An example of positive thinking from the Tulsa coach

[HuskyNan]

"We held them to 92 [points]". j/k, Coach Mossman. (post game quotes)

Actually, I think she's a good coach. Her team played hard, shared the ball, and "ran their stuff", as Geno likes to say. It's just that the Huskies are getting into their annual post-season groove and no team was going to stop them last night. But IMO if Mossman can recruit some more talent, Tulsa can be a pretty good basketball team down the road. Good for her.

 

[ThisJustIn]

Agreed. Tulsa was wicked short across the board, but they played wicked hard...

 

[JimGunther]

I thought they played hard all game. I was especially impressed with their passes around the perimeter.

Agreed. Tulsa was wicked short across the board, but they played wicked hard...

 

[mrmojack]

I think we will see several AAC teams start to recurit better in the coming years.

 

[ucbart]

I agree. I like what I have seen from Tulsa, East Carolina and Tulane.

 

[HoopsFan21]

She had a hug for Geno and Stewie after the game.

 

[huskeynut]

Have to agree with all. Tulsa came to play and play hard.

 

[vtcwbuff]

I think we will see several AAC teams start to recurit better in the coming years.

One hopes that UConn's dominance will have a "rising tide" effect on the AAC but I remain very skeptical. I don't see how getting humbled by the only quality team in the conference will attract elite recruits. We can all admire how hard an AAC opponent played against UConn but when the game ends the only truth that matters is that none of them can compete. At least in the BEast there was the occasional pretender to challenge UConn. In the AAC it seems the only challenge is to stay within 50 points.

 

[jcoton56]

They are definitely a gritty bunch, a lot like their coach. I think AAC coaches will get serious consideration from prospects

 

[watanabe]

Next best thing to improve your play, if you can't play for UConn is to get to play against them up to four times a season.

 

[ursusminor]

One hopes that UConn's dominance will have a "rising tide" effect on the AAC but I remain very skeptical. I don't see how getting humbled by the only quality team in the conference will attract elite recruits. We can all admire how hard an AAC opponent played against UConn but when the game ends the only truth that matters is that none of them can compete. At least in the BEast there was the occasional pretender to challenge UConn. In the AAC it seems the only challenge is to stay within 50 points.

You're not going to get elite recruits, no, not right away. But you can get the very good, the players who are recruited as "role players" (ie bench players) for the top 25. You can tell those players that they can help you. Help you go deeper in the postseason than you've ever been, help you get closer to the top 25, help put your team and your school on the map. And, if you're a good coach, you can take good players and make them great. Playing UConn twice a year or more is just icing on the cake.

It's more or less what Geno was selling in the 80's, and it worked out for him.

 

[DobbsRover2]

It's not just UConn that helps push the tide higher, because it filters down from level to level. UConn's biggest effect is on teams like USF, Tulane, and East Carolina, who have enough of a core to hang with the Huskies for a while and improve, and they raise the level of the next tier like Tulsa, Temple, and SMU (when it has better players), and so on. Back in the 90s and into the 2000s the Huskies would be on various conference mates such as Rutgers and later Notre Dame and still later Louisville by 20, 30, or 40+ points, and they all rose up and played in NC games. Another group like Syracuse, Villanova, St. John's, West Virginia, DePaul, Georgetown, and Boston College all became fairly decent programs, and some were capable of upsetting UConn on rare occasions.

Are any of the AAC teams going to be rising up high enough to pull an upset on UConn soon? I hope not, but there are a few that will be pulling upsets on other teams in the Tourney. Whether the AAC could ever rise up to become the top WCBB conference like the BEast was may seems crazy, but just ask the old SEC fans what they would have thought back in the '90s that the Big East would leave their conference far behind. They would have given you 1000 to 1 odds on that.