Is the American good for uconn

[Longtime fan]

So, what’s your solution to the problem?

Right on point, Husky N. It is almost as though this poster just signed on. Because the pathetic state of AAC women's basketball has been a known weakness since day one. And, unless there are outside forces working to change women BB conference alignments ( and I don't think there are any ), or UCONN football soars to the national championship ( still laughing ), the only hope for change is that the AAC conference members " up their games." They have to get better coaches and players so that inter conference contests are worth watching. The frustrating thing is; other than South Florida, not a single university in the conference has made meaningful progress in women's basketball since the conference was formed. How does a wealthy, sports-oriented university, like SMU remain so awful? Texas is a hot bed ( sorry ) for great women BB players. They can't get any of them? UCONN does the best it can to treat their conference games as though they were important learning experiences, and to keep their focus on fine-tuning their system. But we all know UCONN's practices are more challenging than any of these games. It is embarrassing and non-productive, for sure. But, as you say, what to do?

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

 

[j66kicker]

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these [AAC] games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

I agree - don't even have the starters make the trip. Time to forget about the conference political correctness if most of the conference schools will not put resources into improving their WBB programs. Geno should make a statement - basically, "If your athletic department doesn't take WBB seriously, then we don't take you seriously and we'll make a mockery of you."

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I agree - don't even have the starters make the trip. Time to forget about the conference political correctness if most of the conference schools will not put resources into improving their WBB programs. Geno should make a statement - basically, "If your athletic department doesn't take WBB seriously, then we don't take you seriously and we'll make a mockery of you."

The elephant in the room being that very few schools (out of 350ish D1) take WBB particularly seriously. Any number of the P5 schools make the appearance of caring (a few don't even do that), but if you get right down to it, they are mostly tossing (some) money at the coach and "hoping" they can generate a bit of success, while other improvements, like facilities, are byproducts of improved men's facilities. And they do that much just to remain respectable among their peers.

Unfortunately, since WBB is a money loser and not "overly" popular in most places, I don't expect that to change. And since non of the American teams have a ghost of a chance of competing with UConn (I mean, the number of teams in D1 that have a chance of competing is pretty minimal) they can upgrade without being competitive.

Think about the oBE - who was really competitive with UConn? Rutgers and Notre Dame (in some years, on and off); a few other individual games could be "tough", but it wasn't really most of them. Most of the oBE teams were better than the American teams, for sure, but lets not over-romanticize how they compared, game in and game out, with UConn.

 

[Kevin G]

No. But unfortunately Uconn is stuck in it. The OOC schedule speaks for itself. Either way no excuses

 

[UConnNick]

Right on point, Husky N. It is almost as though this poster just signed on. Because the pathetic state of AAC women's basketball has been a known weakness since day one. And, unless there are outside forces working to change women BB conference alignments ( and I don't think there are any ), or UCONN football soars to the national championship ( still laughing ), the only hope for change is that the AAC conference members " up their games." They have to get better coaches and players so that inter conference contests are worth watching. The frustrating thing is; other than South Florida, not a single university in the conference has made meaningful progress in women's basketball since the conference was formed. How does a wealthy, sports-oriented university, like SMU remain so awful? Texas is a hot bed ( sorry ) for great women BB players. They can't get any of them? UCONN does the best it can to treat their conference games as though they were important learning experiences, and to keep their focus on fine-tuning their system. But we all know UCONN's practices are more challenging than any of these games. It is embarrassing and non-productive, for sure. But, as you say, what to do?

As an extreme, I think UCONN should play some of these games with bench players only. Use the starters only at critical moments, if there are any. At least they would be " fresh" for the Big Dance. Just dreaming.

SMU is just one example of the entire AAC. It consists of primarily southern, football oriented schools, all of which having the same limited resources due to their conference affiliation. When it comes down to spending limited resources on athletics, they're all going to invest in football and men's BB. You don't throw money at money losing sports when you don't have the money to throw around.

