Bad for the sport?

[Oldbones]

I am a long time listener, first time caller, as they say on talk radio, so please help me out:

U/C Irvine has won four of the last 8 men's Volleyball.. excellence. Penn State women have 6 of 8 women's volleyball. Excellence. Alabama has won three of last five football championships. Excellence. North Carolina has won 23 of 33 women's soccer championships. Excellence. Our very own Trinity dominates squash, more excellence.

UConn women's basketball wins 4 of 6 and 9 of 20 championships. Bad for the sport. Do I have that right?

 

[Sonny44]

Looks like all sports are doomed.

 

[OneTrickPony]

I am a long time listener, first time caller, as they say on talk radio, so please help me out:

U/C Irvine has won four of the last 8 men's Volleyball.. excellence. Penn State women have 6 of 8 women's volleyball. Excellence. Alabama has won three of last five football championships. Excellence. North Carolina has won 23 of 33 women's soccer championships. Excellence. Our very own Trinity dominates squash, more excellence.

UConn women's basketball wins 4 of 6 and 9 of 20 championships. Bad for the sport. Do I have that right?

There is an audience for excellence, and in certain sports it's probably much larger than in others. UCONN's excellence is why I enjoy WCBB.

 

[EricLA]

Those who claim UCONN's dominance is "bad for the sport" are mostly Orange fans who are jealous. But yeah, you are right, there are those who say it is bad for the sport.

 

[HGN]

WINNING is never bad for a sport....Losing is what is to be avoided. Whenever a sport is seemingly dominated by one school , or is a consistent winner , it is up to the competing schools to 'step up' .

 

[RockyMTblue2]

WINNING is never bad for a sport....Losing is what is to be avoided. Whenever a sport is seemingly dominated by one school , or is a consistent winner , it is up to the competing schools to 'step up' .

Take the East Carolina coach. Post game she said the experience was a measuring stick and she and her team got a lesson in where they had to head to become one of the elite teams. She was realistic enough to acknowledge there was a recruiting component in the equation. That is the tough nut in achieving a break through. I'm convinced there would be a whole lot more 4 and 5 star recruits around if the quality of coaching, both HS and club/AAU improved.

 

[HuskyNan]

Take the East Carolina coach. Post game she said the experience was a measuring stick and she and her team got a lesson in where they had to head to become one of the elite teams. She was realistic enough to acknowledge there was a recruiting component in the equation. That is the tough nut in achieving a break through. I'm convinced there would be a whole lot more 4 and 5 star recruits around if the quality of coaching, both HS and club/AAU improved.

I was impressed with the ECU coach's comment. She simply acknowledged where the team - and she - needed to improve without throwing anyone under the bus.

Postgame quotes
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...stgame_quotes/postgame_quotes_20141231aaa.pdf

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Wow, Nan. Heather Macy is a keeper. Easy on the eyes and smart. I loved her: "I think I need to be running practice and our three assistants need to be on the road getting to an elite level in our recruiting." Thanks for sharing.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I am a long time listener, first time caller, as they say on talk radio, so please help me out:

U/C Irvine has won four of the last 8 men's Volleyball.. excellence. Penn State women have 6 of 8 women's volleyball. Excellence. Alabama has won three of last five football championships. Excellence. North Carolina has won 23 of 33 women's soccer championships. Excellence. Our very own Trinity dominates squash, more excellence.

UConn women's basketball wins 4 of 6 and 9 of 20 championships. Bad for the sport. Do I have that right?

I'm not sure those are all apt comparisons, and I don't even think anyone has claimed UConn winning, per se, is what is bad for the sport. It is the total dominance that some think is bad, and I'm not sure similar remarks weren't heard regarding Penn State when they were dominant. They were not dominant this season, just the best team at the end. Likewise UNC hasn't been "dominant" for some time. Men's Volleyball is somewhat different, there is a very small pool of schools that play volleyball.

