Life on the road in the American Conference.....

[Hi-Low]

can't be very easy. I'm as baffled as the rest of you about the performance of this team the past 2 years. Talent was a bit lacking last year but still on paper should have done better....more talent this year but still something off with this team. A possible conclusion one could draw is that all the travel that is required in the AAC is taking a toll. Maybe a bad excuse for poor play & coaching but I think it has an impact.

I haven't studied each member of the AAC to look at their performance the past 2 seasons but it seems to me all the travel could be a major issue. It seems like almost every other week UConn is on the road for 5-6 days. From Dec 28 to Feb 4 my guess they will be away from UConn for 15 days. Every 2 game road trip in the AAC turns into a 5-6 day trip since I doubt they fly to Tulsa or Texas & then turn around and come home & then fly back to Tulane or Houston 2 days later....they stay on the road 5-6 days at a time.

We're all in the same boat in the AAC and maybe some teams handle the travel better than others but no other conference has to deal with all the travel we do that I can see....maybe WVU. Also remember they are students that have academic responsibilities....especially UConn with past APR issues, academics are a major priority. These are 18-22 year-olds we maybe putting unrealistic expectations on.

If we are stuck in the AAC for the foreseeable future we need to think about North / South Divisions and maybe adding a UMass so we can have another close conference mate.

North - UConn, Temple, Cincy, Memphis, ECU, UMass (play twice) - 10 games
South - SMU, Houston, Tulsa, Tulane, UCF, USF (play all once, 2 twice) - 8 games.

I know we would have taken a BG12 invite in a heartbeat which would have meant worse travel but if we are in the AAC until 2026 then we need to adjust something.

I haven't given up on this season....still have some quality games left including 4 with Cincy & SMU. Once we get Brimah back the team will look better. Just need to win games supposed to win and finish 23-8 or so should be fine....if not run the table in AAC tourney. Go ahead and bash me for making excuses, bashing players for sucking & killing KO for incompetence....I'm just tired of it.

 

[Drew]

Road games in general are difficult, thought I saw a stat the other day where home teams win in college basketball something like 70-75% of the time.

We aren't a terribly strong team mentally and that is a huge downfall for us away from home. Road games are won with leaders on the floor- right now we don't have any and it shows. We were in a position to close that game out last night and instead we lost by 9. That's leadership more than anything else and I doubt that happens in Gampel (or XL)

@SMU will be horrible for us but I have a weird feeling we will be ready to play. Need to make a statement Sunday against Houston and bounce back. As much crap as we've given these guys for losing last night Tulsa has a RPI of 63. They aren't world beaters but this isn't like we lost to ECU either.

 

[upstater]

I'm not putting this loss on the travel.

They shouldn't have lost to Temple.

The Tulane win was also mind boggling, though it was a road game.

They are simply not playing well, especially DHam and Purvis last night.

 

[Drew]

Also- what about the Bahamas tournament? Are we going to blame travel there too?

The UConn semester hasn't even started yet so there are no academic responsibilities right now. The team just isn't playing well.

 

[HuskyAlum012]

The UConn semester hasn't even started yet so there are no academic responsibilities right now.

This is just not true, basketball players are enrolled in classes at the school year-round. Fall semester/Winter Intercession/Spring/Summer Classes. They always have academic responsibilities.

 

[Drew]

This is just not true, basketball players are enrolled in classes at the school year-round. Fall semester/Winter Intercession/Spring/Summer Classes. They always have academic responsibilities.

I can tell you far more athletes are in summer classes than winter ones. Plus having one assignment to do for COMM1000 doesn't really seem like it would be that stressful but sure

 

[UC990411]

can't be very easy. I'm as baffled as the rest of you about the performance of this team the past 2 years. Talent was a bit lacking last year but still on paper should have done better....more talent this year but still something off with this team. A possible conclusion one could draw is that all the travel that is required in the AAC is taking a toll. Maybe a bad excuse for poor play & coaching but I think it has an impact.

I haven't studied each member of the AAC to look at their performance the past 2 seasons but it seems to me all the travel could be a major issue. It seems like almost every other week UConn is on the road for 5-6 days. From Dec 28 to Feb 4 my guess they will be away from UConn for 15 days. Every 2 game road trip in the AAC turns into a 5-6 day trip since I doubt they fly to Tulsa or Texas & then turn around and come home & then fly back to Tulane or Houston 2 days later....they stay on the road 5-6 days at a time.

We're all in the same boat in the AAC and maybe some teams handle the travel better than others but no other conference has to deal with all the travel we do that I can see....maybe WVU. Also remember they are students that have academic responsibilities....especially UConn with past APR issues, academics are a major priority. These are 18-22 year-olds we maybe putting unrealistic expectations on.

If we are stuck in the AAC for the foreseeable future we need to think about North / South Divisions and maybe adding a UMass so we can have another close conference mate.

North - UConn, Temple, Cincy, Memphis, ECU, UMass (play twice) - 10 games
South - SMU, Houston, Tulsa, Tulane, UCF, USF (play all once, 2 twice) - 8 games.

I know we would have taken a BG12 invite in a heartbeat which would have meant worse travel but if we are in the AAC until 2026 then we need to adjust something.

I haven't given up on this season....still have some quality games left including 4 with Cincy & SMU. Once we get Brimah back the team will look better. Just need to win games supposed to win and finish 23-8 or so should be fine....if not run the table in AAC tourney. Go ahead and bash me for making excuses, bashing players for sucking & killing KO for incompetence....I'm just tired of it.

I stopped reading after you suggested UMass was the answer

 

[Ts5034]

Idk. When the Big East expanded in 2005, we had to make trips out to Chicago, Tampa, Milwaukee, Louisville, and Cincy in January and February. Not that much different than what we have now.