Can Uconn learn from Gonzaga? | The Boneyard

Can Uconn learn from Gonzaga?

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At least for the forseeable future, Uconn is "stuck" in the aac as some would view it. Or, they are in the aac, period.

Instead of griping about it, does a team like Gonzaga provide some kind of blueprint for success when outside of the P5?

Can they learn from teams like St. Joes in 2003-04 (27-0 regular season, elite 8) or GW (26-1 in 2006) or WSU who brought a 34-0 record into the tourney a few years back. Or how cincy dominated the conference usa for years. And so on with these kinds of examples. All of these teams did amazing jobs in less than traditional ways.

Or is it not possible, perhaps St. Joes/GW just had a perfect storm and something like that is nearly impossible to emulate or at least unlikely. What can Uconn look at in regards to coaching technique, strategy and recruiting certain players to try and have similar success in the aac moving forward...Because lets be honest, the way these teams have achieved great things is for sure different (not in a bad way) from how a strong power 5 team might do things.
 

pepband99

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At least for the forseeable future, Uconn is "stuck" in the aac as some would view it. Or, they are in the aac, period.

Instead of griping about it, does a team like Gonzaga provide some kind of blueprint for success when outside of the P5?

Can they learn from teams like St. Joes in 2003-04 (27-0 regular season, elite 8) or GW (26-1 in 2006) or WSU who brought a 34-0 record into the tourney a few years back. Or how cincy dominated the conference usa for years. And so on with these kinds of examples. All of these teams did amazing jobs in less than traditional ways.

Or is it not possible, perhaps St. Joes/GW just had a perfect storm and something like that is nearly impossible to emulate or at least unlikely. What can Uconn look at in regards to coaching technique, strategy and recruiting certain players to try and have similar success in the aac moving forward...Because lets be honest, the way these teams have achieved great things is for sure different (not in a bad way) from how a strong power 5 team might do things.

The answer is yes - if we have designs on being a small potatoes AD like the schools you mention, we can go "all in" on basketball, and try.
 
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The problem is other than Gonzaga, there has been no sustained national successs. Yes, St Joes and GW are nice programs which will dance at times. But so we were a nice little program in the old Yankee Conference. The clock is ticking
 
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UConn can do that. Keep in mind that the AAC is a much better league than those you mentioned. If UConn becomes UConn again, the AAC is about at the same level as the SEC, or maybe the Pac 12. It was only about 4-5 years ago that the Pac 12 should have been a one bid league. More than anything, the fact that UConn is not living up to it's status as flagship is what's hurting this league. Get UConn, and Memphis back on track, and this is a solid P5 level league, well above the A10 or WCC.
 

Edward Sargent

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This makes my head hurt. What are we learning? It seems like you can learn the same thing from those teams as you could from any team ever - recruit good players and win with them. The conference has no baring on how good your team is once they're on campus.
Thank you
 
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Just a question guys. Just a question.

Was not sure if Uconn could glean something from those programs and of course expand upon it in p5 type of ways for the prolonged success portion. Just trying to be open minded.
 
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Yes, they can learn how to never get past the Elite 8.
Listen, I just figured rather than complain like some people on here, to try to at least think of a possible solution, even if it seems a bit outlandish. I never said that (bold) and you know it. What is the point of offering nothing in response? I still think Uconn could they take certain things from other programs like a gonzaga and try to improve upon it. Of course improve upon it.

But I love how some of these programs have a knack for finding those unheralded players, the diamonds in the rough and really developing them into solid 4 year contributors. I think Uconns path to future success hinges less on those 1 and done or 2 and done types who are likely to bolt to the nba as soon as a glimmer of success is experienced in college and more on finding that real diamond in the rough or two and learning how to better develop them. "Elite 8 and out" or not, these teams are doing some nice things and I do think Uconn could take a page from them, use the "Uconn way" to advance it and that could help to prolong the program and bring it back to success. But hey, maybe not being close minded is not the way to go.

The answer is yes - if we have designs on being a small potatoes AD like the schools you mention, we can go "all in" on basketball, and try.
Why do they have to go small potatoes? I never mentioned NOT focusing on football, as that is the key to Uconns prolonged success as an athletic hot spot. But it does not mean something can not be gleaned from other smaller basketball schools at the same time. The two are NOT mutually exclusive...
 
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This makes my head hurt. What are we learning? It seems like you can learn the same thing from those teams as you could from any team ever - recruit good players and win with them. The conference has no baring on how good your team is once they're on campus.

UConn has the budget, facilities, media, recruiting area, history and fanbase to win. Conference affiliation is a very minor handicap.
 

