A late-season surge has UConn the talk of the town heading into the friendly confines of Madison Square Garden. Despite finishing third in its return season to the Big East, injuries to Villanova and a general apathetic view of Creighton has many predicting the Huskies will win a record eighth Big East Tournament title.
While Connecticut won a pair of ECAC Tournament crowns in 1976 and '79, plus the American championship in 2016, most folks look fondly at the seven championships won in the Big East. As Dan Hurley and the Huskies try for an eighth, let's look back at UConn's prowess at MSG.
1990: Huskymania! Tied atop the regular season standings with Syracuse, the Huskies entered the week ranked top-10 nationally. However, in 11 years they'd never advanced to the tournament's championship game. That changed after Jim Calhoun's Huskies dismantled Seton Hall in the quarters and outlasted Georgetown in the semis, setting up a title game tilt with Syracuse.
There, Donyell Marshall, John Gwynn and the Most Outstanding Player Chris Smith combined for 58 points as UConn won 78-75. The Huskies would be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, losing to Duke on a Christian Laettner buzzer-beater in the Elite 8.
1996: One of the most famous games in the tournament's history, UConn and Georgetown met in the final with a pair of future Hall of Fame guards: Ray Allen for the Huskies, and Allen Iverson for the Hoyas. Connecticut, though, was down 74-63 late, before 10 unanswered (led by Kirk King and Ricky Moore) pulled UConn to within a point late. From there, you probably know what happened: Allen - who missed 14 straight shots - threw up a wild double-clutch prayer from the elbow that improbably went in. Georgetown missed a pair of shots on the other end and the Huskies won 75-74.
1998: The top seed in the tournament after winning its division, the Huskies had little issue with Providence or Rutgers in advancing to the championship, where Syracuse awaited. Behind Khalid El-Amin's Most Outstanding Player performance, UConn won 69-64 for its third Big East Tournament title.
Though the season ended in the Elite 8 (again), the entire core of that team would return next year...
1999: With Richard Hamilton, El-Amin, Kevin Freeman, Ricky Moore and Jake Voskuhl all back, UConn was a tour-de-force all year. They went 16-2 in league play, but nearly got bounced in the quarterfinals at MSG, were it not for a Freeman tip-in to help hold off Seton Hall 57-56. That wake-up call was enough, as UConn pounded Syracuse by 21 in the semis and St. John's by 19 in the title game for a third championship in four years.
And, of course, this time there would be no March heartache. Connecticut beat Gonzaga to advance to its first Final Four, defeated Ohio State in the semis and stunned Duke 77-74 to win the program's first national championship.
2002: This began a three-year stretch in which UConn and Pitt would meet in the championship game. The best of the bunch was the '02 game, which is still the only Big East title game to go to double overtime - and only after Brandin Knight's half-court heave at the end of the first OT rimmed out.
UConn pulled away late in the second OT to win, but not without a heave of its own. Up 66-64 with :38.3 seconds left and just two seconds on the shot clock, Taliek Brown's bomb from 35 feet out all but iced the game for Connecticut.
2004: After the double-overtime loss, Pitt would get revenge with a fairly easy win in the 2003 championship game, setting up the rubber match in '04. The Panthers led 51-40 with under nine minutes to go before Ben Gordon took over. He keyed a game-ending 21-7 run, including hitting the go-ahead runner with under 30 seconds left to give the Huskies the lead for good. His 81 points in three games set a new tournament record, kick-starting a run that would end with another national championship a few weeks later in San Antonio.
2011: After winning five Big East Tournament titles in nine years, UConn went on a lull, and few had any hope of it ending heading into the 2011 tournament. After all, the Huskies went just 9-9 in conference play in the regular season, entering the tournament as the 9-seed and needing five wins in five days.
Well, they hammered DePaul and then cruised past Georgetown in the first two rounds. Then, everyone remembers what happened against top-seeded Pitt: Kemba's step-back for the win.
It's one of the most famous plays in Big East Tournament history, and the defining moment from a season that ended with an improbable run to a national title -- winning 11 consecutive elimination games. Of course, to get to that point UConn still had to follow up the Pitt win by beating Syracuse (76-71) and then Louisville (69-66) in the title game, making it five wins in five days at MSG.