It's about to get real ugly | Page 2 | The Boneyard

It's about to get real ugly

brasssbonanzaa said:
Right, and that's not realistic right now. And the AAC is a significantly worse home than the Big East for the basketball program.
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We go Big East and we are forever stuck in small time. No thank you. Uconn is a P5 school more than a lot of current "P5" ones.
 
JMick said:
"right now" as if the world will not continue to spin post-"right now"

going to the big east means giving up. we're not ready to give up yet.
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Disagree, it means we're trying to position our basketball programs to remain near the top of the landscape in the event an opening in a P5 conference becomes available. It's not possible to remain in that position in the AAC. Going to the BE is a sustenance move more than anything else since it's clear the program cannot succeed in the AAC.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
Disagree, it means we're trying to position our basketball programs to remain near the top of the landscape in the event an opening in a P5 conference becomes available. It's not possible to remain in that position in the AAC.
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you are 100% wrong. you literally could not be more wrong if you tried. Do you understand what would happen to football if we moved to the Big East? It would cease to exist and we would never get into a power conference.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
Disagree, it means we're trying to position our basketball programs to remain near the top of the landscape in the event an opening in a P5 conference becomes available. It's not possible to remain in that position in the AAC. Going to the BE is a sustenance move more than anything else since it's clear the program cannot succeed in the AAC.
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Sure it is. We just have to, you know, be competitive and win the AAC
 
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To recruit in the American, the coaching staff have to make personal connections with their good recruits to get them to commit. At other “big time” schools some of the players are going there more for the opportunity, the exposure, (maybe other benefits) etc. so don’t be surprised if all of the recruits de-commit. But as long as we hire a very good coach, this is the right move.
 
JMick said:
you are 100% wrong. you literally could not be more wrong if you tried. Do you understand what would happen to football if we moved to the Big East? It would cease to exist and we would never get into a power conference.
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I agree about football hence why I said the move would be to position the basketball programs. Before such a move was made there would have to be a plan for football. Where we don't agree is that I don't foresee there being a P5 spot for us in the near future with the trajectory of our two main programs and the landscape as it is. UConn's brand is bleeding profusely and it's not all because KO had two horrendous seasons. Winning in the AAC in basketball is not respected on the grand scheme.
 
Kenny11 said:
To recruit in the American, the coaching staff have to make personal connections with their good recruits to get them to commit. At other “big time” schools some of the players are going there more for the opportunity, the exposure, (maybe other benefits) etc. so don’t be surprised if all of the recruits de-commit. But as long as we hire a very good coach, this is the right move.
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I wouldn't be surprised if Kisunas wants to stay committed. When he talked about his commitment he talked a lot about the school and not necessarily the staff. you never know though. we might only have 6-7 scholarship players when this all shakes out or we may have mostly a full cup
 
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Blaneylover said:
It is going to get worse before it gets better. James Akinjo's announcement is just the beginning. Nevertheless, I think that the change had to be made...for a lot of reasons that don't need to be rehashed here.

Good luck to Coach Ollie. Strap yourselves in, UConn fans, it's going to get real bumpy for a bit.
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What is with this “get” comment I keep seeing?
 
Our current players have put together the two worst seasons that UConn has had since I became a fan in my freshman year (1989). Maybe it's not their fault but there's no reason to believe it would've changed with Ollie at the helm. I hope they will all stay after a new coach is announced, but keeping or hiring coaches to keep recruits is always a disaster. Make the right long term move and deal with the (hopefully) short term consequences.
 
Coach first and foremost. Sure we want to keep some of the players and commits but first thing first. This is now a total rebuild and sometimes you have to go backwards before you go forward. We hopefully will strike gold with the next coach and work our way back
 
Waiting to see what the complete 2018-2019 coaching staff looks like. This will affect a lot of things, existing players, recruits etc.
 
JMick said:
you are 100% wrong. you literally could not be more wrong if you tried. Do you understand what would happen to football if we moved to the Big East? It would cease to exist and we would never get into a power conference.
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Which is why all we can do is delay that decision until it can't be delayed anymore. Unfortunately, every year is another year closer to that decision.

A big part of that decision, that gets a little attention but not enough IMO, is the decline in # of kids playing football. Won't have much impact on the South and maybe Midwest but in the Northeast and West coast this trend will eventually result in colleges dropping football. UConn might be among the first of them. I say this as a UConn football fan.
 
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junglehusky said:
Which is why all we can do is delay that decision until it can't be delayed anymore. Unfortunately, every year is another year closer to that decision.
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You made the point a lot better than I did. There's not an indeterminate amount of time that we can continue to wait around for a P5 spot to open up, much less be qualified to take it. What exactly are we waiting for to occur that'll open a P5 spot? ND to go full ACC, B1G/ACC/B12 reup their TV contracts. The ND side is unlikely to occur and the TV reups aren't likely to lead to increased revenue due to ESPN and cable companies bleeding profits.

UConn's case for P5 entry is predicated on things that happened in the 90s, 2000s, and first half of this decade. As those fade further into history, the brand of UConn further becomes that of a mid-major school. We can excel in the AAC, but the ceiling there is far below that of the Big East, not to mention UConn fans have spoken loud and clear at the box office that they aren't interested in going to see these teams.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
You made the point a lot better than I did. There's not an indeterminate amount of time that we can continue to wait around for a P5 spot to open up, much less be qualified to take it. What exactly are we waiting for to occur that'll open a P5 spot? ND to go full ACC, B1G/ACC/B12 reup their TV contracts. The ND side is unlikely to occur and the TV reups aren't likely to lead to increased revenue due to ESPN and cable companies bleeding profits.

