Is the Big East killing us?

[Bald Husky]

Yeah, I do question whether the Big East is killing us. For the last few years, even though we have had very good clubs, we have not been able to win the big games, games against the teams that are challenging our legacy. People out of our conference in the past have said that maybe the soft Big East is hurting us, but until now I have just ignored those comments. Now, well, I am starting to believe that. This years Big East is totally embarrassing. We should be embarrassed to step on the court with some of these teams. What can we do, well, nothing. If the Big12 comes calling again, even though the travel is not so good, for the good of the teams we should jump at it. I wait every year in anticipation until the season starts but having to treck to the XL center to watch Xavier, Butler, Georgetown is starting to bother me. It seems every big game we lose, and having to play teams in the BE, games that we have to take out our best players to not embarrass them is ridiculous. We are better than this, but as I have said, there is nothing we can do about it. Somehow, we need to get in another conference, anyway we can. I would like to say play an independent schedule, but I don't think there are 30 teams that would play us. LOL. So, it is what it is, but I don't like it.

 

[packwrap]

We discuss this every year. Sadly it is primarily a football based decision. Geno has absolutely nothing to do with what league the women play in.

Men's hoops does not have same problem, as men's Big East is excellent.

Football now on a nice upswing, and the Hartford, suburban NY & Boston media markets are appealing to conferences. Basically all of UConn's non football teams will add a lot to any conference. Perhaps this problem goes away soon.

Meanwhile, Geno does best be can scheduling big OOC games, recruiting still at a high level, sending kids to WNBA, and making final fours.

The Huskies not winning championships since Stewie basically come down to 2 posessions with core four group, and the injury bug during the Paige era. So far Geno is handling conference issue, and next 2 recruiting classes are solid.

 

[Bone Dog]

Was it any better in the AAC?

 

[EricLA]

LSU won the NC a few years back with a crap OOC schedule. They played no one. UCONN is the opposite - fierce OOC schedule. Also with games against SC and Tennessee coming up so games to test the team against. We play enough good teams that the crappy conference (IMHO) has no bearing on our success post season.

I would say that the team has had huge success even since their last NC - they made it to 14 final 4s in a row including every year since their last NC. They lost in the sweet 16 to an OSU team mainly as a result of an inability to figure out how to get past the full court press.

We made it back to the final 4 last season as well. All this in spite of a horrific set of injuries. And it wasn't just the usual suspects (Paigie and Azzi). Aubrey for several years, Caroline Ducharme, Ayanna Patterson, Ice Brady, Jana El Alfy, etc. I'd actually say the team has over performed given the losses they have faced.

And BTW, during the 4 NC's in the Stewie years, UCONN was in the BE the first year with ND etc., but the following 3 seasons in the American conference, which was a crap conference as well. I hardly think a crap conference stopped us from winning those NC's.

As pack pointed out, Geno has no choice of what conference we are in, and if you ask him, I'm 100% sure he would not blame the final 4 losses on our conference.

 

[Zinethar]

While I sure wish and hope that the Big East improves that can not be blamed for the losses so far this year as they occurred before the conference games began. UConn relies on these games for their seeding in the end of the year. Had UConn won all their out of conference games they would be seeded well in the tourney. So why is the team losing thee early big OOC games? UConn had a very young team that had not yet had the time to Gel. The last few years had changed everything. COVID and injuries to major contributors has set then back.The normal roster of having several players each as freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors isn't in place. This can happen to any team and recently has bitten the team we love. Paige is our most experienced (at least until Aubrey gets back) yet she is a 5th year player who is only in her 3rd full year of experience.

Can it be fixed? The past can not be changed but the fault is not the schedule, the conference, the players, or the coaching. Its the result of bad luck and forces beyond their control. The Big East will provide time for the group to learn, gel, and find each players niche in Geno's system. The schedule always has what should be tough OOC games later in the season to test the results. I have confidence in what UConn has and I think we will see a team that is ready come tournament time. We shall see if I am right.

 

[MooseJaw]

No, injuries have done us in.

 

[Stagnant]

This year it is. It is very weak this year. I believe that UConn’s return to the big east impacted the conference in a big way. And teams were initially getting better as a result. But NIL and the portal killed off that improvement and turned the big east into a feeder league. And this is the worst the league has been since UConn returned. We are a creighton slump away from this being a one bid league.

