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Message: [QUOTE="Bigpetunia, post: 2050653, member: 1772"] As many of my Boneyard friends are aware, I, in my retirement years, divide time between residing in Connecticut and in my original hometown of New Orleans. As an ardent fan of UConn WBB, and of WCBB in general, I am afforded by my dual life an opportunity to get an interesting, up front and personal view of a spectrum of life in our much-loved sport…the rarefied view from the [U]very[/U] [U]top[/U], as compared to the realities faced by most programs spread across the land. This comparative view generally causes me to lament UConn’s presence in its current conference affiliation, where it has never come close to losing a game, ever, and where its relative dominance is “off the charts." Tulane is a great and fun place to attend college, but it isn’t remotely (with the possible exception of men’s baseball), a “destination” school for any major sport. But its women’s basketball program is pretty damned respectable, owing almost entirely to the presence of its very talented head coach, Lisa Stockton. Lisa is only, I think, about 52 years old, and has been head coach there for almost half her life. Over the years, consistently playing a hand laced with much, much lower value cards than coaches at other, larger universities, she has amassed a winning percentage of around .670 (!). That impressive average won’t be improved tonight against UConn, but she’s a great teacher and gets her kids to buy into her own system in a manner not very unlike the way Geno gets his to do similarly. Within the AAC, her teams are always competitive…I think she’s had all of two losing seasons out of the 23 or 24 she’s been down there. Realistically, her players don’t enter any season with lofty, national championship-type hopes or expectations, but, absent the presence of a team like UConn, a conference championship would be a reasonably attainable goal. This reality isn’t UConn’s fault, of course, and I’m not suggesting anything of the kind, but, from the perspective of far lesser programs within the AAC, the landscape is unutterably altered by its presence. Our Huskies, I know, would dominate any conference, but if they played somewhere like maybe in the ACC (if they ever got invited), at least the playing field would be less ridiculously lopsided...and programs like Tulane might have a shot at something realistic within their own conference, and within their own expectations. I’m in CT now (my wife detests Mardi Gras season, now in full swing), and will have to settle for watching on TV. But I urge my friends here to observe how well-coached the Green Wave is given its own, much lower level of talent. Lisa is the real deal! [/QUOTE]

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