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

[Waquoit]

But you’re right, 2004 ratcheted up things.

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.

 

[CJasmer]

UConn has an elite basketball team but with no real rivalries. That is because the original Big East got blown up.

 

[HooperScooper]

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.

But wasn't it a better rivalry when both teams were good? Like 1978 or 2003-2004? Those kind of years.

 

[Waquoit]

But wasn't it a better rivalry when both teams were good? Like 1978 or 2003-2004? Those kind of years.

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.

 

[Scrutineer]

In the 90s they were a legit rival. Those Jarvis teams were super tough. One of my fave UConn games ever is us blowing them out in the BET championship in 99.

KFree..................

 

[Scrutineer]

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.

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.

 

[cohenzone]

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.

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.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We don't have a true rival. That's the reality. Doesn't matter.

 

[knicksin7]

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.

Yes, exactly. You live in Stamford, and you're at GCT in 45 mins. People forget how close that is, WITHOUT DRIVING.

 

[Scoe]

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.

 

[Kembacity]

Rivalries are fun. Pretend rivalries are just sad.

Okay, so it’s just a character trait of the classic internet-tough-guy-itis, got it. Super cool

 

[rrskyjf]

The hiring of Pitino makes the rivalry with St Johns compelling. You can't ignore him or St Johns. Even though he is 0-3, we did faceoff for the BE Championship, and they played us tough in December. His Iona team gave us a tough time in the 1st round of the NC's in 2023. His history as a winning coach at numerous schools got him elected to the Naismith HoF in 2013.

A notable slimeball, the NCAA had to vacate one of his NC's. Did you know he got into big NCAA trouble just out of UMass as an Asst at Hawaii in 1974? Pitino is the perfect black hatted villain to play off against the white hatted good guys from Storrs. Yes, there is a rivalry, and it's good for the BE.

And Jim Calhoun is a saint, never did anything wrong?

 

[CL82]

Okay, so it’s just a character trait of the classic internet-tough-guy-itis, got it. Super cool

lol, did that post make sense in your head?

 

[Tenspro2002]

I disagree that teams have to be on more equal footing to have a rivalry. According to Miriam Webster,

The word rival most commonly refers to a person or group that tries to defeat or be more successful than another person or group, which means that rivals tend to come in pairs.

I also add in other teams we really don't like. PC will NEVER come close to our level of success, but they are like an annoying little brother who is a jerk and has an inferiority complex. But I would still consider that we have a rivalry with them, partially due to proximity. And for the most part, their fans are insufferable.

Same with SJU. I don't think they have to beat us to become a rival. I don't have any issues with their fans, but am NOT a fan of Pitino. Want to beat his @ss every time we play them. I'd consider that a rivalry.

To me, considering another a team a rival isn't giving them any "power" per se, just acknowledging that as a fan, I don't like them, and want to beat the snot of them every time we play. Like by 40+ points.

I mean I get it. None of these teams are close to the same level as UConn, but rivalries come in all shapes and sizes. Example - on the women's side, Tennessee USED to be equal to UConn, but since Summitt left, they have fallen off the face of the earth. However their fans are the worst in the world, and not enough bad things can happen to that program to suit me. And we rarely play them, but I'd still consider them a rival, just a different kind than ND and SC - 2 current rivals who are every bit as good as UConn...

Eh, rivalries are two-sided.

When teams like Providence, St. John's, etc., play us, it's their Super Bowl. For us, it's just another game. That's not a rivalry.

 

[Tenspro2002]

We don't have a true rival. That's the reality. Doesn't matter.

I could see programs like Creighton or Marquette (or Villanova if they get back to their prior level) getting there in a few years.

If we're both perennially around the top 10 and playing meaningful high-profile games with conference titles, regular season or tournament, on the line, and even games with national implications, that could do it.

The fact is, we've left former conference rivals like Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's in the dust. We spent like 6-7 years in a conference without compelling rivalries (sorry, Cincy, SMU, Houston, Memphis). We've had good games over the decades against other nationally-prominent programs -- Duke, Gonzaga, UNC -- but those aren't regular enough.

 

[AllHusky]

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.

You mentioned this once before, and I think I speak for all on the Boneyard when I say we pray for you, and hope there is some sort of exorcism available to remedy your families malady.

 

[JohnFSilver]

Providence is the rival. As is St John’s.

What teams does UConn losing to make you angry? Those two, under all circumstances .

 

[Tenspro2002]

What teams does UConn losing to make you angry?

All of them.

 

[AllHusky]

The loss to Kansas last year pissed me off, hate Self and that program.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Providence is the rival. As is St John’s.

What teams does UConn losing to make you angry? Those two, under all circumstances .

PC is as close to a rival as we have unless Villanova can survive this near-death experience. Maybe eventually Creighton and Marquette as @Tenspro2002 said, but I think distance makes those more difficult to count as rivals.

Losing to anyone pisses me off. Losing to St. Johns is just embarrassing because I don't respect them. It's like losing to East Carolina. Pitino might change that for the 2 years or so he can still coach, but it will be temporary.

 

[cohenzone]

You mentioned this once before, and I think I speak for all on the Boneyard when I say we pray for you, and hope there is some sort of exorcism available to remedy your families malady.

Nah. they just bounce off of my protective shield. .

 

[Inyatkin]

Providence is the rival. As is St John’s.

What teams does UConn losing to make you angry? Those two, under all circumstances .

Have you met UConn fans? What loss doesn't make us angry?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Have you met UConn fans? What loss doesn't make us angry?

This. Other than maybe one or two (ADub) on here, nobody views our games with PC any differently than our games with Seton Hall or St John's (MSG excepted). Yes, we are in a geographic proximity, we are currently in the same conference and we've faced them as conference opponents for nearly forty of the past forty five years.

The closest we had to a true rivalry was with Cuse for the last decade we were in the old BE with them. That's gone the way of the horse and buggy.

 

[RuffRuff]

The rivalry we should truly find a way to rediscover is that with Syracuse. To this day, their fans detest us. So much juicey old burn scars that keep them hating us. They have the Carrier Dome. They have the Orange. Their alumni base has heavy presence in sports media. They have the Boeheim legacy, and are the only NE school with a NC other than us and Nova. Parts of me kinda want them to figure it out. That would be a home and away I’d sign up for, just need them to have a fair chance to make it worth the while.

 

[freescooter]

The rivalry we should truly find a way to rediscover is that with Syracuse. To this day, their fans detest us. So much juicey old burn scars that keep them hating us. They have the Carrier Dome. They have the Orange. Their alumni base has heavy presence in sports media. They have the Boeheim legacy, and are the only NE school with a NC other than us and Nova. Parts of me kinda want them to figure it out. That would be a home and away I’d sign up for, just need them to have a fair chance to make it worth the while.

That is true. And we hate them too. Even with them long gone there are STILL posts every year about how bad they are, or when they aren’t bad like their final four run a few years ago how they still suck.