Warde sucks. He loafs around the Bahamas while Jurich is tearing it up on Tobacco Road. He starts a pissing match with Calhoun and has Ollie sweating out a contract while UConn is in a critical stage of expansion. And then he hires a train wreck of a football coach. I would say Manuel is 0-3.
Everyone in the Big East ended up MUCH better off than before except for UConn, Cincinnati and USF. But it is nobody's fault. Whatever. We have eternity to wonder why we have New Hampshire's athletic program. No point in burning too much energy on it now.
I Met Warde once, and yes, it was next to a snack table; but, hey, I can often be found next to the bar, not judging. I found it to be intelligent and very aware of UConns' place in the college sports world.
He was hired in February of 2012, Maryland bolted for the B1G in November of 2012 and the ACC invites Louisville a few weeks later. University relationships takes years to develop and Warde was on the job less than 10 months. Yes, he does share some of the blame in that folks in Storrs assumed that UConn would be next to the ACC. Heck, even ESPN and CBS were saying such. UConn underestimated the small minds on Chestnut Hill and the ACC's own internal division between the football first and basketball first schools. Plus, the NCAA's vendetta against Calhoun culminated in the summer of 2012 weakened UConn's biggest asset (Syracuse pointing out how UConn cheats as a reason not to vote for UConn is just a tad irksome). That's on Hathaway and Calhoun (great coach, just rubs people the wrong way). Very little Warde could do there. Jurich market Louisville better; but, how much did that really change anything?
Diaco is TBD. This is a big season for him and UConn football.
Cavanaugh appears to have been a home run.
As for basketball, everyone gets into a pissing match with Calhoun. A great coach; but, one of the reasons that the NCAA hammered UConn (and not UNC, Syracuse, etc.) is because he basically flipped Emmert & company off (they deserved it; but have to be smarter than that).After everything that happened, Warde had to make it look like he and UConn was in charge, not Calhoun. Calhoun basically forced Ollie on UConn as its new head coach. Warrde and/or Herbst did the best thing possible, respected Calhoun by allowing Ollie to be coach; but, made Ollie prove himself. And prove himself he did on and off the court.