He was replaced by assistant George Wigton, who led them to the Elite Eight. Greer died of a heart attack in 1963, ten games into the 1962–63 season. In 1956, Greer led UConn to the Sweet 16, where they lost in a close game to Temple. Eventually, Holy Cross won the NIT title. In 1954, he famously led UConn to a 78–77 victory against undefeated Holy Cross breaking the Crusaders' 47-game home winning streak. Greer also led UConn to its first seven NCAA berths and one NIT appearance while compiling an overall head coaching record of 286–112. UConn won 12 Yankee Conference titles under Greer in 16 completed seasons, including ten consecutive titles from 1951 to 1960. Posting a record of 16–2, this was the best single season finish in school history to that point. Greer led Connecticut to a perfect 12–0 mark for the remainder of his first season. He was later named head coach of the Huskies six games into the 1946–47 season. The Hartford Courant dubbed him "Swisher Fisher".Īfter graduating from the Connecticut Agricultural College, former player Hugh Greer returned to his alma mater as a freshman coach. He was captain of the 1945 team, which was the first UConn team to play in Madison Square Garden. One of the first true stars from Connecticut was Hartford's Bernie Fisher. The team's first African American player was Harrison Fitch, who was controversially benched by coach John Heldman for a 1934 game against the US Coast Guard Academy. The college team won, and by 1903 basketball was a varsity sport. Men's basketball at UConn began in 1901 with a single game played by Connecticut Agricultural College against Windham High School in January of that year. ( May 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. The Huskies have participated in 6 NCAA Final Fours (tied for 10th all time) and appeared in the NCAA tournament 36 times. Numerous players have gone on to achieve professional success after their time at UConn, including Clifford Robinson, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Rudy Gay, Charlie Villanueva, Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, and Andre Drummond. The Huskies also have the most Big East regular season titles with ten and one American Athletic Conference tournament championship. The Huskies are second in Big East tournament championships with seven, trailing only Georgetown (8). The Huskies have won 5 NCAA tournament championships ( 1999, 2004, 2011, 20), which puts the program in a tie with Duke and Indiana for fourth-most all-time. They currently play in the Big East Conference and are coached by Dan Hurley. The UConn Huskies men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball team of the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |