Episode 9 - Huskymania Arrives

Two incredible wins against perennial Big East powers Syracuse and Georgetown creates a euphoric state in the State of Connecticut.

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Transcript

Hi and welcome to The Dream Season Podcast, an oral history of the 1989-90 UConn men’s basketball season, also known as, The Dream Season.

This Episode 9, Huskymania Arrives

After winning three straight Big East games, the Huskies were feeling pretty good about themselves.

They had caught the eye of the Associated Press Top 25 poll voters. They didn’t crack the Top 25 but they did receive seven votes.

Nadav Henefeld was named the Big East Rookie of the Week for the week ending January 14th, after totaling 33 points, 16 rebounds, 12 steals and 8 assists in the wins at Villanova and Seton Hall. Henefeld also ranked second in total steals in the NCAA, trailing only Ronn McMahon of Eastern Washington.

While the Huskies attempted to win their fourth consecutive Big East game for the first time since the 1981-82 season, Jim Calhoun tried to keep his team, as well as the UConn fans, grounded in reality.

“When we walk into the Civic Center there will probably be tremendous electricity in the building,” said Calhoun. “But before people jump on or off any bandwagon, they’ve got to make sure they know what they’re jumping onto. The road is going to be rough.”

What awaited UConn on Monday night was the current #5 team in the country and former #1 team for 6 weeks, the Syracuse Orangemen. Syracuse entered the game with an overall record of 12-1 and 3-1 in the Big East, with their only loss coming to Villanova.

Syracuse was led by the preseason Big East Player of the Year Derrick Coleman, as well as Stephen Thompson and Billy Owens. They’re known for their transition offense and exceptional rebounding but struggle shooting the ball, only making 21% of their 3 point shots on the season.

The Huskies were still without the services of freshman Scott Burrell, who was starting to increase his activity level as he neared his return from arthroscopic knee surgery.

In his absence, Murray Williams and Lyman DePriest both have seen their minutes increase to help fill the void.

The game would also be televised nationally as part of ESPN’s popular Big Monday college basketball showcase.

Here’s long-time UConn public address announcer Roger Baker with the starting lineups:

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After Syracuse went up 2-0, UConn ran off 8 straight, per usual, thanks to their defense.

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Not long after Boeheim was T’d up, Calhoun joined in the fun.

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After Syracuse cut the UConn lead from 8-2 to 8-6, the Huskies used another 8-0 run to push the lead to 16-6.

The Huskies went 6 of 9 from 3 point range in the first half. Nadav Henefeld was 3 for 3 from downtown.

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UConn took their largest lead of the first half at 30-14, after a Chris Smith 3 pointer with 9:10 left.

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However, UConn would go nearly 5 minutes without a field goal to close out the half. Syracuse would outscore the Huskies 17-8 over the final 9 minutes, to make the halftime score UConn 38, Syracuse 31.

Jim Calhoun and the Husky faithful at the Civic Center thought the officiating crew missed a couple of obvious fouls as the final seconds of the first half elapsed.

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UConn started the second half hot, both offensively and defensively.

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Syracuse suffered through a four minute scoring drought, as the UConn lead grew to 12, 43-31.

But the Orangemen hung tough, coming to within 3 points at 52-49 on a Billy Owens 3 pointer with 7:27 left.

The Huskies responded.

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Tate George’s acrobatic, conventional 3 point play made the score 59-51 UConn, with 4:05 left in the game.

Syracuse wasn’t done. After a Leron Ellis putback brought the Orange to within 6 at 61-55 with 2:25 left, Henefeld looked to inbound the ball.

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After an empty UConn possession, Syracuse had the ball down 4 with 1:37 left when Tate George stepped up with the defensive play of the game.

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Stephen Thompson fouled Rod Sellers with 1:07 left. Sellers, who was shooting 48% from the line for the season and was 0-3 on the night, calmly converted both ends of a 1 and 1 to put UConn up 63-57.

After a sequence of several Syracuse missed shots followed by UConn rebounds and trips to the foul line, the Huskies eventually increased their lead to 9, 66-57, before Billy Owens scored with 16 seconds left.

After George hit a free throw, Syracuse had the ball as the Husky faithful celebrated the 70-59 upset victory.

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Here’s WFSB’s Dave Smith, along with Murray Williams and Jim Calhoun, to describe the win.

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It was a balanced scoring attack for the Huskies, led by Chris Smith and Tate George, who each scored 17 points. Henefeld added 11, while Lyman Depriest had a career high 9 and Rod Sellers contributed 8 points and 8 rebounds.