I have no problem with UConn winning championships, but I don't like it when NO ONE can step up and even challenge them to a good game. I also - on the other hand - don't understand how anyone can "blame" UConn - or Penn State, or North Carolina, or UC Irvine - for being good. It is incumbent always on the other teams to get better.

 

[HuskyNan]

I'm not sure those are all apt comparisons, and I don't even think anyone has claimed UConn winning, per se, is what is bad for the sport. It is the total dominance that some think is bad, and I'm not sure similar remarks weren't heard regarding Penn State when they were dominant. They were not dominant this season, just the best team at the end. Likewise UNC hasn't been "dominant" for some time. Men's Volleyball is somewhat different, there is a very small pool of schools that play volleyball.

I have no problem with UConn winning championships, but I don't like it when NO ONE can step up and even challenge them to a good game. I also - on the other hand - don't understand how anyone can "blame" UConn - or Penn State, or North Carolina, or UC Irvine - for being good. It is incumbent always on the other teams to get better.

Lin Dunn ‏@coachlindunn 1h
@debbieantonelli @CAROLYNPECK Conn dominating CWBBall not good for our game, Why dont we have 4- 5 teams at top who can beat each other!?

 

[tomcat]

I think you'll find there are standard-setters in all sorts of sports, and you're right: No one ever suggests they are bad for the sport. UConn has raised the WCBB bar many times, and it's done the sport a world of good. It is hard to know whether those who claim this dominance is bad for the sport are media types simply trying to be controversial, or whether they actually believe it, but they're just wrong. Mediocrity never got a sport anywhere, and the proof of how good UCOnn is for the sport is the fact that (unless I have my facts wrong) a disproportionate nuymber of the games people want to see involve UConn.

 

[tomcat]

Thank you, Nan, for researching what I could not remember. But Peck, idiot that she is, Antonielli and Dunn are not saying UCOnn should not be so good. They are saying that there are at least 4 or 5 others that should be as good. You know what? They're right. Why isn't Duke as good as UCOnn? They should be. Stanford most years is close. Tennessee should be, if their coaching staff would enter the 20th century. Notre Dame comes close lots of years. Why shouldn't there be others, like Texas, which is making a full-court press now, or SC?

 

[meyers7]

I am a long time listener, first time caller, as they say on talk radio, so please help me out:

U/C Irvine has won four of the last 8 men's Volleyball.. excellence. Penn State women have 6 of 8 women's volleyball. Excellence. Alabama has won three of last five football championships. Excellence. North Carolina has won 23 of 33 women's soccer championships. Excellence. Our very own Trinity dominates squash, more excellence.

UConn women's basketball wins 4 of 6 and 9 of 20 championships. Bad for the sport. Do I have that right?

Yes, that is correct.

 

[Aluminny69]

Off on a tangent here, but boy, UConn's recruiting class 0f 2012 (Stewart, Tuck, Jefferson), holy cow. Three AA. Nobody else comes close.

 

[Wonkster]

C'mon, folks -- isn't it pretty obvious where the problem lies? Women's basketball just doesn't have enough great coaches. Think of where Duke would be if they had a clone of Muffet McGraw on the bench.

Too many AD's are content to hire mediocrities as head coaches for women's basketball.

 

[UcMiami]

Agree about the ECU coach - I liked her comments and I thought she managed her overwhelmed team well - I even liked the T she got during the game - might as well go out fighting for your team. And the half court defense was not bad - unlike Duke they were not giving up wide open looks from 3. They got slaughtered in transition and in sort of 'secondary' break situations, but when they were set, they were very active.

 

[Striper69]

WCBB teams are all pretty much on an even playing field. It's not like the same players keep playing year in and year out.

UCONN is just better than everyone else right now (coaching staff etc). The other schools simply need to catch up.

 

[Aluminny69]

WCBB teams are all pretty much on an even playing field. It's not like the same players keep playing year in and year out.

UCONN is just better than everyone else right now (coaching staff etc). The other schools simply need to catch up.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.


