Thursday, July 19, 2012

1999 College Basketball


1.       Richard Hamilton: Was the MOP of the Final Four. He was a consensus All-American.

He was the MVP of the West Region, and Big East and on the All Big East tournament team.

He finished his career with 2,036 points in three seasons, 2nd all-time in UConn history.

Rip was 2nd in Big East with 21.5 PPG. He led the conference in FGs, FTs and was 2nd in three-pointers made. He also averaged five rebounds per contest.

In the Big East Final against #10 St. Johns he scored 23 on 8-11 fgs (3-6 on 3s) had 7 rb, 4 ast, and 3 st.

He led all NCAA players with 145 points in the tournament (24.2 per game).

He had 24 and four assists in UConn’s sweet 16 win over #20 Iowa in 38 minutes.

He added 24 more in the Huskies Final Four win over #14 Ohio St.

Hamilton helped Connecticut to a historic upset over top ranked Duke in the NCAA final. Duke was a 9.5 point favorite, the largest in NCAA final.


Connecticut won their first national title 77-74 over Duke. They finished the season 34-2 16-2 in Big East #3 in polls. They were #1 several weeks during the season. They won back to back Big East tourney championships.

During the regular season he averaged 17.7 points, 10 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and shot 62% from the field in 39 games.

He averaged 19 points and 10 boards in ACC games as Duke went 16-0.

He had 22-8 vs the defending champion #8 Kentucky.

Brand had 24 and 13 on 9-11 fgs vs. #11 UNC in ACC final. He was named tourney MVP.

EB was first in the ACC in fts and fgs, 2nd in ppg, and rpg, 5th bpg.

His averages went to 19.3 ppg 10.3 rpg 64% fgs in six NCAA games.

In the Final Four #1-#2 matchup vs Michigan State, Duke escaped with a 68-82 win behind 18-15 from Brand who played just 29 minutes with foul trouble.

Brand put up 15 pts, 13 rbs, and 2 blks in the Final vs. #3 UConn. The Blue Devils would fall 77-74.

Duke tied a NCAA record with 37 wins, including 32 straight from December to March. They were 37-2, ACC regular season and tournament champions. They were #1 in polls.

The Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four by defeating their opponents by an average of 30 points.

3.       Wally Szczerbiak: Was 1st team All-American by the Sporting News and 2nd team by AP, NABC, and the U.S Basketball Writers.


He was third in the NCAA with 24.2 points per game, including 34 vs. #20 Tennessee in an upset win.

Wally was also 2nd in the MAC in rebounding (8.5), 3rd in FT% (83%), and 4th in field goal % (52%).

He played 37 minutes a game, and had 22 double-doubles.

In the first round of the NCAA tournament he lit up seven seed Washington for 43 (18-33, five 3s) and 12 rebounds. Miami (OH) would upset the Huskies 59-58.

He scored 73% of his teams points, an NCAA tourney record.

Wally’s World kept going against two seed and last year’s runner up Utah. Szczerbiak dropped 24 more and added 7 rb. and 5 ast.

Miami would win 66-58.

The Redhawks would eventually fall to reigning champ Kentucky 58-43 in the Sweet 16 despite 23 from Szczerbiak.

His 30 point per game was tops among all players in the tournament and landed him a spot on the a spot on the all Midwest region team.

Miami went 24-8 and were MAC regular season and tournament champions.

2 comments:

  1. Completely agreed. I remember, at the time, a lot of folks in Durham whining that Brand should've been PoY. But I always though Hamilton was better that year, and had more of an impact. Plus he won in the final.

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  2. That one game changed a lot for Hamilton... Brand was POY for the re. season

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