Do the UConn men have a basketball rivalry with St. John's? | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Do the UConn men have a basketball rivalry with St. John's?

People just don’t get rivalries. Just because you play a team every year and you’ve had a few good games doesn’t make them a rival. When you think of rivalries, you can name them. In basketball UNC-Duke, football Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Oklahoma. BC-BU in hockey. Those games. Harvard-Yale. Longevity is a part but only a part. You don’t build a rivalry in 5 games but just playing someone a lot doesn’t make them a rival either. There is something extra in those games that is hard to really identify. I mean Harvard has played Brown almost as often as Yale but nobody calls that The Game. Just playing a few Big Games doesn’t make it a rivalry either. And just because one side goes through a tough patch doesn’t make a rivalry disappear. It might even make it more intense.
 
freescooter said:
People just don’t get rivalries. Just because you play a team every year and you’ve had a few good games doesn’t make them a rival. When you think of rivalries, you can name them. In basketball UNC-Duke, football Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Oklahoma. BC-BU in hockey. Those games. Harvard-Yale. Longevity is a part but only a part. You don’t build a rivalry in 5 games but just playing someone a lot doesn’t make them a rival either. There is something extra in those games that is hard to really identify. I mean Harvard has played Brown almost as often as Yale but nobody calls that The Game. Just playing a few Big Games doesn’t make it a rivalry either. And just because one side goes through a tough patch doesn’t make a rivalry disappear. It might even make it more intense.
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Agree. I’d add Bama and Auburn football and Ky and TN basketball. I would say the UConn Duke games although fewer and far between were always bitter and they’d be my number 1 out of conference rival.
 
I don’t see St John’s as a rival the way Syracuse was. I also don’t see winning and losing during an extended period as defining a rivalry. See Yankees-Red Sox. Michigan-Ohio State. They just (or their fans anyway) just want to win every time

The best long lasting sports rivalries tend to have a geographic component. Rivalries based on teams being good at the same time are a real thing and create interest, but they tend to come and go in a way that historic rivalries don’t fade based on how good or bad the teams are. But even though St.John’s, Providence and BC are much closer to Storrs, there really wasn't and even now anything close to our Syracuse rivalry. It shows up on the BY a lot with a bunch paying attention to and trashing them even though we haven’t been in the same conference for quite a while.

I think it would be fun to feel a real constant rivalry with either or both of St. John’s and PC for however long UConn is in the BE.
 
Here's our rivalries in my head -

Tier 1: Syracuse, Nova, Georgetown
Tier 2: St. John's, PC
Tier 3: Pitt, Cincy, Duke
Tier 4: Seton Hall, Marquette, BC
 
We have about as much of a rivalry with St John;s as an axe has with a piece of wood.

Wood.jpg
 
I think if you asked Jim Calhoun, he would say BC was a rival. Remember the fierce recruiting battle for Bill Curley? After UConn and Calhoun lost that one, I felt like Calhoun never lost to BC again(he did of course, just felt like that!)

I just checked, pretty damn close to never. Lost to BC just 3 times since Curley was recruited in 1990.
 
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upstater said:
Traditionally, in the past, yes.
It would be great to see this rivalry fire up again.
An argument can be made that St. John's used to be a bigger rival than Syracuse. Certainly bigger than Providence. In fact, before St. John's fell on hard times this century, it was probably UConn's biggest rival.
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Late 90’s games against Artest and co at the Garden were so fun.
 
Sure, why not. They're always tough with Pitino and they're going to get better. Having a good team in NYC can only help

Remember, in the 80's they were looking down at us. Although they never achieved our level of greatness, they did have Louie
 
We have no rival, just road bumps and cheating refs. Kansas duke unc are our only concerns. Gonzaga would be road bump too. I dislike Villanova and Providence. St. John’s is complete afterthought.
 
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freescooter said:
People just don’t get rivalries. Just because you play a team every year and you’ve had a few good games doesn’t make them a rival. When you think of rivalries, you can name them. In basketball UNC-Duke, football Michigan-Ohio State, Texas-Oklahoma. BC-BU in hockey. Those games. Harvard-Yale. Longevity is a part but only a part. You don’t build a rivalry in 5 games but just playing someone a lot doesn’t make them a rival either. There is something extra in those games that is hard to really identify. I mean Harvard has played Brown almost as often as Yale but nobody calls that The Game. Just playing a few Big Games doesn’t make it a rivalry either. And just because one side goes through a tough patch doesn’t make a rivalry disappear. It might even make it more intense.
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You list the biggest existing rivalries. That doesn't mean thera aren't dozens of other rivalries out there.

Yes St. John's is a rival. I can't stomach losing to them. Early on they were better. It was intense when they had Artest, Thornton, Barkley. Then sheet went sideways and the BE changed drastically.
 
