It's good to see some CT kids good enough to be recruited by UConn, like Griffiths and Clingan. Who can forget the legacy of Connecticut natives at UConn, players like Corny Thompson, Mike McKay, Norm Bailey, Earl Kelley, Murray Williams, Chris Smith, Scott Burrell, Rashamael Jones and Edmund Saunders, and Andre Drummond, to name just a few. I saw both Smith and Burrell play in high school in the 1980s and they were at the tail end of a tremendously fertile run of native Connecticut kids who were tremendous hoopsters. At the same time as Chris Smith I also saw his contemporaries Chris Watts and Marvin Saddler, who both played at Providence, and Frenchy Tomlin, who played at Cleveland State. I also saw Charles Smith who played a few years earlier for Harding (and eventually Pitt and the NY Knicks) against my school Fairfield Prep. FP usually has an adequate or better basketball team and although it was not their best sport, they lost to Smith and Harding by 65 or something like that. It was probably the worst loss in school history.
Corny Thompson, of Middletown, was quite possibly one of the most heavily recruited Connecticut players at UConn ever, and was at UConn the same time as me. He was a Parade All American and top 10 or so in the country. North Carolina was heavily recruiting him and I think it came down to UNC and UConn and he stayed home to attend UConn. My freshman year, I used to see him around campus often. I recall in particular that Corny would do his shopping at a small supermarket on campus called Edwards Universal. It is no longer there, but was a kind of mini supermarket. This would be going back to 1981. It is 40 years ago now but I can still remember it. I do not think it was there by the time I graduated. Eventually, a "Store 24" opened next door and became the primary East Campus destination for food and snacks, as I recall.
