Future Home-Home Series with Arizona | The Boneyard

Future Home-Home Series with Arizona

I guess the "nobody will come to Tucson" thing isn't true anymore.
 
nwhoopfan said:
I guess the "nobody will come to Tucson" thing isn't true anymore.
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Geez, in November or December? Sounds wonderful. I'd never want to live in the desert, but I've always enjoyed visiting for a few days (never Tucson, but other places in the Desert Southwest).
 
Bigboote said:
Geez, in November or December? Sounds wonderful. I'd never want to live in the desert, but I've always enjoyed visiting for a few days (never Tucson, but other places in the Desert Southwest).
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I mean, sure, LOTS of people enjoy visiting Tucson. That was Adia's response when being criticized for her scheduling a year or two ago. She claimed nobody would come play them.
 
Teams from the upper midwest would lose players after a game there in Jan/Feb. The local media loves interviewing arrivals from Fargo, et al at the airport. They act like they had just reached the promised land.
 
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Sounds like the UConn fans will be arriving in Tucson long before the scheduled game against the Cats. They'll just be milling around, enjoying the sun and heat, waiting for a basketball game to break out.
 
Arizona has been stockpiling talent for awhile. They wouldn't play Conn. until they had the talent, Remember, big time matchups bring in big $'s to both schools.
 
Carnac said:
I will. Only 437 miles from home. :) A road trip I'll look forward to. Playing UConn is an excellent recruiting tool for Arizona.
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Your comment about a recruiting tool for Arizona made me think: hasn't it helped UConn recruit nationally because we play so many marquee teams over the years? Kinda like Notre Dame football playing USC and Stanford to help with West Coast recruiting. Your insights on this are appreciated in advance - thanks!
 
Bigboote said:
Geez, in November or December? Sounds wonderful. I'd never want to live in the desert, but I've always enjoyed visiting for a few days (never Tucson, but other places in the Desert Southwest).
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Hmmmmm. This looks like the perfect place to start a rumor.

What’s wrong with January, February and March? I prefer my cacti without Christmas lights. Wait a second! Don’t you see it? UConn is joining the PAC 12...er...10! With UCLA and USC leaving the conference Arizona and the rest of the conference need to pick up new opponents to fill the gaps in their schedules. We’ve already scheduled Oregon, why not go whole hog? I can’t wait to let Stanford in on the good news that we will be playing them two or three (maybe four) times a year.

Okay. The fun meter is pegged. It’s time to return to reality.
 
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Mdoggie said:
Can I roll with?
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Absolutely. The wife will probably not want to go. I know we won't be the only UConn fans in the house in Tucson (UConn fans are everywhere). You guys on the east coast would be surprised if you knew how many of us there are out here. Most of them never visit the Boneyard, but they're here. There should be a LARGE contingent of us sitting behind the UConn bench. We can make sure the Boneyard is properly represented that night!! :D
 
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broooce said:
Your comment about a recruiting tool for Arizona made me think: hasn't it helped UConn recruit nationally because we play so many marquee teams over the years? Kinda like Notre Dame football playing USC and Stanford to help with West Coast recruiting. Your insights on this are appreciated in advance - thanks!
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Yes. It works BOTH ways. :) The fact that UConn has been in the last 13 final fours has not hurt. Recruits know two things if they come to UConn. 1. they will play many of the top 15 teams every year. 2. They will make the tournament every year, and go deep therein.

The fact that ALL of UConn's games are on available nation wide doesn't hurt either. Many of them on the major national networks (Fox, ABC, ESPN, CBS, etc). It allows players maximum exposure to possibly expand their "brand", if they are in to that sort of thing. If you play for UConn, fans of WCBB know who you are. ;)
 
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GEAinAustin said:
Arizona has been stockpiling talent for awhile. They wouldn't play Conn. until they had the talent, Remember, big time matchups bring in big $'s to both schools.
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Very few programs/coaches are willing to go the Dawn Staley/SC route of getting your head bashed in multiple years before getting comparable talent and making the series competitive. Stanford used to whip on us good too. We took our lumps.

I think this will be a great series and Barnes’ program is definitely on the upswing. Looks like a play to get Arizona more involved on the East Coast too. I’ve noticed them dipping into the South as well.
 
For those of you back east who don't know it the avg daily high and low for December and January in Tucson is 39 and 67 degrees. This is the best time of the year to live in Arizona.
 
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Carnac said:
I will. Only 437 miles from home. :) A road trip I'll look forward to. Playing UConn is an excellent recruiting tool for Arizona.
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Only 411 miles for me, wonder if the wife would like to stay a few days in Tucson when they play. She hates basketball, but we can do other stuff when there's no game.:rolleyes:
 
Arizona has huge 2022/2023 classes coming in, I think it'll be a good series to watch. That said, Arizona is also a hot bed for kids transferring out (5 left after last year) so we'll see how it pans out. They definitely will have the horses to be a dangerous squad if their top players stick around.
 
nwhoopfan said:
I mean, sure, LOTS of people enjoy visiting Tucson. That was Adia's response when being criticized for her scheduling a year or two ago. She claimed nobody would come play them.
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She largely still does say that. A lot of teams might consider it, but in the end it is a long trip requiring at least a 2nd game to make it worth while for most programs - due to both financial issues and practicality. Plus, they want a game in return and I'm pretty sure Arizona's budget wasn't generous for travel. Importing teams that you pay was a bit of an issue, as the rate Arizona was paying was medium at best (at the time this was discussed, OK was paying the best)

If you look at team schedules, you will see a lot of road trips encompassing more than one game. Rutgers played in ASU's tourney a few years back, and even then had a 3rd game on their way. Rutgers never came west for "one" game. Until Arizona got cred, it really wasn't worth teams coming. Then, once Arizona looked good, a lot of teams didn't want to come play a competitive game - check out all the P5 team schedules, very few have much intentionally scheduled decent competition, especially "away".

UConn of course would. But why would UConn have wanted to until Arizona got good?
 
AzHusky said:
For those of you back east who don't know it the avg daily high and low for December and January in Tucson is 39 and 67 degrees. This is the best time of the year to live in Arizona.
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No from my point of view. A great time to visit from colder areas. But I like it a bit warmer. Given it is usually pretty dry, I like the Spring and it hasn't been bad September / October, a few hotter days, nothing like the summer which is, well, toasty. Then again, here in Tucson, we tend to at least pretend we don't care about the heat.
 
I guess since USC and UCLA left for the big 10 maybe they're looking to add Uconn to the PAC 12 as its east coast member, but hockey in the desert hmmm...does the PAC 12 even have hockey teams maybe Washington ?...
 
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bballnut90 said:
Arizona has huge 2022/2023 classes coming in, I think it'll be a good series to watch. That said, Arizona is also a hot bed for kids transferring out (5 left after last year) so we'll see how it pans out. They definitely will have the horses to be a dangerous squad if their top players stick around.
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Arizona is still in the running for the #1 recruit in the 2023 class, Juju Watkins.
 
nwhoopfan said:
UW doesn't, but I think Arizona St. does. So yes, hockey in the desert!
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So does Arizona on a club level. Long known as the "Ice Cats", and apparently really good at some point. Their founder / long time coach used to attend some of the same concerts we did at the Gaslight Theatre (ah, pre-Covid days, alas) and was sometimes introduced or mentioned as being there. Friends with the owner and some of the performers.
 
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