Malina Howard Makes Commitment ........

[HuskyNan]

There was more to it than just what Frese purportedly said about UConn. Let's just say Lamont Jordan and Yuda Doron were involved quite heavily with recruiting "to" Maryland in ways that Geno probably would not have permitted. They were legal, but shady.

I have heard several versions of what went on there but my point is that Geno felt that Frese repaid his good act with one of bad faith. I understand trying hard to recruit the best players, and am sure Geno does too, but the way the events unfolded were, let's say, unfortunate.

 

[Icebear]

There was more to it than just what Frese purportedly said about UConn. Let's just say Lamont Jordan and Yuda Doron were involved quite heavily with recruiting "to" Maryland in ways that Geno probably would not have permitted. They were legal, but shady.

That is largely how I remember it, too, from the time, basically, as you and Nan suggest.

 

[Icebear]

Vowelguy, I have no problem with holding Walz accountable for a share of the 2006-7 season but there has been nothing even approaching the NC year since he has been gone. MD has played very good basketball but nothing stellar while Walz did bring Louisville the the finals against us during Angel's senior year.

As I said regarding the departure of Walz earlier I have no problem apologizing to Outside as far as him/her being wrong which he/she was not but provided material from the University of Maryland itself and the University of Louisville that indicated he/she was wrong and I allowed for that possiblity that it was one year later. If you can't trust a school to have its own records right it is pretty tough.

 

[Vowelguy]

Vowelguy, I have no problem with holding Walz accountable for a share of the 2006-7 season but there has been nothing even approaching the NC year since he has been gone. MD has played very good basketball but nothing stellar while Walz did bring Louisville the the finals against us during Angel's senior year.

As I said regarding the departure of Walz earlier I have no problem apologizing to Outside as far as him/her being wrong which he/she was not but provided material from the University of Maryland itself and the University of Louisville that indicated he/she was wrong and I allowed for that possiblity that it was one year later. If you can't trust a school to have its own records right it is pretty tough.

You constantly keep changing your argument; as each of your "facts" is proved wrong you just morph it into something else.

You said she had "no talent as a coach."

It is this over-the-top statements that I object to, and which all available evidence disproves.
I'm done with this.

 

[VAUConnFan]

not sure i get your point. so by your logic, the whole 30+ page report filed against UCONN by Pat and Tennessee was a long time ago. Along with Pat's snide comments about Geno and cheating, etc. UCONN certainly went on to win 2 NC's 3 and 2 years ago so no one should dislike Tennessee?

Syracuse's thugball smackfest of several (3 or so?) years ago wasn't recent so UCONN fans should like and root for Hillsman and his program?

i don't see anyone "bellyaching". several people posted that they wished Howard had gone to ND because there is some serious dislike for Maryland. for some, it's fans. for others it's things the coach did regarding recruiting. so what? fans dislike programs for many reasons.

as for exonerating Calhoun, as i assume it's him you are referring to, the men's team is paying the price right now with the punishment from the NCAA. now if you mean exonerate him referring to still rooting for the men's team to win and be successful, then i guess 95% of the UCONN women's fans are guilty as charged.

A total misunderstanding from top to bottom. This discussion was/is peripherally about Brenda Frese, her "alleged" tampering, and her abilities as a coach.

The coach to whom I was referring was Jamelle Elliott, her program incurring the most recent two year sanction.

 

[turtlespeed]

People are blaming Frese for actions taking by a third party, namely Mike Flynn. Let's not rewrite history.

As for Frese, Geno helped her by endorsing her to the Maryland AD when that school was hiring its head coach. But pretty much the first thing she did after getting the job was to lure Shay Doron away from UConn by telling her what a basketball factory UConn is; Geno loses one player then just plugs another one in, etc. This was reported in the Baltimore Sun which quoted Doron when she committed to Maryland. While it is negative recruiting, it's not all that bad but it was the timing and the emphatic representation of UConn and Geno as rather uncaring and impersonal that Geno took to heart, especially as it was right after his generous act for her.

Having said that, I don't know if Geno has long forgotten the perceived (by those with Husky colored glasses) insult but I do know I haven't seen the Terrapins on UConn's schedule.

The reason that the Terps have not been on UConn's schedule is not because Geno holds a grudge, instead it is because Frese has not wanted to play them most likely because she didn't want to get a bashing like Duke and UNC were constantly getting. I specifically recall a few years ago Geno stating that he couldn't get MD to agree to play his team.

 

[turtlespeed]

You constantly keep changing your argument; as each of your "facts" is proved wrong you just morph it into something else.

You said she had "no talent as a coach."

It is this over-the-top statements that I object to, and which all available evidence disproves.
I'm done with this.

