2008 Woodie Awards
Sorry, Seniors; The Curse Is Over
Kevin Meacham
Issue date: 5/11/08 Section: Sports
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.
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.
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posted 5/13/08 @ 2:12 AM EST
Things happen the way they happen but we notice certain paterns. They have found that when you craps, the wins and losses tend to happen in streaks. Like you have a winning streak for a while and then you have a losing streak for a while. (Continued…)
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