No Joy in Mudville ...

[QDOG5]

Year → '79 '90 '91 '92 '94 '95 '96 '98 '99 '00 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '08 '09 '11 '12 '14 '16
Seed → 5 1 11 9 2 2 1 2 1 5 2 5 2 2 1 4 1 3 9 7 9
It's a tough question. Big winning seasons or national titles. We won 3 times as a 1,2, and 3 seed which means we won a lot and won at the right time. So '14 is the outlier and bottom line we have to win more regular season games and get a higher seed to compete for NC's. That would make all of us happy. Because injuries have turned this season into a dumpster fire I'm ok with giving KO a pass into the 2017-18 season. If we can't do better than a 7 seed next year then UConn may need a change at the top.

 

[HuskyHawk]

99.9% of basketball fans in America would disagree with HuskyHawk on this one.

Let's ask Beakum what he thinks.

Well I inadvertently included 2010-11. The original post said "last five years". So remove 2010-11, and I stand by my view that KU has had a better last 5 years. But I don't value NCs that much more than final four years, and I despise missing the tournament more than anything.

 

[Matrim55]

If we can't do better than a 7 seed next year then UConn may need a change at the top.

A 7-seed is a fringe top 25 team. You're saying that Ollie should be fired if we're a fringe top 25 team next year? Am I understanding that correctly?

 

[mauconnfan]

99.9% of basketball fans in America would disagree with HuskyHawk on this one.

Let's ask Beakum what he thinks.

Yep up those are the days. My friends and I were all single, having a blast at the games but really gave a crap about the Eddie Willimas, Al Fredericks, Willi McCloud, Tim Coles, Gerry Besselink not to mention the guys prior to that at the Field House with my dad. It was fun, it was usually packed with adoring fans who cared for more then the 25 win season. Spoiled fans, yeah all of us have been but omsk have no idea of the other side and we're seen little of it. But to get to the NCAA tourney and beat Colorado in the first game would have been a party in the streets of Hartford back then. Some just don't know that and it's ashame.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yep up those are the days. My friends and I were all single, having a blast at the games but really gave a crap about the Eddie Willimas, Al Fredericks, Willi McCloud, Tim Coles, Gerry Besselink not to mention the guys prior to that at the Field House with my dad. It was fun, it was usually packed with adoring fans who cared for more then the 25 win season. Spoiled fans, yeah all of us have been but omsk have no idea of the other side and we're seen little of it. But to get to the NCAA tourney and beat Colorado in the first game would have been a party in the streets of Hartford back then. Some just don't know that and it's ashame.

I watched those teams too, starting around 1980. Tim Coles would be the second best player on this team. The pre Big East teams did win regularly. UConn was pretty good in the Yankee conference. That's one of the reasons they got into the Big East. Sure there were some down years before Calhoun righted the ship, but the season we are having right now, especially considering the lower competition level, is the worst in 30 years. That's not something to be concerned about?
Connecticut Huskies Index | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com

Let's not forget either that those early teams were trying for only 32 spots in the tournament. Expectations now are and should be different.

 

[UConnDan97]

I disagree. I am truly happy any time we get to the Sweet 16. After that it is mostly luck and match-ups. I am miserable anytime we fail to make the NCAA tournament. Making it and losing in the first weekends is essentially neutral. That's expected.

I gave you a "like", but there is a difference between feeling your team had a great year and being truly happy. There is always that feeling of "what if we did this or that" when you lose in a Sweet 16 game or further in the tourney. It's that feeling that it was right there for us, but for that one or two moments.

The flip side is when you're having a tough year and all of the sudden, you win 11 tournament games in a row. Now that...that is truly friggin' happy...

 

[HuskyHawk]

I gave you a "like", but there is a difference between feeling your team had a great year and being truly happy. There is always that feeling of "what if we did this or that" when you lose in a Sweet 16 game or further in the tourney. It's that feeling that it was right there for us, but for that one or two moments.

