Column: Matt Burke: UConn men's basketball is no longer 'big-time' | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Column: Matt Burke: UConn men's basketball is no longer 'big-time'

Ricky S'moore said:
The AAC is what is killing us. This guy alerts to it's presence in the article...

The Big East was our life blood. Not only was it quality competition, with ranked or quality teams usually compromising 1/2-3/4 the conference, but they were also storied rivalries which got people excited. PC may not have been great every year, but they always played us well and made for exciting basketball. Not only are the AAC teams mostly trash, there is no other emotional connection to the match ups to get fans in the stands. In the past I may have picked a Syracuse game over the Giants, but certainly not to watch us play UCF. Burke is absolutely right on that respect.

Even worse than being in the AAC may be having our games broadcast by CBS Sports Network. I live in NYC and the channel is not carried by TWC or Fios in their standard package. You have to either buy up to their overall sports package and pay for like the Longhorn Network, hope a friend actually has said package, or go to a bar and watch it. Casual college basketball fans are not 1) paying for that , 2) schlep it however far it is to their friends' place to watch it, or 3) being at/spending money at a bar at 9pm to watch UConn/Temple. I'll admit there are times I do not care for any of the three options on a Monday night and I'll flick on whatever game is on ESPN/ESPN2 (getting the updates on Twitter of course). Imagine how many non-UConn fans are doing this exact same thing and never getting to see one of our games/our brand.

KO has his faults for sure. The players seem to barely improve as the year(s?) goes on and flat out don't come ready to play way more often than not; however I think even if we brought in a Brad Stevens (at the time) or an Archie Miller (now) that our conference affiliation is much more of a drag on the program than the coach's coaching ability.

NoEscalators or A Dime Back would slap me for this, but I'd gladly euthanize football to get back to the Big East - these days we're left begging the Big 12 for acceptance or hoping Louisville get's it's accreditation stripped. At the very least, get our basketball out of the AAC.
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I thought the contract for the AAC is with ESPN and they sell some of their games to CBS. I doubt this game would be on the CBS network if UConn had started out strongly.

The Big East is hooked up with Fox Sports Network which is comparable to CBS Sports Network. Several teams in the AAC have hired decent coaches so I expect this conference to leap over the SEC and the Big 12 in the near future in basketball. As far as rivalries that's the major loss for UConn with conference realignment. Playing Georgetown, St. Johns, Syracuse, Providence, Boston College, Nova was a lot of fun. Distance kill rivalries without a doubt.

Totally disagree with you about your assessment of KO. We saw a significant improvement in play with Bazz, Boatright, Kromah, DD and Niels in the two years they played for KO. Jalen has improved significantly last year to this. Same with Kentan. It's too easy to not factor in the apr regarding KO's first years of recruiting. Nor to eliminate bad luck. I'm hoping for a full recovery in Gilbert and Durham. They can be special players. I'm hoping Rodney and Amida build on this last game. Rodney was consistently good the last third of last season. Amida has not demonstrated a long streak of playing consistently well/

The AAC has had teams in the top twenty in football the past few years. That is critical in separating the AAC from the remainder of the G5. BB only conferences have even less margin of error than the AAC conference.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
No, I said that if our program continues falling off the map nationally, we will struggle to land the top 20-40 guys in addition to having no shot at the top 10.

I did not say that failing to land top 10 guys means we'll soon fail to land top 20-40 (though it is undeniably true that landing top 10 guys, e.g. Diallo, would have buoyed our national reputation).
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we've been pretty much viewed the same since 2014, good program in an iffy conference. its not 'getting worst and worst'. Despite what asterisks you add, last year getting to the tourney and winning a game was a big deal. oh and KO is already zeroing in on a number of high end 2018 prospects, his ability to recruit isn't going anywhere. Are you preparing for him to miss out on guys in 2019 or 2020?

Can't believe this nobody matt burke is getting clicks/views from the pity party boneyarders that agree with him itt.
 
