ESPN SVP & Russillo... Anyone listen today?

[UConn9604]

From 1995 through 2004 (10 seasons), we won the Big East tournament five times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004) and finished as runners-up three times (1995, 2000, 2003), and made two Sweet Sixteens (1996, 2003) and three Final Eights (1995, 1998, 2002), and won two national titles (1999, 2004). The only under-performance in that run was 1996.

Given the choice between the ten best years in Kansas history and that ten-year run of ours, I'd take that 10-year run six days a week and twice on Sunday.

 

[gtcam]

You made it all the way through the thread and you still did not understand the question...

yes I did

 

[PRHusky]

With regards to KU's conference titles, another thing to consider is that they would have maybe three or four at most if they had played in the BE. Nobody would have won that 11 conference championships in the BE during that span.

 

[TheChamps990411]

I'd like to be dominant in the regular season, consistently make the Final Four, and win roughly the same amount of titles.

Instead, we have recently been good in the regular season, made 3 Final Fours in the last 7 seasons (not counting this one) and won 2 titles.

Give me that over the run from 1994-1998.

While i agree i must point out that being a top team during the season helps recruiting especially now that we`re in a conference. Sure back in the day we could get away with it and still pull in some recruits but how long is this going to last? I have to be honest im going to start worrying if we have another mediocre season next year and we dont pull in Diamond Stone which it appears we wont.

 

[Ts5034]

With regards to KU's conference titles, another thing to consider is that they would have maybe three or four at most if they had played in the BE. Nobody would have won that 11 conference championships in the BE during that span.

Exactly right! The Big East became a lot more competitive starting in 2005-2006 with the additions of Louisville, Cincy, Marquette. The fact that every team had an 18 game schedule just made everyone beat up on each other in conference play. That made it hard for anyone to dominate the regular season since there were so many good teams in the league.

 

[HuskyOfLeisure]

I enjoy the SVP & Russillo show but he does have an anti UConn bias because we took Rudy Gay from Gary Williams and his beloved Terps with that Beltway Ballers game. If it was any other team with UConn's resume, I suspect SVP would take the 'ships…

 

[Scoe]

Of course I would rather be Uconn, which conference I would rather be in is obvious. KU is basically the Peyton Manning of college football great in the regular season not so much in the tournament. Their 08 title Memphis chocked that away with all the missed clinching fts. They have had a lot of bad losses in the tourney.

 

[Fishy]

If you win the title, you won the title - there's no mitigating that by saying that Memphis missed free throws.

Memphis was a miserable free-throw shooting team and knowing that, Kansas purposefully put them on the line late in the second half. (Memphis actually shot better in the title game than their season average.)

Kansas won six games. No asterisks.

But you'd have to be deranged to take the 11 Big 12 titles over four national titles.

The Big 12 title streak will be great conversation in Lawrence, Kansas, but no one outside of that border will care.

There's no "One Shining Moment" for the winner of the Big 12 regular season.

 

[donyell34]

No debate unless you put your own spin on this. National championships trump all. Would you want to win 11 travelers or 2 U.S. opens. Winning majors much more important. Winning conference championships great but what validates you are more IMO by far are winning it all.

 

[epark88]

Every single person on the show said they would take UConn's, except for one.

But given your signature there is no point in providing this for you

My bad about the damn sig - I fixed it.

Now you're free to tell me about all the rainbows and sunshine emanating from Bristol on behalf of our UConn Huskies. Go on, knock yourself out...

 

[7774]

I enjoy the SVP & Russillo show but he does have an anti UConn bias because we took Rudy Gay from Gary Williams and his beloved Terps with that Beltway Ballers game. If it was any other team with UConn's resume, I suspect SVP would take the 'ships…

Yeah, SVP hates UCONN and Calhoun. He's taken jabs at us for years and years.

 

[upstater]

We havent finished the regular season with a team in the top 10 since 09 and we havent had a 1 seed since then either i believe. That kind of sucks and it also sucks we`re not winning conference titles like we used to but the national titles make up for it. Who wouldnt trade 10 conference titles over the next 10 years for 2 more national titles?

Kemba's team was right at around 8-12 rank the entire year until the last week of the regular season, so they were in that spotlight. And esp. after the BE tourney, they were considered the 4th most popular pick to win the NCAA tourney.

That's the crazy thing about the BE. That UConn could be ranked around 10 all year long, lose the last few regular season games, end up ranked 18, and yet they are 9th in the conference.

 

[Rocktheworld]

they were considered the 4th most popular pick to win the NCAA tourney.

