2008 Woodie Awards
March Madness: UConn takes it all
Amanda Cudmore
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Sports
Three weeks, 121 games, and 128 teams, all battling for supremacy in college basketball, all wanting to be the Men's and Women's National Champion - March Madness features an array of upsets, dominance, sportsmanship, and competition.
It is one of the few times during the year that where nothing in sports is definite. #14 University of Alabama at Birmingham can send perennial powerhouse Kentucky home early, #8 Alabama can ruin the #1 seed Stanford's 29-1 season, #12 Manhattan can upset #5 Florida, and a team that beat its first opponent by five, Georgia Tech, can make it to the National Championship.
But, it is also a time of certainties. For example, the Duke men will be in the Final Four, and familiar foes Pat Summitt, Tennessee's head coach, and Geno Auriemma, UConn's head coach, will be squaring off at half court during the Women's Championship game.
While the tournament featured many upsets and excitement, the number one story was the pride of Connecticut, the University of Connecticut Huskies. ESPN The Magazine's preseason college basketball issue featured, on its cover, Huskies Senior guard and forward Diana Taurasi and Junior center Emeka Okafor with the headline begging the question, "Will UConn be the ones?" Inside both the men's and women's teams were picked to finish number one. For once, the sports writers picked the correct winners.
The men finished their season 27-6, good enough for the #2 seed in their bracket behind Stanford University, who finished with a 29-1 record. In the team's march towards the title, they defeated five of the six teams they played by double digits. Vermont, Vanderbilt, Alabama, and Georgia Tech all fell by ten, with the exception being the Duke Blue Devils who the Huskies just scraped by 79-78.
Against Final Four opponent Duke, Okafor mustered only seven points after getting in to foul trouble early on. Junior guard Ben Gordon and Sophomore guard Rashad Anderson would carry the team offensively, scoring 18 and 14 respectively.