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Students, fans and players celebrate the football team's dramatic upset over South Florida Oct. 27, 2007, on the Rentschler Field turf.
The Year's 15 Most Memorable Moments
By: Kevin Duffy
Posted: 5/11/08
15. Wiggins, Kelly transfer; Thabeet stays for junior season
After a season marred by off-the-court problems, Wiggins decided his stay in Storrs was coming to an end. He announced that he would transfer on April 16. Kelly, who saw limited minutes off the bench, followed in Wiggins' steps and announced that he would transfer on April 23. Just four days later, National Defensive Player of the Year Hasheem Thabeet announced he would return to UConn for his junior season. After the news leaked, Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn moved the Huskies to No. 1 on his preseason poll.
14. Men's indoor track dominates Big East Championship - Feb. 24, 2008
Jumper Ellis Gaulden, who also plays wide receiver for the football team, won the conference championship in the high jump and placed second in the long jump. Other first-place finishers included Basil Campbell in the 200-meter dash, Andrew Dubs in the shot put, Brian Gagnon in the 800-meter run and Aaron King in the heptathlon.
13. Women's basketball rallies to defeat No. 4 North Carolina - Jan. 21, 2008
Renee Montgomery poured in 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Huskies erased an 11-point halftime deficit and defeated the Tar Heels, 82-71, at Gampel Pavilion. Tina Charles dominated the interior, scoring 15 points and pulling down a career-best 19 rebounds in the win.
12. Women's track and field record-setters
Thrower Tynisha McMillan broke the school record in the shot put with a toss of 49 1/4 feet March 22. Just a few weeks later, sprinter Trisha-Ann Hawthorne broke a school record of her own when she posted a time of 23.58 seconds in the 200-meter dash on April 13.
11. Women's soccer defeats Boston College on penalty kicks in first round of NCAA Tournament - Nov. 16, 2007
Neither team scored in regulation or overtime, but the Huskies mustered five penalty-kick goals to Boston College's four. Freshman Meghan Cunningham found the back of the net on the eighth penalty kick to send the Huskies to the next round. UConn went on to lose 3-2 in double overtime to Florida State in the quarterfinals.
10. Softball's Micah Truax breaks the UConn home run record - April 3, 2008
Truax belted her 21st career home run in a 9-1 rout of Central Connecticut State to give her sole possession of UConn's all-time home run record. The reigning Big East Player of the Year has since pushed that total to 25 and isn't stopping there. Just a junior, Truax has plenty of time to add to her record-setting total.
9. Men's soccer wins the Big East title, finishes the regular season ranked No. 1
- Nov. 18, 2007
Midfielder Dori Arad scored both UConn goals as the Huskies clinched the Big East crown on a 2-0 victory over Notre Dame at Morrone Stadium. Though the season ended with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Virginia Tech in the NCAA Elite Eight, UConn men's soccer enjoyed its third Big East crown in four years, and was the top-ranked team in the nation for most of the season.
8. Field Hockey reaches Final Four - Nov. 11, 2007
UConn capped off its 22-win season and Big East title with a second consecutive Final Four berth when it knocked off Boston University in the Elite Eight, 2-1. The Huskies went down to eventual champion North Carolina in the next round, 4-2, but still finished the season with an impressive overall 22-3 overall record. Senior Lizzy Peijs closed out her career by leading the Huskies in goals and assists, en route to being named a First-Team All-American.
7. O'Brian White wins the M.A.C. Hermann trophy - Jan. 11, 2008
Men's soccer junior forward O'Brian White, who led the nation in scoring with 23 goals and 53 total points, took home the M.A.C. Hermann trophy, which is awarded to the nation's top player. Soccer America magazine put it best when they said, "In the long and storied history of Connecticut soccer, there has never been a striker like O'Brian White."
6. Women's basketball beats Rutgers, returns to Final Four - April 1, 2008
The Huskies trailed most of the way, but a Maya Moore 3-pointer with about three minutes remaining gave UConn the lead for good. Moore and Co. went on to win the Elite Eight match-up, 66-56, earning their first trip to the Final Four since 2004.
5. Larry Taylor's phantom fair catch - Oct. 19, 2007
Down 7-0 to Louisville, UConn punt returner Larry Taylor waved his hand in the air as if to call a fair catch. Everyone on the field - the blockers, the defenders, the referees - stopped, but Taylor didn't. When no whistle blew, UConn's 5-foot-6, 175-pound return specialist dashed up the sidelines untouched and found the end-zone 74 yards later. The controversial play appeared on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" and was written about in The New York Times. Perhaps more importantly, however, it keyed UConn's first big win of the year - a 21-17 homecoming victory over the Cardinals.
4. Women's basketball stunned by Stanford - April 6, 2008
Widely considered the best team in the nation throughout the season, UConn women's basketball bowed out of the Final Four a little earlier than expected. The Huskies had no answer for Stanford's Candace Wiggins, who poured in 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds en route to leading her team to the 82-73 victory. Maya Moore scored 20 points for UConn, but it wasn't enough. The loss was just UConn's second of the season.
3. Craig Austrie downs South Florida at the buzzer - Feb. 16, 2008
In the midst of an eight-game winning streak, the Huskies' run looked to be coming to an end at the hands of the Bulls, the last-place team in the Big East. Following a layup by Dominique Jones that put USF up, 73-72, with six seconds remaining in overtime, Austrie took the inbound pass, went coast-to-coast and calmly drilled a runner with 0.2 seconds on the clock that gave the Huskies the one-point road victory. Austrie's celebration with A.J. Price will forever capture the emotion of the game and the terrific mid-season run that UConn went on. Austrie's shot also generated some of the most memorable InstantDailies of the year.
2. Men's basketball loses to San Diego in first round - March 21, 2008
Price tore his ACL early in the game and everything began to unravel for the Huskies. Though Jerome Dyson stepped in and forced overtime, it just wasn't UConn's day. San Diego's De'Jon Jackson nailed a 17-foot pull-up jumper with 1.2 seconds to give the Toreros a 70-69 win. The shocking loss marked the Huskies second consecutive NCAA exit to a mid-major, the first of which came to George Mason in 2006.
1. Football beats No. 11 South Florida, crowd rushes the Rent - Oct. 27, 2008
Greg Robinson Jr. brought down USF quarterback Matt Grothe on a 3rd-and-goal naked bootleg to preserve UConn's 22-15 victory, which was the program's first-ever win over a ranked team. UConn cracked both the AP and coaches' poll for the first time the next week. Edsall called the win the "best victory we've ever had at this institution," and tailback Andre Dixon, who totaled 209 yards from scrimmage, said "It feels good to have the fans in Connecticut coming out to enjoy watching football, and loving watching us play."
Contact Kevin Duffy at Kevin.R.Duffy@UConn.edu.
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