Wonder when they start griping about having to play St. John’s and losing to them. St. John’s just beat UCONN in Connecticut for the 1st time in 24 yrs. If you aren’t aware St. John’s hasn’t been good since Chris Mullin graduated and Lou Carnesecca stopped coaching.
UCONN’t
- Thread starter TU_BLA
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UConn being ranked was ridiculous!
That is not true about St Johns. They had some good years under Mike Jarvis including a Elite 8 performance along with a NIT championship Sprinkle in a few other NCAA tourney teams as well. Norm Roberts was horrible but the years under Lavin had a few tourney teams also. Honestly, I dislike UCONN as much as anyone but they are exactly where they belong, back in the Big East. It made ZERO sense for them with their traditional east coast rivalries they had built to be in the AAC. Taking the money is not always the best thing for a school and that's what they did.
Of course, they sold their football program, now homeless, down the river to do it
But, that was their choice. The new Big East is not the old Big East.
But, that was their choice. The new Big East is not the old Big East.
It’s for sure better for them, though.
They’ve fully committed to basketball with most of their old rivals. Their fans are thrilled.
Football? Not sure if they care...and it’s a long road, but someday they may be a respectable independent.
UCONN was as disrespectful as a conference peer could ever be...they needed to go.
They’ve fully committed to basketball with most of their old rivals. Their fans are thrilled.
Football? Not sure if they care...and it’s a long road, but someday they may be a respectable independent.
UCONN was as disrespectful as a conference peer could ever be...they needed to go.
Their football will be FCS in a few years. Their fans are ecstatic because they think Syracuse and BC when they think Big East not Butler, Creighton, or Xavier. East coast league? Chicago, Omaha, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Cincinnati don't seem very east coast to me and all are schools UConn had basically zero history with. They are making less money, less exposure, sold off their football team (no matter how you look at it) paid 17m to do it. None of which will bring back their program because Calhoun isn't coming back and being on the east coast hasn't meant an automatically relevant program in a while. Hurley will get then back to a tourney team, then move on either fired or fed up with the fanbases demands, UConn women being a bigger draw, and the dead ending of playing in a small private league who is likely taking a pay cut.
Mighty Mouse is St. John's coach now. I expect him to pull some NYC talent with his wide open style. Another year or two to finish the turnover and they will be giving everyone a headache.
For basketball, UCONN is where they need to be. Their football program is going to die with this move unless some P5 takes pity on them or they drop it in the MAC.
I am really just hammering UCONN for their uppity stance about "having to go to Tulsa" and play...something they were never very successful at. Hell, we beat them more times than they beat us...and the refs bailed them out of at least 2 games against us. They can talk about conference placement all they want but they haven't been terribly good since Calhoun retired and I don't see them getting anywhere close to the level of success they had under Calhoun anytime in the near to mid-future.
But this isn't true. The only old rivals they're back with are St. John's, Providence, Villanova, and Georgetown. They complained about having to make a trip to Tulsa to play basketball...well no they're back to going to Milwaukee in the dead of winter and Omaha. Those 2 cities make people who live there in winter cringe. Their fans will be elated until they start getting whacked by Creighton and Villanova by 20+ pts every time out.
If everyone could stop looking at this through the eyes of a boyfriend/girlfriend who got dumped for someone else I think you would understand.......I grew up in the middle of it, it all makes sense to me.🤷♀️
I did too. Lived about 20 minutes from Providence and every PC game was on local TV (Pitino the coach, Billy Donovan, Pops Lewis, Delray Brooks, Marty Conlan, and Jacek Duda were the starters). This was the height of the Big East's dominance in college bastketball. St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse were final four contenders for 4-5 straight years, Villanova and PC were a couple of upstarts, BC had Dana Barros who was a bloody monster...and Calhoun was still coaching at Northeastern (Reggie Lewis) before moving to UCONN. Oh, and you had the most colorful collection of college coaches I think I've ever seen....John Thompson, Boeheim, Carnesseca, Massimino, Pitino, PJ Carlissimo, Gary Williams (BC).
I hated what happened to the Big East because of football. It never made sense to me that BC, Syracuse and Pitt ended up in the ACC.
Interesting analogy. I don’t really miss UCONN, but it’s fun to make fun of them. And I mean, if we are comparing them to romantic partners, I feel they are like the girl you met at a frat party with a funny accent and when they were seen with you the next morning, they transferred. I mean, good for them, but they have a losing record to us. And just a lot of weird issues.
We should take great pride in that record. When we were admitted to this league, people laughed at the idea we would ever be in a league with them. I’m pretty sure that’s part of why Manning bailed.
We should take great pride in that record. When we were admitted to this league, people laughed at the idea we would ever be in a league with them. I’m pretty sure that’s part of why Manning bailed.
My griping about them and taking joy when they take an L to a lesser team is more about them and their constant complaints and blaming TU for their woes vs the fact they hired a coach who couldn't coach himself out of a paper bag. Memphis and UCONN both hired former star players with NBA pedigrees who both felt they didn't need to actually coach but just recruit. Sure they had plenty of star recruits on their teams...where'd it get them? If UCONN had simply said they needed to be back in an east coast primarily conference, then fine...but they had a couple coaches and administrators mention us as the blame "it's hard to recruit kids to play games in Tulsa".
