by Leonard Kendall

Created on: July 13, 2009   Last Updated: July 14, 2009

Reading various articles and listening to various commentary has inspired me to add my two cents to the debate as to whether the 2008-2009 team is the best UConn team of all time; To which I respond resoundingly in the affirmative. The 2008-2009 team is the best women's college basketball team to date. The efforts of this team stand a very good chance of being surpassed by next year's team. Caroline Doty will return from knee surgery and Tiffany Hayes will step up as the next UConn All American having already set the freshman NCAA tournament scoring record and having a gold medal winning experience at the World University Games this summer.

There were a number of outstanding UConn teams that did not win a national championship due to horrific bad luck. The 2000-2001 team consisted of the 2001-2002 starting five along with first team All Americans Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova. However, injuries to Ralph and Abrosimova dimmed their national championship ambitions; Ambitions that might still have been realized of not for an awful 1 for 15 shooting performance by Diana Taurasi against Notre Dame. Every shot Taurasi took that night was a good one; they just did not fall. That game, however, made Diana Taurasi the player and the leader she would become in leading UConn to three straight national championships. She would also lead the consensus opinion as to who was UConn's all time greatest player.

That consensus is now up for serious debate. The 2007-2008 team that started the season was as good a team as UConn has ever put out on the floor. When they started Tina Charles, Charde Houston, Kalana Greene, Mel Thomas and Renee Montgomery, the bench featured the likes of Maya Moore, Ketia Swanier, Brittany Hunter, and Kaili McClaren. Season ending knee Injuries to Greene and Thomas thwarted this teams hopes; Hopes that might still have been realized if not for some poorly timed offensive and defensive lapses against Stanford. The 1996-1997 team was another outstanding team derailed by a psychologically devastating injury to Shea Ralph.

Much of the debate about the best UConn team of all time focuses on the three undefeated teams. Of the two against whom the 2008-2009 team will be compared only the 2001-2002 team merits any real consideration. The 1995 team was very good and is responsible for much of the juggernaut that UConn has become. But an outstanding Rebecca Lobo, a very good Kara Wolters, a very good and determined Jennifer Rizzotti, an undersized but

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