RAY’S MOMENTS
Prolific 3-Point Shooter Began Ascent In Storrs
The Courant's Chris Brodeur offers 10 defining moments that helped Ray Allen toward Hall of Fame.
Before “He Got Game,” he had to get to class. Ray Allen would become the most prolific 3-point shooter in NBA history, but the seeds of his stardom were planted in Storrs, where he walked among adoring classmates — with basketball in tow for a stretch during his freshman year — as the hopes of a campus rested on his shoulders.
Hours after his Hall of Fame enshrinement in Springfield, here’s a look back at 10 of the defining moments from Allen’s UConn career (in no particular order):
Awkward Shot For Big East Title
Allen earned a reputation for possessing one of the most aesthetically pleasing jump shots ever, but this was strictly function over form. As the clock ticked down on a classic Big East title game in 1996 between the Huskies and rival Georgetown, Allen curled around a screen, took a hand-off from Ricky Moore and darted into the paint, where he launched an off-balance, herky-jerky, double-clutch runner, scissor-kicking through the air as the ball bounded off the front of the rim and through the net.
Somehow the shot fell. Somehow Allen Iverson’s fadeaway — and the ensuing pointblank putback — did not. And the Huskies won their second Big East championship on the strength of Allen’s only made field goal of the second half. He finished with 17 points on 5-for-20 shooting.
Career Game Against Champs
With a trip to the 1995 Final Four on the line, the Huskies squared off with eventual national champion UCLA — and Allen, a sophomore, was the best player on the floor. He poured in what was then a career-high 36 points as the Huskies fell 102-96 in a West Regional final played at the Oakland Coliseum before a decidedly pro-Bruins crowd. Allen cemented himself as an NBA prospect, burying buckets from all over the floor as the Bruins littered his path with defenders.
“Ray was awesome, man,” UCLA guard Cameron Dollar said. “I’m known as a pretty good defensive player. And I did strip him of the ball in the second half, and we got a dunk. But I was in his face, and we had other guys in his face. He scored coming off screens. He scored shooting off-balance.
“Man, I’m glad we don’t have to play him again.”
Raining 3s On Rutgers
In what still stands as the greatest shooting performance in the history of Gampel Pavilion, Allen lit up the Scarlet Knights on Feb. 28, 1996, posting career bests in points (39) and 3pointers (nine) that also registered as records for the venue. Playing there for what would be the final time, Allen was, surprisingly, afforded many open looks by the Rutgers zone, fueling a UConn comeback.
“Ray Allen is a superstar player who is destined for great things,” Rutgers coach Bob Wenzel said. “He made some incredible shots and just carried them.’’
A Star Is Born Vs. UHart
There were doubts about who would step up and take the torch from All-American forward Donyell Marshall as UConn’s top scoring option, but by the second half of his freshman season — a year in which he started carrying a basketball under his arm as he completed non-basketball tasks — Allen was flashing glimpses of his greatness. The superstitious basketball toting started amid a stretch in which Allen set a then-freshman record with 28 points against the University of Hartford in January of 1994.
Exorcising Some Demons
Duke was one of UConn’s biggest tormentors prior to the Huskies’ 77-74 triumph over the Blue Devils in their epic clash in the 1999 national championship game. In November 1994, with Jim Calhoun’s team still seeking a breakthrough Final Four berth and the memory of Christian Laettner’s heartbreaking buzzerbeater still fresh, the teams met in the Great Eight in Auburn Hills, Mich. The 16th-ranked Huskies — led by Allen’s 26 points and Kevin Ollie’s 24 — issued a statement, upsetting No. 6 Duke, 90-86.
“This definitely is a confidence booster,” UConn center Travis Knight said. “We know if we can do it against Duke, we can do it against anybody.”
Bouncing Back Against Miami
Allen and the fourth-ranked Huskies had been humbled by No. 3 Kansas 88-59 just days earlier in January of 1995, so the friendly confines of the building then known as the Civic Center were a welcome sight. As were all the open looks Allen got against Miami.
“I could sit there [open] for at least five seconds every time I got the ball,” said Allen, who set a then-school record with eight 3s in the Huskies’ 82-57 win. “I was surprised to be that open. Their guards weren’t doing a good job of rotating out on me. ... But I had no complaints.”
Allen Vs. Allen, Round 1
Sometimes it’s the losses that leave an indelible mark, and in the case of the Huskies’ first meeting with Iverson and the Hoyas in February of 1996, it was the only blemish in an otherwise perfect Big East campaign (17-1). Comparisons between Allen and the scrappy Iverson were natural, as the two guards both appeared headed for NBA rosters and were vying for the same collegiate hardware, but their first meeting was a one-sided affair. Allen struggled to find his stroke, while Iverson scored 26 points and collected eight steals as the Hoyas trounced the Huskies, 77-65. But it only made the Huskies’ vengeance a month later that much sweeter.
National Recognition
The word was out by the start of the 1996 season: The Huskies were a force, and Allen was a star. He became the first player in program history to earn a preseason All-America nod, receiving the third-most votes among a group that also included former Hartford Public star Marcus Camby of rival UMass.
“When Ray came back [for his junior season], he said he felt there were some things that were left undone,” Calhoun said. “This is the kind of thing he was talking about.
“In some ways, this is documentation that he has achieved the most in two years of any player we’ve ever had.”
The documentation was warranted, as Allen — who averaged 23.4 points as a junior, making over 46 percent of his 3-point attempts — would become the first two-time All-American in program history.
Paving Way For NBA Pipeline
UConn had produced first-round NBA talent under Calhoun’s guidance prior to Allen, but his early departure in 1996 — and subsequent lottery selection, at No. 5 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves (a pick traded almost immediately to the Milwaukee Bucks) — established the school as a pro hoops factory. Over the next decade, 10 players would follow in Allen’s footsteps as lottery picks.
A Witness To History
Allen was among the many UConn greats who never got to play in a Final Four, but he was in the house in St. Petersburg, Fla., when the Huskies finally cut down the nets in 1999, shocking Duke and serving notice that the program Calhoun built and Allen helped elevate was now a national power.