UConn Huskies celebrate back-to-back NCAA titles during White House visit
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The East Room of the White House was still buzzing with applause after President Biden entered the storied reception hall Tuesday afternoon with the NCAA men’s basketball champions from the University of Connecticut.
“Let me be the first to say, welcome back,” Biden said, inciting another round of boisterous cheering and clapping. “I won’t be here next year, but you may be if these guys over here have anything to do with it.”
“It’s great to have so many UConn friends and fans here today with us, including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona,” he continued. “You know, Miguel is a slow learner. He has four degrees of credentials from UConn. I told him that equals one from Delaware. No, only kidding.” The president was referring to the University of Delaware, First Lady Jill Biden’s alma mater.
Following a non-conference regular season loss against Villanova in January 2020, head coach Dan Hurley was quoted as saying, “People better get us now. That’s all.” Over the last four seasons, the UConn Huskies have regained their spot at the pinnacle of men’s collegiate basketball, winning back-to-back NCAA championship titles in 2023 and 2024.
The UConn Huskies raise their championship trophy. PHOTO: UCONN ATHLETICS
The Huskies championship run this year culminated in a 75-60 rout of the Purdue Boilermakers. This team was the first one since the Florida Gators won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. UConn beat their opponents in the tournament by an average of 23 points.
Purdue, which hoped to follow the 2018-19 Virginia Cavaliers by going from losing to a No. 16 seed the year before to cutting down the nets this year, made only one of seven 3-pointers. They were the number two 3-point shooting team in the country.
Since 1999, the Huskies are 6-0 in national championship games, and two of those belong to coach Dan Hurley. The Storrs Connecticut team had four players taken in this year’s NBA draft. Two starters, Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan, were lottery picks.
“People questioned whether or not you had the talent to go back-to-back,” Biden said jokingly. “I guess they didn’t see you guys standing up, man.”
“We know that together, you capped off one of the most successful two-year runs in the history of the sport, ushering in a new era of UConn men’s basketball, passing the likes of Duke and Indiana for all-time national titles, and now there’s no doubt at all about who are the blue bloods of basketball,” said the president.
Coach Hurley is the younger brother of coach and former Duke University standout Bobby Hurley, who won back-to-back championships in 1990 and 1991 as a point guard for the Blue Devils.
President Biden also noted the four former Huskies who participated in the 2024 NBA draft. “There’s clearly something; you must have something in the water up there, man.”
“Coach, you’ve said that UConn has been running college basketball for 30 years,” Biden recalled as he yielded the podium to Hurley. “With you at the helm, I think they better get ready for another 30.”
Charmingly authentic, Coach Hurley was candid and admittedly nervous to address the crowd.
“I’ve been to the White House before; it is scary as s—,” he exclaimed, his inadvertent profanity prompting lighthearted laughter from attendees, including the president.
The coach made clear that the team’s goal went beyond winning games.
“We knew we had the potential to have a special team, and it was like a real simple mindset that we were trying to create,” Coach Hurley said. “Like, let’s just win everything.”
In his closing remarks, he mentioned focusing on “quickly turning to our pursuit of this third national championship in a row … to truly make history in college basketball next year as the first three-peat champion since Coach Wooden.”
Jordyn Britton is a reporter for HUNewsService.com