UConn’s defense only had 10 steals and forced Syracuse into just 14 turnovers, numbers UConn’s opponents usually have in a half against the Huskies. But they also held the Orange to a field goal percentage of just 35.2% as well as only two fast break points.

Calhoun was pleased after the win. [QUOTE] “This is a tremendous, tremendous win. This team feels very good about itself and is very comfortable with itself. I think that’s very apparent. Every time a great basketball team made charges at us, we had answers for those charges. There was no panic. Just a sense of resolve.” [END QUOTE]

There were 16,294 people in attendance at the Hartford Civic Center for the game, setting a mark for the largest crowd to see a college basketball game in New England. They may have set another mark, for the loudest UConn crowd at the Civic Center.

Chris Smith: “My ears were hurting. The crowd was as loud as I’ve ever heard it.”

Jim Calhoun: “They were terrific. I can’t really ask for much more. They deserve a piece of the victory.”

Tate George: “It was a great atmosphere. I’ve been here four years and never heard them get like that. The people deserve a lot of credit.”

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As the Huskies’ next game against #2 Georgetown approached, a buzz started to build around the team. The first whiffs of Huskymania were in the air.

The term Huskymania first appeared in reference to the UConn’s men’s basketball program following the NIT Championship in 1988. However, it would soon become synonymous with this UConn team.

The Huskies, at 14-3 and 4-2 in the Big East, were off to their best start since the 1980-81 season and were looking to win five consecutive Big East games for the first time ever.

The late, great Hartford Courant columnist Alan Greenberg penned a column about Huskymania in the Friday, January 19th issue of the Courant. Some excerpts:

[QUOTE] “Huskymania is upon us and like all good manias, it swept us away just when we least expected it. But please, don’t tell me you’re not at all surprised. Tell me the earth is flat, tell me penguins fly, but don’t tell me you watched the Huskies lose their first two Big East games - 64-57 to Villanova at the Civic Center and a 93-62 mauling at St. John’s - and were impressed by their performance. Those Huskies looked tentative, scared, intimidated. Those Huskies looked like they’d better go back to playing Maine and Hartford if they wanted to look good.

“Confidence, as the song goes, makes a hero out of zero. And when’s the last time you’ve seen a UConn team as confident as the one that whipped Syracuse? It used to be that fans went to a UConn game, stood until the first Husky basket and wondered if they were ever going to get a chance to sit down.”

“The noise level at the Civic Center Monday night was such that you could have found relative peace and quiet by going home to the 37 6 year-olds attending your child’s birthday party. No, this was the Civic Center at rock concert volume.”

And the column ends with:

“It’s the most versatile team Calhoun has had at UConn and if this four game Big East winning streak hasn’t made it believe in itself, what would? Unless it was a win over Georgetown on Saturday.” [END QUOTE]

After the win over Syracuse on ESPN, the national media was beginning to take notice of the team. USA Today and CNN had both had features on the Huskies. The Georgetown game had been sold out for weeks but the school continued to be inundated with ticket requests following the win on Monday. 

Jim Calhoun attempted to subdue the hype.

Said Calhoun, [QUOTE] “Georgetown is playing like the best team in the country, which they probably are. We know we’re in for it because we’ve played them before, but this season, they’re even better. It’s one game and it’s a big one and a big opportunity for the program but it won’t wreck our season if we lose and it won’t make our season if we win. But it’s a good sign we’re playing Georgetown and people think it’s an important Big East game. It wasn’t so long ago that the UConn-Georgetown game didn’t mean anything.” [END QUOTE]

There was also some bad news off the court for UConn which dampened the enthusiasm a bit. Steve Pikiell, who has battled a right shoulder injury since his freshman year in 1986, dislocated the same shoulder once again at practice on Thursday, January 18. There was no timetable as to when Pikiell would be able to return to action.

However, there was some good news on the injury front. Scott Burrell continued to make progress from the arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and was close to returning. Scott was hoping to be back for the Georgetown game, but the more likely scenario is his returning for the game against Central Connecticut State on January 24.

The #2 ranked Hoyas entered the game with a record of 14-0 and were 4-0 in the Big East. They were led on the inside by 6’ 10” Alonzo Mourning and 7’ 2” Dikembe Mutombo and on the outside by guards Mark Tillmon, who leads the Big East in scoring, and Dwayne Bryant.

They ranked first in the country in field goal defense and rebounding margin and were second in the country in scoring margin, outscoring their opponents by an average of 29.8 points per game. Georgetown had also won 15 of the last 16 meetings against UConn.