As for Geno deliberately using second teamers just to keep AAC conference games closer, that's LOL funny. You don't deliberately take your foot off the gas in the first half of conference games just to make the game some kind of learning experience. Most AAC teams are so bad your players aren't going to learn much of anything no matter how you play the games.

 

[j66kicker]

Think about the oBE - who was really competitive with UConn? Rutgers and Notre Dame (in some years, on and off); a few other individual games could be "tough", but it wasn't really most of them. Most of the oBE teams were better than the American teams, for sure, but lets not over-romanticize how they compared, game in and game out, with UConn.

I think at least most of the OBE schools tried. Villanova, BC (back then), Miami, even Seton Hall tried, I think. WBB in the AAC isn't getting any better, and isn't going to get any better, because there's not even any try.

 

[TitleTown]

When is the last time DePaul managed to stay within 20 points of UCONN? I'm sure its happened, but how often and how long ago? They don't provide any better competition than USF does. As for the rest of the new Big East, let's not forget that Rutgers, Louisville, ND, WVU and Syracuse are all gone. The former Big East has been gutted. There's nobody left to give UCONN much of a game. Every once in a while maybe DePaul, Marquette or Villanova might stay within 20. Big whoop. That's no reason to join the NBE. The season before last we came close to losing at Tulane. That's likely a far closer game than any NBE team would have given us in the past several seasons.

That's my point, Depaul is just as good as USF!

 

[mbr33ct]

The AAC has just completed 5 years. Rome wasn't built overnight. Comments to the effect, the oBE teams were better than current AAC teams...really? True statement considering most of current teams came from A-10, C-USA, MVC (Wichita State...whatever conf that is). So yes, the oBE teams were better than this current batch of teams but seems to me these teams have to work "double time" to catch up to the oBE teams first and then try to compete with UConn.

 

[river rat]

None of the conferences would give UConn a lot of "good challenging games" with a quick look I see NotreDame won 7 games by 10, 3 by 15, 6 by 20, 8 by 30(including a 50 point win). they did have 5 games they one in single digits, including an overtime win... they also were beaten twice by louisville and once by Uconn.. Is that a big difference in preparation? The big 10 is much worse than the ACC, much like the AAC. The big east was only slightly better than what they have now... memories fade about the many blowouts. The ACC would be slightly better. the rest are much the same. I do not think ND was better prepared... they had a better game that night, and needed overtime to do it. It could have gone the other way just as easily.

We played ND, we played Louisville, we played SC... we beat them all, just not in the right order

 

[Fightin Choke]

Sorry to even bump this, but the ACC better than the Big Ten as a conference? C'mon. Any ND fans knows that is not true. The ACC chooses Louisville over UConn. While the Big Ten makes smart moves. ND shuns the Big Ten out of claimed animosity and fear (but they did join the Big Ten for ice hockey anyway). UMD left the ACC for the Big Ten, if I am recalling correctly. It's almost like saying Cornell should be in the Patriot Conference instead of the Ivy League.

UConn most definitely is hoping and aiming for the Big Ten. We'd fit in very well and they know it.

I was talking about the ACC being better than the B1G as a women's BB conference, as we are on a women's BB forum. Obviously, the B1G has a bigger payout because of football, but where would the majority of UConn WBB fans prefer UConn go? The B1G is probably the weakest WBB in the P5.

Why would Notre Dame fear the B1G? Their football schedule is typically among the hardest in the nation already. Check out their SOS compared to any member of the B1G.

 

[buddy]

None of this matters. UConn will be in the AAC for the foreseeable future. As long as Geno can recruit great players, UConn will be great. Doesn't matter what conference they are in. There are only a handful of competitive women's basketball teams. That is they way it is, and it is not likely to change. Once in a very rare while, you may get a surprise, like Loyola Chicago in the men's tourney, but when it comes down the the final four, it will usually be UConn, ND, Louisville, and some over achiever.