UConn's case for P5 entry is predicated on things that happened in the 90s, 2000s, and first half of this decade. As those fade further into history, the brand of UConn further becomes that of a mid-major school. We can excel in the AAC, but the ceiling there is far below that of the Big East, not to mention UConn fans have spoken loud and clear at the box office that they aren't interested in going to see these teams.
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You need to wait for the next round of TV contracts. 2022-2024. That's how long you got to hold on for. After that, do whatever you want. It's not about them getting more money, it's about structure of the conference and TV sets. They'll likely try to maximize that. Which means potential shakeups.

The NBE is doing ok right now, results-wise, but have you seen their TV ratings? Their next TV contract will likely drop as a result, on top of the overall contract market shrinking. As the P5 breaks off, the funding difference is going to be massive, especially for small private schools. Long term, the conference will likely fizzle. The NBE is on notice.

Once the P5 split occurs, nothing really matters. Either you in, or your out....and likely @#$ked.
 
The B1G's contract opens up in 2022 I believe, that will likely be the final realignment for another 10-15 years. No one knows how many schools that may affect and what kind of trickle down affect that would have on us - either being an initial target by the B1G (highly doubtful obviously) or taking a seat from another conference with holes (Big 12 remnants) - or taking a seat in the ACC due to them reacting to the B1G (doubtful but who the hell knows).

We very well could be in the Big East in 5 years - I'd probably bet on that if I had extra money - but we've gotten this far, we're going to probably keep our chips in the pot for 5 more years.
 
Chief00 said:
Dave doesn’t fire someone without a replacement waiting in the wings. That’s how he operates.
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Hope you are right but pretty hard to keep the interview process under wraps for long. He would have had to make the decision to fire KO some time ago if he already has the next coach.
 
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intlzncster said:
The NBE is doing ok right now, results-wise, but have you seen their TV ratings? Their next TV contract will likely drop as a result, on top of the overall contract market shrinking. As the P5 breaks off, the funding difference is going to be massive, especially for small private schools. Long term, the conference will likely fizzle. The NBE is on notice.

Once the P5 split occurs, nothing really matters. Either you in, or your out....and likely @#$ked.
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This is what I don't get about the whole argument about how the Big East is doomed to fail. They aren't making that much money NOW while the P5 schools are making a ton. What is going to really change in terms of the gulf between haves and have nots with the next deal? Even if the BE deal goes down in value it can't drop that much because it currently isn't that much. The Big East is situated in a basketball hotbed and calls MSG it's home. Kids WANT to play in the Big East. The Big East will survive. And if we end up joining it again it will continue to elevate. They have 5 teams in the top 27 KenPom. The ACC has 4.

The only way the BE falls off a cliff is if the P5 end up doing their own march madness and the outcry from the public would be massive if they tried that. Part of the reason people watch these tourneys is for the cinderella moments and the Big East conference teams or Gonzagas or lesser teams taking on the heavy weights and making runs. The passion for college hoops would drop quite a big in March if they tried that.
 
The Viking said:
This is what I don't get about the whole argument about how the Big East is doomed to fail. They aren't making that much money NOW while the P5 schools are making a ton. What is going to really change in terms of the gulf between haves and have nots with the next deal? Even if the BE deal goes down in value it can't drop that much because it currently isn't that much. The Big East is situated in a basketball hotbed and calls MSG it's home. Kids WANT to play in the Big East. The Big East will survive. And if we end up joining it again it will continue to elevate. They have 5 teams in the top 27 KenPom. The ACC has 4.

The only way the BE falls off a cliff is if the P5 end up doing their own march madness and the outcry from the public would be massive if they tried that. Part of the reason people watch these tourneys is for the cinderella moments and the Big East conference teams or Gonzagas or lesser teams taking on the heavy weights and making runs. The passion for college hoops would drop quite a big in March if they tried that.
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The Big East's ratings are also partially the result of the crappy TV deal they signed when the new league was formed and everyone thought it'd be a subpar league. That's of course not panned out and the league is in a position to negotiate a FAR better deal than the one they have now. UConn's addition would only bolster that claim, so long as we don't continue to slide further into irrelevance.
 
UConn had to make the move. Can’t get excited just because a change is happening.

Next year has a high probability of being worse than this year even with a decent hire. What players can any coach bring in at this late date of the recruiting cycle given the likelihood of defections?

That event would put most of the coaches named by the BY in a hole for years. Short of Donovan (my preference) or the instant comer (absolutely no; I’d want the program to die before that hire) I don’t see cause for optimism.
 
bblanco15 said:
With Ollie out, Akinjo already de-committing, and the rumors of a mass exudes, it's about to get real ugly.

The new NCAA transfer rule that is expected to pass will allow players to transfer and play right away if their coach leave is going to make this real interesting.

What would stop Gilbert, Wilson, Adams, Vital, and any of the other players from transferring to a school that they have a better opportunity right away?
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Nothing. However, the conventional wisdom was that we would probably lose 4 to 6 players if Ollie stayed.
 
John said:
it's not. It's very poorly positioned for the future of college athletics. It's small-time, and not a good landing spot for a University with higher aspirations.
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It is if your focus is 100% men’s basketball. Oh, and you don’t need to take as much money in if you aren’t funding 100 scholarships for football.
 
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John said:
it's not. It's very poorly positioned for the future of college athletics. It's small-time, and not a good landing spot for a University with higher aspirations.
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You are so wrong
For any school that isn't in that all for football mode it is a great basketball conference and there will always be a niche for those programs.
Not every school can or wants to field a football team or a program that can play P5 level
 
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