Sorry, Seniors; The Curse Is Over

By: Kevin Meacham

Posted: 5/11/08

On April 6, 2004, the UConn women's basketball team upended Tennessee, 70-61, to win their third straight national championship. It came 24 hours after Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon and the men's team crushed Georgia Tech in the other national championship game.

UConn was on top of the college sports world. Eight months later, the Huskies' neophyte football team won its first bowl game.

Then for a long time nothing happened.

UConn's flagship programs have been beset by turmoil, poor results, shocking upsets and, in the case of the women's basketball team, a decided lack of winning every game.

Every year has brought a national championship drought in the major sports, each team's story more harrowing than the next. I don't know exactly why the Class of 2008 is cursed, but then I don't make up the curses.

But know for sure, graduating seniors, that there was nothing you could have done to stop it. So it's nothing personal.

I have my own theory: the state of Connecticut - drunk, complacent and not knowing how to handle the most success the state has ever had in anything - needed to be kept in check.

The college sports gods willingly obliged. Or maybe it was the laptop thing. Either way.

Here's my evidence that UConn is surely cursed by the Class of '08:

After the football team won the Motor City Bowl in December 2004, the men's basketball team choked against North Carolina State in the second round of the NCAAs. The women's team shockingly lost in the Sweet 16, failing to reach the Elite Eight for the second time since 1993.

The 2005 season was just a one-year penance, you say. Every program has down years, especially after a wildly successful 2004.

Apparently, the sports gods weren't having any of that - especially after point guards Marcus Williams and A.J. Price were suspended for stealing laptops during the summer of 2005.

The following basketball season saw maybe the most painful double-whammy any basketball program has ever endured. Both teams lost a pair of Elite Eight overtime games - the men, of course, to George Mason and the women to Duke - in which the Huskies had a potential winning/tying shot as time expired.

By the way, if you were paying attention, the soccer teams pulled a similar trick in 2007.

Last season, the men's team, arguably the favorite for a national championship, fell to Virginia Tech in December's NCAA Quarterfinal thanks to a muddy Morrone Stadium field and a fluke Hokies goal.

And then the women's team - which had underachieved, losing in the Big East quarterfinals - took Florida State to overtime before falling short of the Final Four, 3-2.

The basketball teams weren't so lucky in the year following their double heartbreak. The men infamously finished 17-14 with eight freshmen, five sophomores and one coach who had no answers. The women were steamrolled by Sylvia Fowles and LSU in the Elite Eight, falling short of the national semifinals for the third straight year.

Then there was UConn football, whose future seemed so promising after the Motor City Bowl. Unfortunately, coach Randy Edsall forgot to recruit a quarterback for a couple years. The team went 5-6 and 4-8 in 2005 and 2006.

Of course, despite my glumness, it's not been all bad. There have been plenty of moments and players that you'll remember from your four years in Storrs.

Like this year, for example.

Men's basketball had its wonderful 10-game winning streak last season. The women's basketball seniors finally got a chance to experience the Final Four. Football had a highly unexpected run to a bowl game against a ranked BCS opponent. Soccer and field hockey made deep NCAA runs.

You saw Rudy Gay and Charlie Villanueva before they became NBA regulars; you got to see Hasheem Thabeet and Maya Moore before they become forces in their respective professional leagues.

And hey - you got to storm the field at Rentschler for the first time.

Not bad. Still no championships though, indicating that the curse was still intact.

Luckily for UConn fans everywhere, as long as the curse isn't laptop-centric (in which case UConn would have to wait until next year, when Price graduates), I like the Huskies' chances in every sport. That optimism begins just about at the moment you all throw your caps-and-gowns into mid-air.

Now, you might be thinking, this whole idea of a curse may just be one big coincidence. Perhaps curses are just silly superstitions used to justify the failures of one's favorite team. Perhaps sustained dominance in any sport in this day and age is unfeasible, even for top-of-the-line schools.

Nah. UConn's going to win everything next year. Hope you enjoy it as much as those of us still stuck in this one-horse town.

Kevin Meacham's column runs periodically. He can be contacted at Kevin.Meacham@UConn.edu.