The flip side is when you're having a tough year and all of the sudden, you win 11 tournament games in a row. Now that...that is truly friggin' happy...

It's an interesting point. For me...happy in September, October, November, December, January, February, March until....damn....lost a tournament game. Is still a lot of happy. I enjoy the season and the NCAA tournament for more than the end result. Now this year, miserable September, Oct., Nov., Dec., and a less miserable January. Even if they make the Elite 8, this has been way too much misery. The journey to late March is more important to me than what happens in the last game.

Yes, 11 tournament games in a row was a lot of happy crammed into a short time period, made more enjoyable because Kemba was an infectious personality like Magic Johnson. But I enjoyed that season much less than 1998-99 or 2003-04 overall.

 

[gtcam]

Well I inadvertently included 2010-11. The original post said "last five years". So remove 2010-11, and I stand by my view that KU has had a better last 5 years. But I don't value NCs that much more than final four years, and I despise missing the tournament more than anything.

I doesn't matter if you didn't include the 10'11 season.
I would rather win a NC over not. It's what all 300 some odd teams vie for every season and UConn has 4 of them in a 17 year span. I'm trying real hard to find another team who has done that and only come up with UCLA.
Has KU had better years? Yeah if you look at wins/losses. Has KU had more success in the time span? No true success, to me, is winning it all
I'm all for being the winner than the runner-up, unless you are someone that believes everyone should get a trophy - but I doubt that Husky Hawk

 

[HuskyHawk]

I doesn't matter if you didn't include the 10'11 season.
I would rather win a NC over not. It's what all 300 some odd teams vie for every season and UConn has 4 of them in a 17 year span. I'm trying real hard to find another team who has done that and only come up with UCLA.
Has KU had better years? Yeah if you look at wins/losses. Has KU had more success in the time span? No true success, to me, is winning it all
I'm all for being the winner than the runner-up, unless you are someone that believes everyone should get a trophy - but I doubt that Husky Hawk

I'm not a participation trophy guy. But I also don't get some unique amazing satisfaction from winning NCs honestly. Each game is a game. I enjoy watching the games. I enjoy tournament games the most, then league tournament games, then big, important league games, and OOC games against big names, then ordinary league games, and then cupcakes, in that order.

I know I'm an oddball on this score. It is what it is.

Now I will admit that the first NC in 1999 was amazing (as was the first NIT championship when I was a student in Storrs), because I never really imagined it was possible before that. The Red Sox WS win in 2004 ending an 86 year drought, that was special. The first Patriots superbowl win against the Rams was special. But the subsequent titles for all those teams were less meaningful for me. The win over Butler, however fantastic the 11 game run, was pretty boring actually. Several other games in that 11 game run were more enjoyable by far. The "shot" game over Clemson remains my all time favorite UConn game, watching from the downstairs at Challenges across from the Civic Center.

 

[Matrim55]

Yes, 11 tournament games in a row was a lot of happy crammed into a short time period, made more enjoyable because Kemba was an infectious personality like Magic Johnson. But I enjoyed that season much less than 1998-99 or 2003-04 overall.

I hated 2003/04 because of the looming "Did we blow our chance to be legendary?" if we didn't win it. When we cut the nets down it was more relief than jubilation.

I doesn't matter if you didn't include the 10'11 season.
I would rather win a NC over not. It's what all 300 some odd teams vie for every season and UConn has 4 of them in a 17 year span. I'm trying real hard to find another team who has done that and only come up with UCLA.

This is correct.

Anyway, to me I'll be truly happy at the end of this year if all our young guys show legit improvement, and we add two more recruits to our class, and we start signing a couple of good recruits for 2018. I'm trusting the process b/c I believe KO has shown much more as a coach and talent developer than some here want to give him credit for.

 

[BlueDogs]

This is the best post on the board in a long while.