Umami Zen said:
I am aware of the pre-Pitino St Johns-UConn history-My comments were made within the context of the article this OP referenced
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You thought I was criticizing you? I was busting on Rick.
 
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The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was acknowledged as one of the best in sports even though the Red Sox hadn't come out on top for almost a century.
 
Palatine said:
The Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was acknowledged as one of the best in sports even though the Red Sox hadn't come out on top for almost a century.
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Sox beat the Yankees hundreds of times so not really a good comparison.

But you’re right, 2004 ratcheted up things.
 
HooperScooper said:
But you’re right, 2004 ratcheted up things.
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Actually, the opposite happened. Sox fans may have ratcheted it up but Yankee fans retreated. And 2007 ended the hostitities for good. Last year they had a Sox-Yanks game in Fenway last September that was nearly empty, hastening Bloom's demise, imo. Ever visit the Yankee board on the Yard? Sox fans don't need to give the Yanks any stick, Yankee fans are doing it better than we ever could. The fact is, it was only a rivalry when one team had the upper hand.
 
UConn has an elite basketball team but with no real rivalries. That is because the original Big East got blown up.
 
Waquoit said:
Actually, the opposite happened. Sox fans may have ratcheted it up but Yankee fans retreated. And 2007 ended the hostitities for good. Last year they had a Sox-Yanks game in Fenway last September that was nearly empty, hastening Bloom's demise, imo. Ever visit the Yankee board on the Yard? Sox fans don't need to give the Yanks any stick, Yankee fans are doing it better than we ever could. The fact is, it was only a rivalry when one team had the upper hand.
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But wasn't it a better rivalry when both teams were good? Like 1978 or 2003-2004? Those kind of years.
 
HooperScooper said:
But wasn't it a better rivalry when both teams were good? Like 1978 or 2003-2004? Those kind of years.
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Sure. I go back to 1967, the Sox won the pennant and Yanks stunk. There was no rivalry then. It wasn't until the mid-70's when the Yanks got good again. Until then, the only Yankee fan in my neighborhood was a buddy's older brother. The bandwagon got full again after Steinbrenner bought all those players. But now, eh. The Yankee fans are killing their own, but at least their team is trying. We'll see in the next few days if the Sox are.
 
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cohenzone said:
I don’t see St John’s as a rival the way Syracuse was. I also don’t see winning and losing during an extended period as defining a rivalry. See Yankees-Red Sox. Michigan-Ohio State. They just (or their fans anyway) just want to win every time

The best long lasting sports rivalries tend to have a geographic component. Rivalries based on teams being good at the same time are a real thing and create interest, but they tend to come and go in a way that historic rivalries don’t fade based on how good or bad the teams are. But even though St.John’s, Providence and BC are much closer to Storrs, there really wasn't and even now anything close to our Syracuse rivalry. It shows up on the BY a lot with a bunch paying attention to and trashing them even though we haven’t been in the same conference for quite a while.

I think it would be fun to feel a real constant rivalry with either or both of St. John’s and PC for however long UConn is in the BE.
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I think you need both proximity and quality in both teams although we were jacked up to play Syracuse and a few others when only they were any good because beating them would give us credibility and hope for more success.
 
Scrutiner said:
I think you need both proximity and quality in both teams although we were jacked up to play Syracuse and a few others when only they were any good because beating them would give us credibility and hope for more success.
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Quality certainly helps. Makes winning more significant. Back in YanCon days, URI was the big rival in general with UMass a close second. They were true regional rivals that were just as much fun for us as Michigan fans had with Ohio State even though obviously the talent levels were not on the same planet.

I think it’s possible for St. John’s and/or PC to become traditional rivals where how good we are they are in a given year might not change the desire for bragging rights. I miss the SU rivalry added to the fact that now one of my sons and his family live very close to the Dome and hace become SU fams. And his wife is a Duke grad. I have a lot to swallow as a UConn guy.
 
freescooter said:
Utter nonsense. Nobody cares about St John’s. UConn fans go to the games because MSG is easily accessible, a huge % of the fan base lives in Fairfield County. For them it is probably easier to get to Madison Square Garden than to Gampel Pavillion. To the extent that we have a rivalry with anyone, and our rivals are mostly in the ACC now, I guess Marquette and Creighton but they aren’t really. It was us and Syracuse, us and Pitt and us and BC. BC in sort of a big brother-little brother way. St John’s was more of a national team we needed to get past back in the day. They have not been nationally relevant for a quarter century now. We have long since left them in the dust. With the exceptions of Marquette, Villanova, Creighton and us, the rest are a bunch of high mid-majors. Well, except DePaul. They are D3ish. And Georgetown, a low mid-major.
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Yes, exactly. You live in Stamford, and you're at GCT in 45 mins. People forget how close that is, WITHOUT DRIVING.
 
True rivalries go back 100 plus years. Redsox were winning championships first then Ruth was traded to the Yankees then came 85 year curse. Rivalries also have stories to them.
 
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