Commentary Thread for Premium Top-Shelf Tweets

[Waquoit]

No question that UConn was considered chaff when added to the BE in 1979.

That's baloney. UConn was a promising team on the come when added to the BE in 1979. They were coming off an season that lead to a berth in the Big Dance and most of their best players were underclassmen. The Civic Center was newly rebuilt and UConn filled it for all of the Big East games. The last BET was in Hartford where the hopes were high for a good run. Everything was in place but a good coach.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

True, everybody was lucky... For Dave Gavitt. We as fans can spin it any way you want but Jim Calhoun, Louie Carnesseca, Jim Boheim, John Thompson, Rick Pitino, and Bill Rafftery will all say the same thing to a man, despite what we may think.

Crap... FDNY99 I apologize!

It was Dave Gavitt who lobbied hard for UConn to be the 8th original Big East school, over Boston College's objections (they wanted Holy Cross).

That said, UConn was not a doormat in 1979, it was the most successful Yankee Conference school in history with a large, dedicated fan base. Gavitt simply realized the potential of UConn before anyone else not associated with the school.

This seems oddly relevant still today.

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is simply NOT BIG EAST History week.

Yes ... we were lucky. I also think Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova were lucky. This league gave all of the EASTERN schools something they hadn't had ... a platform to leap off into greater space. ESPN? Sure. All lucky.

Providence? Yup. You underachieved. You were along for the ride; and, except for small snippets in certain seasons, you never played that often amongst the BE Conference giants. Quite frankly.

Yes, we were all lucky.

I get tired of UConn fans jumping on PC fans or others about being "leeches". They weren't. Nobody was. Some teams will be better in each league than others. That's how it works. No matter who is there, somebody finishes last. We need to be a little less arrogant. We aren't exactly Michigan here, sitting pretty.

The Big East was great in part because the weakest teams were pretty darned good. That drove up the overall strength of the league and rankings for everybody. We won a national championship while not even getting a bye in our league tournament. That's great for UConn, but that fortitude we showed in the tournament came from knowing that we were in a game every game through the league schedule. I watched entirely too many UConn team lose at the Dunk to get on a high horse about PC.

UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova and early on St. Johns. Those were the giants. But the rest helped make them that way. Pitt had awesome teams. BC even had some great teams. PC as well under Pitino. Even Seton Hall got into the act briefly. [Fire suit on for friendly fire flaming]

 

[FriarJ]

Look, UConn was regular season or tournament champion 17 times; Providence once.

No denying that and simply not what my post was about. UConn did it all themselves, once they were in, which is key to my point. Not everything is a slam.

 

[FriarJ]

Who earned the natties in the old Big East?
Name the top 5 in BET championships?
Name the top 5 in conference regular season championships.
Name the teams that brought the most fans to the BET?

Let me know, if you see providence in those categories.

Come on now, he takes a shot at PC, he's obviously not a PC fan.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

As some who was actually there, we were competing successfully in the same conference th ECAC , as our fellow schools.
We had tournament teams in the late 70's and although not a private or a Catholic were an obvious choice. Dave Gavitt saw the potential of UConn well before the pea brains at Storrs did. Personal friendship didn't hurt ,UConn was an original choice. Gavitt understood the state's appetite for basketball despite UConn inferiority complex.
The reality is except in their own minds not one Big East team was perceived as a national player.
Gavitt saw that as ridicules and was proven to be a visionary

 

[Sea Goat]

Seagoat, you are a little off.

Ask yourself (or Jupiter perhaps) how long it took for PC to finish ahead of UConn in the BE.

I didn't get the sense he was touting PC over UConn - maybe he knows I'm a scratch whack-a-mole player myself.

Re: PC and trying to give credit where due, Gavitt was the creative force behind the BE. The trouble with the Providence-centric mind set, however, was that there was zero appreciation for the importance of football.
More of the PC mentality followed Gavitt in the person of Tranghese and "Meatball" Marinatto (all three came out of the PC athletic department). The old BE never "got it" re: football and was "whistling through the graveyard" when the final destruction commenced in 2011..

 

[Sea Goat]

That's baloney. UConn was a promising team on the come when added to the BE in 1979. They were coming off an season that lead to a berth in the Big Dance and most of their best players were underclassmen. The Civic Center was newly rebuilt and UConn filled it for all of the Big East games. The last BET was in Hartford where the hopes were high for a good run. Everything was in place but a good coach.

Fair or not, trouble was we couldn't control how people thought of us in those days. Heck, I thought we were great when Toby, ably assisted by Dom Perno and Spider Hesford, led us to our first elite eight appearance in '64. (no TV in those days, just the radio brilliance of George Ehrlich)

 

[pepband99]

PeeCee is neither premium, nor top shelf. Please stop polluting this thread with nonsense.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Fair or not, trouble was we couldn't control how people thought of us in those days. Heck, I thought we were great when Toby, ably assisted by Dom Perno and Spider Hesford, led us to our first elite eight appearance in '64. (no TV in those days, just the radio brilliance of George Ehrlich)

Channel 8 televised some UConn games especially Yale
I worked with a guy that was a camera man for WNHC
They had Miltary surplus cameras for remote broadcasts
The entire game consisted of making sure you had at least on of your cameras working.
Radio was king though

 

[FDNY99]

True, everybody was lucky... For Dave Gavitt. We as fans can spin it any way you want but Jim Calhoun, Louie Carnesseca, Jim Boheim, John Thompson, Rick Pitino, and Bill Rafftery will all say the same thing to a man, despite what we may think.