Kansas; a perennial powerhouse and recognized "blue blood" has won the ncaa championship once in the last 28 years. ONCE! We are one of the most spoiled fan bases in America...

Well stated. Staying on top though is as much a fear of failing as anything. I'd say UConn fans know all too well they have something extraordinary and the thought of that going away is terrifying. On Kansas, I can't thing of another team(maybe Arizona) that takes the pipe so often. That's a cultural problem.

 

[Pudge]

Just want to make sure I understand. The next few classes are going to take UConn from struggling to put away the 209th best team in the country at home back to being relevant nationally?

YES

 

[ctchamps]

It's an interesting point. For me...happy in September, October, November, December, January, February, March until....damn....lost a tournament game. Is still a lot of happy. I enjoy the season and the NCAA tournament for more than the end result. Now this year, miserable September, Oct., Nov., Dec., and a less miserable January. Even if they make the Elite 8, this has been way too much misery. The journey to late March is more important to me than what happens in the last game.

Yes, 11 tournament games in a row was a lot of happy crammed into a short time period, made more enjoyable because Kemba was an infectious personality like Magic Johnson. But I enjoyed that season much less than 1998-99 or 2003-04 overall.

I watch the football team, men's bb team, and the women's bb team. Amazing the contrast in how different each program has been with my misery quotient.

It's interesting because after a while I've become numb to football losing over the past six years. And I've become slightly ho hum to the women winning all the time.

The men's bb team are killing me. Extreme highs and extreme lows with them. Not something for the feint of heart.

 

[whaler11]

YES

Hope you are right but since this board's could have been changed to "we are going to be awesome next year" the past couples of seasons l'll wait until something happens on the floor to reflect that.

The classes can't fix the biggest problem impacting 'national prominence'. The conference affiliation.

 

[Matrim55]

Hope you are right but since this board's could have been changed to "we are going to be awesome next year" the past couples of seasons l'll wait until something happens on the floor to reflect that.

The classes can't fix the biggest problem impacting 'national prominence'. The conference affiliation.

What is your definition of "national prominence"?

 

[chiller99.5]

Do yourself a favor, visit the scout aac message board and read the hate all the perennial losers have for the Huskies. Every time the beat us its a national holiday for them .To us playing ECU in hoops is embarassing to them its a moral victory they came so close. Enjoy what we have in the trophy case , alot of cupboards are bare in this half ass conference.

 

[intlzncster]

Do yourself a favor, visit the scout aac message board and read the hate all the perennial losers have for the Huskies. Every time the beat us its a national holiday for them .To us playing ECU in hoops is embarassing to them its a moral victory they came so close. Enjoy what we have in the trophy case , alot of cupboards are bare in this half ass conference.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, that last part didn't make me feel any better.

 

[Matrim55]

While I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, that last part didn't make me feel any better.

Meh, we'll be Gonzaga in the regular season by the middle of next year, and that'll give us yearly cracks at being UConn in March once again.

Having these relative minnows -- some of which are really well coached -- come at us with knives out every time is going to be an acceptable, if not ideal, scenario in the long run.

 

[Pudge]

Contrast ...

We saw this repeatedly in the Big East in our 30 years. Teams threw out Capital investment and incrementally nudged to better HCs to compete.

Since 2012:

Memphis is better off with Tubby than Pastner
Tulsa is doing well with Haith
SMU was VASTLY improved getting Larry Brown in and now Jankovichis continuing that.
UCF hiring Dawkins is proving a big upgrade.
Houston is far better off with Kelvin Sampson.

Mick Cronin and Fran Dunphy are both so both solid at their respective University.

Mike Dunleavy? Modest. That leaves USF and ECU as flatlined or trending down.

I think the AAC is markedly better than when UConn joined despite losing Louisville (and not discussing Rutgers). It's a competitive neighborhood. The Big East? I think it's surprising how good that league has gotten. MM is kinda a zero sum game: AAC going up means we take some from others; as with the BE.