When you think of the 2004 national championship team, one of the first players that will come to mind is Ben Gordon.
Gordon is considered one of the greatest guards in UConn men’s basketball history. He spent three years in Storrs, leading the team to two Big East Tournament titles and a national championship from 2001 to 2004.
He made an impact from the moment he stepped foot on campus. Despite only starting two games his freshman year, Gordon ranked second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg) and earned a spot on the Big East All-Freshman Team.
“He came in with the reputation of being a sharpshooter, and that was certainly true,” said Joe D’Ambrosio, the former radio voice of UConn men’s basketball from 1992 to 2018. “But he became a better rebounder, he became a better playmaker.”
His most prominent moment in his first season with the Huskies came in the quarterfinal round of the 2002 Big East Tournament when Gordon hit the game-winning 3-pointer to beat Villanova. UConn ended up winning the Big East Tournament that year, with Gordon averaging 17.6 points per game in the three games won and was named to the Big East All-Tournament Team.
“I remember him having big games as a freshman,” UConn assistant coach Tom Moore said, who was on the coaching staff for all three years of Gordon’s career. “It seemed like Emeka [Okafor] took care of everything defensively at the rim and [Gordon] took care of anything offensively.”
Moore compared Gordon to Solo Ball, citing how both offenses were ahead of their defensive ability.
His sophomore year showed improvement, averaging 19.5 points per game to lead the team. He was named to the All-Big East Second Team because of his efforts.
“He was fairly confident as a freshman,” Moore said. “By the middle of [his] sophomore year and throughout his whole junior year, he was a killer offensively.”
According to Sports Reference, Gordon set the program record for usage percentage in a single season (27.8%). He is now sixth on the list, with Kemba Walker, Jerome Dyson, Jalen Adams (twice) and Adama Sanogo passing him.
His junior year showed how complete of a player he was at UConn.
He helped the Huskies win the Big East Tournament, earning MVP honors after setting the record for most points in a single Big East Tournament with 81, which passed Georgetown’s Allen Iverson’s 79 points scored during the 1996 event. That record was eventually broken by Walker, who scored 130 points in five games.
Moore recalled Gordon being given the challenge to increase his aggressiveness after “getting killed” in the rebounding margin in the Huskies’ regular-season finale at Syracuse.
“[Okafor] was dealing with the fracture in his back and didn’t play,” D’Ambrosio said, recalling the first two games of the 2004 Big East Tournament. “[Gordon] scored 58 points against Notre Dame and Villanova.”
That was not the only record set during his final season in Storrs. He set the program record for minutes played with 1,346. He would later be passed by Walker and Shabazz Napier.
Gordon averaged 18.5 points per game and led the Big East in 3-point percentage at 43.3%. He knocked down 104 3-pointers during the 2003-04 season, which was second only to Ray Allen’s 115 made in the 1995-96 season until Jordan Hawkins made 109 3-pointers during the 2022-23 season.
He scored 723 points during the season, which ranks sixth in program history behind Walker, Donyell Marshall, Allen and Rip Hamilton twice.
In the first four games of the 2004 NCAA Tournament, Gordon averaged 22 points per game. That included a 36-point performance against Alabama in the Elite Eight, widely regarded as his best game in a UConn uniform. Because of his NBA-level performances, he was named the Phoenix Regional Most Outstanding Player.
He helped the Huskies win the program’s second national championship, averaging 19.5 points per game in the final two games of the title run, which landed him on the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team.
Zooming out to his collegiate career, Gordon scored 1,795 points (seventh in program history) and holds the all-time program record for 3-pointers made per game (2.32).
He is considered one of the most effective offensive players in the program’s storied history. He finished his career with an effective field goal percentage of 53.1%, which ranks sixth in UConn history.
Gordon made 246 total 3-pointers in three seasons at UConn, which ranks fourth in the program’s history. Only Rashad Anderson, Christian Vital and Napier have made more. His career 3-point percentage (42.3%) is second only to Allen.
Gordon is known for being one of the best players in the clutch. Outside of big-time shots, he was able to keep his composure at the free-throw line, finishing with a percentage of 79.5% (seventh in program history).
“I certainly put him up in the stratosphere with Kemba, with Shabazz and with Rip and Khalid [El-Amin] as being great clutch players,” D’Ambrosio said.
After his time at UConn, Gordon was drafted No. 3 overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 2004 NBA Draft. After averaging 15.1 points per game, he became the first rookie to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award. He played 11 years in the league, spending time with the Bulls, Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Hornets and the Orlando Magic before his career ended in 2017. His clutch gene continued in the NBA and had since become a legend in Chicago.
UConn will honor Gordon by inducting him into the Huskies of Honor during the halftime of Friday night’s game against No. 12 St. John’s in Gampel Pavilion.