UConn is Officially a Basketball Blue Blood
- Ethan "CEO" Alexander

- Apr 5, 2023
- 2 min read
The conversation surrounding what schools are college basketball blue bloods and what schools aren't is constantly swirling. Most people have agreed that teams such as Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, and UCLA have cemented themselves throughout the years as definite blue bloods. However, schools such as UConn, Michigan State, Villanova, and Indiana have long been vying for a spot among the greats. Well I am here to tell you that after UConn's championship win they are officially a college basketball blue blood.

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UConn won their first men's basketball championship in 1999...they now have five championships. They have been by far the most dominant basketball program in the last 25 years. They have been to the Final Four six times, and have won the entire thing in five of those. They are 10-1 in Final Four and Championship games. They just show up in the tournament and win. On top of all of that, they've done it all with three different coaches. They are undoubtedly a college basketball dynasty.
The only two blue bloods who I have in the same sphere as UConn right now are Duke and North Carolina. They have had enough recent success to keep their name in the race for top dog in college basketball. However, teams like Kentucky and UCLA have fallen behind with their lack of success over the past two decades. By the way, when it comes to blue bloods, when I talk about "success" I'm talking about championships. I couldn't care less how many tournament wins, regular season wins, or conference championships these teams have. When you're a blue blood your goal is to win a championship every year, and anything else is a failure. With that being said, allow the Kentucky fan in me to connect this UConn situation to Kentucky's current situation...

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UConn has won three championships during the Calipari era. In 2011, UConn beat Kentucky in the Final Four before going on to beat Butler in the national championship game. In 2014, UConn beat Kentucky in the national championship game. They were coached by Jim Calhoun in their 2011 championship run. They were coached by Kevin Ollie in their 2014 run. This year they were coached by Dan Hurley. Kentucky has had the same coach throughout this entire era. I will let you all draw your own conclusions based on this information.
Now that my daily anti-Kentucky rant is finished, I want to sincerely congratulate UConn on their championship. This team looked like one of the best teams in the nation at the beginning of the year, and then they had a rough start to the new year, but figured it out when tournament season rolled around. I will not allow anyone to hate on UConn around me from now on, because when it comes down to it they are the most dominant college basketball program in the country and they did it in a respectable fashion.



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