UCONN Basketball Greats: Ray Allen

No Ray is not dead, he's alive and well. I'm starting a series that looks back at the greats of the UCONN basketball program and Ray would be on the Mount Rushmore of UCONN basketball, if that was a thing.

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When I was young, college basketball was a different game than it is today. College had stars, with names people could remember because they stayed in college all four years before entering the NBA.

Back then, the Big East was the conference to be in, if you were an "it" player of the day. The NCAA tournament was appointment viewing and Ray Allen was a basketball God in America but specifically, in Connecticut where he played for he Huskies.

Allen played for UCONN between 1993-1996, racking up over 1,900 points and earning multiple honors like Big East player of the year and USA Men's Basketball player of the year. Allen became larger than life on the court and off for his play in college and the pros and was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.

Ray Allen was the reigning 3 point king in the NBA until Steph Curry broke his record in January of 2022. Allen won a championship with the Celtics as part of the "Big Three" in 2008 and another title with the Heat in 2013.

And who could forget Ray's acting career? Allen played one of the most iconic basketball characters in film history as "Jesus Shuttlesworth" in the movie "He Got Game" alongside Denzel Washington.

Ray Allen's name is all over the history of the NBA but he was a star in college at one of the best programs in the nation, UCONN. It all began with the Huskies and Ray Allen is an all-time great Connecticut athlete.

The only real question is, who is more iconic for UCONN, Ray Allen or Rebecca Lobo?