UCAN"T had been so good for so many years but recently they were no better than Tulsa.
Getting a lot more love than they deserve in their new Big East Conf.
As we all know, one of their best players Gilbert is at Wichita I would be surprised if they are really any better this year than last year.
GO TU!!!!
Getting a lot more love than they deserve in their new Big East Conf.
As we all know, one of their best players Gilbert is at Wichita I would be surprised if they are really any better this year than last year.
GO TU!!!!
That’s hilarious!!!!!!! Great post Gold....I agree and I am very proud of not only our record but the fact we mentally tortured them year after year. Honestly, they should have never been in the AAC in the first place. Just a horrible fit.
And Bouknight is out for a while. He had surgery last week on his elbow. Conservative estimates are he's back in 4 weeks. They're about to be big time hurting again...and the questions will flow again about Hurley's ability to coach them.
UCONN was only good while Jim Calhoun was coach (1987-2012). Ollie won a nat'l championship in 2013 but with all Calhoun's players, namely Kemba Walker who had a tournament for the ages. UCONN sucked before Calhoun got there and they've been mediocre at best since he left and all his players moved on.
UConn is where they think they want to be (in an east coast league) they're more like the 80s popular high school girl who breaks up with the star player/popular asshole and dates the unknown geeky dude.
First she tries to dress him up and takes him around her friends all summer. They're snobby though and run him down, she feels insecure, and dumps him. Her old boyfriend left for college so she latched on to the new Mr. Popular, but he isn't as good looking, as cool, or really as popular. She regrets all her choices and hates the guy she left her ex for because "he ruined" everything.
Finally east coast league? They have five teams that are east coast, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, Seaton Hall, Georgetown. UConn really cares about two of those teams as serious rivals.
The AAC had Temple, ECU, and the two Florida schools (one who was in the big east with UConn). They didn't really go more east coast. Their travel shrank some but Omaha and Milwaukee are a long ways from Storrs.
It's all about nostalgia and people are right to point out it was a hall of fame coach not the conference they played in that made them great. See Gonzaga or their new BE rival Butler.
They're gone so its whatever, but I hope they win the big east, a team that struggled to finish top half of a "weaker" AAC. Going to be hard to hype that as conference change caused when it is virtually the same team from last year.
First she tries to dress him up and takes him around her friends all summer. They're snobby though and run him down, she feels insecure, and dumps him. Her old boyfriend left for college so she latched on to the new Mr. Popular, but he isn't as good looking, as cool, or really as popular. She regrets all her choices and hates the guy she left her ex for because "he ruined" everything.
Finally east coast league? They have five teams that are east coast, Providence, St. John's, Villanova, Seaton Hall, Georgetown. UConn really cares about two of those teams as serious rivals.
The AAC had Temple, ECU, and the two Florida schools (one who was in the big east with UConn). They didn't really go more east coast. Their travel shrank some but Omaha and Milwaukee are a long ways from Storrs.
It's all about nostalgia and people are right to point out it was a hall of fame coach not the conference they played in that made them great. See Gonzaga or their new BE rival Butler.
They're gone so its whatever, but I hope they win the big east, a team that struggled to finish top half of a "weaker" AAC. Going to be hard to hype that as conference change caused when it is virtually the same team from last year.
Hard to say that when Aresco was pretty open about building the AAC around them despite them really only ever being relevant in basketball. And if I recall the AAC formation talks, UCONN tried to leverage themselves somewhat like Texas did in the Big XII that drive Nebraksa, Colorado, and A&M away. There really wasn't anyone in the conference who could really leverage anything. UCONN and Cincinnati wanted to be elsewhere but no one wanted them. Houston and UCF try to leverage themselves now but the sub-par academics those schools have really hurt their chances of getting into a P5 conference (and those conferences have some academic dogs in them but those were also original members). UCONN is about to feel a world of budget hurt when they're not getting any $$$ from the networks for football and the $ from basketball contracts is a pittance compared to what they would have received by remaining in the AAC.
Ollie won an NC. Granted, it was with someone else’s players. But that’s somethin.
So did Larry Coker but in the end it is what that coach does building talent, winning and keeping the players and school out of trouble.
Their merchandising contract is up soon too. That was a ten year deal with Calhoun iirc. I could be wrong. But yeah. Cupboard is gonna be bare up there soon. Makes you wonder how they can maintain expectations from the Olympics and the women’s sports .
Dude. At one point all of college football thought Coker was a genius. They went for OU‘s streak. This board (old blue board and the often overlooked and beloved tulsasportsweb) was livid about our numerous opportunities to bring him back. Hell, that crap probably had as much to do with JP as anything — see this old guy can get it done, too!
Geno could negotiate his own apparel deal for the women's team. His recruiting class this year was excellent and they're in line to land a couple top 10 recruits for next year.
I did acknowledge that...and we all saw 1st hand what happened to Ollie when the Calhoun players started leaving and graduating.
I come to Rivals to make fun of things, but I stay for the discussion of women’s basketball recruiting rankings.
Gold - yes I remember but a number of former players were not among those cheerleading for his return.
