The Associated Press

STORRS, Conn. - In the 1980s, the University of Connecticut basketball program was a sorry sight.

Games were played in a dilapidated fieldhouse with a leaky roof and few fans, and the Huskies received scant media coverage.

Today, UConn is nothing short of a college basketball dynasty. The men's and women's teams both won NCAA titles this week, an unprecedented feat. The women have won five of the last 10 national titles, and the men have claimed two championships since 1999.

How did they do it? Fundamentals. Not just dribbling, passing and shooting. But recruiting, marketing and lobbying.

The two people behind UConn's transformation from obscurity to basketball superpower are coaches Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma, fierce competitors who helped bring success on the court.

That, in turn, brought the school big-league clout with lawmakers, administrators and alumni and paved the way for a $1 billion development project that made UConn a more enticing campus for top recruits.

Auriemma, the women's coach, "tells us stories about when he first started and there were five people in the stands, there were leaks in the ceiling and the floor was cracking," sophomore guard Ann Strother said. "Now it's turned into such an amazing program. I think that's a reflection of what they've done and the way they demand perfection out of us every day."

Auriemma is known as a rigid disciplinarian and a fiery competitor with a wry sense humor. He has referred to archrival Tennessee as the "Evil Empire." (Auriemma's teams have defeated Tennessee in the national title game four times).

Calhoun is equally passionate about the men's team, and his tough-love coaching style has made him popular with players.

This land of white picket fences, red farmhouses and rolling green hills started to emerge as a basketball powerhouse upon the arrival of Auriemma in 1985 and Calhoun in 1986.

In 1990, state and private funding combined to help both programs move out of the 4,500-seat fieldhouse to the 10,000-seat Gampel Pavilion, now consistently sold out.

At about the same time, both teams began drawing key recruits who laid the foundation for the dynasty.

The women reached their first Final Four in 1991, and that helped UConn land Rebecca Lobo, one of UConn's greatest stars. The 1995 team led by Lobo went undefeated, attracting an ever-growing number of power players to Storrs.

Calhoun's recruiting skills - bringing in such key players as Ray Allen and Donyell Marshall - enabled him to build men's squads that dominated the Big East beginning in the 1990s.

Many say a major factor in the success has been a supportive administration that believed successful sports and solid academics were not mutually exclusive.

That was the theory behind a 10-year, $1 billion project that led to sweeping campus renovations in the 1990s. But the project became a reality only after Lobo appeared at a rally and promoted the plan after the team's 1995 championship, said Tom Ritter, then speaker of the state House.

With a new chemistry building, library, dormitories and another 10-year, billion-dollar-plus development commitment in the future, the entire university - not just basketball - is flourishing.

The university's endowment skyrocketed from $49 million in 1995 to $209 million in 2003. And for the first time, out-of-state applications outnumbered those from state residents.

Also last year, a new stadium for UConn football opened near Hartford.