For what it’s worth, I think that UMass being good is a good thing for UConn, but it needs more than wishful thinking for it to happen. if Massachusetts makes an investment in itself such that its programs are competitive, then, and only then, I think they would be a good add to the Big East.
UCF football is the prime example of a team getting upgraded and running with it. USF fans must be in agony seeing them get upgraded to the B12. It would actually be much easier for UMASS to do the same thing in basketball if they were ever upgraded to the Big East, especially with the portal.
LOL, you might as well say UConn and Providence will block Central Connecticut from joining the Big East. It’s an easy statement to make, because neither school is even remotely close to being a suitable candidate.
UCF is the exception, not the rule. Houston basketball excelled because they happened to have made a home run hire of a candidate that was P5 quality but had been exiled for what now appears to be silly infractions. Otherwise, having watched some Houston games in recent years there are not many fans that fill that arena which follows my initial point that generally if there are no fans, there will continue to be few fans unless Kansas or Texas come to town in the case of Houston. Here are photos of their senior night where they celebrated 4 seniors graduating and winning the AAC regular season crown, no one is there. Terrible. galleries
I definitely think they give Kansas a long hard look. I’m not so sure that they would take West Virginia since they have never seriously considered them.
You were right until they took Louisville - now anyone can get in the club hahaha
Somewhat agree, although I think there is considerable buyers remorse about Louisville, which is understandable.
It definitely was "buy high". They also really seem to have gotten off lightly considering what happened with the men's basketball team... or at least, they could have been punished a lot more than they did. I didn't look it up but I am aware they had to forfeit a title.. I wonder how their overall punishment was compared to "too many text messages from Beau Archibald" and "transfer outs getting bad grades".
Pittsburgh doesn’t care about Pitt. No one does. They are the proverbial tree in the forest.
Was the 40k attendance or tickets distributed?
That's my point. Almost EVERY Pitt home game I have seen on TV or pics of, shows a half empty stadium (or worse). If they averaged 40k last year in the stands I'd eat my hat. Anyone can look it up - look at the pics of the UMass, Western Michigan, New Hampshire, etc etc games. No way no how they averaged 40k last year.
I doubt Jim Calhoun would’ve come to Connecticut if we weren’t in the Big East. He talked with Bobby Knight about the job and, if I recall correctly, Knights advice to him was to take it because the Big East was a “coaches conference“ rather than a “institution conference” like the Big Ten.