There have been notable teams before and after his tenure as head coach, but the through line of glory for the UConn men’s basketball program is Jim Calhoun.
He coached the Huskies from 1986 through 2012, missed the NCAA Tournament only five times, won the program’s first three national titles, and coached most of the school’s greatest players.
On any all-time UConn team, Calhoun would be the easy pick for head coach.
Picking an all-time starting five is a more interesting experiment.
Here’s our shot at doing so...
Point guard: Kemba Walker (2008-11)
In the one-and-done era, Walker was a Huskie for three years, drastically improving his scoring every year from 8.9 points per game as a freshman to 23.5 as a junior.
What immortalizes Walker is his run through the Big East and NCAA Tournament in 2011, in which he led UConn to 11 straight wins and the program’s third title. He averaged 24.6 points over that stretch, won the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award, and made his iconic crossover shot to beat Pitt in the Big East Tournament.
Honorable mentions:
● Shabazz Napier: A four-year player who started and finished his career with a national title, taking home Most Outstanding Player honors in 2014. He also holds the school record for games played at 143.
● Chris Smith: UConn’s all-time leading scorer who helped UConn reach the Elite Eight in 1990.
Shooting guard: Richard Hamilton (1996-99)
Though Ray Allen went on to have the better pro career, Hamilton’s claim to UConn history is unique to himself: He was the best player on the Huskies’ first-ever national championship team (Hamilton and Allen also both played three years and nearly the same amount of games, with Hamilton finishing with more college points).
Hamilton won Most Outstanding Player at the 1999 NCAA Tournament, scoring 27 points in a three-point win over Duke in the Championship Game.
Honorable mentions:
● Ray Allen: The only UConn player in the Basketball Hall of Fame, Allen averaged 19 points over three seasons and 101 games with the Huskies.
● Ben Gordon: Averaged 18.5 points on 43.3 percent shooting from deep for the 2004 National Champions. In the title game against Georgia Tech, he scored 21 points.
● Wes Bialosuknia: Owns the career scoring average record for UConn at 23.6 points per game over 71 games.
Small forward: Donyell Marshall (1991-94)
Marshall was a combo forward who, as an unusually skilled three-point shooter at 6-foot-9, was a few decades ahead of his time. His 1993-94 season, where he averaged 25.1 points per game, is the third highest single-season mark in school history. The Huskies went 29-5 that year and entered the NCAA Tournament as a two-seed, eventually losing in the Sweet Sixteen.
Honorable mention:
● Caron Butler: Spent only two years at UConn but averaged 20.3 points in his second as the best player on a team that reached the Elite Eight .
● Jeremy Lamb: Was the second leading scorer on the 2011 title team and averaged 17.7 the next year before heading to the NBA.
Power forward: Clifford Robinson (1985-89)
Robinson, who passed away at 53 this past August, was one of the first big-time athletes during the Jim Calhoun era and helped turn the Huskies into a consistent national powerhouse.
His scoring average jumped from 5.6 as a freshman in 1986 all the way to 20 in 1989. Though never an NCAA Tournament champ, he led the Huskies to a National Invitation Tournament title in 1988, the team’s first non-conference postseason title. He also went on to play 1,380 games in the NBA, 14th most all-time.
"He had a lot to do with the great success we've had. I hope everybody realizes the contributions that he and the others from that era made to our program," said Calhoun in a statement when Robinson died.
Honorable mention:
● Corny Thompson: Led the Huskies to the NCAA Tournament as a freshman in 1979, averaging 18.6 points and 10 rebounds per game over the course of that season.
Center: Emeka Okafor (2001-04)
Okafor’s superlative 2004 is what makes him one of the great Huskies of all-time. In the span of only a few months, he led UConn to its second national championship, was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and was drafted No. 2 overall in the NBA Draft. (Teammate Ben Gordon went right behind him at No. 3.)
During that 2003-04 season, he averaged 17.6 points and 11.5 rebounds and saved one of his best games for the national title game against Georgia Tech, where he scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in 38 minutes.
Honorable mention:
● Hasheem Thabeet: Averaged a double-double as a junior and impressed enough NBA scouts to be taken second overall in the 2009 NBA Draft.
● Toby Kimball: An early UConn star who played from 1963 through 1965 and averaged 18.4 points and 17.9 rebounds over 74 games with the Huskies.