Drew

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UConn has the budget, facilities, media, recruiting area, history and fanbase to win. Conference affiliation is a very minor handicap.
this. all of this, in basketball, is much more important.
 
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How many "One and Done's" has Gonzaga had over the years?

Maybe this is one thing we can learn, stop wasting valuable recruiting resources chasing the Kentucky one and done's who aren't likely to come here anyway, and even if they do come here their impact is nill (Andre Drummond).

To this point did Ollie pass on Issac Vann because he was chasing Diallo? Vann could have contributed here the next three years.
 
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The AAC is terrible. 2 top 20 teams and 2 other top 100

The PAc-12 has 3 top 15 teams and 4 other top 100

The SEC has 2 top 10 teams and 9 other top 100 teams

UConn can do that. Keep in mind that the AAC is a much better league than those you mentioned. If UConn becomes UConn again, the AAC is about at the same level as the SEC, or maybe the Pac 12. It was only about 4-5 years ago that the Pac 12 should have been a one bid league. More than anything, the fact that UConn is not living up to it's status as flagship is what's hurting this league. Get UConn, and Memphis back on track, and this is a solid P5 level league, well above the A10 or WCC.
 
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UConn has the budget, facilities, media, recruiting area, history and fanbase to win. Conference affiliation is a very minor handicap.
Agree 100%. One thing, the seven other programs in this league that are somewhat competitive have a lot of players coming back next year, so the conference schedule is not going to be as easy as it was this year. The league really needs to take care of business in the ooc portion of the schedule, in order to put itself in position to receive more than 2 or 3 bids, and to get more teams in the rankings. To me, it's a key year in determining what the conference will be in the near future. It won't hurt if Cincy, and SMU make some noise next month either. Houston needs to win today in order to maintain any hope for an at large bid.
 
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The AAC is terrible. 2 top 20 teams and 2 other top 100

The PAc-12 has 3 top 15 teams and 4 other top 100

The SEC has 2 top 10 teams and 9 other top 100 teams
What would the AAC look like if UConn, and Memphis were pulling their weight? UConn should always be in the Top 15, and Memphis the Top 25. Have that happen, and it's a different league. Keep in mind that UConn and Memphis being down pulls down the RPI of the teams they play. Having four Top 25 teams lifts the RPI of the other teams.
 

intlzncster

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UConn has the budget, facilities, media, recruiting area, history and fanbase to win. Conference affiliation is a very minor handicap.

That's understating the situation by a fair bit. Both who you play and TV and talking head promotion are a huge recruiting tools.
 
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My worst nightmare is literally UConn being the "East Coast Gonzaga."

This is what people were afraid of 4 years ago. At this point, we'd take that in a heartbeat.

Look around. Right now we're the east coast Butler or SDSU or Wichita State and not trending in the right direction.
 
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This is what people were afraid of 4 years ago. At this point, we'd take that in a heartbeat.

Look around. Right now we're the east coast Butler or SDSU or Wichita State and not trending in the right direction.

No we aren't. We just had a top 5 Recruiting Class a year ago and a solid one coming in. We had one of those "injury bug seasons" that happen out of the blue. This team will be a preseason top 25 team next year. Our prospects are much better than those of Butler, SDSU, and Wichita State.

If we look like this two seasons from now, I will apologize and agree.
 
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This is what people were afraid of 4 years ago. At this point, we'd take that in a heartbeat.

Look around. Right now we're the east coast Butler or SDSU or Wichita State and not trending in the right direction.

I actually think you're a good poster, despite your rep. But you read posts like this and go, "what the hell is this guy talking about?" and you understand why people write off some of your posts.
 
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No we aren't. We just had a top 5 Recruiting Class a year ago and a solid one coming in. We had one of those "injury bug seasons" that happen out of the blue. This team will be a preseason top 25 team next year. Our prospects are much better than those of Butler, SDSU, and Wichita State.

If we look like this two seasons from now, I will apologize and agree.

Over the past 3 years, including this one:

Butler - 2 NCAAT appearances, 2 NCAAT wins, plus projected as a #3 seed by Lunardi for 2017
SDSU - 1 NCAAT appearance, 1 NCAAT win
Wichita State - 2 NCAAT appearances, 3 NCAAT wins (plus 1st Four), plus projected as a #8 seed by Lunardi for 2017

Over that same 3 year period, we match SDSU and are outclassed by the other two. These have been our peers over the last 3 years.

Going forward, we'll see. Better than this year? Of course. Perennially ranked and the class of our mid-major conference (i.e. our expectations for this program as of a few years ago)? Remains to be seen.
 

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