splash, winning the National Championship in just his second season at the helm. Often criticized for having his best seasons using players left over from the Calhoun era, Ollie’s success slowly dwindled until an NCAA investigation led to his dismissal in 2018. In his final two seasons his record was 30-35. You could attribute some of that record to the injury history of highly regarded point guard Alterique Gilbert, but the Ollie regime had run its course in Storrs.

In their first season under Dan Hurley the Huskies showed some life early, but ultimately struggled in conference play. The Hurley hire paid immediate dividends on the recruiting side though as the Huskies welcome a trio of top 100 recruits in Jalen Gaffney, James Bouknight and Akok Akok in 2019. With four of their top six back from last year, Connecticut could be back sooner than later.