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Jersey Guy Pushing Our Buttons

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uconnphil2016 said:
Blauds appears to only write with a 'Rome is burning' theme regarding any and all northeast athletic programs. UConn hasn't lost its swagger...and what the hell does it mean that UConn needs to become UCONN?? Senseless drivel
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On the other hand, Coach Calhoun had him in his back pocket. Blauds hated the Thunderchickens' move to the ACC. He was a big proponent of the old Big East. He has to face the fact that those days are WAY in the rear view mirror.
 
What a stupid flipping article. UCONN needs to go back to being UCONN? What a hot take. Hey genius, UCONN hasn't changed s***. The circumstances around the program have spiraled out of control. In the time that UCONN has been banished to the Siberia of athletic conferences, they have managed to win multiple national championships in basketball and Olympic Sports, while at the same time setting about rectifying its issues in football. One can argue that they have out performed more than two thirds of the athletic departments that currently comprise The P5.

Wait, fans aren't coming out in droves to watch rivalries like UCF in football or SMU in basketball? That's impossible. Who wouldn't want to watch that? How do you think Husky fans would react to seeing PSU take the field in their iconic road whites for an 8:00 PM kick under the lights at The Rent? Do you think anybody would feel differently? How about watching IU warm up in their classic candy canes before a huge game at Gampel? UCONN has one problem and it ain't swag. Its being a big time program trapped in a small time conference. The author should stick to writing about things he knows, namely the effects of brain damage on sports blog writers.
 
UConn basketball is currently playing an inconference game against Tulsa in February. Sorry if it doesn't feel like our inconference games from a few years back but it's not like we chose this.
 
I was looking at the four letter networks website this morning looking to see how much coverage the game received on the front page, the MBB page, and their rolling twitter feed. Since the game was on the deuce, it fits the policy of promoting games on their air over those on other networks. The neg was that neither team was ranked and one was Tulsa.

My conclusion was indecisive, while ESPN rarely promotes non P5, non-ranked teams, I had to concede that during the height of the old BE you almost never saw coverage of Tulsa, even if we were playing them. Verdict: lean screw the G5 and not necessarily UConn.
 
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TRest said:
He used to be the BC beat writer for the Globe. He now spends his days thinking of ways to get people to click on his blog posts.
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At the Globe, he was always very pro-UConn. Not sure what happened. He turned into a concern troll.
 
I don't think this is anti-UConn, and he's not really wrong. Being left in the American was a body-blow. It isn't the Big East, which was at least a "BCS" league. Now we are considered the rough equivalent of mid-major. Those in the P5, and their fans, look at UConn as similar to say, Gonzaga. Decent hoops...otherwise useless. The perception needs to change. We do need to do some ass kicking.

A nice Sweet 16 run would help. Ollie being a bit more of a cheerleader would help. I thought Diaco was a good hire because I thought he could be an evangelist for UConn football, and he has. I never thought we needed one for basketball, but where is Kevin Ollie? Calhoun was in the news constantly. He was on TV, he was everywhere. Everyone knew him, and many hated him, but that's fine. Ollie is just too quiet. He needs to make some noise, and start talking up his program a bit. We need a bit of bombast, some flair.
 
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
 
freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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I suspect that these guys might disagree:
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freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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Providence? You're a joke.
 
freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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Nobody can say he's another Jim Calhoun because even Jim Calhoun wasn't Jim Calhoun 3 years in to his coaching tenure.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
I don't think this is anti-UConn, and he's not really wrong. Being left in the American was a body-blow. It isn't the Big East, which was at least a "BCS" league. Now we are considered the rough equivalent of mid-major. Those in the P5, and their fans, look at UConn as similar to say, Gonzaga. Decent hoops...otherwise useless. The perception needs to change. We do need to do some ass kicking.

A nice Sweet 16 run would help. Ollie being a bit more of a cheerleader would help. I thought Diaco was a good hire because I thought he could be an evangelist for UConn football, and he has. I never thought we needed one for basketball, but where is Kevin Ollie? Calhoun was in the news constantly. He was on TV, he was everywhere. Everyone knew him, and many hated him, but that's fine. Ollie is just too quiet. He needs to make some noise, and start talking up his program a bit. We need a bit of bombast, some flair.
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freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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Providence is severely overrated in basketball. Every rating system out there has UConn rated about 20 spots higher than Providence. In reality Providence is a 40-55 ish type team in the country while UConn is top 30 in all systems.

