AP Poll

[HuskyHawk]

Are you that young?

Young? I don't know...I was watching games in Hartford in the late 70's early 80's under Perno. I was enrolled at Storrs while the Field House was our home court, when we won the NIT and I had student season tickets for the first season at Gampel. Is that young?

Technically UConn has not changed conferences since we joined the Big East in 1979. Does this conference compare to Big East 1.0? To Big East 2.0 (the Louisville, ND, Cinci era)? No. But I'm not sure what the point is. It has potential to be decent, and UConn transcends whatever conference it is in.

 

[Ha Who]

Young? I don't know...I was watching games in Hartford in the late 70's early 80's under Perno. I was enrolled at Storrs while the Field House was our home court, when we won the NIT and I had student season tickets for the first season at Gampel. Is that young?

Technically UConn has not changed conferences since we joined the Big East in 1979. Does this conference compare to Big East 1.0? To Big East 2.0 (the Louisville, ND, Cinci era)? No. But I'm not sure what the point is. It has potential to be decent, and UConn transcends whatever conference it is in.

My first game was Dr J, so yes you are young.

Legally yes, we are the Big East, but are you serious? The P 5 will allow the conference to shine?

 

[Lthusker456]

The MAC has a ranked team. Perhaps we should join the MAC. We may even win a few more football games there.

Man I wouldn't sleep on Buffalo at all. They are deserving of that AP love imo. Remember this is the same team that almost brought everyone back that gave Kentucky all they could handle (almost more) beat Arizona and Ayton in the tourney, and almost beat Cuse at the dome all in the same year. I dont follow them closely but they are a legit tough team that has the right pieces. I'm nervous about them coming to the dome this year. They will want that win badly after last year.

 

[Towney007]

I think the AAC is looking up long term on the hoops side. Both us and Memphis are hitting all the right notes rebuilding. Houston has made real, legit strides. Wichita doesn’t hurt and Cincinnati and SMU have maintained course. UCF has figured some things out and while Temple and Tulsa are forever also-rams, they’re a decent floor. Tulane night figure things out a bit more with Dunleavy there.

Its just not an interesting league. I just don’t care about anyone we play against.


I’m 100% fine going back to the Big East, too.

 

[StunningSteve]

I think the AAC is looking up long term on the hoops side. Both us and Memphis are hitting all the right notes rebuilding. Houston has made real, legit strides. Wichita doesn’t hurt and Cincinnati and SMU have maintained course. UCF has figured some things out and while Temple and Tulsa are forever also-rams, they’re a decent floor. Tulane night figure things out a bit more with Dunleavy there.

Its just not an interesting league. I just don’t care about anyone we play against.


I’m 100% fine going back to the Big East, too.

Personally, it’s the regional diversity that makes the AAC interesting for me over the NBE.

In FB and baseball, UConn must be playing teams from Florida and Texas to be upwardly mobile nationally. That’s where the players are, and the teams that have decent venues. Since UConn just built a Taj Mahal for the baseball team, that’s important. Same for football, where the AAC is the only nonP5 that is drawing viewership and prime ABC slots with Gameday in Florida this week.

Even with all that, it’s a conference that was really designed for basketball. With Dan Hurley and Penny Hardaway going after players like Akok and Wiseman, the build is finally starting to be actualized. Conversely, St John’s and Georgetown are shadows of their old selves in the recruiting world.

 

[browndog319]

The old big east doesn't exist anymore, therefore the best basketball conference currently is the ACC (or perhaps the Big 12). OP posted as if it were our choice to be in this crappy conference as opposed to the ACC or ideally to old big east.

I get that it doesn’t exist anymore. Hence calling it the Old Big East.
And I totally get it’s not our choice and the schadenfreude of Louisville imploding after the ACC picking them over US only slightly helps.

 

[Excalibur]

It’s amazing how people will respond to stupid with stupid. The AAC is a crummy basketball league, clearly behind of the power five conferences and the Big East.

Still, the OP seems to think that “old big east” was an option for our current conference affiliation, or that the new big east is the best conference in college basketball. Both ideas are monumentally dumb.

 

[StunningSteve]

It’s amazing how people will respond to stupid with stupid. The AAC is a crummy basketball league, clearly behind of the power five conferences and the Big East.

Still, the OP seems to think that “old big east” was an option for our current conference affiliation, or that the new big east is the best conference in college basketball. Both ideas are monumentally dumb.

The main issue the AAC has is mirrored by the new Big East.
Two of the highest profile brands, UConn & Memphis (and/or Georgetown & St John’s), haven’t been pulling their rightful weight. It’s those brands that define the conference in hoops.
Same in the Big 12, which would be a crummy conference without a thriving Kansas to sell recruits against at other schools like TCU (a historic drag).
That said, Mullin and Ewing aren’t going anywhere for awhile.
The AAC is just scratching the surface now that UConn and Memphis are actually recruiting again.

 

[HuskylnSC]

I recognize this is the men's forum. But, there is another team around here that plays basketball in the AAC and it doesn't seem to bother them. AS their coach recently said regarding the conference, 'We are in a league of our own." I don't care what conference you're in. Line'em up, play'em all, win the tourney. That is all that matters.

