The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
This pair of numbers adds up to greatness
STORRS — She wore No. 50 because of David Robinson. He wore No. 34 because of Charles Barkley.
Ray Allen says he looks forward to getting closer to Dan Hurley. Rebecca Lobo couldn’t get much closer to Geno Auriemma.
As the video board brightened Gampel Pavilion at halftime of the UConn women’s 83-61 victory over Houston, there was Lobo in her crowning moments as a national champion and, later, her 2017 induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. There was Lobo that night in Springfield, telling Auriemma that he was the reason she was there.
“She’s right,” Auriemma, the forever rapscallion, told the sellout crowd Saturday before turning to Lobo and turning dead serious. “And I’m here because of you.”
To a standing ovation they pulled the black curtain away from Lobo’s No. 50 — with far greater ease than they had pregame with Napheesa Collier’s and Katie Lou Samuelson’s numbers on the Wall of Honor.
Lobo doesn’t remember the first time she met Allen, but it was fitting that both of their memories went directly to an April day in 1995. For in perfection, there must first be the relentless pursuit of perfection. Dur-
ing a weekend when Lobo and Allen become the first Huskies to have their numbers retired and UConn would hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a top-shelf Hall of Champions within the Werth Family Center, yes, it was especially fitting.
Lobo talked about how the women ate with the men at McMahon Dining Hall and how she’d watch Ray and Kirk King go at it in dunk contests.
“But my most vivid memory of Ray was when we returned after winning the national championship,” Lobo said. “We got back here and Gampel was full. Ray was the one men’s player who was here, in the back to greet us and congratulate us. That’s who Ray always has been. He always was a supporter of our team and the women. It meant a lot to all of us.”
They were contemporaries during a most special time in UConn history. The women found their first perfect season in 1995. Allen, with a maniacal obsession, never stopped chasing perfection. He would find a Big East title with his legendary shot against Georgetown and later, he would find NBA championships in Boston and Miami. In 2018, he would find his place, too, in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
An hour after Kobe Bryant and his daughter stood and cheered Lobo, here was another of the game’s deadliest shooters one building away. Allen insisted, just as Lobo had, that the other getting their number retired made this weekend more special, more exciting. His number will be retired Sunday in the game against USF.
Allen couldn’t quite recall if he was getting treatment or in study hall when the women returned from Minneapolis to a state’s fanfare, but he remembers one thing.
“I made sure I had to see it,” Allen said. “It’s one of those things you want to be a part of. I marveled at their greatness. To this day, I always make sure people know that Geno Auriemma probably is the greatest coach in the history of basketball. That’s not with a label (of greatest women’s coach). It’s just greatest coach.
“We discuss this all the time. There are a lot of great teams in the NBA, but do they bring it every single night? Geno has a huge task every single night. Rebecca is at the forefront of the greatness that started here.”
The sight of Allen draining 3s, the sounds of the fans going crazy. Yes, senses at Gampel were filled. For Lobo, it is the scent of the adjacent swimming pool that means a special place in her heart. Yes, the chloramines.
“The women didn’t start playing in the XL Center until ’96,” Lobo said. “Everything we did we did in this building. Ask basketball players. Certain places you spend a lot of time, there are certain things that bring you back. Nothing does it like a smell. Because of the natatorium, this place smells different than any other arena. You come in and (think), ‘Yeah, this is home.’ ”
Lobo has no idea what number she wore before high school. That’s a foreign concept to kids now.
“When I got to (Southwick-Tolland) high school, my coach Jim Vincent said, ‘I ordered this uniform extra-long. It’s yours.’ It was 31.”
When Lobo arrived at Storrs, Wendy Davis had 31.
“I was a huge David Robinson fan,” Lobo said. “Larry Bird, too, but Meghan Pattyson was 33. David Robinson wore No. 50. So I wore No. 50. And that’s what I was the rest of my career. Kara Wolters (no UConn player has worn No. 52 since she played either) and I say if you chose a number in the 50s, you’re safe. Nobody is going to wear it anyway.”
Allen was 15 when he started wearing No. 34. He was coming out of middle school. He had been wearing No. 20.
“The high school coach said, ‘20 was too soft. You need a more aggressive number,’ ” Allen said. “At the time as a kid I didn’t know anything about numbers or have an affinity toward any one individual. Charles Barkley was the guy kind of running roughshod over the NBA. The Round Mound of Rebound.
“I never told Charles that, but he’s the reason.”
Allen wore No. 34 in Milwaukee and Seattle. Paul Pierce had 34 in Boston, so Allen went back to No. 20. Nah, 20 wasn’t soft after all. The real mental toughness came from things like making sure you were up and ate breakfast at McMahon between 7 and 8 a.m. If you didn’t, you ran Cemetery Hill or were in Jim Calhoun’s doghouse.
“I know (Calhoun) is not going to wake me up at 7 in the morning now, but that still lives inside me,” Allen said. “I played alongside a lot of players in the NBA that don’t have those fundamentals, disciplines instilled in them.”
Lobo finds it fascinating that the women who approach her now are her age.
“It used to be ‘My grandmother is a big fan,’ then it was ‘My mother is a big fan,’ ” Lobo said. “Now it’s ‘I was a big fan when I was a kid.’ That’s cool. I see how my kids look at people. A couple of years ago my oldest daughter was at a UConn game and Breanna Stewart was her hero. When Breanna was running through the tunnel after the game, she gave my daughter five. I see what a big deal that is to kids.”
Lobo coaches five youth teams these days. She had two playoff games Friday night.
“They were almost as exciting to me as what’s happening today,” she said. “It’s a little absurd. I say to the other coaches, ‘I started thinking about this game at one in the afternoon. My stomach is in knots.’ That’s not normal, but that’s life as a parent/coach. I love it.”
Allen talked about riding around campus, knowing the dorms like the back of hand, knowing every crevice. He said it’s almost like seeing ghosts from the past walking around. He also watched UConn’s flat second-half start before battling like crazy in the loss to Cincinnati last weekend. He texted Hurley that “we’ve just got to get them to understand what ‘40 Minutes Hard’ is.’ Calhoun, Allen said, used to say that in his Boston accent. He hasn’t talked to Hurley as much as he would like, but it’s going to pick up in the coming months.
The pursuit of perfection does not die easily. It must be passed on. And its numbers must be hung on arena walls.