Dan Hurley had the microphone at the moment of ultimate triumph, at the zenith of college basketball. Who knew what might come next?
Before the enormous crowd in Houston and the worldwide audience, he found these words:
“Now we’ve got our own.”
For those who didn’t get it, he repeated it. This was the moment of the year in Connecticut sports in 2023, not that this would be a hard choice to make.
Dom Amore: UConn’s Andre Jackson Jr. a ‘prototype’ fit with Bucks, NBA
Hurley came to UConn in March 2018, after the men’s basketball program had won four national championships, but back-to-back losing seasons had summoned a new leader. His rebuilding was methodical, it hit a setback in March 2022 with a loss to New Mexico State, but in his fifth season he fulfilled his promise to restore UConn men’s basketball to what it had been.
After only a few games, UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma went on record to say he thought the men could win it all. The Huskies won their first 14 before hitting the skids just as the calendar year 2023 began, losing six of eight. They came on late in the Big East schedule and finished with a 13-7 flurry, but lost to Marquette in the conference tournament.
“Burn the tape,” Auriemma texted Hurley. He reminded them that losing the conference tournament didn’t mean the bigger prize could not be won.
Hurley’s Huskies flushed the regular season and, after a tense first half against always-dangerous Rick Pitino and Iona, they got past the first round and then won six in a row, all by double digits. Things broke a certain way with many of the top seeds knocked off, but UConn had to play the teams that knocked them off, and they clinched the fifth title, the first for this era, with a 76-59 win over San Diego State.
They brought the trophy back to Storrs and their home base, The Werth Center, would no longer be a “monument to others’ accomplishments.”
“… We propped up in recruiting those four championships in front of these kids,” Hurley said. “And we had nothing to do with that. We removed them about 18 months ago when we started feeling like we put something together that could make a run at a fifth. We didn’t want any trophies in there until we got our own. And when you’re in a place like that, it feels a little bit empty until you feel like you can join the club. I feel like we’ve held up our end of the bargain.”
The Drive for No. 5 was complete. After a giddy victory tour, the parade in Hartford, Wall Street, The White House, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Citi Field, Giants practice, the NBA entry process that took the Huskies’ Big Three of Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson and Adama Sanogo, the Huskies are 11-2, a start toward the new mission, to be “in the mix for No. 6.”
Here are some other notable state sports stories from The Year 2023.
Tough times, relatively speaking
For a second year in a row, the UConn women’s program was hit with a series of injuries, including centerpiece Paige Bueckers, who missed the season with a torn ACL. The Huskies finished 31-6 and won the Big East Tournament, but the program’s standards have become so high, these are considered baseline achievements.
The Huskies lost back-to-back games for the first time in, wait for it, 30 years, losing to South Carolina and Marquette in January. Then in March, their string of consecutive trips to the Final Four ended at 14 with a loss to Ohio State in the Round of 16.
Dom Amore: For UConn women, sky may not be falling after all
These were unfathomable runs that, perhaps, will be further appreciated as the years go by. The women’s game is becoming more competitive, and even though UConn began the new season fairly healthy, it was clear what a long pull it will be when the Huskies lost at NC State, unranked at the time.
UConn (8-3) fell as low as No. 17 in the rankings, its lowest in 30 years, but has won four in a row going into its New Year’s Eve match with Marquette.
UConn football’s reversal of fortune
UConn began the football season with a surge of excitement and a large crowd for its opening game. It was clear coach Jim Mora had rejuvenated the program, leading the Huskies to a bowl game in 2022. The Huskies lost a competitive game to NC State on Aug. 31, and it set a tone for the season, several close losses, but losses nonetheless. UConn lost its first five, nine of 10, before beating Sacred Heart and UMass to finish the season 3-9.
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: UConn football backers responding to call for more money; Brad Ausmus talks Yankees and more
There has been a response to Mora’s calls for more resources to offer recruits name-image-likeness income opportunities, but the future of the program still doesn’t have a clear path.
Powerful disappointment
One night in early August, UConn officials went to bed believing a formal invitation to join the Big 12 would come the next day. A not-so-funny-thing happened on the way to the Power Five. The Pac 12 virtually imploded, and the Big 12 took Oregon State and Washington instead.
The ACC would later add Stanford, Cal and Southern Methodist. So the new year finds UConn still chasing rainbows, hoping to find that pot that would contain maybe 10 times its current annual revenue. The athletic programs continue to find success across its broad spectrum of sports, and cut its budget deficit, but still spends more than it is able to bring in as a member of the Big East, independent in football.
Hail to the champs
The UConn men were not the only state team to visit the White House. Quinnipiac, which had been knocking on the championship door for years in men’s hockey, kicked it in, beating Wisconsin and Minnesota, two of the sport’s blue bloods, in the Frozen Four. Jacob Quillan scored the winning goal, 10 seconds into overtime in the championship game on April 8. Not since 1977, when Wisconsin and Marquette won titles, has one state claimed both the men’s hockey and basketball champs.
Dom Amore: Rand Pecknold’s long coaching journey leads to a bold decision, and national hockey championship for Quinnipiac
Sun still rises
The Connecticut Sun began the season with less than the usual optimism after an offseason of tumult that included a coaching change and the departure of several key players. Then another core player, Brionna Jones, was lost for the season to injury. But the Sun regrouped, retooled, reloaded and made another at the WNBA title. Coach of the year Stephanie White and superstar Alyssa Thomas, the undisputed champ of the triple double, led the way as Connecticut finished third in the league and lost a competitive semifinal series to the vaunted New York Liberty.
