University of Connecticut Athletics
Huge Crowd Celebrates National Champions At Hartford Parade
4/9/2023 12:03:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UConn Athletic Communications / April 8, 2023
HARTFORD – When the 2023 National Champion UConn men's basketball team returned home from Houston on Tuesday afternoon, it was met by some 7,000 fans at Gampel Pavilion.
Saturday, many more got their chance to celebrate the championship with the Huskies in the state's capital city.
A crowd that was estimated at 45,000 turned out to line the streets of Hartford on a chilly, but sunshine-filled afternoon to cheer the Huskies during a downtown parade that stretched from the State Capitol to the Trumbull Street entrance of the XL Center, UConn's Hartford home court.
Loaded onto the open top level of a double-decker bus, the UConn players and coaches tossed commemorative tee-shirts to the crowd and took turns holding up the 2023 NCAA championship trophy – the fifth national championship in the program's history.
"Last Monday night, we had to remind the sports world where the hell the basketball capital of the world is, and that's Connecticut, baby. That's Storrs, Connecticut," UConn Coach Dan Hurley said, amid cheers from the crowd packed into the area on Trumbull Street.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz, UConn President Radenka Maric and Governor Ned Lamont all spoke from the podium before Hurley stepped to the microphone.
"The best fans in all of college basketball deserve days like this right here," the UConn coach said. "The best fans in the country, UConn fans."
UConn players Jordan Hawkins, Adama Sanogo, Andre Jackson Jr., and Donovan Clingan also addressed the crowd, thanking the fans for their support throughout the season and hearing chants of "one more year," in return. Hawkins has already announced that he will enter the June 22 NBA Draft, but other Huskies are in the midst of gathering information as they consider their futures.
"We want as many players to return, not in a selfish way – if it makes sense for somebody to leave and their value is greater somewhere else, then they go take advantage of some of those opportunities, like Jordan," Hurley said to the media afterward. "But you obviously want as many guys returning from a national championship team as you can return. That makes sense in terms of how you see things for them, that doesn't change. But in order to put ourselves back in the mix for No. 6, we've got to continue to get better."
But even as the Huskies think about what may be ahead, they had a day to remember on Saturday.
"That was a lot more people than I expected," Andre Jackson said. "After a few turns, I thought it was gonna be over, and it just kept going. That's the most people I've ever seen in one setting."
