UConn just won its second straight national title, smashing Purdue in Monday’s NCAA Tournament championship game and completing a dominant season. So it’s time to ask: Where do these Huskies rank in terms of the best championship-winning teams of the past 25 years? We gathered three of our college basketball writers for their opinion:
CJ Moore
To quantify Connecticut’s dominance, let’s go to the computers. At KenPom.com, where adjusted efficiency margins are tabulated, Connecticut’s 36.43 margin is 5.26 points better than second-ranked Houston. In the history of KenPom, which dates back to 1996-97, only one team has been that far out ahead of second: 1999 Duke, which coincidentally, had its historic season ended in a national title game loss to Connecticut, which started this run of six titles in 26 seasons.
Source: KenPom.com
The Huskies just set an NCAA Tournament record for win margin, they went 37-3 and only lost one game all season (at Creighton) when they were completely healthy. The moment the Huskies were whole came once Donovan Clingan returned from his foot injury and eventually rejoined the starting lineup. That was Jan. 28. From that point forward, Connecticut’s adjusted efficiency margin was 43.01, per Bart Torvik’s sorting tool. If that had been the season-long number, that would rank behind only 1999 Duke, which had a 43.01 efficiency margin. No one else has ever been above 40. The math tells us this group was historically awesome.
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So, too, do our eyes.
Unique circumstances allowed Dan Hurley to build the perfect modern team. The best college teams have pros and experience. The Huskies had two projected lottery picks in Clingan and Stephon Castle, they had five starters who will likely play in the NBA and they were extremely old. Starting guards Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer would have run out of eligibility in normal circumstances, but they were able to play an extra season because of the NCAA’s COVID-19 year. The Huskies had the perfect defensive center in Clingan, a 7-foot-2 giant who protected the rim and moved well enough to blow up pick-and-rolls, which keyed Monday night’s win. The Huskies also had terrific positional size, with all five starters taller than 6-4. UConn’s length not only helped make it tough to get shots off at the rim, it made it difficult even to complete passes in the paint.
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Hurley also put three elite shooters on the floor and a fourth capable one in Castle, who thrived as a slasher and cutter. The offense was a thing of beauty, with intricate sets that had a Euro influence. And the Huskies also were awesome in transition, meaning they could play slow or fast and eventually land enough jabs that opponents crumpled to the mat. The bench was great too, with an uber-athletic backup center in Samson Johnson who could rise to a level above everyone else in college basketball when he rolled to the rim for alley-oop dunks, and a backup guard in Hassan Diarra who pestered point guards on the ball.
This was truly a team without any holes and one that should go down as one of the best in the modern era.
Kyle Tucker
That 2001 Duke team belongs in the conversation, as do the dominant 2012 Kentucky and the back-to-back Florida teams in 2006 and 2007. But in terms of just absolutely smashing your way to a national title, this is the competition from the 2000s:
• In 2021, Baylor (28-2) won six tournament games by an average margin of 15.3 points — closest was nine — and hammered previously 30-0 Gonzaga by 16 for the title. Sure, it was the COVID-bubble tournament, but the previous year’s Bears won 23 straight games at one point and were No. 3 in KenPom before the tournament was canceled. That whole group returned and won it all, so this was not a fluke.
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• In 2018, Villanova (36-4) won 22 of its first 23 games and then each of its final 11 games, including six in the NCAA Tournament by an average of 16 points. The closest margin was 12 points. The Wildcats pounded Kansas by 16 and Michigan by 17 in the Final Four.
• In 2009, North Carolina (34-4) brought back national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough and basically everybody else from a three-loss Final Four team in 2008, and the Tar Heels rampaged through the bracket like a team on a mission. They won six games by an average of 20.2 points, none fewer than 12 points, and beat Michigan State by 17 in the title game.
Until UConn these last two seasons, that was the gold standard for smoking the field. I think it’s entirely reasonable to call these Huskies the most dominant tournament team of the 21st century.
Brendan Marks
Like CJ said, analytically speaking, there’s no question that this UConn squad is among the most dominant title teams ever, and certainly since 2000. The stat that I just can’t get over? How these Huskies posted the largest postseason points differential in history, winning their six NCAA Tournament games by an average of 23.3 (!!) points per game. That’s just difficult to process, especially in an era where talent and experience — at least in theory — should be as dispersed as ever.
Purdue was KenPom’s No. 2 team, with a 7-foot-4, two-time National Player of the Year in Zach Edey… and it basically did not matter. The Athletic’s team in Phoenix joked after Saturday night’s games that Purdue making the title game was like someone climbing to the top of a podium … only to immediately dive headfirst into a woodchipper — and that’s exactly what played out. Just ridiculous stuff.
Now, all that said, I don’t want to be a prisoner of the moment, or let recency bias cloud my judgment. I also understand that — from the widespread adoption of advanced metrics, to the increasing proliferation of spacing-oriented systems, to the sport (especially thanks to the extra year of COVID eligibility) being as old as ever — college basketball has changed dramatically over the last 25 years. Judging teams from two decades ago through a current lens is always going to be something of a fallacy.
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But when I think of the other “best” title teams in that span, five immediately come to mind: 2001 Duke, 2008 Kansas, 2009 North Carolina, 2012 Kentucky, and 2018 Villanova. Could any of those teams hang with 2024 UConn? I’d say probably … but not definitely, which speaks to the well-roundedness of the roster Dan Hurley built. Like, 2001 Duke had five eventual NBA players — including prime Jay Williams and Shane Battier — and I feel comfortable saying UConn this season was definitely deeper, even if slightly less top-heavy. Again, just being included in that stratosphere tells you how overwhelmingly good Hurley’s second title team was, even if I’m hesitant to say these Huskies are definitively better than some of those other all-time juggernauts. Consider a “maybe” the ultimate sign of respect.
Regardless, we’ll be talking about what UConn accomplished this season for a long, long time.
(Photo of Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)