With five national championships in 25 years, is UConn men's basketball a blue blood? - ESPN

SHORTLY AFTER UCONN beat Texas in the title game of the Empire Classic last month, coach Dan Hurley entered the Madison Square Garden press room flanked by forwards Alex Karaban and Samson Johnson. While the players were answering questions, Hurley's gaze was fixed on a television on the far wall showing Kansas in the Maui Invitational.

«I just wanted to see what was going on,» he joked to ESPN afterward.

Now UConn is in the middle of a five-day stretch in which it's facing two traditional basketball powerhouses.

Blue bloods.

Where five-stars go to play: Kansas, Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky. Maybe UCLA and Indiana.

No. 5 UConn lost to No. 2 Kansas 69-65 Friday and faces No. 9 North Carolina on Tuesday in the Jimmy V Classic. Hurley understands the importance of these two games for the Huskies as a program.

When Hurley arrived in Storrs in 2018, UConn's reputation had taken a significant hit — and its nonconference schedule was evidence of the drop-off. Tournament organizers and multiple-team event directors were lukewarm on UConn. Now Hurley knows playing the historical elite is a sign the program has again reached the upper echelon of college basketball.

«We wanted these types of games.… Play high-reward type of games and see how you measure up against the best teams,» Hurley said that night at MSG. «You got to earn your way into nights like that.»

As soon as the clock hit triple zero and confetti began falling on the raised arms of the UConn players in NRG Stadium last April, the discussion surrounding the Huskies' inclusion among the blue-blood programs of college basketball began.

Or ended, depending on your viewpoint.

By any objective measure, five national championships in a quarter century gets you into the