Dakich - Jay Wright interview

[BlueDogs]

Watched the Nova - Temple game and found Dan Dakich's reference to his podcast interview with Jay Wright very interesting. Coach Wright speaking to the success of the program told Dakich once the Big East disbanded, Nova athletics had a decision to make, and they decided to go all in w/ basketball.

I get the distinctions, UConn big state school, Nova, small private, and certainly different forces were at work at the time of the disbandment of the Big East comparatively speaking. With that said, Nova football, an old UConn Yankee Conference rival, has been in recent history a relatively strong FCS program. They have sent players to the league, Howie Long (I believe) and Bryan Westbrook. Nova understood, however, that its identity is heavily invested in Basketball. Going all in w/ basketball and joining the NBE proved to be a power move for the Nova faithful. Makes you wonder what the possibilities could have been had we gone all in.

Much more complicated. Howie graduated from Nova in 1980. Going into 1982, they had a nice schedule in front of them including Clemson. In late spring the Trustees cut football out of the blue with no debate, due to a change in direction. A lot of recruits headed there got screwed. Many ended up at places like App. State, Eastern Kentucky, etc.. Others less heavily recruited were screwed and transferred to D3 schools that were glad to have them.

The school is not remotely like UConn. It always was a basketball school and part of the P5, which has its own Philly basketball tradition. It's a classic catholic college and precisely where it belongs in football. To suggest a top 20 national flagship state university should carry a second rate 1AA program is living in the past. We are "all in" with of the largest athletic budgets in the country. If we went with your "all-in", we would partially in, and there would be absolutely zero opportunity of ultimately landing in a P5. We have to stay the course and fight get to he next level. That's all in.

 

[superjohn]

The Fonz>Ollie???

 

[Stainmaster]

The Fonz>Ollie???

Nice one!!!

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Some people here are speaking out of their collective backsides.

After the euphoria of replacing a head coach wears off, the idea of being in the middle of what will be a three year run (with the new coach, add a couple more for the end of the Ollie era) with no tournament bid in sight (remember, this is the real world, there wasn't any guarantee that the new coach would suffer three years of rebuilding followed by continual deep tournament runs) will lead to commentary on Ollie's replacement similar to what we see today.

Keep in mind, the last time we endured more than one year in a row with no tournament bid the Berlin Wall was still intact. Early in what would become the dream season there were plenty of UConn fans (half a decade before the internet) who wondered aloud if JC was the right guy (after he left us on a miraculous run to an NIT title) and for nearly a a decade after the dream season many (even on the internet) complained that he took us as far as he could and if we ever wanted to make a final four we would need to change coaches.

Those who are claiming they would sit quietly through three years of no tournament if we brought in a new head coach are among the biggest complainers when things go bad. I call bulls#!t on anyone of them who claims they won't whine like a four year old girl during a new head coach's three year inauguration of no tournament appearances.

 

[olehead]

This is some real revisionist history. As I remember it, when Syracuse & Pitt announced that they were leaving the conference Villanova pitched the Big East that they could upgrade football and join as a full memeber. They had proposed playing at an MLS stadium until they could secure access to a larger stadium such as Lincoln Financial (I think they wanted to share access with Temple). Well they didn't make the cut. The conference decided to go in a separate direction and shortly after the conference disintegrated.

Their decision was nothing like ours. We already had a D1 football team and a stadium. Would the AAC even have taken Nova if they had asked? Did they ask and get turned down?

In a way our hand was forced to keep doing the football thing and their hand was forced to give up their hopes of BCS football.

If people think joining the Big East would magically solve all our problems I really would have to disagree with that

Good info, I was unaware of this history.

 

[olehead]

Much more complicated. Howie graduated from Nova in 1980. Going into 1982, they had a nice schedule in front of them including Clemson. In late spring the Trustees cut football out of the blue with no debate, due to a change in direction. A lot of recruits headed there got screwed. Many ended up at places like App. State, Eastern Kentucky, etc.. Others less heavily recruited were screwed and transferred to D3 schools that were glad to have them.

The school is not remotely like UConn. It always was a basketball school and part of the P5, which has its own Philly basketball tradition. It's a classic catholic college and precisely where it belongs in football. To suggest a top 20 national flagship state university should carry a second rate 1AA program is living in the past. We are "all in" with of the largest athletic budgets in the country. If we went with your "all-in", we would partially in, and there would be absolutely zero opportunity of ultimately landing in a P5. We have to stay the course and fight get to he next level. That's all in.

Stay the course, we will ultimately land in a P5 be like stay the course trickle down theory will get everyone paid

 

[80shusky]

Lappas>Ollie

Weak at best. You can certainly do better than Lappas as a comp.

 

[Chuck]

Timing is everything. Great job by Villanova getting rid of an adequate Lappas in order to jump on Wright. Nobody thought Lappas was in danger of being fired that year, although he was floundering. Wright was almost definitely headed to Rutgers, who fired their coach to get Wright. It would've been tough for Wright to turn the RU job down. Because of his family ties to Villanova, he still may've jumped there when the job eventually became available, but things could've turned out differently for all involved. Rutgers could've stopped being Rutgers, or Wright could've failed and tarnished his future. Villanova could've gone through a half dozen coaches like BC.