It's a Family Thing: Members of 1999 Huskies on Current State of the Team

Other than the name on the front of the jerseys, there aren’t many similarities between the 1999 national champion UConn men’s basketball team and the 2019 group that sits a game below .500 with four remaining in the regular season.

“It’s a weird thing because we’re not in a great conference,” Jake Voskuhl, the beloved starting center and screen-setting extraordinaire from the 1999 team, said. “College football ruined the Big East. That is what it is. But everyone thought we would just dominate the conference and that hasn’t been the case.”

Like the others, he spoke glowingly about his teammates and was eager to rehash his college memories. But he also shared his frustration with UConn’s current status in the purgatory of the American Athletic Conference.

The ’99 team was honored at halftime of the ’19 team’s 64-60 loss on Sunday to Cincinnati, letting fans relive March 29, 1999: perhaps the greatest night in the history of Connecticut sports.

Richard Hamilton walked onto the court holding the championship trophy. Khalid El-Amin participated in a t-shirt giveaway during a timeout (he did not jump on the scorer’s table). Jim Calhoun briefly spoke to the crowd. And One Shining Moment — the Teddy Pendergrass version that CBS used back then — played on the jumbotron.

Then the current team came back onto the court, promptly fell behind by double digits, and staged a valiant comeback only to fall short, which has been its MO this season.

But during the halftime ceremony, Calhoun made one point to the 11,904 fans in attendance:

“We are Huskies forever.”

That was the prevailing sentiment — through everything that’s changed, from coaches to conferences, the players still come back, and they still care. If nothing else, that’s what the core of the title team wanted fans to know.

Voskuhl went on to say that Dan Hurley deserves the benefit of the doubt and that he should only be judged once he has had a chance to recruit his own team.

“If they still suck in three to four years, that’s on him,” Voskuhl added.

Even if they can’t watch every game, the ’99 team made it clear that it is invested in the progress of the rebuilding program.

Kevin Freeman, one of Calhoun’s favorite players, urged the team to keep fighting. Freeman was also the director of basketball administration at UConn last season, so he, perhaps, knows more about the steps forward this team has taken from last year to this year.

And even though Freeman left amid the turmoil that was the end of Kevin Ollie’s tenure, it’s clear that the current team still has his support. It’s the family thing: a sentiment that El-Amin echoed.

El-Amin thought back to that 1999 season and how Calhoun kept reminding the team that it was playing for more than just each other and the fanbase. It was playing for the Huskies who came before them — the greats who helped put the program on the map but couldn’t carry it to a Final Four. He views the current team as another part of that legacy.

“I just respect the guys for sticking through the tough times and we are here to support them,” he said. “It’s not that we’re doubting them or that we’re upset. No. It’s part of nature. And we’re going to be back. It’s a no-brainer for me.”

Calhoun brought his own brand of humor to it, thinking back to his first year at UConn when the Huskies went just 9-19.

“He’s three or four ahead of that already and that’s a good thing,” Calhoun said of Hurley’s first season. “Like anything else, you gotta believe you’ll do it and you gotta go out and do it. It’s that simple.”

Make no mistake, there are few similarities between the 1999 and 2019 teams. There’s no Voskuhl comp. There’s no lottery pick on this team, a la Hamilton. Expectations need to be managed, and while the Final Four is not a realistic aspiration this year, a postseason bid is still reasonable and would be a good start to the Dan Hurley Era while fans wait for him to bring in his own players. It’s not a team that will be celebrated at halftime of a game in 2039, but depending on how it finishes, it could have an impact on 2020, 2021, and beyond.

“Just keep fighting,” Freeman said. “You just want to turn that key to the ignition right at the end of the season and get it going uphill.”

Please consider supporting Storrs Central's mission of dedicated, high-quality coverage of UConn athletics by joining the membership, available now for 50% OFF!