Every so often, we’re left at the end of the NCAA Tournament asking ourselves whether the winner of the National Title Game was actually the best team in the country. It’s typically a legitimate question given the nature of one-and-done Tournaments and it’s no disrespect to any team whose had its legitimacy as the best team in the country questioned. If you end up winning the gauntlet that is the NCAA Tournament you’re certainly worthy of being among the best teams in the country.
But the undisputed best team? That’s where the debate usually lies.
Not last night though. UConn went into the National Championship Game not only as the defending champions but certainly the unquestioned best team heading into the Tournament and into the final game of the Tournament.
In the end, the questions coming out of last night’s dominating 75-60 win over Purdue aren’t whether the best team won, they did, the question now is whether this UConn men’s team is the best to ever step foot on a college basketball court.
We get it, the term “greatest ever” gets thrown around a lot and is usually a result of recency bias rather than facts to back up the notion. However, when looking at this particular UConn team, they’re the first since 2007 to repeat as champs which just goes to show how incredibly difficult it is to win maybe the hardest tournament in sports. Additionally, UConn managed to go 12-0 against the spread and set a record for tournament point differential this year quickly shutting down any bad faith “luck” argument opposition fans may try to throw out there.
Historically, UConn has always been considered a “blue blood” and among the elite programs around the country. Despite Kentucky and UCLA still having more titles overall, the Huskies now have more titles than Indiana and Duke and three more titles than anyone else since 1999. Interestingly enough too, UConn has never lost a title game which is amazing in and of itself.
So is UConn the best college team ever? It’s a loaded question and probably not something to be definitive about given the number of great college teams of the past, even in the more recent picture. However, this Huskies squad makes an excellent case for that.
