What did I make up?
Upstater & I barely agree on the time of day, but what I posted is pretty consistent with the scenario he laid out, too. It is also consistent with comments Aresco recently made and those he didn't make when all this was going down. Everyone, from ACC members to Louisville to UConn to Mike Aresco to the media believed that UConn was Maryland's replacement in the ACC. Jurich led a long shot successful campaign to replace us.He found the weak links and exploited them. He was on every talk show, at every event, sent his most visible coach to every media event and even created some singing the praises of a glorified commuter school that accepts anyone with a Jr high diploma, while our side sat on their hands and sat by the pool sipping cute little umbrella drinks. He took a school that was inferior by every metric and beat one that basically sat their and took it. Choose to believe that or choose not to believe it. UConn reacted too late and reacted poorly. As a result the only hting that matters is we're in the AAC for the foreseeable future. Whether you believe me or you don't about how, that is the bottom line.
But that's where Jurich earned his bones. He knew that and worked it. We knew that and said "we have NC and Duke in our corner. Let's not worry and let's not bother trying to bridge that gap with any of our opponents. " We were penned in by Swofford and UNC. And we did nothing to help them build support for our case. Meantime Louisville was out beating the bushes and even lining up Syracuse and Pitt to support them over us. Did we have Calhoun appear on ESPN saying of course Jim Boeheim wants UConn with them to continue what has become one of the great rivalries? Nope. That's the kind of thing we didn't do. As I said at the time, I'm not sure if Manuel dropped the ball or Susan Herbst did, but watching what has gone on before and since I am pretty comfortable saying if Manuel didn't drop it, he sure didn't recover it either. He monitored the hell out of it, though.
I guess I view it that it wasn't only Warde's fault nor only Susan's fault. obviously Jurich did a great job, too. But I don't get the impression from anything I've read or anything I've heard that our side put up much of a contest. Again my impression, but either A) they believed we in fact had it tied down so they didn't have to do anything, which with my limited political experience I can tell you is always a mistake, B) they didn't know how to build a case, which is perhaps the most troubling option, or C) they got caught flatfooted and couldn't ever regain the momentum. but none of those give the impression of great leadership or a group who has its act together. I suppose there is a 4th option, that for some reason they wanted to de-emphasize athletics and saw getting left behind as opening the way to that, but while I sometimes say that in frustration, I'm not at all convinced that its true. I am convinced, though, that Susan doesn't care all that much about sports.
No, he crafts his responses to get a rise out of people. free's the definition of a troll.My sense is you know no more or no less than anyone else here the majority of the time but craft your responses and comments to make it appear to be gospel if you don't look for the subtle disclaimers.
Which is probably what she should be doing anyway. But if she sees athletics as an engine to raise funds, then it follows logically that as the athletics teams win more it makes it easier to raise more money. Everyone knows that when the bball teams win NC's it helps applications and also donations. So even if SH isn't a rabid fan who knows the blitz percentages of the defense or Bazz's free throw percentage she's going to use her power as president to help all UConn sports be successful (despite one or two boneyarders who seem to think women administrators hate sports, or something).
It wasn't you, it may have been bluedogs or alum69 or another limbaugh dittohead type geezer.