- Joined
- Sep 3, 2011
- Messages
- 509
- Reaction Score
- 715
The problem with the Memphis' of the world, despite the rankings, is that they've never really been part of anything. There isn't a whole lot of substance behind them, they kind of feel like new money. Artificial southern money(Calipari charged). Like it can go as fast as it's come. There is no history, no being part of something bigger(rivalries, conferences, traditions), no sporting gravitas. It's a commuter school. They had it when they had Calipari, but that was all Calipari and his polarizing way. If there is one thing I've gained from all this BS, its an appreciation for sports rivalry/history. It's such a big part of sports. Great team sports is made up two ways:
1) A game that has juice, ie a tourney game, a game that has(or gives the feeling of) post season ramifications/significance, a game that has some sort of championship impact
2) A game of rivals, two fan bases that hate each other or fan bases that kill to beat each other. A LOT of that is based on geography.
Everything else is pretty much blah. A mid season MLB game of two random teams, booo. But give me the Sox/Yanks anytime. Even early season NFL can even be a little lackluster until things start playing out and the season develops identity.
We are never going to develop rivalries with anyone in the NBE. We aren't going to build a rivalry with an Ohio based school or a Florida based school. I'm with you on Cinci - I know Oscar Robertson played there once and Huggy bear ran a nice thug like program there once. It's hard to even get too pumped about Cuse right now knowing that there will be no continuity(until further notice) as two teams being part of something bigger moving forward together.
For that reason alone, I don't care if it's just a blown up ACC. Let's hope we are there soon. It might not be big time football(let's face it, Uconn will never be big time football), but we get some of our history/rivalries back. We'll get Pitt, Cuse, Ville and maybe even Duke in hoops. Maybe we even get BC, who we would naturally hate - would love it. That's good sports. I'll head up to the airport to see that game. If we get that back after all this crap, that will feel even better.
NBE feels like a league whose had it's balls chopped - like it can still ram it's schlong a bunch, but will shoot blanks.
1) A game that has juice, ie a tourney game, a game that has(or gives the feeling of) post season ramifications/significance, a game that has some sort of championship impact
2) A game of rivals, two fan bases that hate each other or fan bases that kill to beat each other. A LOT of that is based on geography.
Everything else is pretty much blah. A mid season MLB game of two random teams, booo. But give me the Sox/Yanks anytime. Even early season NFL can even be a little lackluster until things start playing out and the season develops identity.
We are never going to develop rivalries with anyone in the NBE. We aren't going to build a rivalry with an Ohio based school or a Florida based school. I'm with you on Cinci - I know Oscar Robertson played there once and Huggy bear ran a nice thug like program there once. It's hard to even get too pumped about Cuse right now knowing that there will be no continuity(until further notice) as two teams being part of something bigger moving forward together.
For that reason alone, I don't care if it's just a blown up ACC. Let's hope we are there soon. It might not be big time football(let's face it, Uconn will never be big time football), but we get some of our history/rivalries back. We'll get Pitt, Cuse, Ville and maybe even Duke in hoops. Maybe we even get BC, who we would naturally hate - would love it. That's good sports. I'll head up to the airport to see that game. If we get that back after all this crap, that will feel even better.
NBE feels like a league whose had it's balls chopped - like it can still ram it's schlong a bunch, but will shoot blanks.