Funny, because on the ESPN toruney bracket, I ended up in like the 99.7 percentile because UConn won. The rest of my bracket really wasn't that great.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

To further illustrate how stupid this question is:

Show of hands. How many people knew KU won all of those precious Big 12 titles before this thread?

 

[Rocktheworld]

To further illustrate how stupid this question is:

Show of hands. How many people knew KU won all of those precious Big 12 titles before this thread?

Yeah, I mean it's Kansas, in a traditionally meh conference. They're like a next-level Gonzaga. It's practically a given each year they will win the conference.

 

[upstater]

Funny, because on the ESPN toruney bracket, I ended up in like the 99.7 percentile because UConn won. The rest of my bracket really wasn't that great.

They were the 4th most popular pick of the tens of millions brackets.

Many brackets, including mine, pick the person's favorite team to win the championship.

 

[noeynox]

Jimmy stole my thunder. I don't even know how many Big East titles we won off the top of my head.

 

[TheChamps990411]

Kemba's team was right at around 8-12 rank the entire year until the last week of the regular season, so they were in that spotlight. And esp. after the BE tourney, they were considered the 4th most popular pick to win the NCAA tourney.

That's the crazy thing about the BE. That UConn could be ranked around 10 all year long, lose the last few regular season games, end up ranked 18, and yet they are 9th in the conference.

Not sure what your point is in regard to the point i made.

 

[upstater]

Not sure what your point is in regard to the point i made.

You wrote no UConn team was ranked top 10. I pointed out they spent the whole year ranked top 10 except for the last week of the regular season. They were 8-12 for the season up until final week or so, and then right after the conference tournament, they returned. They were relevant in the top polls the entire season.

 

[Tenspro2002]

There's no question that, looking back on it, you'd rather have the national titles than the conference titles.

That said, Kansas's mode of operation -- being perennially great, in the top 10, relevant every year, top 2 seed, consistently attracting top recruits to the middle of nowhere (something we often use as an excuse) -- is more likely to produce national titles in the future.

We can't count on repeating the last 6 years -- slogging through mediocre regular seasons and sometimes getting hot in March.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Yeah, SVP hates UCONN and Calhoun. He's taken jabs at us for years and years.

Yup, a lot of people don't know this, but it's written into his contract that when he does SportsCenter they remove all UConn references from the show. It's because he's still mad about the Beltway Ballers.

 

[epark88]

Yup, a lot of people don't know this, but it's written into his contract that when he does SportsCenter they remove all UConn references from the show. It's because he's still mad about the Beltway Ballers.

I dunno if that's the case.

But I do know about (and a few others here may remember this as well) the time when SVP was doing SC highlights of UConn back in the day, mentioning Rudy Gay and muttering "he was worth the money" on air. He also brought it up again during the ban year as he and others in Bristol were piling on UConn at the time.

Again, no idea if all that had anything to do with contractual obligations, but it happened nonetheless...

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Yeah, it's in his contract. When Calhoun went to work for ESPN this year Van Pelt had his deal modified to include a provision that ensures he never has to be in the same room as Calhoun. Also that he doesn't have to wear national flag blue, and if someone brings a husky to work he doesn't have to pet it. Big time anti-UConn bias from SVP.

 

[7774]

I dunno if that's the case.

But I do know about (and a few others here may remember this as well) the time when SVP was doing SC highlights of UConn back in the day, mentioning Rudy Gay and muttering "he was worth the money" on air. He also brought it up again during the ban year as he and others in Bristol were piling on UConn at the time.

Again, no idea if all that had anything to do with contractual obligations, but it happened nonetheless...

I assumed BigErn was being sarcastic, but it's obvious SVP think's we're shady.

 

[champs99and04]

There's no question that, looking back on it, you'd rather have the national titles than the conference titles.

That said, Kansas's mode of operation -- being perennially great, in the top 10, relevant every year, top 2 seed, consistently attracting top recruits to the middle of nowhere (something we often use as an excuse) -- is more likely to produce national titles in the future.

We can't count on repeating the last 6 years -- slogging through mediocre regular seasons and sometimes getting hot in March.

"Getting hot" is a popular phrase used by rival fans trying to explain away our March success, but it's not that simple. Lightning doesn't strike twice in four years unless there is some substance behind the methods.

Of course, that's not to say inferior teams don't beat superior teams in March. One bad tournament game doesn't negate a great regular season, but it's just as logical to say a bad couple regular season games doesn't negate a championship.