There is no need for an obituary for the UConn program. However, the patient is not well. Anyone who assumes that the UConn legacy is similar to that of Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, UCLA or North Carolina is not being realistic. It's much more fragile. Outside of the Big East, and without Calhoun the assumption of almost everyone is that we will revert to irrelevance. We have to constantly rebut that assumption. At the moment we are validating it.
Our position as a power program is stronger than Gonzaga's but is much weaker than our P5 blue blood competition. It will not persist if we do not win games, appear in the top 25 regularly and win tournament games. It will fade much more rapidly than Indiana's during similar down periods. Ollie is recruiting well, but a losing season will put an end to that pretty quickly. By the same token, winning the AAC tournament and making a miracle run to the sweet 16 would do wonders.