The UConn men’s basketball team may come to Connecticut to play basketball, but did they ever think they’d get so much practice with parades, too?
“No I did not,” redshirt sophomore Alex Karaban said. “I knew when I committed to UConn I would be a part of at least one, but not parades that are back-to-back.”
Much like the Huskies in March Madness, the victory parade just keeps on rolling.
“Why would you sleep when you’re this happy?” head coach Dan Hurley said.
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“It was special just to see all those Husky fans one of the last times,” Bristol native and two-time national champion Donovan Clingan said. “This place, this place has my heart.”
One of the last times for the Connecticut Kid. Clingan will wear a NBA uniform next year, but this Saturday and every day, he’ll always be a Husky.
“It was a hard decision for me,” Clingan said. “I love UConn so I really wanted to come back and experience winning again. You know, you won two titles, how do you not want to go and win a third?”
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But that's a question for the carpenter, now. Hurley has already built two title teams, why not another?
“I said this last year, we don't have to be as good next year as we were this year to compete for the biggest championships,” Hurley said. “The way that we're going to work for it is going to be the same as we have the last two years.”
One thing is for certain, where he’ll be working for it won’t be anywhere near Kentucky. It'll be right here, in Connecticut.
“Maybe down the road you hope you can mature emotionally, much later in my career, to try to take a shot in the NBA, but down the road, way down the road,” Hurley said when asked what the last week has been like with the head coaching position open in Kentucky. “But I'm not going to coach anywhere else in college.”