Borges: Is Providence College becoming heated rival for UConn men’s basketball team? Depends on who you ask | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Borges: Is Providence College becoming heated rival for UConn men’s basketball team? Depends on who you ask

McLovin said:
The more time we spend thinking about and discussing them, the more we are willing this “rivalry” into existence.

I think the hallmark sign of a rival is how much head space they take up.
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In this case we’re responding to an article that asked the question and for the most part answering it with “ Providence? Meh.” There isn’t even a lot of passion about people saying that they’re not our rival, which is a pretty telling indicator. What these “who is our arrival?“ threads are really about is the fact that in our current circumstances we don’t have one. That may not always be the case, but it is now.
 
AntG168 said:
What a terrible comparison lmao. The Sox/Yanks rivalry goes back to babe Ruth and the world wars
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Maybe a terrible comparison but I do appreciate his point especially living in Western Mass these days.
 
The most amazing thing about this thread is, unless I missed something, there isn't any of the Friar fans who visit on occasion throwing their 2 cents in. I find that hard to believe.
 
M.S.G. said:
I responded to Dave's tweet, for me it's the insipid PC fans that I know in real life who talk like they're a blue blood.. It just makes my blood boil.

It's not 1998 or 2007 anymore, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown are not our rivals. Villanova is the closest thing, but uh, we need to beat them a few more times to claim it.

PC is our rival, we have been beaten out for recruits by them, we've lost players off our roster to them, and we've lost games to them (and beaten them) in the past 2 years being back in the conference. They are our biggest rival currently.
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Drytortugas said:
We’re not willing them into being a rival, they already are one. We’re simply refusing to grace them with that title.
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McLovin said:
The more time we spend thinking about and discussing them, the more we are willing this “rivalry” into existence.

I think the hallmark sign of a rival is how much head space they take up.
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The side effects of NIL and mercenary transfer portal are being felt among a minority of UCONN fans. Providence can never be a real rival. This narrative is being pushed by desperate Providence fans, and foolhardy UCONN fans who want us to deny our great history with our real rivals: Syracuse and Pitt , in order to accommodate ourselves in the present by creating imaginary rivalries like Providence or Seton Hall.

Providence has a rival called URI.

In order to be a rival there has to be 4 components: history, envied success, coach/program you hate, and respect. Providence does not have any of those components to qualify among the UCONN fanbase.

Who in their right mind gets excited about UCONN playing Providence. It's just another game for us. As fans, we used to get excited about playing against Syracuse and Pitt.

PS: Being in the same conference matters a lot for developing rivalries, but can be mitigated if you scheduled yearly if your rival(s) happen to play somewhere else.
 
M.S.G. said:
PC is our rival, we have been beaten out for recruits by them...
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Which recruits have we lost out to them? Don't say Makai Ashton-Langford, which didn't work out for them anyway. Don't say Kris Dunn. Ollie specifically said he didn't recruit him because we had Shabazz and Boatright. And don't say Ryan Gomes. UConn didn't recruit him.
 
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MOST PLAYED OPPONENTS

Historically the top three most played opponents for both UConn and PC:

UConn
#1 URI | 145 games | UConn leads 77-68
#2 New Hampshire | 119 games | UConn leads 94-25
#3 UMass | 108 games | UConn leads 69-39

PC
#1 URI | 131 games | PC leads 75-56
#2 Brown | 124 games | PC leads 96-28
#3 St John's | 120 games | St John's leads 64-56

UConn and Providence have met in just 75 games with UConn leading 46-29. It seems the schools rarely played much before the creation of the Big East having only 12 meetings prior to 1980.
 
Drytortugas said:
We’re not willing them into being a rival, they already are one. We’re simply refusing to grace them with that title.
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That's what bothering me here. The UConn fans giving PC the same treatment Cuse fans have given us over the years. I'll be damned if I'm using Cuse fans as my role model.
 
I'm a PC alum from Connecticut that grew up a UConn fan when the program transitioned from a regional program to a national power. A "rivalry" can be established for a number of reasons. Certainly the pedigree of UConn's program is far superior to Providence's. But to ignore geographic proximity and conference alignment is ignorant in my opinion. I also find it fascinating- perhaps an indication of the age of some of these posters, that Pitt is an overwhelming choice as a "rival" because an intense, but short window. Syracuse makes sense- even though they're in the ACC now. Georgetown makes sense. Pitt does not to me. Perhaps its a bias, but people seem to ignore the massive success of the PC program in the 60s and 70s. It was by far the best program in New England back then and competed nationally and produced several top 3 overall NBA draft picks. Times change. Programs rise and fall. The collective on here can childishly dismiss PC as an irrelevant program or you could acknowledge that programs can become dumpster fires fairly quickly (see Syracuse, Georgetown, etc.) and heed that warning as you have a petulant child as your head coach. I respect the hell out of the UConn program. I was hoping your experience moving to the AAC and becoming insignificant would have brought more humility. As for PC, Cooley has them on the right track but the school will never finance the program enough to make it a national power. So if you are basing a rivalry strictly on national pedigree, PC will never be a rival to UConn. I for one, look forward to every UConn PC game because they're usually intense. As far as school rivals go, BC was by far the biggest rival across all sports when I was an undergraduate student there. Times change.
 
Our greatest rivals in basketball rotated between Georgetown, Syracuse, Villanova, St. John's. Artest, Barkley, Postell, Thornton, Lopez, Hamilton. SJU had quite a run there during our first national championship team era. The rivalry was so heated that coach Jarvis moved the games to midweek because UCONN owned MSG on the weekends. PC never reached that level but who knows.
 
