Memphis

[dante]

just lost to SF Austin 64-52 at home. We all knew Memphis was not going be that good this year but this is pretty bad for them but more so for the conference this may be a 1 bid conference 2 if lucky.
Outside of UConn there doesn't some team be another NCAA tournament team maybe Cincy?

 

[mauconnfan]

Better news is we should beat them too!

 

[Silk31]

Worse news is that us beating them 3x this year would do more harm than good to our resume...

 

[gtcam]

I could care about what other teams are doing
All that counts IF the conference is a 1 bid league - UConn is that team

 

[huskiesnyc]

UConn as a brand is bigger than the entire conference, and I don't give a how anyone else in our conference performs. The way we are already playing lock down defense and what we all expect from the offense, we should steamroll this garbage AAC. I'm predicting 16-2 in conference play..

 

[dante]

I don't like the idea of it being a 1 bid conference if it means everybody else is going leech off of UConn success in the NCAAT. Somebody else needs to bring food to the table. fk that lol

 

[UconnU]

This conference is a joke. The 2nd best "name" in the conference loses to SF Austin at home? This is going to be a 1 bid league. God help us.

 

[Hoophound]

Or a no bid league. Let's win some games before we worry too much about anyone else.

 

[CTBasketball]

Or a no bid league. Let's win some games before we worry too much about anyone else.

See that's not how it works.

 

[jleves]

UConn wins it all this year, picks up Stone and a 5 star wing in the spring, wins it all next year. Coaches in the league start selling 4 star recruits on competing against the perennial national champions. The league starts getting 4 then 5 and finally 7 teams into the tourney. Syracuse and Pitt start negotiating jumping to the AAC to get out of the ACC which has become a 2 bid league.

That's my dream. Who's with me?

 

[Rocktheworld]

Or a no bid league. Let's win some games before we worry too much about anyone else.

Do you not know how the tournament works? Every conference gets at least one bid for the conference champion.

 

[Stainmaster]

Do you not know how the tournament works? Every conference gets at least one bid for the conference champion.

You're forgetting the massive NCAA conspiracy that involves eliminating the autobid of whatever conference UCONN is a member of.

 

[Inyatkin]

Stephen F. Austin won as many NCAA tournament games as Duke and Kansas combined last year. They don't stink.
Memphis, on the other hand, might.

 

[UConnfan8]

memphis is such a joke program. Pastner is such a joke coach. Absolute clowns. Classless, talentless, the list goes on. Embarrassing.

 

[Fishy]

It's a gruesome loss for Memphis - SFA has some blowout losses on their resume and they handled Memphis pretty easily.

The bottom has absolutely fallen out of the American Conference. It's fairly likely that we will not be able to gain a top-50 win once we enter conference play.

Long-term, Memphis will get better - they've got no problems selling their soul for a recruit and the conference needs that.

SMU, on the other hand, given that Larry Brown is 102, these are their salad days.

Tulane, ECU, USF, UCF - forget them. Houston is a train wreck.

Remarkably, outside of Memphis and maybe Cincy, Tulsa and Temple are probably our best hope for mildly competitive teams over the next couple of years.

 

[Hoophound]

Do you not know how the tournament works? Every conference gets at least one bid for the conference champion.

Lol, bad sarcasm regarding "the sky is falling" attitude I guess. I just think it is too early to think its a one bid league. It is possible for multiple teams to have very strong conference records and pick up a couple OOC wins and shift what appears to be a terrible dynamic. I'm concerned but not too concerned just yet.

 

[champs99and04]

Tulsa beat Creighton tonight. If they can beat Oklahoma later this month, maybe they have a chance to get a bid.

In other news, Temple lost to St. Joe's 58-56 and ECU lost to Florida Atlantic 72-63. Tulane won to go to 6-1, but they haven't beaten anybody and their 71-49 loss to Wake Forest is still fresh. They still play Mississippi State, Washington, and St. Johns before conference play.

 

[chapwilvaug72]

sad part regarding all these weak aac teams is that sledteam, with composition of current roster will struggle with all opponents regardless of conf affiliation

 

[Gurleyman]

We either need the whole league to blow chunks so we can cruise to the automatic bid, or we need several teams to be good so our RPI stays ok. Nine of this in between stuff, where our RPI plummets, but there's one or two teams good enough to knock us out of the conference tourney.

If this is a year where everyone wants to go ahead and blow chunks, then they should proceed with that. Then next year, maybe four of them can improve.

 

[Yankees32123]

I'm optimistic about Memphis's future with the Lawson brothers coming in next year.

 

[Husky999]

The schedule is simply scary and sad at the same time. Why didn't we schedule more tournament teams?? Louisville 3x's was replaced with Tulsa, ECU and Tulane. Why are we still playing all these cupcakes when we knew this was going to happen??? It's not like we scheduled murderers row here… CCSU, Coppin St, Yale, Bryant, Columbia… Are you kidding me. There are 20 free wins in conference.. why are we playing CCSU! If we don't beat Duke or Florida we're not going to have a single "signature" win all year. And if we lose to some of these Sh$t teams in conference its not hard to imagine we don't get an auto-bid. Literally every game in the AAC is a must win and this isn't going to get any better anytime soon. Going forward we need to schedule 8-10 legit OOC tourney teams every season to offset this embarrassment of a conference. Just a terrible terrible scheduling job.

 

[champs99and04]

The schedule is simply scary and sad at the same time. Why didn't we schedule more tournament teams?? Louisville 3x's was replaced with Tulsa, ECU and Tulane. Why are we still playing all these cupcakes when we knew this was going to happen??? It's not like we scheduled murderers row here… CCSU, Coppin St, Yale, Bryant, Columbia… Are you kidding me. There are 20 free wins in conference.. why are we playing CCSU! If we don't beat Duke or Florida we're not going to have a single "signature" win all year. And if we lose to some of these Sh$t teams in conference its not hard to imagine we don't get an auto-bid. Literally every game in the AAC is a must win and this isn't going to get any better anytime soon. Going forward we need to schedule 8-10 legit OOC tourney teams every season to offset this embarrassment of a conference. Just a terrible terrible scheduling job.

Making the logistics work is a lot harder in reality than it is on a keyboard. At least 90% of the teams who earn automatic bids are going to demand a return game, and obviously you have to play a certain amount of home games to preserve a financial gain. Scheduling 8-10 tourney teams is beyond unrealistic.

 

[Husky999]

Making the logistics work is a lot harder in reality than it is on a keyboard. At least 90% of the teams who earn automatic bids are going to demand a return game, and obviously you have to play a certain amount of home games to preserve a financial gain. Scheduling 8-10 tourney teams is beyond unrealistic.

Why? Memphis did it when Squid was coach and they played in that pathetic conference.. which was MUCH better than the AAC. If the conference is a 1 -2 bid league than yeah.. we have to schedule 8+ OOC tournament teams. Just the reality of the situation.

 

[Fishy]

Not to mention the fact that with two scrimmages, you do need a certain number of teams you expect to beat while also working through whatever early growing pains that exist.

Given that, and how many players we have who own walking boots, I'm pretty happy to see Yale this Friday.

The OOC schedule is already ambitious.

 

[Husky999]

Just saying… ECU, Tulane? Those are free wins. We shouldn't be playing CCSU. Call Izzo up.. he'll play anyone, anytime, any year. Just don't get why we didn't schedule better. Our SOS is going to be in the 100's when all is said and done.