Gonzaga has struggled a little this year as compared to how they usually perform. UConn is still rated higher than them in the majority of systems.
 
He's off here and there but I can't say I disagree with much of what he said.
 
freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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Between the two basketball programs over the last two decades, we've enjoyed 14 national championships. We've gotten to celebrate a national championship in basketball on average 3 out of every 4 years. Let me know when another program has that kind of success.
 
CTMike said:
Nobody can say he's another Jim Calhoun because even Jim Calhoun wasn't Jim Calhoun 3 years in to his coaching tenure.
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He kinda was. He took a team from D2 to league champs in 3 years and a d1 NCAA bid. And as for Providence who is a top 25 team and who is a couple of losses from the nit? It is really a sad thing how far UConns stock has fallen in such a short time and most of you know it. Just don't want to admit it.
 
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freescooter said:
He kinda was. He took a team from D2 to league champs in 3 years and a d1 NCAA bid. And as for Providence who is a top 25 team and who is a couple of losses from the nit? It is really a sad thing how far UConns stock has fallen in such a short time and most of you know it. Just don't want to admit it.
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And Ollie has an NCAA Championship under his belt. What's your point? Or are you just discounting it because you have never been a fan of his?
 
HoopsFan21 said:
Between the two basketball programs over the last two decades, we've enjoyed 14 national championships. We've gotten to celebrate a national championship in basketball on average 3 out of every 4 years. Let me know when another program has that kind of success.
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He's not talking about the last 2 decades. He's talking about 2016 and beyond. Some of you are pretty clueless if you don't see how far we've fallen in public perception. Losing Calhoun and ending up in the American has been a huge setback whether you want to admit it or not.
 
freescooter said:
He kinda was. He took a team from D2 to league champs in 3 years and a d1 NCAA bid. And as for Providence who is a top 25 team and who is a couple of losses from the nit? It is really a sad thing how far UConns stock has fallen in such a short time and most of you know it. Just don't want to admit it.
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In Calhoun's fourth year as a head coach, Northeastern went 12-13, their worst record under Calhoun to that point.
 
freescooter said:
He's not talking about the last 2 decades. He's talking about 2016 and beyond. Some of you are pretty clueless if you don't see how far we've fallen in public perception. Losing Calhoun and ending up in the American has been a huge setback whether you want to admit it or not.
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The setback was the penalties for the APR ban that put limitations on scholarships and the postseason ban. Since those penalties have passed Ollie and the staff have been recruiting at an elite level.

Next year is when we will get to see the team as Ollie has wanted to build it. I have complete faith UConn will be a perennial top 25 team for the foreseeable future with the high level recruiting and building the roster to fit the style of play that Ollie wants.
 
methodology said:
The setback was the penalties for the APR ban that put limitations on scholarships and the postseason ban. Since those penalties have passed Ollie and the staff have been recruiting at an elite level.

Next year is when we will get to see the team as Ollie has wanted to build it. I have complete faith UConn will be a perennial top 25 team for the foreseeable future with the high level recruiting and building the roster to fit the style of play that Ollie wants.
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And that's the key, great March runs aside, when was the last time we were a top 25 program over a whole season? Lately, we've been lucky to sniff top 25 and I think there's a some cache lost because of it. We should be dominating a weak league like the AAC. There's reasons for it, we all know them and I believe Ollie is getting us back but we need to start getting in everyone's face again, all season, not just March.
 
freescooter said:
A bit if whistling past the graveyard going on here I think. I get exactly what he is talking about. Not so long ago UConn was a regular among the top10 in basketball and the Syracuses and BCs of the world were legitimately worried that we would become the dominant football program in the northeast too. And Calhoun was, well Calhoun. Now we're excited about just making the Tournament and Ollie might be good or he might be bad or even an indifferent coach but nobody can say he is another Jim Calhoun. In basketball we aren't even Gonzaga or Providence these days.
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I don't really get the KO bashing, he is 3 1/2 years in & has a championship. He is still working with a combination of JC recruits, transfers & his recruits. The program was severely affected by CR & 2+ years of penalties. It is also ludicrous to compare UConn to Providence & Gonzaga...2 schools that have 1 Final 4 appearance between them I believe. Programs go through cycles...UNC, KY, UCLA certainly have had some lean years in recent memory. The next 2 recruiting classes are shaping up to be something special, no reason to think that won't continue. I think KO is the right man for the job but we'll see 2 years from now how things look...until then yes I am happy just making tourney.
 