 

[Zonepress]

Of courses it’s detrimental to be playing non competitive games
Play 10 games where you can name the score
Play the starters half the game and then go play
Tenn and s car on the road !
Imho it’s of no value for younger players to get experience against such inferior competition
Yeah

 

[Stagnant]

Faith Masonius never made an impression on me when she was at Maryland. Put her in the big east and she is a top 5 player in the conference. It’s crazy.

 

[ERWUC65]

Of courses it’s detrimental to be playing non competitive games
Play 10 games where you can name the score
Play the starters half the game and then go play
Tenn and s car on the road !
Imho it’s of no value for younger players to get experience against such inferior competition
Yeah

I am holding my opinion until after Sunday's game. I think it will be competitive and we are not ready for prime time yet. The Bigs need reps, Azzi still not 100%, Aubrey an unknown, Chen a mystery and Ash needs to score more. Fix all that in the BE games and we just might be up for Tenn and SC.

 

[Puppy Love]

Auggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

[MSGRET]

Faith Masonius never made an impression on me when she was at Maryland. Put her in the big east and she is a top 5 player in the conference. It’s crazy.

Did you ever think that it could be the system that Maryland runs vs the system that Seton Hall runs that helped her on becoming a better player?

 

[Zonepress]

Did you ever think that it could be the system that Maryland runs vs the system that Seton Hall runs that helped her on becoming a better player?

That could be true, but it’s more likely be playing against inferior competition

 

[Zonepress]

I am holding my opinion until after Sunday's game. I think it will be competitive and we are not ready for prime time yet. The Bigs need reps, Azzi still not 100%, Aubrey an unknown, Chen a mystery and Ash needs to score more. Fix all that in the BE games and we just might be up for Tenn and SC.

Could be true but it’s still a major disadvantage not playing a competitive schedule like the big 10 SEC or ACC

 

[BBallF]

No, injuries have done us in.

Exactly. We had 6 players last year. If we even had Aubrey we get to the finals and if we had Azzi we win. Year before we get to the finals but no Dorka. Year before no Paige. It’s not the league in my mind. If you have a tough league like the SEC you can go cupcake in the OOC schedule like LSU. We don’t. I like what we do.

 

[Cuango]

Yeah, I do question whether the Big East is killing us. For the last few years, even though we have had very good clubs, we have not been able to win the big games, games against the teams that are challenging our legacy. People out of our conference in the past have said that maybe the soft Big East is hurting us, but until now I have just ignored those comments. Now, well, I am starting to believe that. This years Big East is totally embarrassing. We should be embarrassed to step on the court with some of these teams. What can we do, well, nothing. If the Big12 comes calling again, even though the travel is not so good, for the good of the teams we should jump at it. I wait every year in anticipation until the season starts but having to treck to the XL center to watch Xavier, Butler, Georgetown is starting to bother me. It seems every big game we lose, and having to play teams in the BE, games that we have to take out our best players to not embarrass them is ridiculous. We are better than this, but as I have said, there is nothing we can do about it. Somehow, we need to get in another conference, anyway we can. I would like to say play an independent schedule, but I don't think there are 30 teams that would play us. LOL. So, it is what it is, but I don't like it.

While the BE is obviously an inferior conference in terms of playing quality and therefore clearly does hurt us in many ways, it is not the reason we have been losing some big games that we once would never have lost (rarely, at least) We are healthy finally (though still young) but most of the losses prior to this season have been lost primarily due to half our team being on the bench with injuries! The injury thing goes far beyond the mere fact of being unable to play those players in games. It affected how we practice, how Geno substitutes, game planning, player attitudes, recruiting, game flow, etc!

I’m not totally discounting your intimation that we have lost a little off our fastball but imo, the Big East’s obvious haplessness is not the primary reason for most of the big game losses over the past four years. Let’s face it, we have not seen any real conference competition since the days of the ND, Louisville, BE! We have been fine with a weak conference for years and although a tough conference slate would be better, I think we’ll continue to be fine. I’m not reading too much into the ND & USC losses but I guess we’ll see.

 

[JoePgh]

Back in the years around 2010, the Big East was a very competitive conference for women's basketball. In addition to UConn, it had Notre Dame, Rutgers, and Louisville, and Syracuse and South Florida were often competitive. I remember a year in that era when the Big East had 8 teams in the NCAA tournament, and they all won their first-round games, including several against other top conferences.

