TAMPA, Fla. — They don’t talk about legacy at UConn. There’s no point. Why acknowledge the obvious? Because at UConn, talking about the importance of national championships isn’t pointing out the elephant in the room; the room is the elephant. It is the standard bearer, whether or not you say it out loud. And anyone who walks through those doors at UConn goes there for that exact reason.
In Storrs, the minimal expectation is excellence, perfection is the goal. There is no shortage of reminders. The gym is bordered in chairs from each of the Huskies’ Final Fours (they’ll soon add their 24th chair, a brightly adorned teal and yellow one from Tampa). When visitors enter the gym, they can choose the chair from the 1995 Minneapolis Final Four or the 2009 St. Louis Final Four or the 2016 Indianapolis version. It’s like the most subtle flex of a musical chairs game for a basketball fan. Higher on the walls hang the banners for All-Americans and national championships. The names that look down on players from those banners aren’t just well-known, they’re some of the most decorated and famous basketball players of all time at any level.
And this is the practice gym.
There’s an intention to that. These relics and honors aren’t saved for Gampel Pavilion, where the…
