Special UConn Squad Still Dreaming After 30 Years

By Ken Davis

 STORRS – Smitty and The Microwave greeted each other with a firm hand clasp, followed by a man hug that symbolized their time as teammates on the UConn basketball team 30 years ago.

Smitty is Chris Smith, the all-time leading scorer at UConn. The Microwave is John Gwynn, that guy who came off the bench and provided instant offense for coach Jim Calhoun and the Huskies. They were guards on the 1989-90 Dream Season team and Sunday they returned to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of opening night at Gampel Pavilion.

It didn’t take long for that embrace to transform into laughter, the type of joy that leaves you doubled over trying to catch your breath.

“We used to practice three hours, a hard practice with Jim Calhoun,” Smith said. “And the next thing you know, right after practice, John was tapping my shoulder to go play one-on-one. I’m like, ‘John I’m beat. Calhoun just killed us.’ Every day.”

That’s when the lid came off the can of laughter.

“One-on-one,” Gwynn said, practically screaming with hysteria. “Every day. That’s how you get great.”

It was a great reunion. Joining Smith, Gwynn and Calhoun were assistant coach Howie Dickenman were Scott Burrell, Rod Sellers, Lyman DePriest, Murray Williams, Dan Cyrulik, Oliver Macklin and Marc Suhr. The players were introduced at halftime of UConn’s overtime victory over Cincinnati. It seemed Smith and Burrell got the biggest ovations. Suhr, the big German, hadn’t been seen by his teammates in 30 years.

The celebration of moving into Gampel was the reason for this get together. But no one could forget all the other great moments from that season, a mid-winter dream that transformed the program. Sure, Phil Gamble and Cliff Robinson led the Huskies to the 1988 NIT championship. But 1989-90 featured historic home wins over Syracuse and Georgetown in the regular season, the first Big East regular season championship, the unforgettable first Big East tournament championship, Tate George’s miracle shot, and a trip to the Elite Eight. Only Christian Laettner and Duke could stop the Huskies from reaching the Final Four.

“We like to say we’re the foundation of the UConn program,” Sellers said. “This is the team that started it all. We got to the Elite Eight. We won the first Big East regular season, the first Big East tournament title in UConn history. We’re very proud of ourselves.”

Sellers was not alone expressing that sentiment. The big picture has not been forgotten. The night of Jan. 27, 1990 is a fresh memory as well. Big East basketball returned to the campus in Storrs that night and the transition from the dusty, ancient Field House was complete.

“The old Field House was leaking,” Gwynn said.

“[The opener] was insane,” Sellers said. “It was so loud in here. It was electric.”

Said Macklin: “We were so pumped up in the warmups, before the layup line, before the anthem – because of all the energy churning in the building. It was unbelievable. On the sideline we couldn’t hear each other talk.”

UConn celebrated with a 72-58 victory over a St. John’s team that featured Malik Sealy, Boo Harvey and Robert Werdann. On Jan. 2, the Huskies had lost at St. John’s 93-62 and were in eighth place in the Big East standings. The devastating loss almost convinced Calhoun to abandon his press defense, but he decided to stick with the philosophy.

“People forget we lost by 31 points to them there,” Gwynn said. “We bussed back to campus and we had practice that night. Calhoun is Calhoun. We had practice at 2 in the morning.”

After the Gampel debut, the Huskies were riding a six-game conference win streak and tied for first place with St. John’s. UConn’s “Steal Curtain” defense was gaining national attention.

“Those were good days,” Smith said. “Everybody says how good we were. I say, ‘We played defense.’ Nadav Henefeld. Scott Burrell. These guys were in the passing lane like crazy. They got the steals and I got the layups. We had a special team. We had guys who loved the game. Loved to play defense. We really wanted to beat everybody. We had competitors.”

It’s important to remember that these players – other than Smith – were not highly ranked recruits. They were an amazing collection of driven and dedicated players from places such as Bridgeport, Bristol, Torrington, Michigan, South Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Israel, and Germany.

They were unified back then and driven by Calhoun. They have remained friends for these past 30 years.

“They started it all because they believe in each, they believed in our coaching staff, but they really believed in UConn,” Calhoun said at halftime Sunday. “It was an honor and pleasure and privilege to yell at each one of them.”

Calhoun said he took that liberty to the extreme because “I knew there was something very special inside of them.”

That was obvious on opening night at Gampel. A search through the archives produced some interesting facts about that night:

• Smith led the Huskies with 20 points hitting 5 of 10 shots from the field. He had three assists and was 3-for-4 from 3-point range.
• Gwynn and Cyrulik came off the bench to hit 10 of 19 shots and each scored 13 points. The two scored 20 of UConn’s first 25 points to start the second half.
• Henefeld scored only four points and was 1-for-7 from the field. But he had five rebounds and five assists.
• Cyrulik had a rare double-double with 10 rebounds in 20 minutes. His defensive rebound and outlet pass to Smith led to a sensational fastbreak dunk by Burrell. “I remember the rebound actually and the long outlet pass to Smitty,” Cyrulik said Sunday. “From what I’ve been told, I had a double-double.”
• Gwynn was listed at 6-foot tall and his game was perimeter shooting. But with 4 minutes, 31 seconds left, he had a tip-in that any big man would have been proud of and it gave the Huskies a 59-51 lead. After the game, he said he “felt like Michael Jordan.” “My favorite moment was that tip-in,” Gwynn said Sunday.
• Gampel was smaller on opening night. Attendance was 8,241. But the student crowd was rowdy and loud. “It was unabashed, youthful exultation,” Calhoun said in his postgame comments that night.” The noise was pulsating, hard to describe.”
• William A. O’Neill was booed during a halftime ceremony. There were no boos for Calhoun or the team. Just cheers.
• The officials were straight out of a Final Four: Larry Lembo, Ted Valentine and Tom Corbin.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in the here and now that we forget where we came from. We forget those moments that were the building blocks to greatness, to Final Four championships, to NBA careers and Hall of Fame moments.

Everything about that first night was special. After 30 years, it was well worth the refresher course.

Gwynn may have summed it up best.

“They had us picked last in the Big East Conference [in the preseason] and that bothered us,” he said. “We knew we had one of the best teams in the country. That stage allowed us to prove we had one of the best teams.”