Move over Kentucky and fellow college basketball blue bloods, UConn is in the club

If it wasn’t in before, UConn is in the club now.

You know, college basketball’s blue blood club. The one with Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke and arguably UCLA, Villanova and Indiana.

Move over guys.

There should be no argument about Connecticut now, not after the Huskies defeated San Diego State 76-59 on Monday night for its fifth NCAA men’s basketball championship in the past 24 tournaments.

During that span, tradition-rich Duke and North Carolina have each won three titles. Florida, Kansas and Villanova have each won two. Kentucky is in the group of one along with Baylor, Louisville (vacated), Maryland, Michigan State, Syracuse and Virginia.

To be fair, Kentucky also won the 1998 NCAA Tournament under Tubby Smith to go along with its 2012 title under John Calipari. So if you stretch the criteria out to the last 25 tournaments, Kentucky is in with Florida, Kansas and Villanova with two.

Bottom line: Only UCLA (11), Kentucky (8) and North Carolina (6) have more national titles than Connecticut, now tied with Duke and Indiana at five. UCLA won 10 of its titles from 1964 through 1975. Kentucky won four of its titles from 1948 through 1958. North Carolina won its first title in 1957, its second in 1982.

Connecticut has won titles under three coaches. Jim Calhoun laid the foundation by winning three championships — 1999, 2004 and 2011. Kevin Ollie won the title in 2014. Now Danny Hurley in 2023.

Led by Kemba Walker, Calhoun’s 2011 team beat Calipari and Kentucky 56-55 in the Final Four. Ollie’s 2014 team beat Calipari and Kentucky 60-54 in the national championship game. The Huskies were a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament that year. Kentucky was a No. 8 seed.

Overall against Kentucky, Connecticut is 4-1 with an NCAA Tournament win in 2005-06, two wins in 2010-11 and that 2013-14 title game victory. UK’s only win was on Dec. 9, 2009, at Madison Square Garden.

And Connecticut has won titles in four decades — 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and now 2020s.

Get this: Connecticut won this particular title despite having the 77th-best recruiting class in 2022, according to 247Sports. The Huskies signed just one freshman in 7-foot-1 center Donovan Clingan from Bristol, Conn.

Ah, but Hurley also signed three transfers in 6-5 guard Tristen Newton from Seton Hall, 6-3 guard Nahiem Alleyne from Virginia Tech and 6-2 guard Hassan Diarra from Texas A&M.

Newton scored 19 points with 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals on Monday night. Alleyne scored six points with three rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.

UConn center Adama Sanogo was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. The 6-foot-9 junior from Mali scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against San Diego State after going for 21 and 10 against Miami in the national semifinals on Saturday. A four-star prospect coming out of The Patrick School in New Jersey, Sanogo was rated as the nation’s 85th-best prospect back in 2021.

Andre Jackson was the 53rd-ranked player in the class of 2020. Jordan Hawkins was the 51st-ranked player in the class of 2021. Alex Karaban was ranked 118th in that class. He redshirted last season.

As a group, they left no doubt as to this tournament’s best team. Connecticut defeated Iona by 24, Saint Mary’s by 15, Arkansas by 23, Gonzaga by 28, Miami by 13 and San Diego State by 17. Arkansas had knocked off No. 1 seed Kansas. Miami had beaten No. 1 seed Houston. San Diego State had beaten the tourney’s No. 1 overall seed in Alabama.

After Monday night’s game, Hurley told the media that last season the Huskies had removed the trophies from the previous four national titles.

“We got them out of our offices and said we don’t want any trophies in here until we’ve got our own,” Hurley said. “When you’re at a place like that it’s a little bit empty until you feel like you can join the club. I feel like now we’ve held up our end of the bargain.”

Did they ever. Welcome to the club.

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