AAC and UConn Denial

[stever20]

to be fair, Houston is 13-2 and projected to win 21 games. Sampson has turned them around this year. Won't make the tourney almost certainly(although they like Marquette are HUGE LSU fans right now)- but still made a lot of progress.

13-2 with an rpi of 120. Their best win so far rpi wise is @Temple(80) then LSU(118). They haven't beaten anyone good yet, also 21-9 doesn't get them dancing out of the aac, sorry.

Did you read what I said- won't make the tourney almost certainly?

They have made a lot of progress these last few years. Where Houston is right now is what I thought would happen with some of the AAC- get some moribound programs going. The problem in a nutshell has been the programs like Temple, Memphis, and to a degree UConn.

[gtmoBlue]

i like going to chicago to watch a game

even better if i can get a win

why the hell would anyone wanna go to Wichita or Dayton for a weekend?

Hey, hey there...wait one cotton-pickin' minute there Buster. 2 great midsized MidEast/MidWest cities. Both with all the amenities one could want: Great weather, tourist attractions, friendly people, great food, good beer, and both are hotbeds of Aviation technology and history. I can proudly say that I have visited both and had a great time. Beats the crap out of Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Peoria, Carbondump, and Creve Coeur, Il.

Sure, you may not be a fan of the team that resides in a given city...but no need to character assassinate a whole town just for the hatred of a local team. Let's be fair here fellas. Besides, DudeAnon doesn't live in either city...lol



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[MUBoxer]

i like going to chicago to watch a game

even better if i can get a win

why the hell would anyone wanna go to Wichita or Dayton for a weekend?

Hey, hey there...wait one cotton-pickin' minute there Buster. 2 great midsized MidEast/MidWest cities. Both with all the amenities one could want: Great weather, tourist attractions, friendly people, great food, good beer, and both are hotbeds of Aviation technology and history. I can proudly say that I have visited both and had a great time. Beats the crap out of Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Peoria, Carbondump, and Creve Coeur, Il.

Sure, you may not be a fan of the team that resides in a given city...but no need to character assassinate a whole town just for the hatred of a local team. Let's be fair here fellas. Besides, DudeAnon doesn't live in either city...lol



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Not hard to beat out the meth capitol of the USA

[Doge McDermott]

Not hard to beat out the meth capitol of the USA

Wait, I thought that was [insert small town where Hillbilly Freshman is from]!

[cujaysfan]

i have been to both

i have no desire to go to either again

cleveland, orlando and SLC are leaps and bounds above both

(insert city here) better bring something strong to the table to get me to travel from Denver.

i'm cool with all current BE destinations.

[SJHooper]

The fact that UConn fans defend schools like Tulsa, Houston, and SMU is very telling. No one even knows what the logos for Tulsa or Houston are. Most likely won't even know the SMU logo and if they do, it's because of their huge football success back in the day. Their brands are a complete joke and they are not basketball schools at all. The AAC was already bad then Louisville left then they got worse. Larry Brown is gone soon and scandals are rocking the school so SMU will be back to irrelevancy soon as well. Just imagine how bad they will be after that. UConn's only hope if they don't get that F5 invite (no signs that they will) is to be the East Coast Gonzaga i.e. always in the top 25 and gets treated like a major team in a mid major conference. They can beat up on the AAC every year, have a very good conference record, and stay ranked that way. But if they don't absolutely slaughter the AAC every year, they will be irrelevant very soon. They honestly think they can still be a football power but that will never happen. As I said before, very few people in the Northeast care about college football and the few that do only root for major programs i.e. Penn State, Michigan, Florida State, Ohio State, ND, etc. We already saw Rutgers and Temple (2 Northeast schools) have football success in the top 25 one season or another. It still did not move the needle. It's just not our thing up here. We care about the NFL.

UConn was the biggest loser in the realignment and if they don't get their F5 invite, it will easily be the biggest fall from grace ever for a program like that. To the point where a 30 for 30 ESPN documentary will be made discussing their huge mistake prioritizing football.

[Bill Marsh]

Just poked over to the Boneyard (UConn forum) to get a pulse and get some laughs. Whoever said UConn fans are Yankees fans who only know how to say "But, but...we won the championship years ago!" was spot on. UConn fans are completely blinded by their denial. They are in complete shock. Up is down and down is up. Kind of like when you get caught in a wave that crashes down on you and disorients you to the point where you don't know which way is up. They will say they won a ring while in the AAC. Hah! Gotcha! We still got it! Uh...except Ollie did it with Calhoun's players. Lavin inherited a great team at St. John's and beat tons of top 5 teams. Sometimes it's not the coach, but the players you inherit. They will never admit Ollie inherited Calhoun's players, but whatever. They also won't admit gravity is real. UConn deserves credit where credit is due, they are a storied program that really had a great run. Unfortunately for them, that run is over. They know it whether consciously or not, and that is why their anger has reached this level. First they argued the Big East was nothing special. Where are the top 10 teams? Hah! Gotcha! Now we have 3 top 10 teams. 4 ranked total. 40% of our league is ranked. Pshh! Well, they might be top 10 but but...they are not great programs they are only decent! How many rings have they won? UConn fans are kings of moving the goal posts. They will say "Hah! You can't kick a 50 yard FG!" then we make that FG with room to spare and they say "Yeah well, bet you can't make a 75 yard FG!". It's useless even arguing with them. If you think top 10 teams (some who were unranked in preseason) did not earn their ranking at this point, you are not worth the trouble.

