UConn: From the Florida Marlins of College Basketball to a Dominant Power
After winning the NCAA Basketball Championship in 2023 despite having the fourth-best conference record in the Big East, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies could be thought of as the Florida Marlins of college basketball. From 2009 to 2023, UConn made just three Sweet Sixteen appearances and did not win any Big East regular season titles, yet won three National Championships (2011, 2014, 2023).
The narrative changed the following season. For the first time in seventeen years, UConn won the Big East regular season title. They then made it to the Sweet Sixteen. And like the previous three times they won the Sweet Sixteen, they won the national championship. (It's quite remarkable that since 2010, UConn has a 16-0 record after the second round of the tournament!) In their back-to-back championship runs (12 games total), UConn won every game by at least thirteen points. With such a dominant performance, they left little doubt that their championships were not a "fluke".
Interestingly, UConn's historic run ended against a team from the same state as the Marlins. The Florida Gators defeated UConn in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Basketball Tournament.