James said:
we've been pretty much viewed the same since 2014, good program in an iffy conference. its not 'getting worst and worst'. Despite what asterisks you add, last year getting to the tourney and winning a game was a big deal. oh and KO is already zeroing in on a number of high end 2018 prospects, his ability to recruit isn't going anywhere. Are you preparing for him to miss out on guys in 2019 or 2020?

Can't believe this nobody matt burke is getting clicks/views from the pity party boneyarders that agree with him itt.
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Misery loves company.
 
James said:
we've been pretty much viewed the same since 2014, good program in an iffy conference. its not 'getting worst and worst'. Despite what asterisks you add, last year getting to the tourney and winning a game was a big deal. oh and KO is already zeroing in on a number of high end 2018 prospects, his ability to recruit isn't going anywhere. Are you preparing for him to miss out on guys in 2019 or 2020?

Can't believe this nobody matt burke is getting clicks/views from the pity party boneyarders that agree with him itt.
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Do you think any 2018 recruit gives a s*** that we won the AACT last year?

They want to go to a program that's consistently drawing eyeballs and buzz. We, increasingly, are not.

But we'll see. The 2018 recruiting class needs to make a splash. A single top 20-40 guy and a bunch of question marks isn't going to cut it.
 
ConnHuskBask said:
The record on the court the past few seasons has nothing to do with being in the AAC. If we took care of business in conference play we would be seeded properly.

The atmosphere comment is hard to disagree with. Watching meaningless AAC conference games is just a chore sometimes. Not anything earth shattering, but with a Giants playoff game in the same spot as an under .500 UConn team taking on UCF? I'm shocked there were that many fans there.
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I must say that was our best game this year. My fellow fans and I were downright giddy!
 
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HuskyHawk said:
Other than Duke, this isn't true. They all had long time, very successful coaches retire. Wooden, Smith, Knight, Rupp, Allen those guys are gone. Larry Brown won a title a KU. Williams left KU for UNC, and Self came in and both UNC and KU are better as a result. That's how you become one of those teams. You do it despite the coach, or through several coaches.

UConn isn't out yet...that 2014 Ollie NC bought us a little time. But KO needs to start dominating this mediocre conference the way Kansas dominates its much better one. I'm pissed about it largely because this was the year I thought they'd finally do that. They have under-performed their talent every year since 2014.
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I'm not saying a downward slope is inevitable. I'm saying it's possible. The notion that certain programs are immune isn't true.
 
I won't click bait on the article but I have commented on here previously that this year reminds me of the St. John's season in 2011/12 when Lavin was still there when a bunch of players got kicked off the team, flunked out or transferred. They had to play walkons and had a miserable year and the program which seemed to be coming back never recovered. I think they only had six scholarship players. St. John's wasn't close to the program we've been but comparisons could be made at least based on this season. St. John's loses 12 or 13 games each year.
 
Now this is a discussion we haven't had before.

@Brochacho it is interesting that you bring up UNC (well, I guess somebody else brought it up first). Your point is well made, but there might be more common ground there than you think; Harrison Barnes was really their last big time recruit, and the 2013, '14, and '15 seasons - during which they only won four tournament games and were never considered a legitimate contender - evoked much panic among UNC fans. Kids like Jackson, Meeks, Berry, etc. weren't exactly scrubs, but the North Carolina brand had lost some cache and been supplanted by Duke, Kentucky, and even Kansas as a destination for top ten players.

Certainly, there is no equivalency there - North Carolina, even during those three years, was nationally relevant, and there is no comparison between them and UConn as far as history and tradition go. It does reflect, though, how college basketball - especially in the one and done era - is cyclical. The Hairston/Tokoto class was a bit of a whiff, relatively speaking, and because they couldn't beat Kentucky or Duke on the trail, it took them a coupe years to return to dominance.

The same could have been said of 'Nova a few years prior, and they're probably a more attainable model. The Brimah/Purvis/Facey class hasn't worked out, but that happens, even at the best programs, and there is typically a lag period between when poor play starts at a program and when it starts to be recognized by recruits. We've got at least another couple years before we reach that point, IMO.

