After taking a week off, the ADB Mailbag is back up in your weird faces. We’ve added a fourth question this week as a consolation prize. Don’t spend it all in one place.
Remember: If your question wasn’t answered or you’ve been living under a rock and are just hearing about this, you can submit your questions here or on Twitter (@ADimeBack).
Mike asks: who was the least appreciated/most underrated player on each men’s title team?
1999: After 17 years, it actually feels like most players on this roster are properly appreciated — maybe that’s just an effect of hanging out with Meghan too much. 15 years ago the answer could have been Voskuhl or Moore or Freeman. Today, I’ll say Edmund Saunders, who served as the perfect bench piece and resident lunatic (every team needs one).
2004: Rashad Anderson is too much of a cult hero to be underappreciated. I think Josh Boone is the guy who gets forgotten on this team. His defense (1.7 blocks per game) and rebounding (5.8 rpg) allowed Emeka Okafor the freedom to be supreme kickass dude.
2011: This one is so obvious. It’s Alex Oriakhi. He registered 11 double-doubles that season, and averaged 9.9 rebounds in UConn’s 11 postseason games. Oriakhi’s 358 rebounds in 2011 are tied for the fourth-highest total since UConn’s absurd run of dominance truly began in 1995 (Okafor, 2004; Thabeet, 2009; Okafor, 2003; Adrien, 2009 & Oriakhi, 2011). Put some respeck on his name!
2014: Tor Watts.
Jeff asks: Is it a grinder, sub, hoagie or what?
As this is a UConn blog based in Connecticut, the correct answer is “grinder.” While you may refer to a sandwich purchased from Bridgeport, CT-founded Subway as a “sub,” we will not accept “hoagie,” “hero,” “wedge,” “blimpie,” “zeppelin,” or any other nonsense word people in the Midwest made up to describe a sandwich on a grinder roll. Now get yourself a damn meatball grinder and put it right in your face hole.
Chris Licata asks: Assuming it’s not family or a significant other, at what age is your presence at someone’s birthday enough to stop buying gifts.
If you’re old enough to bring booze to a party, that should be your gift. Once friends get into their 20s, any birthday gifts should be for the entertainment of the people at the party. I don’t need any more crap.
@NoEscalators asks: If you had to rewrite history to remove one of UConn MBB championships, which do you erase?
First off, this is a crap question. The answer is none of them I hope you step on a Lego. #FireUppercase
But if we HAD to (and I mean if we absolutely HAAADDDDDD to), the answer would be 2011. Each title represented a critical moment in the program’s history, but if it were suddenly erased, 2011’s effects would be the most minimal. You just have to go by elimination: 1999 is off the table immediately because it was the first one — the big upset that proved to the world that UConn could play with the big boys. 2014 is off the table almost as quickly. That came at a crucial moment in UConn history: the team had a second-year head coach, had just come off a postseason ban and was forced into the purgatory of the American Athletic Conference, where many (rightfully) questioned if the Huskies could stay relevant. That championship proved UConn wasn’t going anywhere. You can make a case that 2014 was the most important out of the four.
That leaves 2004 and 2011. I view 2004 as more significant because it was a dominant tournament team that gave Jim Calhoun his second championship. It solidified him as one of the all-time great coaches and forced UConn into the conversation of top basketball programs in the nation. It also came a year after Jim Boeheim won his only championship, and I just could not stand to see the two of them tied for very long.
So the answer is 2011. If Kemba’s miracle run ended, say, in that thrilling Elite Eight game against Arizona, that team is still remembered fondly, Kemba still has a Final Four to his name and Shabazz/Giffey/Olander win a title three years later. It’s not the end of the world.
But you’re going to have to pry that championship from my cold dead hands.
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