Big East Titles or a Final Four

[Jetskies]

(new bball fan here, looking to learn about basketball post-season strategy; plz be kind)

it seems we don't win the big east very often, but we have made it to final fours more than conference crowns since our return.
I assume getting to final four is harder, which makes it strange to me that we haven't won the conference more.

Main Q:

• Would you trade one final four appearance (not a championship, just an appearance, with a loss in the semis or final) for 2-3 big east crowns?

other q's:

• is a conference title pretty worthless in today's college basketball?
• alternatively, has the program elected to just de-prioritize the conference tournament, saving all our chips for march madness? (ie. Dan Hurley treats it as a side-mission/nice-to-have, but does not put his best effort into it, nor does he risk his players beyond a certain level, for a victory)

 

[temery]

Final Four >>>>>> Big East Tournament. Not even a close call.

 

[Jetskies]

Final Four >>>>>> Big East Tournament. Not even a close call.

one-to-one, yes that's a given.

is that true for 3-to-1 or 4-to-1?
and that's B.E.CHAMPIONSHIPS-to-F.F.appearance (not championship) ratio

 

[BFieldHusky]

Final Four >>>>>> Big East Tournament. Not even a close call.

Agree. I would take a Sweet 16 over a Big East Tournament title.

 

[bendm]

I don’t care if we win the BE regular season ever again. The BET is fun but id rather lose in the final and make the sweet 16 than win the BET and lose in the first our second round

 

[FightOnCT]

1. Absolutely

2. No but for our standards it’s less important

3. Somewhat. It’s not that he doesn’t try, it’s that Big East play is inherently different from other high majors. It’s way easier for worse teams to muck up games against better teams so by comparison, UConn appears to struggle more. In reality, most good teams would struggle as well, just aren’t regularly exposed to it.

 

[temery]

I understand this question totally but it does remind me of a post earlier in the week.

This is still cracking me up. "which was more important to this program beating Duke or making the Final Four?" You can't have one without the other.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

Final four. Times have changed for UConn. Big East stuff is still cool, but UConn is an elite program where the final four is always the goal. Big East stuff obviously still needs to happen to set us up which will still happen.

 

[BGesus4]

I understand this question totally but it does remind me of a post earlier in the week.

This is still cracking me up. "which was more important to this program beating Duke or making the Final Four?"

It wasn’t me but in all fairness my mind still isn’t processing things normally since that shot went through the net…. I’m not saying I agree with the headbutt but I understand

 

[king conn]

Big East championships are a nice consolation prize if we don't go deep in the ncaa's

Kind of what St Johns has been celebrating the past two years. They get some milage out of that

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I would trade every big east title for a guaranteed trip to the final four next year

 

[bigdog1002]

Yes to the first question. I don’t care about the Final Four if you don’t win the title. Hurley said it best. They don’t hang banners for Final Fours. Cuse has been to 6 and I’d be making fun of them (more than I already do) if they had never cut down the nets. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice. But I like trophies and rings

 

[ec33]

The worst part of the season is when Big East play begins. The best part of the season is the BET being over and real basketball games to begin to be played again.

But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so it somehow works out for UConn.

 

[That Guy]

I genuinely couldn't care less about a Big East regular season or tourney title so long as the team makes an Elite 8 or better every year.

 

[OceanDoggie]

Final Four all day, but in the old Big East this would be a competitive proposition, especially when it expanded to 16 Teams. Winning the Conference outright and the Tourney was powerful for NCAA seeding. Calhoun really dominated both sides of the Conference in his day.

 

[How Sway?!]

Elite 8 and beyond > BE title

BE Title > S16

Probably conditioned on the fact that I've only seen us win 2 since I became a UConn fan

 

[fatlucy]

I think part of the problem with our Big East play is that we’re bored with it. I don’t think it interests our program/players. We need a better league. Hoping.

 

[upstater]

(new bball fan here, looking to learn about basketball post-season strategy; plz be kind)

it seems we don't win the big east very often, but we have made it to final fours more than conference crowns since our return.
I assume getting to final four is harder, which makes it strange to me that we haven't won the conference more.

Main Q:

• Would you trade one final four appearance (not a championship, just an appearance, with a loss in the semis or final) for 2-3 big east crowns?

other q's:

• is a conference title pretty worthless in today's college basketball?
• alternatively, has the program elected to just de-prioritize the conference tournament, saving all our chips for march madness? (ie. Dan Hurley treats it as a side-mission/nice-to-have, but does not put his best effort into it, nor does he risk his players beyond a certain level, for a victory)

UConn wasn't even in the conference for several years and yet...

 

[Windham4th]

Big East blows now. No one cares who wins it. I remember every nattie but could not tell you one year we won BE regular season title.

 

[boog204]

Nobody remembers who won the BE Tourney. Most everyone remembers a final four team.