But you would have a hard time making the case that UConn's overall schedule (in and out of conference) was tougher in those years than it is now. To compensate for the high quality of the Big East, Geno intentionally scheduled a number of cupcakes in the OOC schedule, so that he could do the experimentation and team-building that he now does in January and February. Now he schedules a very challenging OOC schedule to compensate for the weakness of the Big East. The overall effect is about the same strength of schedule for the season as a whole.

It may be true that if, in the current year, we had been in the same conference as ND and Southern Cal, so that UConn played them in January or February after easier games in November and December, it might have tipped the balance in those games. But last year UConn played ND at home in late January and was soundly defeated.

I think the real problem since 2016 has been UConn injuries. Also, I think that if Azura Stevens had returned for her final year of eligibility, that would probably have resulted in an NC in that year (which I believe was 2018).

 

[mordecai]

Yes

 

[Vowelguy]

The last couple of years the conference has probably helped, as the easier sked has allowed uconn more time to adapt to the injuries.

Things will be worse next year with the 20 conference games.

The problem will be post Geno.

 

[HopJim]

No, injuries have done us in.

At least for last year, with all the injuries, the light league schedule probably helped us. Allowed a very young, height challenged team to gain confidence and momentum. Similarly, suggest we need to look at each year's team and what their skill set was able to realistically achieve. Geno has the Huskies playing a killer schedule each year, much more difficult than most of our Top 10 competition. Would combining these tough out of league games with a tougher league line up benefit UConn. Some years, yes, but many years no. It is what it is - as long as Geno is the coach, will not be worth the conversation.

 

[Plebe]

Yeah, I do question whether the Big East is killing us. For the last few years, even though we have had very good clubs, we have not been able to win the big games, games against the teams that are challenging our legacy.

"Very good" is a relative concept. Ultimately it's a personnel problem, not a conference one. Folks who want to blame our losses on our conference are looking for an easy scapegoat.

Outside of the NCAA tournament, most of those big games have been in November and December. Is the argument that playing stronger teams in January and February would have better prepared us for the games we played 3-4 months earlier?

If you're referring more to the NCAA tournament games, the fact is that our roster (especially when you count only the healthy players) just has not measured up well against most of the top teams. Playing in a better conference would not have made our roster better. Having better (and healthier) players is what makes a roster better.

 

[ConnMotors]

I brought this up many times since conference expansion has escalated into a bunch of nonsense. The Big East should and needs to go back and be a football conference. But it only needs to be half football. Make the conference 20 teams. Ten basketball and 10 football. UConn football cannot last as an independent.

The BE already has the 10 basketball schools. They are Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Saint John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier.

For football the conference starts with Connecticut. If the ACC doesn’t implode then we need to look elsewhere to add nine schools. Let’s invite some old friends along with some new. Army, Buffalo, Georgia State, Florida International, Liberty, Memphis, Navy, South Florida and Temple.

Some of these schools are large in enrollment and many are also in very good media markets.

 

[Vowelguy]

I brought this up many times since conference expansion has escalated into a bunch of nonsense. The Big East should and needs to go back and be a football conference. But it only needs to be half football. Make the conference 20 teams. Ten basketball and 10 football. UConn football cannot last as an independent.

The BE already has the 10 basketball schools. They are Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Saint John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and Xavier.

For football the conference starts with Connecticut. If the ACC doesn’t implode then we need to look elsewhere to add nine schools. Let’s invite some old friends along with some new. Army, Buffalo, Georgia State, Florida International, Liberty, Memphis, Navy, South Florida and Temple.

Some of these schools are large in enrollment and many are also in very good media markets.

Why on earth would the current BE schools add a bunch of awful MBB schools and make the conference weaker than the A-10 ?

 

[AJay11]

Barring some fluke, I am 100% sure that UConn will win all there Big East games this year and easily. Even when UConn was down to Georgetown, I wasn't bored, but I was 100% sure that UConn would win. I am concerned about the lack of competition considering that UConn has struggled against competition in the top 10. While fans are excited that Azzi and Shade are doing well now, I will continue to be worried until they have breakout performances against TN and SC. Griffins return will probably make this point irrevelant, but I am concerned about Azzi and Shade's performance under pressure. Sometimes Azzi will dribble the ball into a wall of defense instead of passing it (which leads to costly turnovers) or Shade will hesistate on shots. Jana shows flashes of greatness, but she's not consistent.
I really wish they had done well in the USC, because these games don't seem to be showing anything beyond KK re-finding her her role as a defensive spark and the development of Jana and the freshmen. It's difficult to know what this team looks.