During the 1998-99 college basketball season, only two teams were ranked Number One in the Country. Duke and UConn. And on March 29, 1999, they collided at The Trop for the National Championship...UConn's first Final, Duke's fifth in the 90's alone. There were some who thought the Blue Devils were too good and would take care of business. But those close to UConn and who followed the team knew the Huskies cold not just play with the Blue Devils, but beat them. And what a national championship the country got to see...A heavyweight showdown for the ages....All Americans Rip Hamilton, Elton Brand and Trajon Langdon were the stars...With Khalid El Ahmin, William Avery and Corey Magette the supporting casts...
After a slow start by the Huskies that saw them fall behind 9-2, a senior from Augusta, Georgia reminded Husky Nation that he could score as well as be the nation's top perimeter in Ricky Moore. 13 first half points while Hamilton helped and the bench, with El Ahmin was in foul trouble picked up the slack. As a 15-4 run gave UConn a 17-13 lead...Part of the success on defense was UConn's Big to Big Double on Duke Center Elton Brand. The quartet of Jake Voskul, Edmond Saunders, Kevin Freeman and Soleman Wayne took their turns as the Huskies' attacked Duke at every opportunity to take a 36-32 lead late in the half before Langdon hit a pair of three...one of them fouled by Moore and Duke led 39-37 at the half. UConn shot 53% to Duke's 45 and outrebounded the Blue Devils 20-13..But Duke was 5/10 from three...UConn 1 of 4...But here's an odd stat, UConn was 9-0 when trailing at the half...
In that second half, Langdon opened with the first 5 Duke points and at the U16 TO led UConn 49-45. A key to UConn's success was the bench..and Soph. Albert Mouring played a big role with 8 points off the bench to keep UConn in it and then take the lead at 57-53...That's when Rip Hamilton came to life. A three at 62-57 before the Huskies went the next 4:10 without a field goal at Duke rallied to even things at 66. One of the games' 14 ties (7 lead changes as well) the last at 68 when Hamilton hit a pair of free throws with 3:50 left...The next possession, Rip knocked in a 3 ball and the Huskies led by 5 with plenty of time left. Inside 90 seconds, Langdon hit a second chance three and it's down to a one point game. before the smallest Husky on the floor, El Ahmin took control. A huge floater with a minute left to put UConn up three. Khalid had a chance to get it back to three, but missed...setting up Duke's next possession. Where Duke didn't call time. Langdon was allowed to try and go one on one with Ricky Moore. Billy Packer of CBS knew this might be an issue, and it was just that. Langdon tried to angle into the lane from the left, but Moore keep his feet moving and forced Langdon into a travel with five seconds left....
El Ahmin was fouled and this time hit a pair from the line to cap the scoring, but it was Langdon tripping just crossing mid court as time expired that finally ended the classic, leaving El Ahmin to claim as he did on the CBS Pregame "we shocked the world !!" The first New England School to win an NCAA Title and the first of three for Jim Calhoun. Hamilton, the Final Four MOP, lead all scorers with 25, Moore 13 and El Ahmin 12....Langdon led Duke with 25, Elton Brand 15p-13r..But the bench a huge factor as UConn's outscored Duke 17-8.
Wayne Norman spoke to UConn assistant coach Tom Moore before the (Duke) game. Moore gave a detailed breakdown of the game plan, which, in retrospect, worked out perfectly. One item Tom told Wayne: "Duke plays very tight ball pressure. Our guards are quicker than theirs. We want to go BY them and set up opportunities in the lane." Starters Richard Hamilton, Ricky Moore and Khalid El-Amin combined for 52 points.
On a personal note, I was in the studio in the Gold Building in Hartford producing the radio broadcast. It was a long weekend, but a very rewarding one. And it was a late night where a lot of tape was cut up for morning sports. I think I got maybe three hours on the studio couch..Who knows, but it was one of my favorite weekends of my broadcast career as producing the broadcast from studio is just as important as what happens on the game site....
I asked one of my mentors, the late great Arnold Dean once what would be bigger, a Whalers' Stanley Cup OR a UConn National Championship ?? on March 29, 1999, I got my answer....
see the game at UConnHuskyGames.com