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August_West said:
I was thinking more like its like UConn creating the civil ConFLiCT


You really have to work for that ratio. I'm a fan.
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For the record UConn did not create the civil ConFLiCT. That was the lunatic Diaco. I sometimes wonder if it was secretly a world-class troll. Probably not, but that hideous trophy does make me wonder about it.
 
DirkDiggler said:
I'm a PC alum from Connecticut that grew up a UConn fan when the program transitioned from a regional program to a national power. A "rivalry" can be established for a number of reasons. Certainly the pedigree of UConn's program is far superior to Providence's. But to ignore geographic proximity and conference alignment is ignorant in my opinion. I also find it fascinating- perhaps an indication of the age of some of these posters, that Pitt is an overwhelming choice as a "rival" because an intense, but short window. Syracuse makes sense- even though they're in the ACC now. Georgetown makes sense. Pitt does not to me. Perhaps its a bias, but people seem to ignore the massive success of the PC program in the 60s and 70s. It was by far the best program in New England back then and competed nationally and produced several top 3 overall NBA draft picks. Times change. Programs rise and fall. The collective on here can childishly dismiss PC as an irrelevant program or you could acknowledge that programs can become dumpster fires fairly quickly (see Syracuse, Georgetown, etc.) and heed that warning as you have a petulant child as your head coach. I respect the hell out of the UConn program. I was hoping your experience moving to the AAC and becoming insignificant would have brought more humility. As for PC, Cooley has them on the right track but the school will never finance the program enough to make it a national power. So if you are basing a rivalry strictly on national pedigree, PC will never be a rival to UConn. I for one, look forward to every UConn PC game because they're usually intense. As far as school rivals go, BC was by far the biggest rival across all sports when I was an undergraduate student there. Times change.
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This whole thread bores me.
 
We don't have any rivals anymore. It used to be Cuse, but they're not in the BE anymore and we don't play them in non-conference much either. It could've been Villanova going forward, but with Jay Wright retiring who knows what state that program will be in. As for Providence...don't make me laugh!
 
BTW, the Civil ConFLiCT was a fun idea. UCF sucks.
 
auror said:
Syracuse has historically had a bigger rivalry with Georgetown than us, so we're a secondary rival. But we think of them as perhaps our primary rival. We have other primary rivals, but PC fans think of us as a primary rival.
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Don’t you actually have to play someone to be a rival?
 
righteous tune.
u people should dance more.


righteous movie. the bandit won an oscar for it.
 
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I consider Xavier more of a rival than PC currently after the epic game in Charleston right before we rejoined and a bunch of good games after we’ve been back in.
 
Dream Jobbed 2.0 said:
I consider Xavier more of a rival than PC currently after the epic game in Charleston right before we rejoined and a bunch of good games after we’ve been back in.
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An army of one
 
You can’t just fabricate rivalries.
Two things needed. Some historical bad blood and sustained period (10 to 15) years where both teams finished top 2 80% of the time for some achievement. (Best in State, best in New England, best in conference).
Dukey V was pushing that big time with UMass (Cal vs Cal) but UMass couldn’t sustain - I’d say there biggest rival was Temple.
And Nova? No bad blood - it’s hard to hate Jay.
I think our biggest potential rival aside from Syracuse is Boston College. If they ever came back in the Big East we would cry foul and absolutely hate them. And if they competed for titles it would really blow up. What a blast that would be.
 
I've seen a few comments on kids not having ever played some of the schools listed as rivals (which is a fair point) but I don't believe that we will have anyone on the roster this upcoming season who has played PC as many times as we've played Creighton or Xavier.
 
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NH Husky said:
You can’t just fabricate rivalries.
Two things needed. Some historical bad blood and sustained period (10 to 15) years where both teams finished top 2 80% of the time for some achievement. (Best in State, best in New England, best in conference).
Dukey V was pushing that big time with UMass (Cal vs Cal) but UMass couldn’t sustain - I’d say there biggest rival was Temple.
And Nova? No bad blood - it’s hard to hate Jay.
I think our biggest potential rival aside from Syracuse is Boston College. If they ever came back in the Big East we would cry foul and absolutely hate them. And if they competed for titles it would really blow up. What a blast that would be.
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I absolutely hate BC no matter which conference they are a member. They are not a rival. If they came back to the Big East it would be because the ACC threw them out and took UConn.
 
CL82 said:
Somewhat. To have a true rivalry I think there also has to be a case where teams are perceived as winning meaningful victories. Providence really hasn’t done that. To be honest, other than this year‘s COVID assisted run, they really haven’t done much since Ernie DiGregorio.

So, for me at least, Providence is a collective “meh.” I want to win the games we play against them because they are a conference opponent, but that certainly not different then other conference teams. They aren’t a date I would circle on the schedule. The fact that it is for Providence fans is… nice for them, I guess.
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I agree. I don’t see why some fans are so ready to create a PC rivalry out of thin air. When was the last regular season or BE tournament semi or championship game that we played vs PC?
They got better because the old BE blew up and most of the big dogs like Cuse, Pitt, and us moved on.
Now that we’re back, maybe a rivalry happens. But to think that right now PC is anywhere close to being a rival because we had a big crowd at home last year is ludicrous. Give it a couple of years maybe, but all you PC lurkers need to accept you are, and always will be, little brother. Prove me wrong.
 
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