 

[UConn Esq]

OP, why don't we beat a team that matters before we start posting this garbage. We beat UMKC and Morehead State. Relax.

 

[HuskyHawk]

My first game was Dr J, so yes you are young.

Legally yes, we are the Big East, but are you serious? The P 5 will allow the conference to shine?

I don’t understand your point. We can’t change it. We can rise above it or pull the conference forward. But looking at history, UConn, Cinci, Memphis, Houston, Wichita State and Temple are strong programs. SMU has had some success and UCF is having some for the first time now. It has the potential to be a 4+ bid league. The biggest reason it gets no respect is because UConn has been bad and so has Memphis.

The P5 has nothing to do with whether the league succeeds in hoops or not. I’d love to be in the ACC or B1G but we can’t control that. We can win despite it though.

 

[tzznandrew]

And the Big 8 also pulled that trick with 3 in the final four.

When?

 

[BlueMAB]

Peak Boneyard. We have won two games fairly easily. We have a new coach, we appear to be light years ahead of where we were the last two years. We have a chance to take down a top 20 team who happens to be a long time rival and we’re debating the big east/complaining about our conference for the 1,276,835th time.

 

[Husky68]

I know it’s a down year for the league, but remind me how great it is to be in a mid major conference as opposed to the best basketball conference in the country.

I know it’s a down year for the league, but remind me how great it is to be in a mid major conference as opposed to the best basketball conference in the country.

I know it's an up year at UConn, but remind me why it is better to be a conference butt boy to Duke and UNCheat like Fruit, BCU and sPitt than the only team with 4 national championships since 1999.

 

[HuskyHawk]

When?

I was wrong

 

[ctchamps]

This is a whole lot of who ha for me.

 

[Mokum]

My first game was Dr J, so yes you are young.

Legally yes, we are the Big East, but are you serious? The P 5 will allow the conference to shine?

My first game was Holy Cross at the hawley armoury. Worthy Patterson. I was maybe 5 years old, but I was there. I am still young ( in my head).

 

[BlueMAB]

My first game was at the Springfield Y. I helped install the peach baskets.

 

[billybud]

The ACC teams do get some poll respect....maybe that conference winning half of the last ten National Championships helps.

UConn gets some respect based on the past accomplishments as well...

Villanova gets big respect based on accomplishment...and the BE with them.

But...respect tends to fade over time if the accomplishment level falls off. Just as it has with FSU football.

 

[BIIIG]

I forget, what year did the ACC have 3 teams in the Final Four?

....This never happened. They had 2 in 2016 and one of them was Syracuse which goes back to the original Big East point. Other time they had 2 was 2004 and we know how that ended.

 

[QDOG5]

Just wanted to add that it’s this implied ACC is the best that leads to UVA being the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed... it was going to happen at some point but in spite of the bracket busting, admit there was some “YES!” among fans here that it was an ACC team...

Virginia went 31-2 overall in the regular season, 17-1 regular season in conference and won their conference tourney. They certainly deserved to be a one seed. They suffered the most humiliating loss in tourney history but it wasn't because they were miss-seeded. I won't argue about an overall bias in favor of the ACC but I will say your Virginia argument is not valid.

 

[Hankster]

When we beat Syracuse on Thursday night we will get some respect.

I don't know about respect. maybe ESPN might start talking about us again. Definitely all eyes will be on us if we win against Cuse.

 

[Excalibur]

I don't know about respect. maybe ESPN might start talking about us again. Definitely all eyes will be on us if we win against Cuse.

The only thing I know for certain is that the ESPN broadcast crew will spend half the night talking about how the University somehow wronged Kevin Ollie. Count on it.

 

[Travelman6]

Virginia was not overseeded but perhaps it proves the ACC is not always all that it is cracked up to be if the first place team that went 17-1 in conference plus won the AACT championship was the first team in history to go down to a 16 seed. THAT is the number one team in the ACC that won many of those 21 games (regular season and tourney) with ease? The way the number one team represents a conference speaks a lot and Virginia was not just beat by a 16 in a close game, they were soundly beat and clobbered! IMO that did not bode well at all for the ACC last year. Ya, a 1 going down to an 8, sure, that can be boiled down to stuff happening, but not in this case. acc will still get too much love and fringe teams will always be seeded up from the acc just the same.

 

[browndog319]

Virginia was not overseeded but perhaps it proves the ACC is not always all that it is cracked up to be if the first place team that went 17-1 in conference plus won the AACT championship was the first team in history to go down to a 16 seed. THAT is the number one team in the ACC that won many of those 21 games (regular season and tourney) with ease? The way the number one team represents a conference speaks a lot and Virginia was not just beat by a 16 in a close game, they were soundly beat and clobbered! IMO that did not bode well at all for the ACC last year. Ya, a 1 going down to an 8, sure, that can be boiled down to stuff happening, but not in this case. acc will still get too much love and fringe teams will always be seeded up from the acc just the same.

That was a much better way to say what I was trying to say!