The story of the 2022-23 UConn Men's Basketball National Championship run from the perspective of a life-long UConn fan.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

The Huskies first season did not get off to a great start under Coach Mora. Early on they suffered a handful of injuries to key players, including a broken foot by star wide receiver Cameron Ross and a knee injury to starting quarter back Ta'Quan Robinson in the first game of the year.​Connecticut started the season with a 1-4 record after a brutal slate to open up the campaign. But Mora's squad returned to The Rent with a chance to inflict pay back on Fresno State, who they had lost to 45-0 in the season opener the year before.​It was a sloppy game played in the rain. In the first half UConn had to settle for 2 field goals inside of the Fresno red zone and trailed 7-6 at the break. The Bulldogs opened up the second half with a TD drive, and after UConn turned it over on their first posession of the second half it looked like the game could get out of hand.​But the defense stepped up in a big way, not allowing Fresno State to enter UConn's territory for the rest of the half.​Behind a gutty second half performance by true freshman quarter back Zion Turner, UConn pulled out a 19-14 victory. After a woeful decade of only knowing how to lose tough games like this, the Huskies finally learned how to win again.​This game was a turning point, kicking off a run where UConn would win 5 of 6 games and become bowl eligible for the first time in 8 years.​The #HuskyRevolution had a number of key contributors that made the season possible.​As a unit, the offensive line was probably the team's MVP, providing great pass protection for their young quarter back and opening up holes for the running game.​On the O-line UConn had their first All-American in over a decade, Christian Haynes. He was the 6th best run blocker at this position and 1st best pass blocker at his position, across all FBS, according to Pro Football Focus.​True freshman quarter back Zion Turner played with poise all season long and CT native Victor Rosa was explosive in the running game.​The defense led the way for the Huskies, keeping them in many games down the stretch. Jackson Mitchell, aka Mr. Connecticut, was 4th in the FBS in total tackles with 140. Seniors Brandon Bouyer-Randle, Trey Wortham and Ian Swenson all made big contributions with tackling, interceptions and fumble recoveries.​The 2023 football season has already been dubbed "The Reload" in Storrs. As a number of key pieces return from last years team and a handful of impact transfers join the roster.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

The University of Connecticut began playing football in 1896.​For more than a century UConn was a small regional power and in the 1990s was still competing below the top NCAA Division, commonly called FBS. UConn hired a new Athletic Director, Lew Perkins, who made it his mission to move the Huskies football program from Division 1-AA to the big time, FBS.​The program began it's transition in 2000 and under Coach Randy Edsall quickly started showing signs of progress. They notched their first win vs an FBS team in their first transitional season, a 24-21 win over the University of Buffalo. The following season they defeated their first power conference program, a win over Rutgers.In 2002 UConn became a full FBS member and joined the Big East Conference in 2004. In less than a decade the Huskies won 3 Bowl Games, won 2 Big East Conference Championships and played in the 2011 Fiesta Bowl, a BCS Bowl.But immediately after the Fiesta Bowl Randy Edsall abandoned the program and kicked off a decade of instability in Storrs. A time where over the course of 10 season the Huskies would only win 22 games vs FBS schools.But on November 11th, 2021 UConn shocked the college football world when they hired former NFL and UCLA Bruins coach, Jim Mora.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

The UConn Women's Basketball team entered the 2002-03 season coming off a perfect 39-0 record and National Title from the year prior. The team, however, lost 4 of it's 5 starters to the WNBA draft.The Huskies rolled to an 11-0 record, setting up their first big test of the season, a match-up vs Tennessee in Hartford. After a thrilling 63-62 OT win, UConn was now only 3 games away from breaking the all-time consecutive win streak record, 54 games, for women's basketball. Which Louisiana Tech set from 1980-82.​After a win at Seton Hall to tie the record, Connecticut beat Georgetown to break the record.​They would extend their winning streak to 70 games before finally losing in the Big East Tournament Finals to Villanova.​UConn entered the NCAA tournament as a 1 seed and rolled through their first 4 opponents, setting up a match-up with the Texas Longhorns in the Final Four. UConn overcame a 9 point second half deficit to reach the championship game.​The 2003 NCAA Finals was a rematch of the OT game in Hartford earlier in the season vs the Lady Vols. Despite building a 13 point lead late in the second half, Tennessee battled back late, but the deficit was too much to overcome and the UConn Huskies won back-to-back titles for the first time in their program's history. A feat they have accomplished 6 times.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

UConn Baseball was founded in 1896 when the university was was still know as Storrs Agricultural School. During the first 51 seasons the team competed as an independent playing mostly local competition, including local high schools.In 1936 the Huskies hired Joseph Orleans Christian as their head coach. At the time, Coach Christian was also the head coach of the football team, where he is second all time in wins with 66, and the basketball team.During his tenure across 4 decades he helped lead UConn to 2 college world series and finished with a school record, at the time, of 257 career wins as manager.Since 2004, Jim Penders has been the head coach of the UConn Baseball Team. In 2010 he led the Huskies to their first NCAA playoff as head coach. Since then, they have made 8 of 12 NCAA tournaments.Coach Penders has produced a number of MLB players as manager of UConn Baseball including current MLB players Nick Ahmed (Arizona Diamondbacks), Anthony Kay (Chicago Cubs), Matt Barnes (Miami Marlins) and George Springer (Toronto Blue Jays).Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

Going up in the Bronx and with UConn the dominant team in the Northeast during his childhood, UConn was Kemba Walker's dream schoolKemba's career at UConn started in the 2008-09 season when he was the back-up to senior AJ Price on a loaded Huskies squad that would reach the Final Four.After a strong sophomore season as the lead point guard, Kemba entered his junior season as one of only 3 upperclassmen on the 2010-11 UConn team. A team that didn't have many expectations outside of Storrs to perform better than the team that failed to reach the NCAA tournament the year before.But Kemba Walker is a special dude. After giving the country their first taste of Cardiac Kemba in the Maui Invitational, UConn went from unranked to 9th in AP poll. While his team struggled down the stretch of the regular season, finishing 9-9 in Big East play and earning the 9th seed in the conference tournament, Kemba would lead the young Huskies into a quarterfinal match-up vs 1 seed Pittsburgh.On March 10th, 2011 the legend of Cardiac Kemba was cemented into the history of college basketball.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

The Connecticut Men's Basketball team won their first Big East Tournament during what was dubbed "The Dream Season", in March 1990 at Madison Square Garden.Led by 4th year head coach Jim Calhoun with stars Tate George and Chris Smith, the Huskies won 3 games in 3 days, including 2 wins vs Top 5 ranked Georgetown and Syracuse.The tournament win kicked off a decade of Big East dominance in Storrs that included 4 conference tournament championships and 6 regular season conference championships.Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.

Welcome to 22 Threads, a show about the history of UConn athletics. Hosted by Mediocre Dan.Each week I will drop a new episode about an all-time great UConn athlete, moment, team or season in tandem with an original artistic design to commemorate the title of the episode.Thanks for tuning in and subscribing to the show.Our first drop is March 3rd, 2023. Go Huskies!Visit our website www.22threads.com for more information about the episode, to view the design and to sign-up for our email list for bonus content & more!Follow me on Twitter: @ItsMediocreDanWatch this episode on YouTube: @itsmediocredanThis podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The University of Connecticut, UConn, The Big East, The NCAA, any entities or any people depicted unless expressly stated.