 

[RuffRuff]

Big East blows now. No one cares who wins it. I remember every nattie but could not tell you one year we won BE regular season title.

Second that - kinda meaningless achievement honestly, especially these days. Only value is to our seeding in the real tournament. The only team any fun playing the BE these days is StJ. I think I'd rather beat StJ in the reg season that win a BEC over someone not StJ.

I'd give up 5 BE champs for 1 Elite 8.

Michigan just won the natty and lost in the B10CG. No one cares about the B10CG.

 

[SwingDog]

A Final Four is a bigger achievement, but it sure would be nice to win the Big East regular season and conference tournament championships as well. We all know about the THREE goals before the team each season.

 

[REB1094]

Welcome to basketball fandom! It will be a fun ride!

I would rather have 1 Final Four appearance than 10 BE tournament championships and over 100 BE regular season championships. Final Fours live forever. That Elite 8 win against Duke will live in March Madness lore for decades. Nobody will remember any of this year’s conference winners by next spring

Is a conference title worthless? Not at all. If you win conference titles, you are either a really good team or a team that got hot at the right time and made for a fun miracle run. Both important for the tournament

Is Dan Hurley deprioritizing them? No way. Dan Hurley has a mental breakdown if we’re up 30 and the opposing team goes on a 6-0 run. He’s out to win every piece of hardware possible. But if he HAD to choose, I’m sure he’d choose NCAAT success over BE success

 

[twiceahusky]

I think our recent lack of success in the big east tournament coupled with our NCAA tournament success is jading a few folks.

A BE regular season, and more so a BE Tournament championship, will be really fun the next time we do it. Calling it “meaningless” … let’s revisit that when we win one. That’ll be a fun night!

As for bigdog1002’s “I don’t care about the Final Four if you don’t win the title. Hurley said it best. They don’t hang banners for Final Fours.” I feel sorry for you bigdog1002 … a lot of us fans enjoyed the heck out of this season!

 

[Gurleyman]

Super easy for me. I can’t remember a damn thing about the Marquette semifinal loss in 2023 or the win in the finals in 2024 - other than Hawkins sorta had a weak shot to try to tie/win in 2023 and the nice surprise contribution from Stewart in 2024. The St. John’s loss this year I remember the feeling of disappointment in how we played in the context of not looking ready for the big dance. But I don’t remember much about the game.

I’ll always remember the steamroller we put on Gonzaga starting with the AJ pass to Karaban to end the half, the 30-0 run, or the DC Dagger/Swipe and Swish.

There are 35 conference tournaments going on in March, but only 1 final four.

 

[BugsyCT]

Big East titles are nice (regular season or conf tourney) but give me the FF instead any day of the week.

 

[ninety-nine]

I literally have to stop and think with respect to any regular season Big East title UConn has won except for 1990, which was mind-blowing at the time, 1999, and 2024. I know we've finished first a bunch of times, but I'm half-guessing as to which years, based heavily on our seeding in the NCAA tournament. Big East tournaments, I remember winning in 1990, 1996, 2011 and 2024, and I'm sure we won in 1999 (but don't actually remember winning).

Natties, title games and Final Fours require almost no effort to recall. Elite Eights, even Sweet Sixteens, I can also recall pretty easily. That's the barometer we measure ourselves by over the long haul. I want UConn to win the conference title/tournament every now and then just to check that box, but honestly, I wouldn't trade NCAA tournament success for anything in-conference.

 

[UC0NN]

Of course Regular Season and big east titles are extremely important. An elite 8 is worth more than a big east tournament championship. And a sweet 16 is probably marginally better as well.

 

[LetsGoUC]

Don't get me wrong I want a Big East regular/tournament title every year....but a Final Four is the most special and biggest event in the entire sport.

Final 4 all day.

 

[freescooter]

(new bball fan here, looking to learn about basketball post-season strategy; plz be kind)

it seems we don't win the big east very often, but we have made it to final fours more than conference crowns since our return.
I assume getting to final four is harder, which makes it strange to me that we haven't won the conference more.

Main Q:

• Would you trade one final four appearance (not a championship, just an appearance, with a loss in the semis or final) for 2-3 big east crowns?

other q's:

• is a conference title pretty worthless in today's college basketball? YES. Any Team with an NCAA bid in hand should and does treat the league tourney as something nice but not necessary
• alternatively, has the program elected to just de-prioritize the conference tournament, saving all our chips for march madness? (ie. Dan Hurley treats it as a side-mission/nice-to-have, but does not put his best effort into it, nor does he risk his players beyond a certain level, for a victory) I think this is a wise course of action. Imagine if we had had a fully healthy Silas. What if Reed had been injured? Coaches of NCAA contenders should treat the conference tournies as exhibition games. Play starters for 10-15 minutes and bench players the rest.