Why UConn Will Repeat As National Champions

Last season, UConn was the best team in the nation. This year, they'll do it again.

Two years ago, UConn's Era of Prosperity looked like it was wrapping up.

Just a year before, greatness had touched the program in the form of a six-overtime loss at the hands of Syracuse in the Big East Tournament and a run to the Final Four sparked by their undisciplined young rookie, Kemba Walker.

The Huskies were hit hard by the departure of seniors Jeff Adrien, Craig Austrie, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet's decision to enter the NBA after his junior year. The 2009-2010 team struggled mightily with consistency. Led by the enigmatic Stanley Robinson and Jerome Dyson, who could play like Patrick Ewing one night and Patrick Ewing, Jr. another, the Huskies fell off the map. Jim Calhoun was forced to take a month-long medical leave for a "serious" undisclosed issue in January, only to return to a brutally ineffective team.

Post-World Cup Blues: How Being A Spain Fan Changed A Yankee Fan's View On The Red Sox

Iker Casillas and Spain celebrate winning the World Cup.
C/O The Guardian

I’ve always been one to get emotionally involved with my sports teams: I was in middle school in 2001—only a few months after 9/11—when my beloved Yankees lost the World Series to the Diamondbacks. I wept for hours after Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single, and I was sullen for days. In 2003, Real Madrid was narrowly edged out of the Champions League by a probably-paying-the-ref-but-shh-I-don’t-wanna-lose-my-job Juventus; I cried like a baby.

But the fact is, I’ve been lucky with my favorite teams: since 1995, I’ve celebrated at least one championship in every sport except basketball, and gotten two in most of the other ones (Real Madrid, Spain, Packers, and the aforementioned evil Yankees). Maybe this luck, and the accompanying crushing weight of high expectations, is the reason I react so badly to watching my teams lose.

You wouldn’t expect someone with my track record—that’s a lot of winning teams, and no, I’m not apologizing—to feel any empathy for (dare I say it) Red Sox fans. Simply supporting a team that seems hell-bent on crushing your dreams—for me, pre-2010 Spain, for Sox fans, pre-2004)—doesn’t necessarily make you feel for anyone else in a similar plight. In fact, it comes with this circle-the-wagons, you-don’t-get-it-man mentality: no other fans can understand that feeling of inevitability that comes with watching your cursed team.

Tiger's Blood: Can He Regain Momentum?

Tiger Woods laughs it up with his new caddy, Joe LaCava.

Talk all you want about Rory McElroy. Keep telling yourself that golf is ushering in a new era. The talking heads continue their semi-hopeful babble about the bright new future of the sport. The fact remains: golf's best shot at regaining its former glory is for its fallen leader to reclaim the throne he vacated on a chilly November night in Orlando two years ago.

Tiger Woods has consistently been in the headlines for the last two years, even while injured. Out for the last two months due to a knee injury, Woods is set to make his much-anticipated return to the PGA Tour.

Biggest Punchlines In The NBA: Eddy Curry

The look on Eddy Curry's face says it all...no mas D'antoni.

Team: Last seen trying to sneak his way onto the 2011 playoffs-bound Miami Heat squad.

Summary: Eddy Curry has long been the poster-child for terrible, rotten contracts in the NBA. His career began with promise, but crashed within the span of a few years.

History: Even though he had signed a letter of intent to play at DePaul, Curry chose to forgo college and was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the fourth overall pick in 2001.
Curry plowed through four seasons with the Bulls, posting a strong field goal percentage and even leading the team in scoring in his fourth season. However, near the end of that season, Curry was hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat, missing the final 13 games of the regular season and the entirety of the playoffs. In October of that year, after refusing to submit to a team-mandated DNA test in relation to his heart condition, the Bulls traded Curry to New York. In the process, the Knicks signed him to one of the most contraversial contracts in NBA sports history: six years, $60 million, uninsured.

UConn Nabs Andre Drummond, Criticism Ensues

Andre Drummond is wildly talented, but the road ahead is filled with potholes.

On Friday, a single tweet launched defending national champion UConn Huskies men's basketball back into the upper echelon of preseason hype.

"It's official I'm heading to the university of connecticut to be a husky this year! Do I hear #repeat #huskyfam"

The verbal commitment of Andre Drummond, ESPNU's second-ranked recruit in the country, comes as a surprise to nearly everyone. The addition of the highly-touted, 6-foot-10 center will make for a scary-good UConn team with realistic expectations to repeat as champions in 2012.

Biggest Punchlines In the NBA: Adam Morrison

Where is Adam Morrison these days? Nobody knows.

Team: Last seen on the Washington Wizards' practice squad.
Summary: After a stellar junior season for Gonzaga, in which he averaged 28.1 ppg and shared national player of the year honors with friendly rival J.J. Redick of Duke, Morrison was selected third overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in the 2006 NBA Draft, behind Andrea Bargnani and LaMarcus Aldridge, but ahead of talents like Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay, and Rajon Rondo.

The first player picked in Michael Jordan's tenure with the team, Morrison started out on a high note, but eventually lost his starting spot in his rookie season, in part due to awful shooting from the floor (37%). After suffering a major knee injury in the 2007-2008 season, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in early 2009, where he rode the bench for two championship seasons. In 2011, he was released from the Wizards after training camp.

NBA Lockout: Greg Oden Will Benefit From Time Off The Court

The "Glass Man" still has All-Star caliber talent.

Day 53 of the NBA Lockout.

Enough cynicism. I, for one, am hopeful that the owners and players will reach an agreement by November. "Hopeful", note the word choice. If you checked out Bill Simmons' "chat" with David Stern on the B.S. Report podcast, you'd hop on the "hope" train too. A little optimism can't hurt. JFS is here to turn negatives to positives. Let's take a look at a particular player who stands to benefit from some time off the court.