5 college basketball programs for the next 5 years: UConn

[YearoftheHusky]

5 college basketball programs for the next 5 years

Which programs are prepared to handle whatever is next and continue to win big? We asked our experts for their picks.

theathletic.com

UConn
If you’re looking for a program whose stock price will rise in the next five years, you should look for one currently facing a wide chasm between recent performance and traditional past. You should search for a school with outstanding facilities and a large, passionate fan base. Try to find one where the basketball program outshines football. A young, energetic, intelligent, charismatic coach with a worthy pedigree and something to prove would be a major plus. And just to get crazy, see if you can find a program that has just gone through a major conference upgrade.

As impossible as it seems that any program could match all those criteria, Connecticut somehow checks every box. The Huskies have claimed four national championships in the last 21 years, more than any other school during that time. Yet, this program has fallen on hard times of late, having missed out on the tournament in five of the last six years and gone through a bitter divorce with Kevin Ollie, the former UConn point guard and the coach of the 2014 champs.

So there was plenty of work to do for Dan Hurley when he took over in 2018, but also plenty of upside. The ceiling got exponentially higher this fall when UConn, which moved to the newly formed American Athletic Conference in 2014 due to ill-advised football ambitions, returned to its roots and rejoined the Big East. That decision has had a galvanizing effect on recruiting. The Huskies’ current freshman class was ranked second in the Big East by 247Sports, and Hurley has already secured three commitments from top-100 players for next season.

Hurley, of course, comes from a bona fide basketball royalty. His father, Bob Sr., won 26 state championships while coaching St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J., and is one of three high school coaches inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Hurley’s brother, Bobby, won two NCAA titles at Duke and is the head coach at Arizona State. Dan Hurley is just 47, and he has already proved himself to be a capable coach in previous stints at Wagner and Rhode Island. He has the energy, the acumen and the Jersey pluck required to jump-start this once-proud program. Now that UConn is back where it belongs in the Big East, Hurley is ready to take the Huskies to great and familiar heights. — Seth Davis

 

[HuskyHawk]

Aside from the common error in saying that UConn "moved" to the AAC, this is just outstanding. I have been wondering when people were going to really realize that UConn is back to being UConn again. Anybody who watched us late last year, playing with 6 players and beating people should have seen it. I think the lack of a league tournament, or even a deep NIT run, kept our profile lower than it would have been.

 

[AuRevoirAAC]

Excellent write-up by Seth Davis. He’s spot on in saying exactly what our fan base has been thinking for the past year.

 

[Watchdog]

5 college basketball programs for the next 5 years

Which programs are prepared to handle whatever is next and continue to win big? We asked our experts for their picks.

theathletic.com

UConn
If you’re looking for a program whose stock price will rise in the next five years, you should look for one currently facing a wide chasm between recent performance and traditional past. You should search for a school with outstanding facilities and a large, passionate fan base. Try to find one where the basketball program outshines football. A young, energetic, intelligent, charismatic coach with a worthy pedigree and something to prove would be a major plus. And just to get crazy, see if you can find a program that has just gone through a major conference upgrade.

As impossible as it seems that any program could match all those criteria, Connecticut somehow checks every box. The Huskies have claimed four national championships in the last 21 years, more than any other school during that time. Yet, this program has fallen on hard times of late, having missed out on the tournament in five of the last six years and gone through a bitter divorce with Kevin Ollie, the former UConn point guard and the coach of the 2014 champs.

So there was plenty of work to do for Dan Hurley when he took over in 2018, but also plenty of upside. The ceiling got exponentially higher this fall when UConn, which moved to the newly formed American Athletic Conference in 2014 due to ill-advised football ambitions, returned to its roots and rejoined the Big East. That decision has had a galvanizing effect on recruiting. The Huskies’ current freshman class was ranked second in the Big East by 247Sports, and Hurley has already secured three commitments from top-100 players for next season.

Hurley, of course, comes from a bona fide basketball royalty. His father, Bob Sr., won 26 state championships while coaching St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J., and is one of three high school coaches inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Hurley’s brother, Bobby, won two NCAA titles at Duke and is the head coach at Arizona State. Dan Hurley is just 47, and he has already proved himself to be a capable coach in previous stints at Wagner and Rhode Island. He has the energy, the acumen and the Jersey pluck required to jump-start this once-proud program. Now that UConn is back where it belongs in the Big East, Hurley is ready to take the Huskies to great and familiar heights. — Seth Davis

Who were the soon to be forgotten "other four"?

 

[navery12]

Who were the soon to be forgotten "other four"?

Gonzaga, Nova, Virginia, Michigan

 

[Ha Who]

Gonzaga, Nova, Virginia, Michigan

I Memphis, Houston or Cincy?

 

[SouleMan]

The best UConn teams always have a certain amount of pluck.

 

[bendm]

speaking of the zags