Vowelguy you made some excellent arguments and provided some great facts and I would like to add a few more to support your case. It is correct that Walz left after the 2006-07 season after MD could not get past the sweet 16. Everybody seems to give him the credit for the NC but blame Brenda for the collapse the next year even though Walz was still there. Amazing isn't it. After Walz left with the defeat in the sweet 16, Brenda brought the team back to the elite 8 for two more years. Seems like she was able to improve after Walz left. What has really been missed here is that MD was always noted as a great offensive team but no defense. Yet for all those years that Walz was with the team, they never got any better on defense. Don't get me wrong I do think Walz is a great coach, definitely better than Brenda, but Walz also has to take the blame for their lack of defense. Even after Walz left, Brenda has continued to field teams that are very good offensively. While no one has probably even noticed, during the last two years MD has actually been respectable on defense which shows that Brenda can coach and improve things that she was deficient in. I have been following MD for a few years before their NC and Brenda has always provided guidance in the hudles whether they were standing on the court or siting in the chairs, the same way with or without Walz as the assistant. What gets me is how some people just post things from left field and act like they know the facts but are completely wrong. Love to see someone like Vowelguy stand up and challenge these posters.

 

[doggydaddy]

You constantly keep changing your argument; as each of your "facts" is proved wrong you just morph it into something else.

You said she had "no talent as a coach."

It is this over-the-top statements that I object to, and which all available evidence disproves.
I'm done with this.

And I get asked to "knock it off"???

Wow.

 

[Kibitzer]

And I get asked to "knock it off"???

Wow.

Yeah, knock it off!

 

[Icebear]

You constantly keep changing your argument; as each of your "facts" is proved wrong you just morph it into something else.

You said she had "no talent as a coach."

It is this over-the-top statements that I object to, and which all available evidence disproves.
I'm done with this.

Yes, in my opinion she has no talent as a coach. That is clearly a statement that is relative to the market in which she holds her position, not Jr High coaches in PA. You have provided no evidence to refute anything. At least I gave evidence as to where my "facts" came from and they were from the University itself and should be presumably accurate.

Sweet 16 and Elite Eight results with much of the same personal that was among the starters and players on a NC team is far from being successful. Folks here were far from satisfied with the results when we making those rounds even after losing the best player in the country in Diana and having an incredibly young team.

 

[EricLA]

The reason that the Terps have not been on UConn's schedule is not because Geno holds a grudge, instead it is because Frese has not wanted to play them most likely because she didn't want to get a bashing like Duke and UNC were constantly getting. I specifically recall a few years ago Geno stating that he couldn't get MD to agree to play his team.

<sarcasm on>thank you for clearing that up. obviously you've chatted with Geno and Brenda so it's great to get the actual reasons directly from the horse's mouth<sarcasm off>

i don't know the reason - but it's been pointed out there were some issues regarding recruiting where Maryland came after a kid who already verbaled and used negative recruiting on the heels of Geno going out of his way to help Brenda land the Maryland job. i have no idea if Geno is still miffed about what Brenda and/or her assistants did. but to pretend everything is cupcakes and roses between Geno and Brenda is rather ostrich-like...

 

[Kibitzer]

Amazing! A girl in high school in Ohio decides to attend and play basketball at Maryland and that news generates over 50 posts on the Boneyard in Connecticut. Simply amazing!

 

[doggydaddy]

Amazing! A girl in high school in Ohio decides to attend and play basketball at Maryland and that news generates over 50 posts on the Boneyard in Connecticut. Simply amazing!

And most of them had nothing to do with the player that committed.

 

[turtlespeed]

<sarcasm on>thank you for clearing that up. obviously you've chatted with Geno and Brenda so it's great to get the actual reasons directly from the horse's mouth<sarcasm off>

i don't know the reason - but it's been pointed out there were some issues regarding recruiting where Maryland came after a kid who already verbaled and used negative recruiting on the heels of Geno going out of his way to help Brenda land the Maryland job. i have no idea if Geno is still miffed about what Brenda and/or her assistants did. but to pretend everything is cupcakes and roses between Geno and Brenda is rather ostrich-like...

I don't know how you interpreted from my statement that I pretend that everything is cupcakes and roses between Geno and Brenda. I absolutely remember Geno stating that he had tried to get a game with MD a few years ago and that MD refused. I recall this because, imo, it was a bad reflection on Brenda for refusing to play the top competition around. So, the point I was making was that Geno was not the one who did not want to play MD, for what has been insinuated on this thread (Brenda's negative recruiting tactics), but instead it was MD not wanting to play UConn. As a result, if Geno tried to schedule MD for a game, I would think that he was not "still miffed" for "what Brenda and/or her assistant did", but rather that Geno wanted to play the best teams around, Geno does not seen to be the type to play a team to humiliate them. As such, the only reason that "I believe" Brenda would not want to play UConn would be that she did not want to be beat as badly as UNC and Duke. Come on, use your head, why would I make up something that reflects badly on Brenda, when I'm a fan of hers, by saying that I recall Geno saying that he couldn't get MD to play his team. While I know it was Geno who initiated the game, this does not mean that I believe that everything is cupcakes and roses between them and I don't know how you could have interpreted it that way. I hope this is clear to you this time.