The one disclaimer that I think is necessary is that I do not expect UConn to ever be as good, at large, as they were under Calhoun. That's just basic probability, though. You're not supposed to lose one of the greats ever and remain at the same level, and if we did - which is possible - we would be the exception and not the rule. All you can ask of Ollie at this point is that he keep us in the mix, and given the level of parity in college basketball, there is no reason to think he will not do that.
 
champs99and04 said:
Now this is a discussion we haven't had before.

@Brochacho it is interesting that you bring up UNC (well, I guess somebody else brought it up first). Your point is well made, but there might be more common ground there than you think; Harrison Barnes was really their last big time recruit, and the 2013, '14, and '15 seasons - during which they only won four tournament games and were never considered a legitimate contender - evoked much panic among UNC fans. Kids like Jackson, Meeks, Berry, etc. weren't exactly scrubs, but the North Carolina brand had lost some cache and been supplanted by Duke, Kentucky, and even Kansas as a destination for top ten players.

Certainly, there is no equivalency there - North Carolina, even during those three years, was nationally relevant, and there is no comparison between them and UConn as far as history and tradition go. It does reflect, though, how college basketball - especially in the one and done era - is cyclical. The Hairston/Tokoto class was a bit of a whiff, relatively speaking, and because they couldn't beat Kentucky or Duke on the trail, it took them a coupe years to return to dominance.

The same could have been said of 'Nova a few years prior, and they're probably a more attainable model. The Brimah/Purvis/Facey class hasn't worked out, but that happens, even at the best programs, and there is typically a lag period between when poor play starts at a program and when it starts to be recognized by recruits. We've got at least another couple years before we reach that point, IMO.

The one disclaimer that I think is necessary is that I do not expect UConn to ever be as good, at large, as they were under Calhoun. That's just basic probability, though. You're not supposed to lose one of the greats ever and remain at the same level, and if we did - which is possible - we would be the exception and not the rule. All you can ask of Ollie at this point is that he keep us in the mix, and given the level of parity in college basketball, there is no reason to think he will not do that.
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I think KO is closer to being pulled into the NBA than being a coach who keeps UConn in the mix.
 
NDakotaHusky said:
What the author does not realized is, all the major programs are 1 retired coach away from a downward slope. Most of those programs have very large budgets, but budget is not everything. We saw both Kentucky and UNC slide with the wrong coach. None of these programs are immune. Most of them just haven't had their long time coach retire yet....many of those coaches are about to retire. We'll see what happens when they do.
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To be fair, a UNC 'slide' still involves making the NCAA tourney and winning a game or two each year. Guthridge was considered unsuccessful and he went to two Final Fours and a title game in his four years. Give me that slide for us any day of the week.
 
fleudslipcon said:
I thought the contract for the AAC is with ESPN and they sell some of their games to CBS. I doubt this game would be on the CBS network if UConn had started out strongly.
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1. CBSSN picks the games before the season starts.
2. They pick as many UConn games as they can because its the only big name draw in the conference.
 
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UCweCONN said:
To be fair, a UNC 'slide' still involves making the NCAA tourney and winning a game or two each year. Guthridge was considered unsuccessful and he went to two Final Fours and a title game in his four years. Give me that slide for us any day of the week.
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And then Matt Doherty was an unmitigated disaster. If it happens at Carolina, it can happen anywhere.
 
fleudslipcon said:
I thought the contract for the AAC is with ESPN and they sell some of their games to CBS. I doubt this game would be on the CBS network if UConn had started out strongly.

The Big East is hooked up with Fox Sports Network which is comparable to CBS Sports Network. Several teams in the AAC have hired decent coaches so I expect this conference to leap over the SEC and the Big 12 in the near future in basketball. As far as rivalries that's the major loss for UConn with conference realignment. Playing Georgetown, St. Johns, Syracuse, Providence, Boston College, Nova was a lot of fun. Distance kill rivalries without a doubt.