Yogi Berra

 

[Wonkster]

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.


Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra? Maybe, maybe not. According to Berra himself, half of the expressions attributed to him are fake.

 

[DobbsRover2]

I think you'll find there are standard-setters in all sorts of sports, and you're right: No one ever suggests they are bad for the sport. UConn has raised the WCBB bar many times, and it's done the sport a world of good. It is hard to know whether those who claim this dominance is bad for the sport are media types simply trying to be controversial, or whether they actually believe it, but they're just wrong. Mediocrity never got a sport anywhere, and the proof of how good UCOnn is for the sport is the fact that (unless I have my facts wrong) a disproportionate nuymber of the games people want to see involve UConn.

UConn has played four away games this year, and ECU and ND both got a 500+ boost of attendance over the usual, for Stanford it was 1800+, and for UC Davis it was an astronomical 3800+ over the usual 930, and in fact the attendance from the UConn game is a thousand more than all the other UC Davis home games combined.

If the main issue is indeed putting eyeballs in the seats and on the couch, UConn is very good for the game.

 

[RadyLady]

UConn has played four away games this year, and ECU and ND both got a 500+ boost of attendance over the usual, for Stanford it was 1800+, and for UC Davis it was an astronomical 3800+ over the usual 930, and in fact the attendance from the UConn game is a thousand more than all the other UC Davis home games combined.

If the main issue is indeed putting eyeballs in the seats and on the couch, UConn is very good for the game.

Indeed this is not an uncommon occurrence so one could say that even these cupcake teams (hate to use that phrase) benefit through attendance having hosting the UConn team, and if you have a smart coach such as ECU you're going to see in improved team each time around and that's all good for the game. The downside is of course the fans that flock to these games to come away taking a very negative look at their team and don't come back and support them in other games. Have to take the good with the bad.

 

[Aluminny69]

Yogi Berra? Maybe, maybe not. According to Berra himself, half of the expressions attributed to him are fake.

To be precise, Yogi said "I really didn't say everything I said!" Or did he?

 

[j66kicker]

Yogi Berra? Maybe, maybe not. According to Berra himself, half of the expressions attributed to him are fake.

This particular "theory/practice" saying has been attributed to Albert Einstein and others

 

[BigBird]

John Wooden's career at UCLA wasn't exactly bad for MCBB. It can be well argued that it was his and his teams' excellence that created a much bigger total audience and interest in the game. In the 60's, UCLA was either the team you liked because they were so darned good, or you disliked them because you wanted to see someone slay the giant.

Geno and UConn are very good for WCBB. I have no doubt.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Indeed this is not an uncommon occurrence so one could say that even these cupcake teams (hate to use that phrase) benefit through attendance having hosting the UConn team, and if you have a smart coach such as ECU you're going to see in improved team each time around and that's all good for the game. The downside is of course the fans that flock to these games to come away taking a very negative look at their team and don't come back and support them in other games. Have to take the good with the bad.

Hard to say if fans get turned off from attendance after watching their teams get blasted by UConn. The stats show that the attendance just reverts to normal levels in home games after UConn comes through. The major factor about UConn for all the AAC teams is simply that UConn provides a huge boost in their attendance figures, with anywhere from 3 to 6 times as many fans than usual thronging in for the Huskies.

Last year despite being such a loathed conference by many on the BY, the AAC teams had the fourth best attendance figures, beating out the ACC and PAC. With Louisville (and Rutgers to a much lesser extent) taking its conference-leading attendance to the ACC, the AAC attendance will take a hit. However, some of last year's AAC teams like UCF are already way up this year even before UConn rolls in, and of the newbies, Tulsa is already well up and Tulane a little under in home attendance before UConn provides its spike, and following the UConn game ECU is running at more than 3 times last year's level, and even the Pirates' non-UConn games are 2 1/2 times above last year.

There's some hope for AAC conference attendance as the UConn train gets rolling.