Crap... FDNY99 I apologize!

This is actually IMHO the best post you have ever had on here!

 

[FDNY99]

Perhaps it is you who needs the education.
Uconn was lucky to be in the league from the beginning.
Syracuse Georgetown and St Johns who made the league while Uconn slept
Cincy Pitt and WVU 3 of the biggest leeches on the Big East. only supplanted by Uconn who without the votes from some of the Catholic schools would be looking forward to open up this Football season in Durham NH.
Not denying the greatness that Uconn has acheived but come on now. I do agree that PC added little to the league other than a past history of Ernie D and Larry Kevertis.

Ahhh another troll with a post on a UConn board. Have a nice day..don't let the door hit you in the a** on the way out!

 

[#MACtion]

I disagree that those are premium tweets in that other thread.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

From the ISU president's comments - if they truly are anticipating this to run into the winter (he said by Christmas this could be wrapped up) this is GREAT news for us. The longer this drags out, the more of an opportunity we have to prove on the football field that we belong. If it somehow ran into the spring, that would be even better as it would give our basketball programs the opportunity to put UConn at the forefront of people's minds.

 

[mavblues]

Re: the ISU President's interview, the "play fairly" comment is most likely directed at BYU, since a number of their players are older. Not even sure which of the other candidates would require "play fairly" consideration or commentary.

Unless, of course, this guy is just an a$$hat and has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, which is probably a 50/50 proposition.

 

[gopher2]

Re: the ISU President's interview, the "play fairly" comment is most likely directed at BYU, since a number of their players are older. Not even sure which of the other candidates would require "play fairly" consideration or commentary.

Unless, of course, this guy is just an a$$hat and has absolutely no idea what he is talking about, which is probably a 50/50 proposition.

I hope he wasn't referring to Larry Taylor's punt return against Louisville.

 

[MattMang23]

From the ISU president's comments - if they truly are anticipating this to run into the winter (he said by Christmas this could be wrapped up) this is GREAT news for us. The longer this drags out, the more of an opportunity we have to prove on the football field that we belong. If it somehow ran into the spring, that would be even better as it would give our basketball programs the opportunity to put UConn at the forefront of people's minds.

Since I'm a pessimist I will state the flip side of that coin. We could have a couple of injuries, lose a couple close games or whatever and finish 5-7 or something. Then it's cemented that our program sucks and we get no more consideration. Dragging it out really could go either way for us.

 

[MattMang23]

As for the ISU prez comments: if that's the criteria, and that's the order, we check every box and it pretty much goes in order of the strengths we bring to the table. So that means we're out.

 

[Alum86]

To the Providence, SJU, Georgetown and Syracuse fan, the only Big East seasons that count in assessing UConn are 82-83 through 85-86.

My years. lol
The Earl Kelly 60 yr old gun years

 

[JMick]

As for the ISU prez comments: if that's the criteria, and that's the order, we check every box and it pretty much goes in order of the strengths we bring to the table. So that means we're out.

he did slip in a mention about distance and WVU, and in discussing BYU he talked about distance. The big difference between us and BYU, though, is that unless they're talking about non-traditional markets (streaming) we have the upper hand over them.

 

[upstater]

Perhaps it is you who needs the education.
Uconn was lucky to be in the league from the beginning.
Syracuse Georgetown and St Johns who made the league while Uconn slept
Cincy Pitt and WVU 3 of the biggest leeches on the Big East. only supplanted by Uconn who without the votes from some of the Catholic schools would be looking forward to open up this Football season in Durham NH.
Not denying the greatness that Uconn has acheived but come on now. I do agree that PC added little to the league other than a past history of Ernie D and Larry Kevertis.

Lame attempt.

UConn was an original member.
UConn had 2 pretty good seasons at the start of the BE.
UConn then slept for 5 years. Big deal. It then went on to dominate the league for 25 years as its most successful team. That Georgetown school? It made one final 4 in 20 years. St. John's? Felloff the map. Only Syracuse contributed.

 

[Kolumbo]

ISU President interview....what, did they rent out the local junior high school cafeteria for that piece? My goodness I know it's Iowa but you'd think they'd have some halfway decent accommodations for the Prez.

 

[JMick]

ISU President interview....what, did they rent out the local junior high school cafeteria for that piece? My goodness I know it's Iowa but you'd think they'd have some halfway decent accommodations for the Prez.

It was a private session for their student newspaper. It was probably during class/meeting...

 

[UConnNick]

I didn't get the sense he was touting PC over UConn - maybe he knows I'm a scratch whack-a-mole player myself.

Re: PC and trying to give credit where due, Gavitt was the creative force behind the BE. The trouble with the Providence-centric mind set, however, was that there was zero appreciation for the importance of football.
More of the PC mentality followed Gavitt in the person of Tranghese and "Meatball" Marinatto (all three came out of the PC athletic department). The old BE never "got it" re: football and was "whistling through the graveyard" when the final destruction commenced in 2011..

I cannot like this post enough. Repeatedly smashing the like button wasn't working.

 

[UConnNick]

Channel 8 televised some UConn games especially Yale
I worked with a guy that was a camera man for WNHC
They had Miltary surplus cameras for remote broadcasts
The entire game consisted of making sure you had at least on of your cameras working.
Radio was king though

Dick Galiette, Channel 8 sports anchor, and who can ever forget the diminutive "Tiny" Markle as Dick's color analyst, all in glorious low definition B&W!