Apologies, my computer froze before I could finish...
Warde was hired in February of 2012, Maryland bolted for the B1G in November of 2012 and the ACC invited 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 and weakened UConn's biggest asset (Syracuse pointing out how UConn cheats as a reason not to vote for UConn is just a tad irksome). Most of that falls on Hathaway. Yes, Jurich did a better job marketing Louisville. But, how much did that really change things? BC was voting against UConn whether Warde was the AD or Pope John Paull II was the AD. Ditto for Florida St, Clemson & Miami who did not want another basketball centric, northeastern school. Unless Syracuse figures out how to get their campus closer to NYC than UConn’s, they were voting against us, too. Pitt owed BC and Syracuse big time and followed their lead. That’s 6 ‘no’ votes before Warde even has a chance to say a word. UConn could not overcome that. Jurich just convinced the ACC to take Louisville after UConn was already off the table.
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. Warde 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.