Are Viewers Tuning out UConn Dynasty

[UConnNick]

UConn needs the Tennessee game more than Women's College Basketball does. At some point, recruits are going to be put off by the fact that UConn spends most of its schedule playing the Memphises and Southern Methodists of the world, while in the ACC they could play bigtime opponents. And ESPN will lose interest in televising UConn games if they consist mostly of 40-point blowouts. The list of Top 20 teams willing to play UConn gets smaller every year, and there is the lurking threat of a conspiracy by P5 conference teams to avoid playing UConn at all, to keep them off national television.

I could even imagine that at some point the P5 conferences would decide to hold their own Women's National Championship tournament during the same three weeks as the NCAA tournament. If that idea takes off, it would make the NCAA championship meaningless, and obviously UConn wouldn't be able to play in the other tournament.

The statute of limitations has expired on whatever happened in 2007 and before. UConn and Tennessee should agree to play without preconditions, because it is in the present interest (financial and otherwise) of both schools to do so.

You think a school that routinely fills a 110,000-seat football stadium, whether the product on the field sucks or not, cares about the potential for a possible financial windfall from a UCONN vs. Tenn. women's BB game? I'm sure they could care less, from a purely financial standpoint.

 

[UConnNick]

For UConn 3 of the 5 least watched and 4 of the 6 most watched, so it's a mixed bag. Actually I don't think it's that viewers don't want to see UConn win, they just don't want to see ND lose again, with its 4th runner-up in 5 years. Huskies need to see a fresh face in the NC game, or maybe they can agree to play the games with an arm held behind the back.

Among casual fans it's likely they don't care to see UCONN win another NC, but at least part of the ratings drop is influenced by the fans of the two schools in the title game. In this case, your average ND fan is a football fan only, unless you're an alum. Even among them, I suspect most of them pay attention to football and not much else. Even the men's BB fans at ND, which made a deep tournament run this season, were dwarfed by the turnout from other schools at the Final Four, which took place in their own home state. It's a football school, and all other sports come in as a very distant second and below. You probably could have walked into most sports bars in South Bend and not be forced to elbow anybody out of your way to see the UCONN vs. ND final.

 

[nd2tty]

Keeping the strength of the out-of-conference schedule the same, or even a little better than in the past is insufficient to maintain UCONN'S current level of prominence and visibility. Now that we are exiled in the AAC, our in-conference SOS will always be bad --the team will have only South Florida to keep it awake in January and February.

That makes it more urgent that the OOC schedule be as strong as possible. Geno is doing his best, but the task is increasingly difficult.

Disagree.

Visibility: UConn's visibility is a function of its 10 NCs. Only when they begin to lose, and continue to lose, will their position in the AAC hurt their visibility.

Prominence: UConn is 2 for 2 in NCs since joining the AAC. Unless something drastic changes in Geno's practice philosophy and his game score/effort/goals philosophy, that prominence is not going to decline simply because of the AAC. It doesn't matter how many cupcake teams you are playing in January and February if practice is harder than 95% of all teams you could play.

 

[j66kicker]

Either other programs will reach the bar Geno has set or the coaches will continue to get fat making money on their overpaid contracts without delivering a championship. Geno has it right. If you hate us so much, try to beat us. Eventually the UCLA,Celtics,Yankees and Canadiens dynasties ended. We have the right to enjoy it as long as it lasts. If others tune out, who cares?

Whoa whoa whoa! The Yankees dynasty has not ended - merely a lull in the action....

 

[UConnNick]

Dynasties don't end, unless there's an extended time period of maybe 20+ years with the team being totally non-competitive. They all have their ups and downs in between winning titles. The Canadiens and UCLA are both now 20 years or more removed from winning a title, so they're arguably past the point where they qualify as dynasties anymore. The Yankees, Lakers and Celtics are all still relevant as dynasties because they've all experienced fairly recent successes.

 

[Henry]

Whoa whoa whoa! The Yankees dynasty has not ended - merely a lull in the action....

I'm a Yankee fan. The dynasty was 1949-1964 and 96,98-2000. You can't have a dynasty based on one championship in 14 years. China had a Ming dynasty. What have they won lately?

