The funny thing is that most UCONN fans have respect and appreciation for Pat and her legacy. We laugh at her misguided attempts to get UCONN in trouble with the crazy 34 page accusation document that was sent to the NCAA back in the day. We also laugh at the canceling of the series for reasons no one can actually say on the board, but I don't think ANY UCONN fans really hate Pat with a venomous passion. However, I think most Tennessee fans on the summitt feel just that way about Geno.
Also most people from the south are much nicer and friendlier than people from the northeast....in general.
I just checked out their "fan site" and although some of the people there seemed to be pretty knowledgeable, there were others that were pretty clueless. I did like the last observation, which was posted earlier today. It stated that the Vols had made Louisville look really good while UConn in the championship game made the Cardinals look like a "mediocre mid-major" team. What a wonderful and insightful comment. It made looking at their "game thread" from the Louisville loss in the Regional finals worth the time it took!
It's funny that you don't seem to mind Pat Summit but it seems to me that she is the one that contributes to the Geno hate thing by some of her public remarks. When her "subjects" who revere her as the "Saint of Tennessee women's basketball" hear or read some of her remarks pertaining to Geno, it isn't hard for them to take the innuendoes in their context to mean that he is the devil incarnate, that he is the dirtiest, most deceitful, dishonest coach in the history of sport. "If Pat says this or that about him, it must be even worse because of course, she would never publicly say what he REALLY IS because she's too sweet and too nice a Christian. That type of thing really feeds into some of these wahoos minds and half truths and misleading info can sure make some of these looneys ugly.
I have mixed feelings about Pat. I certainly respect all that she accomplished in an era where WCBB wasn't nearly as respected as it is now. However, I also agree the way she handled losing recruits, canceling the series, and trying to report UCONN for a host of imagined improprieties was disgraceful. But then her diagnosis and subsequent retirement from WCBB, and it's just hard for me to hate Pat the person. I have zero respect for how she treated and handled Geno and UCONN back in the day (referencing the above actions), but I have pity on where she finds herself now. IMHO retiring was not her decision, but rather a decision necessitated by her disease.
It's a tough one. You have to say flat out that she did a humongous amount for establishing WCBB and have to deeply respect her for that. And her teams did things that UConn has not approached yet, such as 9 NC appearances in 14 years, which is just incredible. You can wrap all my beefs about her behavior in the phrase "sense of entitlement." She fought and scrapped for respect in the early decades, but by the 2000s she simply thought that she and her team were entitled to things that they were not. Each year is a new year, and each recruit is different, and just because you have a lot of NC rings on your finger does not mean everybody should bow and scrape to you and your wisdom and offer up their best players in your service. With Geno, despite the 8 rings, you know that he expects someone is always sidling over to him to muss up his hair.
I dunno. We've visited my husband's family in North Carolina at least once, and usually twice a year for the last 20 years. They have their share of rude people in similar proportion to the folks here in Connecticut.
What part of NC is this ?? Surely not the Piedmont Triad The insane thing about that is twofold. First, it's probably mathematically impossible for the SEC to be 500 times as strong as the big east, no matter what criteria you used (they always whined about UCONN having a "soft" schedule). Second, UCONN has 8 NC's. That means that they have to beat the best of the best to win it all, just like the Vols USED to do...
Asheville, a couple hours east of Knoxville. We usually fly into Charlotte and drive to Asheville, stopping along the way for lunch so we've been in several towns along the way.
Asheville is awesome.
