UConn & UCF Rescue 2013-2014 AAC
We all know about conference realignment, about how UConn got left behind as other teams from the Big East were taken (including Rutgers for Heaven’s sake) and the leftovers were forced to cobble together a league regrettably called the American Athletic Conference, or just The American. The criteria for choosing the teams seemed to be 1. it must have a football team and 2. ummm…..
So, here’s UConn in this league that was the butt of jokes from talking heads everywhere. Men’s basketball didn’t seem horrible – UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Temple seemed capable of doing some damage. Louisville, with its figurative foot out the door doesn’t count, btw. SMU was a great surprise and at one point the AAC men had five ranked teams (including Louisville). Still, the talk was about Kentucky or Duke or anyone, really, but the AAC.
The women’s side was UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, and the seven dwarves. USF is always respectable but the Bulls won’t be discussed as an NCAA championship dark horse until they get an impact player or two. But outside of UConn and USF (again, Rutgers is leaving so not part of our discussion), the rest of the rest of the AAC was dismal this past season. Only SMU, at 18-14, had a winning season; SMU and the other five teams combined for a 74-111 record. Ouch.
Now football, the money sport, was expected to be mediocre. Of the returning teams, only Cincinnati generated any kind of positive press nationally. Of course, after the conference realignment(s), Big East football viewed as poor and the AAC was the lesser sibling of that now-defunct football conference. And in the preseason no one outside of Orlando expected Central Florida to roll its way to a 12-1 record, ending its season with a 52-42 victory over Big 12 team, and #5 ranked, Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. After that game, the talking heads had to tone down their sneering a bit when they mentioned the AAC. We’ll see how long that lasts.
But in basketball, ah yes, the sport that made the Big East into a national power and created some of the most exciting college basketball games ever played, men or women, in this the AAC needed to rely on its multi-championship winning teams. The two seeding committees must have watched a lot of ESPN during the season because it underseeded – or outright excluded – AAC teams in the tourney. On the men’s side, SMU was snubbed and relegated to the NIT. The Mustangs showed why the committee was dead wrong by getting to the championship game, losing by only 2 points to Minnesota. On the women’s side, USF and Rutgers were ignored by the committee; both made the WNIT Final Four where they had to unfortunately play each other. Rutgers prevailed, again showing the committee what dopes they are.
The UConn women were expected to win and they made it look easy but how easy is it, really, when you get every opponent’s best shot and there is the weight of expectations plus the burden of protecting a perfect season? I don’t know that the UConn women and the team’s coaching staff get enough credit for mental toughness and focus. It’s easy to see Breanna Stewart and Stefanie Dolson and say UConn won because it has more talent but if talent won championships, why doesn’t Duke have any? Why hasn’t Tennessee won year after year? Why haven’t Stanford or North Carolina lived in the National Championship game with their impressive array of stars? It’s more than talent.
But the UConn men weren’t expected to win. Heck, they weren’t expected to survive a first round game against St. Joe’s yet survive they did. The Huskies rolled through the tournament, drawing on a mixture of anger at being punished for something that happened while the current players were still in high school, energy drawn from an electric Madison Square Garden crowd, and desire to redeem its good name and reputation from the talking heads that hadn’t used up their ration of condescension left over from the football season. This wasn’t a case of the planets aligning for UConn, it was sheer desire and dogged determination on the part of the Huskies. And it was beautiful to behold.
UCF and UConn, with a nod to SMU and USF, salvaged The American from the scrap heap of has-beens and wanna-bes in league’s first season. Will this jump start the league or will the departure of Louisville and Rutgers just make it another mid-major? The additions of Tulane, East Carolina, and Tulsa next season won’t generate much enthusiasm so the AAC is going to have to rely on its championship teams again. Will the presence of UCF and UConn in The American make the sports “experts” more respectful? Doubtful. After all, look how those so called experts continued to promote ACC football over the Big East even though the BE was better. Whatever. It doesn’t make the championship trophies at UConn any less shiny.
(Note: UConn also won the 2013 Field Hockey championship but The American doesn’t sponsor field hockey. UConn is a member of the Big East in that sport.)
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