 

[Padutch5]

I'm a Yankee fan. The dynasty was 1949-1964 and 96,98-2000. You can't have a dynasty based on one championship in 14 years. China had a Ming dynasty. What have they won lately?

I'm surprised no body has mentioned how bad the Bid East was when UCONN first began winning big. I distinctly remember the Tennessee derisive comments about our weak conference the BIgEast responded and I predict the AAC will as well over time, if we stay in that league.

 

[UConnNick]

I'm a Yankee fan. The dynasty was 1949-1964 and 96,98-2000. You can't have a dynasty based on one championship in 14 years. China had a Ming dynasty. What have they won lately?

They're kicking ass economically, exporting low to mediocre quality goods all over the world (i.e. Wal Mart), and we owe them about a zillion dollars in foreign debt. I'd say they're doing pretty good for themselves right about now.

 

[j66kicker]

I'm a Yankee fan. The dynasty was 1949-1964 and 96,98-2000. You can't have a dynasty based on one championship in 14 years. China had a Ming dynasty. What have they won lately?

Well today is the first day of the next dynasty. Yankees up on Red sox 7-0 in the first inning right now.

 

[HuskyNan]

Well today is the first day of the next dynasty. Yankees up on Red sox 7-0 in the first inning right now.

I love Yankees' fans short term memory loss. Yes, they won yesterday but any memory of what happened on Friday and Saturday?

 

[Huskies Rule]

The relentless tsunami of disparaging, negative attacks on the UConn Women's Basketball Program used to bother the hell out of me. Remarks like "UConn fatigue," Evil Empire," "they're killing the game," "they recruit all the best players," and on and on ad nauseum. I took it personally because we UConn fans know how hard our girls work and deserve everything they have accomplished. But I came to realize it was never personal, it was never a hatred of UConn per se, but rather a trifling animus and jealousy that would have been directed at ANY team which achieved the kind of yearly dominance and ascendancy UConn did.

The anti-UConn venom would have been directed squarely and full-force at Notre Dame, had they won 5 of the last 7 National Championships instead of UConn. Or at a South Carolina, Duke, Tennessee or any other team which would have demonstrate such a sustained period of basketball supremacy. [But none of them did, so UConn bears the brunt of the negativity, not because of who we ,but because off what we have accomplished]

I DO think that UConn's extraordinary success has generated lots of enmity, but nothing which should be taken to heart. It's not "us," it's our success they can't stand.
As Michael said, "It ain't personal, Sonny. It's just business." And their enmity is, in fact, the highest possible praise.

 

[j66kicker]

I love Yankees' fans short term memory loss. Yes, they won yesterday but any memory of what happened on Friday and Saturday?

Nope. It has been said many times that a short memory is a characteristic of champions

 

[Bgillon]

The relentless tsunami of disparaging, negative attacks on the UConn Women's Basketball Program used to bother the hell out of me. Remarks like "UConn fatigue," Evil Empire," "they're killing the game," "they recruit all the best players," and on and on ad nauseum. I took it personally because we UConn fans know how hard our girls work and deserve everything they have accomplished. But I came to realize it was never personal, it was never a hatred of UConn per se, but rather a trifling animus and jealousy that would have been directed at ANY team which achieved the kind of yearly dominance and ascendancy UConn did.

The anti-UConn venom would have been directed squarely and full-force at Notre Dame, had they won 5 of the last 7 National Championships instead of UConn. Or at a South Carolina, Duke, Tennessee or any other team which would have demonstrate such a sustained period of basketball supremacy. [But none of them did, so UConn bears the brunt of the negativity, not because of who we ,but because off what we have accomplished]

I DO think that UConn's extraordinary success has generated lots of enmity, but nothing which should be taken to heart. It's not "us," it's our success they can't stand.
As Michael said, "It ain't personal, Sonny. It's just business." And their enmity is, in fact, the highest possible praise.
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Another part of the "venom" directed at UCONN's is because of our coach. By that I mean our coach is a man in the sport of WOMEN'S BB. Secondly, he has a sharp wit, is very smart, can be very frank, and doesn't fear any public forum. Of course he also is an outstanding student of the game of basketball. The result is unprecedented success, envious competitors, and very happy UCONN fans.

 

[Zorro]

What Dobbs said.