I wouldn't trade this weekend for anything

Let me be honest with you: I've dreamed about this weekend for four years. I've imagined myself screaming at the top of my lungs, along with thousands of my peers. Hell, I've even imagined a small tear dripping down my cheek while "One Shining Moment" played as my team celebrated.

When I was searching for colleges, I knew I wanted a northeastern school with a journalism major. Beyond that, all I knew was that I wanted to experience and cover big-time Division I sports.

That thought process went through my mind throughout December 2004, when I sent in my application. Eight months earlier, of course, UConn made history by winning dual national championships. I couldn't help but be interested.

And I couldn't be happier with my choice, quite frankly. I know such a gushing column will probably put me on the short list for a donor letter starting in, oh, say, three months. (Don't worry - there's still plenty of time to make fun of you, UConn.)

But consider this: the wonderful game of basketball - this national craze we call March Madness - has turned Storrs into the center of the college hoops world.

The fact that Storrs is the center of anything, much less one of America's most popular collegiate sports, is astonishing.

The UConn men will have a chance to assert themselves as one of the elite all-time programs when they travel to Detroit. The UConn women are already elite, but they are long overdue for an exhibition of dominance on the ultimate stage.

So what I ask of you, humble reader, is this: is there any school, at any time of year, where you'd rather be? Storrs on Dual Final Four Eve Weekend (Part II) is everything I thought it would be. There's a buzz in the air.

And with all due respect to the contributions of Lexington, Ky., Bloomington, Ind., or Lawrence, Kan., there is no better basketball town in America than Storrs, Conn. We all knew it in 2004, and we know it now.

For all the tradition of those college towns and their hoops teams, they don't have two Hall of Fame coaches on the sideline. They don't have two teams capable of making great runs into March every year.

For the last 20 years, the UConn men and women's programs have been consistent winners on the regional and national levels. Since 1995, no school can even come close to the seven combined national titles that have been added to UConn's trophy case.

UConn fans have been blessed - spoiled might be a better word - with a pair of basketball programs that rose from the dead in the mid-1980's.

When only a handful of teams put a priority on women's basketball, Geno Auriemma stepped up and created a winner. When the UConn men were regular underdogs to Holy Cross, in a barn in front of 4,000 fans, Jim Calhoun saw something more.

The fruit of their labor is, of course, obvious. With the help of those coaches and their players, and the help of state legislators who rode the basketball wave, UConn is better now than it was 10 years ago.

We shouldn't need the reminder, but it ought to be said: this frivolous game, basketball, is a large part of UConn's success and character. The celebration of two teams' advance into the final weekend of competition is a celebration of the university itself.

You may laugh, but basketball - and the promise of a weekend like this one - is part of the reason I came here. From what I've seen and heard this week, I suspect I'm not the only one.