Of the 50 men’s basketball players who’ve walked onto the court for the Connecticut Huskies in an NCAA Championship game – and eventually walked onto to the podium to conclude the Final Four by embracing the winner’s trophy – Lasan Kromah stands alone.
He is the only one among them who was recruited to play for UConn in a league other than the Big East.
Kromah joined the Huskies as a grad transfer from George Washington in late spring 2013, after their Big East departure was confirmed. He played 20 minutes and grabbed 6 rebounds in helping UConn defeat Kentucky for the 2014 title, one of five the Huskies have claimed in the past quarter-century. If you define success by championships, UConn has been, by far, the greatest men’s college basketball program of that period. The Huskies have won more than North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky or Villanova.
(Not as many as Huskies women’s hoops, but it seems they could win titles if UConn still were in the Yankee Conference).
Although it is beyond question the Huskies’ championship formula in the men’s game began with the hiring of Jim Calhoun as head coach in 1986, and with his recruitment of such icons as Ray Allen, Donyell Marshall, Rip Hamilton and Kemba Walker, and undoubtedly the wise choice of Dan…