Totally disagree with you about your assessment of KO. We saw a significant improvement in play with Bazz, Boatright, Kromah, DD and Niels in the two years they played for KO. Jalen has improved significantly last year to this. Same with Kentan. It's too easy to not factor in the apr regarding KO's first years of recruiting. Nor to eliminate bad luck. I'm hoping for a full recovery in Gilbert and Durham. They can be special players. I'm hoping Rodney and Amida build on this last game. Rodney was consistently good the last third of last season. Amida has not demonstrated a long streak of playing consistently well/

The AAC has had teams in the top twenty in football the past few years. That is critical in separating the AAC from the remainder of the G5. BB only conferences have even less margin of error than the AAC conference.
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What time table have you put on the AAC leaping over the Big 12 in basketball? Give me the over/under on that 1 ok? What is the "near future"?
 
'We' ??

Is this guy an assWhole, or only a half? or a covert Duckie?
 
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Metro is one of those papers that's available for free on the street and ends up being what people step on getting on and off the T every morning. It barely qualifies as a newspaper. This is one of those articles designed to shock people and jin up their page views. Don't bite.
 
BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
What time table have you put on the AAC leaping over the Big 12 in basketball? Give me the over/under on that 1 ok? What is the "near future"?
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2 water balloons. Next year.
 
UCweCONN said:
I won't click bait on the article but I have commented on here previously that this year reminds me of the St. John's season in 2011/12 when Lavin was still there when a bunch of players got kicked off the team, flunked out or transferred. They had to play walkons and had a miserable year and the program which seemed to be coming back never recovered. I think they only had six scholarship players. St. John's wasn't close to the program we've been but comparisons could be made at least based on this season. St. John's loses 12 or 13 games each year.
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We have Gilbert, Larrier, Diarra, MAL, Polley and Carlton joining the team. The future is not nearly as grim as you're making it out to be.
 
TheChamps990411 said:
Screw you Burke!
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Burke has a history of articles with a negative slant toward UConn basketball. E.g. CSTV.com: #1 in College Sports:
Although Vaughn is only an assistant coach and your average Joe Uconn fan probably didn't even know who Vaughn was before now, it is a reminder to all that things are sometimes not as perfect as they seem around here.

In recent years former players Johnnie Selvie and Mike Hayes were arrested, literally months after they were celebrated in Gampel Pavilion for Senior ceremonies.

In Storrs, Conn., the sports landscape can sometimes seem larger than life. The athletes and coaches that people idolize around here seem like mystical characters to some, namely Connecticut children. But it takes only a small incident like Vaughn's to remind us that role models shouldn't always come from the Gampel hardwood.
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There's also this tidbit of history (The Daily Campus - Sports):
The Daily Campus Sports Department was involved in two national stories during the 2002-2003 school year. The first, in November 2002, occurred when sports columnist Matt Burke wrote a column titled "Memorial's goalposts must go." The UConn football team was closing out their season with a game against Kent State and with a new, off campus, stadium opening next year Burke wrote "...I am imploring you, the student population, to tear down those goalposts at the conclusion of Saturday's football game, win or lose." UConn won the game, and when hundreds of students spilled on the field to take down the posts, police with attack dogs had encircled the goalposts. Students rushing the posts were pepper sprayed and beset by dogs. The one student to make it to the posts was handcuffed and taken into police custody. The violent incident made national headlines, and Burke's column, whether the impetus or not, was featured prominently, on shows such as ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.
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DraRE8Wh.jpg
 
Palatine said:
We lost to Belmont and Northeastern. That's reality. If we want to be big time, don't lose those games and go under .500.

Sit back, relax, because it's going to get worse. There is no way to combat these attacks except on the court and to bounce back next year.
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I kind of agree with you. Hesitant to actually agree publicly, like on the boneyard, because of troll hunters like @upstater who goes from thread to thread commenting on everything. He's the worst kind of poster we have here. Thread to thread he just comments and disagrees with anyone who makes points like this. Again, I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I'm hesitant to agree because I don't want that clown @upstater to start logging tickets to the admins about people who think UConn is in a bad place as a program.
 
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