UConn is on a sinking ship and all they can do is cry as they look at their precious rings from their Big East past while we are laughing from the shore drinking champagne. Their ring from their year in the AAC was also from the Big East from Calhoun's players. They have yet to do anything without their Big East influence being a part of it. The real cut from Big East ties happened after they last won their championship with Calhoun's kids. So now we will see what they do without that tradition. The Big East was expected to be a mid major failure and it has shocked people into remaining one of the premier conferences in basketball. We are a Maserati and the AAC is a Toyota. They can argue those cars are the same, but we just roll our eyes and laugh. Glad to be in such a good conference with like-minded members! Cheers.

This has to be one of the most absurd analyses I've ever read.

Ollie did it with Calhoun's players? Yeah, right. Calhoun left the program in great shape, didn't he? He left them on probation with players leaving to transfer to other programs or go early to the NBA like rats abandoning a sinking ship. Four starters in all left and the remaining roster wasn't exactly loaded with high school All Americans. In no way was this Rick Pitino handing over an intact roster to Tubby Smith.

If it was simply a matter of Ollie winning with Calhoun's players, where were those same players during the regular season? They didn't exactly dominate the AAC or their conference tournament. UConn in 2014 was one of the biggest underdogs ever to win a national championship and Ollie did one of the great coaching jobs in tournament history. But you want to preten that Calhoun just handed over a national championship roster to him.

Please continue with your delusions.

[stever20]

Let's be real. UConn was the #26 seed. That's having a pretty darn good regular season. They were ranked 17/18 but the committee underseeded them. Let's not act like they were a weak team that lucked into the tourney. Last year, Michigan St was #25 seed in the tourney. It's a good team.

Also a point to make about UConn. 2014 was Ollie's 2nd year. 2013 is the year they lost a lot of folks. 2014 they had some of his recruits. 2014 was a mixture of Calhoun/Ollie.

Also, what is their recruiting rating this year? ESPN has it as #5 right now. To act like they aren't getting players now is absolutely insane. Last year #34. 2 years not even in the top 40. So to act like UConn hasn't done anything without the Big East label- that's just ignorant. They are recruiting great.

[Noonzy]

UConn had a decent line up with kids like Nolan, Giffey, Boatright, Napier and Brimah. Brimah probably had some of his best games as a Husky during that tourney and Napier was incredible. The posters on the Boneyard are now questioning whether or not Ollie can actually coach-why I don't know, but it must be the nature of the posters over there. Ollie has done some incredible recruiting for them as they have one of the best classes coming in for next year. The problem is that no matter how good they really can be, they are stuck in a crappy conference.
The problem with their fans is that a lot of them jumped on the bandwagon after the first championship and think every year they should be in the mix-not very reasonable. The long time Husky fans are pretty reasonable, but get drowned out by the idiots.
The problem that UConn might encounter is that the state may not want to keep pumping more money into the athletics considering the tv deal they are in with the AAC is not a good one and cannot support athletics.
I haven't read this whole thread and if I am just stating what someone else stated please forgive me.

[Bill Marsh]

UConn had a decent line up with kids like Nolan, Giffey, Boatright, Napier and Brimah. Brimah probably had some of his best games as a Husky during that tourney and Napier was incredible. The posters on the Boneyard are now questioning whether or not Ollie can actually coach-why I don't know, but it must be the nature of the posters over there. Ollie has done some incredible recruiting for them as they have one of the best classes coming in for next year. The problem is that no matter how good they really can be, they are stuck in a crappy conference.
The problem with their fans is that a lot of them jumped on the bandwagon after the first championship and think every year they should be in the mix-not very reasonable. The long time Husky fans are pretty reasonable, but get drowned out by the idiots.
The problem that UConn might encounter is that the state may not want to keep pumping more money into the athletics considering the tv deal they are in with the AAC is not a good one and cannot support athletics.
I haven't read this whole thread and if I am just stating what someone else stated please forgive me.

I live in CT and follow the Huskies. They just invested a ton of money in building a state of the art practice facility. The state isn't supporting that only to abandon the program in the next few years. UConn has plenty of money from the settlement with the break up of the Big East and from big donors within the state.

More important, UConn and the state have a vision for the long term, which is to get a spot in a big 5 conference. They see Louisville as a model. So, in fact they will continue to pump money into the program for a long time to get them where they plan to be.

Until then, they will continue to manage the program the way that Louisville did in CUSA. Just look at the out-of-conference schedule this year:

Syracuse
Maryland
Ohio State
Michigan
Texas
Gonzaga

That goes a long way toward compensating for some of the soft spots on the schedule. They will continue to schedule that way to build their RPI. Following the same model, Gonzaga has made the tournament every year for the past 17 seasons even when they didn't win their conference.

I've said the same thing about the AAC being crappy conference, but in reality it's a top ten conference, it's just not a top 5 conference. The history of that conference's members getting to the Final Four is better in the past quarter century than the Big East's. The OP really does protest too much. He comes across as someone who doesn't really believe what he's writing and wants to convince himself that the Big East is a really good conference. It is, but that's regardless of how good UConn or the AAC are. He doesn't have to trash them to make his point. And he certainly doesn't have to be inaccurate in the process. The fact is that Ollie is a terrific young coach, one of the best in the business. He could leave UConn and have an NBA job tomorrow if he wanted to. Calhoun did not leave him with a stacked roster. Frank.y the cupboard was practically bare. 2014 should not be viewed as Calhun's 4th title. It was 100% Ollie, doing one of the best coaching jobs in tournament history, beating far superior talent in Kentucky and Florida.