The 1990's were a decade of firsts for the University of Connecticut men's basketball program, beginning in 1990 with its first Big East title and concluding in 1999 with its first NCAA championship. The road to the title was led by Richard (Rip) Hamilton, a scorer who was without peer over a sterling three year career in Storrs.

Hamilton was a 6-7 combo guard/forward out of Coatesville HS west of Philadelphia, where he would have been considered the state's top recruit, if not for the fact that Lower Merion HS had a combo forward that same year named Kobe Bryant. Both ended up as national All-Americans, but while Bryant made the decision to go straight to the NBA, Hamilton opted for Connecticut, joining a talented squad under Jim Calhoun which won the 1996 conference championship and advanced to the round of 16 that season.

One of six freshman on the 1996-97 squad, Freeman and the Huskies were in full rebuilding mode, with six of its top nine scorers gone from the 1995-96 team, including top scorers Ray Allen and Doron Sheffer. Hamilton became the unquestioned leader of the young team, leading the team with a 15.9 points per game average and coming up big in a number of games, including 21 versus #1 Kansas, 23 at Seton Hall, and 26 at Boston College. Despite the strong play, The Huskies went from first to worst in 1996-97, finishing last in the "Big East 6" division and a first round out in the Big East tournament, but caught a break when the NIT opted to take the 14-14 Huskies in their 1997 tournament, one which became a showcase for the young freshman. Hamilton scored 26 versus Bradley, 31 versus Nebraska, and 26 against Florida State as UConn advanced to the NIT semifinals. It was a brief sojourn for Calhoun and the NIT, as the Huskies would go on to earn 12 NCAA bids over the next 13 seasons.

With the arrival of freshman Khalid El-Amin and the emergence of sophomore Kevin Freeman, the Huskies were back to form in 1997-98, with Hamilton earning Big East Player of the Year honors, averaging 21.5 points per game. Big games included 33 versus Virginia, 35 versus Fairfield, and 38 at Boston College, and 31 against Pittsburgh, where the Huskies won the 1998 Big East title with a 69-64 win over Syracuse, taking a 29-4 record into the NCAA's. Hamilton scored 53 in two games versus Fairleigh Dickinson and Indiana, but came up big when it counted with a put back jumper at the buzzer to escape past Washington, 75-74. At the brink of the school's first Final Four appearance, Hamilton was held to 15 points as North Carolina advanced, 75-64, in the friendly confines of the Greensboro Coliseum, a mere 40 minutes from the UNC campus.

With NBA opportunities in close range, Hamilton considered leaving UConn that spring, The story is told that Hamilton met with the assistant coaches and informed them he was leaving, then made a final stop to Calhoun's office to give him the news. A few minutes later, Hamilton was telling anyone who would listen that it was time to win a national championship.

Of all the great Connecticut teams in the history of the conference, the 1998-99 may have been the best. The Huskies started the season 19-0 and were ranked #1 for two months. Hamilton continued to rise up the ranks of UConn's all-time greats, scoring 39 against Boston College, 30 against West Virginia, and 31 against Miami. The Huskies lost just two games all season, at #6 Syracuse and at #15 Miami. Following a narrow 57-56 win over Seton Hall in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament, the Huskies won its next two games by an average of 20 points, as Hamilton, a two time Big East Player of the Year, led the Huskies to back to back titles, the first since Georgetown's 1984 and 1985 title teams to do so.

The Huskies had reached the regionals in each of its last four NCAA appearances but could not make the move to the Final Four. Hamilton carried the day in 1999. Hamilton averaged 23.5 points in four games to earn UConn the regional title, with 21 points in a big win over Gonzaga in the regional final when the Huskies were an unsightly 0 for 9 from three point range in the game. He scored 24 as UConn edged past Ohio State in the semifinal, setting up a showdown with 37-1 Duke in the final.

Despite its 33-2 mark, UConn was a considerable underdog, with Duke installed as double digit favorites.

"There was a story about [the title game being dubbed] the "Duke Invitational" on the news and it just came across the screen.... It got everybody riled up," UConn forward Kevin Freeman told ESPN.com. "To us, it was an insult because we felt like we were the better team. We had been battle-tested. For us, it was a sign of disrespect ... it woke us up."

Four Duke starters from that team would be selected in the top 14 of the upcoming NBA draft, including #1 pick Elton Brand. None of them, however, had an answer for Hamilton, who scored 27 in the game and was named the tournament's most outstanding player in Connecticut's 77-74 win, defeating one of Duke's greatest teams.



"It was awesome, but the best part was getting back to campus," Freeman recalled. "Roads were shut down. Highways were shut down. Police escorts. And then Richard Hamilton being my roommate, I had to suffer. We had a police escort outside our dorm room. We couldn't go outside. It was pandemonium on campus, but it's something I'll always remember."

Richard Hamilton left UConn after his junior season as the school's second all time leading scorer, a mark he holds to this day. The seventh selection of the 1999 NBA Draft, Hamilton averaged 17.1 points a game over 11 NBA seasons, appearing in three NBA All-Star games. In 2017, the Detroit Pistons retired his #32 jersey.

"Moving without the ball became a Hamilton trademark," wrote UConn's Phil Chardis. "He was constantly in motion. Defenders who drew the Hamilton assignment knew they were in for a long night of running. Eventually, he was going to slip away. Inevitably, that was the moment he was going to be open for that deadly mid range jumper. He made a championship career out of it: an NCAA championship career and an NBA championship career [with the Pistons]."