Former UConn star Breanna Stewart led the Liberty to the finals and won the league’s MVP for the second year in a row. Other former Huskies also had big years in The W; Napheesa Collier joined Stewart on the All-WNBA first team, and Dorka Juhusz made the all-rookie team.
Is Rory McIroy right? Does it matter? Takeaways from the Travelers Championship
Travelers field
The new-look PGA made The Travelers one of its elevated events and the strong field burned up the TPC River Highlands with eight rounds of 62 or lower and 1,844 birdies, 70 more than the previous record. Native New Englander Keegan Bradley won at 23 under, and Rory McIlroy called the course “obsolete.”
Changes are underway to make the course more challenging in 2024. The tournament also shattered its record in raising more than $3 million for local charities.
Playoff push
The Wolf Pack began drawing big crowds to the XL Center as it staged a late-season surge to make it deep into the AHL playoffs in the spring. Before 2023 ended, coach Kris Knoblauch was rewarded for his good work, passed over for the open job with the parent Rangers, he was hired to coach Edmonton in November.
Dom Amore: From Savannah to Cooperstown, the Bananas brand of baseball is ablaze
More excitement at The Dunk
The Yard Goats again drew more than 400,000 fans to Dunkin’ Park, averaging 6,200 per game. The park was filled and rocking for some special events in midsummer: the Home Run Derby X featuring former major-leaguers Nick Swisher and Jonny Gomes, and the appearance of the Savannah Bananas, the cultural phenomenon that is headed for big league parks in 2024.
Athletic reboot
Hartford Athletic averaged more than 4,500 attendees, but won only four games. The franchise has reorganized itself with a new CEO, Nick Sakiewicz, and coach, Brendan Burke, to try to produce a better on-the-pitch product in 2024.
Quarterback High School
It was a good year for Connecticut products in the NFL, with Windsor’s Jason Pinnock establishing himself as a starter in the Giants secondary and Travis Jones (New Haven/UConn) on the Ravens defensive line.
But the state had a unique achievement in November, when two quarterbacks from Xavier-Middletown started for NFL teams in the same week: Tim Boyle with the Jets and Will Levis with Tennessee. Levis, drafted in the second round by the Titans, has made a case to be the franchise’s long-term quarterback.
CT On Ice
The Nashville Predators made UConn’s Matthew Wood the highest drafted Husky, taking him with the 15th pick in the NHL Draft, 11 picks higher than Tage Thompson, who has become a top scorer and All-Star in Buffalo, was taken in 2018. Meanwhile, the Rangers bolstered their Stanley Cup aspirations with a couple of old pros from Connecticut, goalie Jonathan Quick and forward Nick Bonino.
Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: CT native Nick Bonino sets a safety-first example; Quinnipiac women’s coach gets rare view of NHL team; Hurley says go get Gonzaga and more
New on the job
It was a dismal year for the region’s MLB teams, with neither the Yankees, nor Red Sox nor Mets making the playoffs. In offseason changes, the Red Sox hired Craig Breslow, of Trumbull and Yale, to be their new GM. The Yankees tabbed Cheshire’s Brad Ausmus to be Aaron Boone’s new bench coach.
Running comeback
Triathlete John Bysiewicz, who lost part of his left leg following after being hit by a car in 2022, received Road Race Management’s Director of the Year Award as he recovered and continued his work organizing events all over Connecticut. … Morgan Beadlescomb, with a big finishing kick, won the Manchester Road Race on Thanksgiving morning, then knelt down on the lawn in front of St. James Church and proposed to his girlfriend Lexi Heger.
Manchester Road Race: New winner for men, surprise wedding proposal, and three-peat for defending women’s champ
For the third year in a row, Weini Kelati won on the women’s side. Glastonbury’s Alex Norstrom won the Hartford Marathon in October, qualifying for Olympic trials with a time of 2:16.52. Jenna Gigliotti won the women’s race as more than 8,000 runners converged on the capital city.
High School Football Coaches’ Poll: Staples finishes No. 1 after taking Class LL title
The Game, No. 139
Yale, with a late-season surge, culminated with a 23-18 win over Harvard in The Game before more than 50,000 at Yale Bowl Nov. 18, captured a share of the Ivy League football title.
New champs
The high school season culminated with six new football champs, Staples-Westport in Class LL, New Canaan (L), North Haven (MM), Hand-Madison (M), Joel Barlow-Redding (SS) and Bloomfield (S). Staples finished as the top-ranked team in the state coaches poll, which returned to The Courant in 2023, as Maloney-Meriden (fifth) and Windsor (eighth) represented the area in the top 10.
Old Saybrook boys soccer won its fifth straight state title, 4-1 over Shepaug Valley in Class S, tying Staples for the most consecutive titles won in boys soccer. 12th state title for coach Steve Waters, who is the winningest boys soccer coach in CT high school history.
Tatianna Irizarry, a freshman from Ledyard, became the first girl to win a match in the CIAC State Open wrestling tournament when she pinned Engher Disla Almonte of Bristol Central in the second period of a consolation match at 106 pounds.
Dom Amore: When George Brett blew his stack, UConn’s Dan Hurley was watching