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freescooter said:
He kinda was. He took a team from D2 to league champs in 3 years and a d1 NCAA bid. And as for Providence who is a top 25 team and who is a couple of losses from the nit? It is really a sad thing how far UConns stock has fallen in such a short time and most of you know it. Just don't want to admit it.
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Providence is both of those things, in fact
 
External variables are as much at fault as anything to do with the program. Next season will have a lot to say where we really are post JC/Big East.

Every program has dipped after major program upheaval. Trick is how quickly do you rebound. Missing the NCAA last year was a kick in the nuts as it would be this year.

Next year not making a deep run would be a disaster. This year we need to win a game.
 
The Funster said:
And that's the key, great March runs aside, when was the last time we were a top 25 program over a whole season? Lately, we've been lucky to sniff top 25 and I think there's a some cache lost because of it. We should be dominating a weak league like the AAC. There's reasons for it, we all know them and I believe Ollie is getting us back but we need to start getting in everyone's face again, all season, not just March.
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You and @freescooter are spot on. Does anyone else not notice it? Nobody is saying "oh crap we have to play UConn" anymore. They walk into Gampel or XL and think they can win....hell, some of them even do it. There is no buzz around us, we aren't ranked or really even talked about. I want every team to live in mortal terror of playing the Huskies. To know that even if they win, it meant that they played an A+ game and came away physically and mentally drained.

Instead I see UConn up by 12 and giving a game away, looking like a mediocre Jr. High team. Temple had no fear. Tulsa had no fear when they came back from down 20. I want any team down 10 to UConn in the second half to know that the game is over. That we will be relentless to the finish.
 
HuskyHawk said:
You and @freescooter are spot on. Does anyone else not notice it? Nobody is saying "oh crap we have to play UConn" anymore. They walk into Gampel or XL and think they can win....hell, some of them even do it. There is no buzz around us, we aren't ranked or really even talked about. I want every team to live in mortal terror of playing the Huskies. To know that even if they win, it meant that they played an A+ game and came away physically and mentally drained.

Instead I see UConn up by 12 and giving a game away, looking like a mediocre Jr. High team. Temple had no fear. Tulsa had no fear when they came back from down 20. I want any team down 10 to UConn in the second half to know that the game is over. That we will be relentless to the finish.
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Then go watch games that have already happened. This fantasy world never existed.
 
The Funster said:
And that's the key, great March runs aside, when was the last time we were a top 25 program over a whole season? Lately, we've been lucky to sniff top 25 and I think there's a some cache lost because of it. We should be dominating a weak league like the AAC. There's reasons for it, we all know them and I believe Ollie is getting us back but we need to start getting in everyone's face again, all season, not just March.
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Then why bother posting this? Basically everything bad that could have happened to a top-flight college basketball team happened to us in the last six-seven years. And we're coming out of it with a great young coach and killer recruiting. And, by the way, we have players on our current roster with national championship rings.
 
HuskyHawk said:
You and @freescooter are spot on. Does anyone else not notice it? Nobody is saying "oh crap we have to play UConn" anymore. They walk into Gampel or XL and think they can win....hell, some of them even do it. There is no buzz around us, we aren't ranked or really even talked about. I want every team to live in mortal terror of playing the Huskies. To know that even if they win, it meant that they played an A+ game and came away physically and mentally drained.

Instead I see UConn up by 12 and giving a game away, looking like a mediocre Jr. High team. Temple had no fear. Tulsa had no fear when they came back from down 20. I want any team down 10 to UConn in the second half to know that the game is over. That we will be relentless to the finish.
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That is it exactly!
 
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