 

[CamrnCrz1974]

I'm no fan of MD, but it amazes me the way in which certain dogmatic items get repeated without much proof.

Vowelguy, sometimes it is message board lore, where the rumor/thought outweighs the truth and what actually happened (not saying that it is true or not true in this case, just setting forth the general principle).

How many people on this board think Gail Goestenkors made a "dynasty" comment?

It was comment made by Beard after beating Tennessee in November 2002, hoping that the win could be the beginning of a Duke dynasty. She made the comment in a show of respect to Tennessee, but it came out wrong and, looking back, very premature (would have been different if it would have been a national title game instead of a regular season game in November). But many of the ardent posters on this board believe that Goestenkors not only made the comment she made it several times.

Also, people chide Iciss Tillis for making a comment about a "dynasty" after Duke won its fourth ACC Tournament title in a row (Duke would win five in a row). What she said, however, was this, in response to a question about a dynasty: "A dynasty will be complete when we win the national championship," Tillis said. "When I think of a dynasty, I think of national championships. I think we are right there, we just need one more piece of the puzzle."

 

[dtbtbtb]

I as well remember (from the media reports at that time which was probably about 5 years ago) the part of UConn not playing MD as MD not wanting to play against UConn....

 

[Aluminny69]

Vowelguy, sometimes it is message board lore, where the rumor/thought outweighs the truth and what actually happened (not saying that it is true or not true in this case, just setting forth the general principle).

How many people on this board think Gail Goestenkors made a "dynasty" comment?

It was comment made by Beard after beating Tennessee in November 2002, hoping that the win could be the beginning of a Duke dynasty. She made the comment in a show of respect to Tennessee, but it came out wrong and, looking back, very premature (would have been different if it would have been a national title game instead of a regular season game in November). But many of the ardent posters on this board believe that Goestenkors not only made the comment she made it several times.

Also, people chide Iciss Tillis for making a comment about a "dynasty" after Duke won its fourth ACC Tournament title in a row (Duke would win five in a row). What she said, however, was this, in response to a question about a dynasty: "A dynasty will be complete when we win the national championship," Tillis said. "When I think of a dynasty, I think of national championships. I think we are right there, we just need one more piece of the puzzle."

Okay, but didn't C. Viv Stringer make some sort of dynasty comment also? Or is my memory failing again?

What was my question?

 

[Kibitzer]

If Coach Frese deliberately avoided playing UConn, she must be smarter than some folks here give her credit for.

Now, that gets me thinking. . . . Wonder what motivated Geno to want to play Maryland. hmmmm.

 

[speedoo]

Okay, but didn't C. Viv Stringer make some sort of dynasty comment also? Or is my memory failing again?

What was my question?

"jewel of the east"
(upon going to Rutgers)

 

[HuskyNan]

"jewel of the east"
(upon going to Rutgers)

"I look forward to the challenge," said Stringer, whose success at Iowa included an appearance in the 1993 National Collegiate Athletic Association's Final Four. "I want a winner and I'm going to be a winner. I just need everybody to be patient and let me build this program. I just know that Rutgers will be the jewel of the East."

NY Times article from 1995

 

[JoePgh]

Just a comment about facts: I have a very clear recollection of a "Geno Show" a few years ago where the topic of getting other schools to play UConn was raised with Geno. I forget whether Megan Culmo asked on her own or was reading a question from a viewer, but Geno's answer was to the effect that apart from Tennessee, he had no problem getting other teams to play UConn, and then added (almost as an afterthought) "except Maryland". He said they had called Maryland and said, "We want to play", and had been told "No". Megan asked what the reason was, and he said that no reason had been given.

Assuming that this is credible (and I see no reason why it is not), then it is Maryland rather than Geno that is standing in the way of a regular-season series.

 

[speedoo]

Just a comment about facts: I have a very clear recollection of a "Geno Show" a few years ago where the topic of getting other schools to play UConn was raised with Geno. I forget whether Megan Culmo asked on her own or was reading a question from a viewer, but Geno's answer was to the effect that apart from Tennessee, he had no problem getting other teams to play UConn, and then added (almost as an afterthought) "except Maryland". He said they had called Maryland and said, "We want to play", and had been told "No". Megan asked what the reason was, and he said that no reason had been given.

Assuming that this is credible (and I see no reason why it is not), then it is Maryland rather than Geno that is standing in the way of a regular-season series.

I definitely recall Geno saying something like that a few years ago, so I'll agree with your recollection.