Calhoun summed up the challenge awaiting the Huskies as such. [QUOTE]: “Name a problem and they present it. Defensive pressure. Terrific inside players. Great depth. Two of the best guards in the league. They’re the best team in the country. Where’s the weakness? No one has come up with any yet.” [END QUOTE]

The Georgetown game was set to tip-off at 8 PM. Snow had been falling across Connecticut lightly during the day but had picked up in intensity as game time neared.

Earlier in the day, the #1 team in the country, Kansas, lost to #4 Missouri, making Georgetown the last undefeated team in the country and clearing the way for the Hoyas to be the new #1 team on Monday if they could get past UConn.

Once again, here’s long-time UConn public address announcer Roger Baker with the starting lineups:

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The Big East Network’s Mike Gorman & Clark Kellogg set the stage:

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Kellogg’s words proved to be prophetic. Jim Calhoun could not have scripted a better start for the Huskies.

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Mourning’s dunk ended a 14-0 UConn run to begin the game. During that stretch, UConn’s defense forced six Hoya turnovers. Said Tate George, [QUOTE], “We knew exactly where to press them. We drove them right into our trap. We wanted to get off to a fast start because we figured some people were still questioning us even after we beat Syracuse. But I don’t know about that fast. I looked up at the 14-0 score and I thought, when are they going to respond?’ [END QUOTE]

It wouldn’t take Tate long to find out. Georgetown outscored UConn 15-3 to even things up at 17 and took the lead soon after. 

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The Huskies responded quickly.

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After the John Gwynn 3, the Huskies led 24-20 with 5:12 left in the first half.

A recurring theme throughout the entire game was Alonzo Mourning attempting to rattle freshman Nadav Henefeld with prodigious trash talking. Much to Mourning’s dismay, Nadav wasn’t built like most freshmen.

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UConn led 28-24 after the Henefeld fall away jumper but the Hoyas continued to keep the game close. And the Huskies continued to have an answer.

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John Gwynn scored the final four points of the first half for UConn to send them to the locker room with a 35-29 lead.

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The Hoyas outrebounded the Huskies 22 to 12, but UConn’s defense, led by 12 steals, was the reason for the six point halftime lead.

UConn was 14-0 on the season when leading at halftime.

Georgetown appeared to be on a mission to end that streak right from the start of the second half.

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The Hoyas went on a 11-2 run to start the half, culminating with that Mark Tilmon hoop to put Georgetown up 40-37.

On the very next possession, UConn punched back.

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The Henefeld 3, along with the ensuing steal and assist to Chris Smith, gave UConn the lead back at 42-40 with 15 minutes remaining in the game.

Both teams continued trading punches.

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With 6:57 remaining and UConn ahead 53 to 50, Alonzo Mourning appeared to have committed offensive goaltending while tipping in a Tillmon miss. However, the officials saw it differently.

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After Mourning converted a four point possession, the Hoyas led 54-53.

Georgetown led 56-55 when Nadav came through once again.

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After a Mourning hoop tied the score at 60, Henefeld answered with 3:40 left.

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Despite Henefeld’s best efforts, the Hoyas could not be put away. With 1:44 left in the game, UConn was looking to expand their precarious 63-62 lead.

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After the Mourning block on the Henefeld attempt, Mark Tillmon, a 76% free throw shooter, went to the line to shoot two.

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The Hoyas fouled John Gwynn, sending him to the line for a 1 and 1, with UConn still up 63-62.

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After Gwynn and Henefeld made two free throws a piece, UConn led by 5, 67-62. But the Tillmon three made it a two point game with 31.9 seconds left.

After two more free throws by Gwynn, Georgetown had possession down four with 15.7 seconds left.

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UConn’s magical run (or as the Hartford Courant’s Ken Davis described it, “a sweet winter dream”) continued on. They had defeated the mighty Georgetown Hoyas for only the 4th time in 21 tries since joining the Big East, 70-65.

Nadav Henefeld led the way with a career-high 21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals. He was also 5 of 7 from 3 point range.

As much as Henefeld seemingly carried the Huskies to victory, this was a true team effort. John Gwynn came off the bench to score 15 points in 15 minutes, including 4 clutch free throws to seal the win. Chris Smith and Tate George each scored 11 points but more importantly, only committed one turnover each against the strong Hoya backcourt. George also became the 20th player in UConn history to score 1,000 career points with a layup in the first half.

Rod Sellers and Dan Cyrulik only scored 6 points between them but their physical presence inside against Mourning and Mutumbo was another key factor.

Georgetown dominated the glass, out rebounding UConn 39-28, but the Huskies defense made up for that, forcing 22 Hoya turnovers.

