The University of Connecticut, more commonly known as UConn, Huskies men's basketball team soundly defeated the San Diego State Aztecs 76-59 at Houston’s NRG Stadium for their 5th National Championship. As you may be aware, anytime a new champion is crowned, we need to debate and determine their place in history. Well, I sit here in bewilderment as to how some can keep UConn out of the elite class of basketball programs known as blue bloods.
Blue blood is a term used to characterize an exceptionally rare class of college basketball programs. Okay, so naturally one would ask, what programs are considered blue bloods? If you petition the pundits, they’ll likely give you some combination of Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Indiana, and UCLA.
How can a program that has 5 national championships in the last 24 years be excluded from that list? UConn has won a title in 4 straight decades. The only other program to do that is the Tar Heels of North Carolina. UConn’s not a blue blood? Are you still not convinced? Their 5 titles are more than all programs mentioned in this article except for, UCLA (11), Kentucky (8), and North Carolina (6). They are tied at 5 championships with Duke (5), and Indiana (5). They have more titles than Kansas (4), Villanova (3), and Michigan State (2). UConn’s not a blue blood? Fine! Maybe they are the latest to the party, but they are most certainly amongst the college basketball programs considered blue bloods.
They arrived at the party with their 1st title in 1999. That means 24 years in the ballroom. What more do you want? I’ll give you more. The 5 titles were won by 3 different coaches. Jim Calhoun (3), Kevin Ollie (1), Dan Hurley (1). If 3 different coaches win a title at your institution, it’s not about the players, it’s not about the coaches, it’s about the BLOOD/DNA of the program. Furthermore, when merged with the more than 10 national championships the UConn women's program has tallied….STOP THE CAAAPPPP! UConn is unequivocally a blue blood, not a new blood.
- Ivan "King Dawk" Dawkins
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