UConn’s repeat draws parallels to its first two crowning moments

Tom Moore and Dan Hurley (third and fourth from left) reconstructed UConn when arriving in 2018, building to back-to-back national championships. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the finality of its accomplishments began to blanket UConn moments after the Huskies successfully defended their national championship Monday, the team’s place among program and basketball royalty began to become clearer.

Yes, UConn is the first school since Florida 17 years ago to repeat, a footnote the Huskies secured with their commanding 75-60 victory over Purdue. But has this iteration of Connecticut basketball instantly become the best team this century? Or is it definitively better now than either of the program’s first two titleholders of 1999 and 2004?

The common thread between all four championship teams, Tom Moore, shared his perspective amid the descent of confetti on the State Farm Stadium court.

“I’ll leave it to other people to try to figure that out,” Moore — an assistant under Jim Calhoun for 13 years before returning to Storrs with Dan Hurley in 2018 — said. “This was a dominant season. To think that we’ve lost one game since the Seton Hall game on December 20 is staggering when you consider the schedule we had to go through and the rest of the Big East, the Big East tournament, and now the NCAA Tournament.”

Moore first came to UConn in 1994 on the heels of a Sweet 16 run led by Donyell Marshall. In the seasons that followed, he helped Calhoun build a perennial contender behind players the likes of Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Caron Butler, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Rudy Gay and Charlie Villanueva, among others. The core of the past two Husky teams, led by Adama Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson, Tristen Newton, Alex Karaban, Donovan Clingan and Hassan Diarra; while also welcoming Stephon Castle and Cam Spencer into the fold, mirrors the fabric on which the foundation for greatness at UConn was built.

“A lot of guys who would give of themselves and understand they’re playing for the front of the jersey,” Moore remarked, citing the similarities in the composition of each team. “They all really value playing at UConn, all of them bought into the head coach’s message. The first two teams — the ’99 and ’04 teams — and these two teams, all the kids knew that their head coach was with them, had their back, was with them every day, loved them, and would fight tooth and nail for them. They all saw that, they all felt that, bought into that, and you could do a lot of great things when you get kids to do that.”

After his own successful 10-year run as the head coach at Quinnipiac, where he guided the Bobcats into a top program in both the Northeast and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conferences, Moore joined Hurley at Rhode Island in 2017-18 as the Rams reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Upon accepting the job at UConn, Hurley brought Moore back to where he made a name for himself in the business, and even if a pair of national championships was not on the immediate horizon when the two began the restoration process, an overarching belief that the program’s success would soon return was.

“I don’t know if two in a row was in the vision, but (Hurley) had a vision that he could get the program back to where it was,” Moore recalled. “And it was day by day, 365 days a year, much like Coach Calhoun did it, just pouring into the players, their development, in the gym with them as much as he possibly could, all year round, and then recruiting great players who are super unselfish and would buy into the culture.”

“It’s a testament to Dan’s excellence. He’s the best coach in the country right now. He’s in his prime, too, which is scary, because it leads you to believe it can continue.”