As it was during the Syracuse game, the fans at the Civic Center brought the energy and had a significant impact on the game.

Rod Sellers recalls the atmosphere:

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UConn radio play by play voice Bob Huessler remembers both games but particularly the Georgetown game:

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There was one storyline from the Georgetown game that continued for months after the game had ended and continues to this day.

It was reported in the days following the game that Alonzo Mourning was not simply trash-talking to Nadav during the game but was making anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks directed at the Israeli citizen.

It’s quite simply not true.

The urban legend continues to this day, despite being refuted later during the season.

As reported in the March 10, 1990 edition of the Washington Post:

“Georgetown coach John Thompson has attempted to finally lay to rest rumors about a confrontation earlier this season between Hoyas sophomore forward Alonzo Mourning and Connecticut’s freshman Nadav Henefeld, in which Mourning supposedly made anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks to Henefeld, who is from Israel.

“The whole thing with Henefeld is a lie,” Thompson said Thursday during the Big East Conference’s pre-tournament media session. “It was a flat out lie.”

The story continued with Thompson saying that he received a phone call from Jim Calhoun in the days after the game.

[QUOTE] “Jim said, ‘John, it is not so. And I want you to tell Alonzo that we know it is not so.’” [END QUOTE]

Jim Calhoun confirmed the call saying, “I made the call because I respect John so much and I didn’t want anything to hurt Alonzo that wasn’t true.”

Thompson also references the subject in his 2020 autobiography, “I Came As A Shadow”.

[QUOTE] “We had an incident at Connecticut where Alonzo was accused of using anti-Semitic language against a Jewish player on their team. It was a bald-faced lie. I knew it as soon as someone said Alonzo called the UConn kid a “dirty Jew”. First of all, we don’t think of Jewish people that way. They’re just white. In the Black community, if you’re white, you’re white. We put them all together. Then I asked Alonzo what happened and I told him I would have a serious problem with any remarks of that nature because of my friendships with Jewish people like the Furashes, Red Auerbach and David Falk. Zo said he didn’t even know the kid was Jewish and denied saying anything anti-Semitic. He did curse him out but that’s part of basketball. Steve Berkowitz from the Washington Post wrote that Calhoun acknowledged that the whole thing was false. I was relieved to clear that up because I understand the level of discrimination that Jewish people have been subjected to. [END QUOTE]

Here’s Nadav to set the record straight:

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As Mike Gorman announced to the audience as the game ended, there was no greater win in Connecticut history.

That might sound like hyperbole, but even Jim Calhoun said so after the game. [QUOTE] “I can’t really imagine anything better than this. This certainly is a very rewarding moment. It’s the biggest win since I’ve been here at Connecticut. We’re a good basketball team that’s developing into a very good basketball team.” [END QUOTE]

An argument could be made that the NIT Championship in 1988 was bigger. For the sake of this discussion, we’ll call it the biggest regular season win.

This was the fifth consecutive Big East win for UConn, setting a new mark.

The UConn win would surely prevent Georgetown from reaching the #1 ranking when the AP poll was released on Monday. The win also ensured that UConn would crack the Top 25 as well. 

In the Big East era, UConn had only been ranked three times. They made it to #20 in December of 1988 and were also #20 for two consecutive weeks in January 1981. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to the 1953-54 season, where they were ranked for two weeks, never higher than #18.

Former Norwich Bulletin UConn beat reporter Pete Abraham recalls how the win over Georgetown changed the mindset for the UConn fans and for the team:

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Jim Calhoun remembers how that week made him realize that special things could be in store for this team:

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Coming up on the next episode of The Dream Season Podcast, UConn moves into a new neighborhood, figuratively and literally.

The Dream Season Podcast is researched, written & produced by me, Matt Edwards. 

Written sources for this episode are the Hartford Courant archives, the Norwich Bulletin, Washington Post and John Thompson’s autobiography, “I Came As A Shadow”.

You can connect with the show via Twitter and Instagram at DREAMSEASONPOD

If you have any memories to share about anything I just mentioned, want to correct me on something I screwed up or just have general feedback to give, send me an email at dreamseasonpodATgmail.com or call and leave me a message at (903) 884 - EIGHTY NINE NINETY. 

After I’m done with the regular episodes of the show, I’d love to have at least one episode that consists entirely of your memories of the Dream Season. Either leave a message at the above number or email me with an audio recording of your recollections, along with your name and location, and I will include them in that episode. Thank you Andy for the most recent submission!

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As always, thank you so much for listening!!