Unfortunately I think they have elevated themselves into the blue blood conversation.
They don’t have a tradition that goes as far back as UCLA / Kansas / UNC.
However, they did make the tournament in the 50s / 60s / and a couple times in the 70s so it’s not like basketball was completely irrelevant there before Calhoun, but their success was dormant for a while.
Ultimately when your program wins 5 national titles under 3 different coaches (and yes I understand Ollie won with Calhoun guys, but he got the job done) you are in an elite crowd.
- Only missed 11 tournaments since 1989 and 5 took place while in the AAC debacle.
- Conference Champs - 29 times
- Conference tournament champs - 8 times
- 6 Final Fours
- 6 additional Elite 8 appearances
- Under Calhoun 28 NCAA Tournament victories by double digits
- #1 seed - 5 times
- #2 seed - 6 times
- AP #1 - 6 different seasons
- AP top 5 - 15 different seasons
- .642 program winning %
- 8 All Americans
- 50 players in the NBA all time - 22 first round draft picks
So I would call UCONN a blue blood that had a drought in the 70s / 80s and a small blip on the radar when the NBE broke away from the OLD BE.