Following the 102-75 victory over the University of Rhode Island, the UConn men’s basketball team continued its back-to-back national championship tour later in the week with a Ring Ceremony on Thursday night and the annual First Night pep rally the following night, both being held at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn.
For the first time, the Ring Ceremony was open to the public, with NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla Burton emceeing the event. CBS Sports’ Bill Raftery spoke at the event last year but did not return this year.
The past five national championships were honored. Assistant coach Tom Moore represented the 1998-99 team, Final Four Most Outstanding Player Emeka Okafor represented the 2003-04 team, former UConn starting guard Jeremy Lamb represented the 2010-11 team, former UConn guard Terrence Samuel represented the 2013-14 team and South Bay Lakers guard Joey Calcaterra represented the 2022-23 team. Lamb also attended First Night the following night.
“It’s just good to share a night with [the team] and to have some of the former players: for Emeka [Okafor] to be around for a couple of days and Jeremy Lamb and [Terrence Samuel] and obviously Joey [Calcaterra], it was a cool thing,” Hurley said.
There were also panels. Those included players on the last two national championship teams, a one-on-one interview with head coach Dan Hurley and a panel with players returning from last season’s team.
The 2024 national championship ring included: six stones to represent the six national titles, the Big East trophies to represent sweeping the conference titles (regular season and tournament) and the New York City skyline to pay homage to “Storrs South,” which is the home of the Big East Tournament. They also included the 21 Big East wins the team had throughout the regular and postseason. On the inside of the ring, the NCAA Tournament scores were listed, highlighting the incredible margin of victory in each game. The side opposite the Big East trophies included the 2024 national championship logo, along with the team’s historic overall record of 37-3. “BK – BOS – PHX” were engraved to represent the cities last season’s team played in during the NCAA Tournament, with the abbreviations representing Brooklyn, Boston and Phoenix.
Jostens, the company responsible for the ring, made the first-ever back-to-back ring.
“These rings not only celebrate their dominance on the court, but also embody the legacy of excellence, resilience and teamwork that UConn Basketball is known for,” Chris Poitras, the senior vice president and general manager of Jostens Professional and College Sports Division said in a press release posted to GlobeNewswire.
The ring opens at the top with the back-to-back logo. Underneath the top of the ring are the mottos of the last two seasons: “We Season” and “Everything” for 2023 and 2024, respectively. The circle of initials not only represented those who were part of both national championship teams, but it was in the form of a circle to represent the tradition of standing in a circle together at the end of every practice.
On the outside of the ring, the first thing you will notice is the throwback wordmark of “Connecticut.” Both national championship games included the Huskies sporting their throwback uniforms. Behind those are two NCAA trophies to represent both national titles. At the bottom of each trophy are three small stones for six total, representing how many national championships the Huskies have won. There is a 26-stone border surrounding the trophies and the wordmark to represent the 18 Big East regular season and eight Big East Tournament titles. The end of the front of the ring includes “Back 2 Back” and “Champions” on the top and bottom of the side respectively, surrounded by 16 white stones to symbolize the 16-0 record at home during the 2023-24 season.
One side of the ring shows the 2024 Final Four logo with the national championship score, along with the Final Four location, Houston, engraved at the top of the side of the ring. The other side emulates the same but for the 2024 national championship game.
The following night was First Night at Gampel Pavilion, a pep rally for the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The event lasted just under an hour and was available to watch on WFSB (Channel 3) and UConn+. During the introductions, Hurley came out to “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen. He walked out to midcourt and slapped the logo.
“It’s a unique opportunity in men’s and women’s basketball to have one of the best basketball organizations in the world,” Hurley said, claiming that the programs are some of the best in basketball regardless of level.
Following the introductions of the blue and white teams for First Night, both teams competed in a three-point contest. Each team had one men’s and one women’s basketball player.
Allie Ziebell and Jayden Ross won the three-point contest with 17 of 24 shots made. Ziebell, a sharpshooter for the women’s team, nearly went perfect in her first round of the threepoint contest.
Freshman star Liam McNeeley, known as a three-point shooting threat, was not involved much. Hurley told the media before the event that McNeeley has a lower calf strain, which flared up on Thursday midway through practice.
“We’re hopeful that he’ll be all right,” Hurley noted. “Maybe a two-week type of a thing.”
The scrimmage replaced the dunk contest and was split into four quarters, with the men playing the second and fourth quarters and the women playing the first and third quarters. It was an NBA All-Star game type of scrimmage, with rarely any defense being played and players showing off their range and athleticism. There was no box score available, but the white team won the scrimmage, 31-30.
Following the media availability, Hurley exclaimed “We’re back!” With 16 days (about two and a half weeks) until the season opener against Sacred Heart University and Big East Media Day on Wednesday, he is not wrong about basketball being back.