Most of Our Feelings Summed Up

[superjohn]

I'll make it simple for you if you were lost in my facetiousness. Pitt, UConn, West Virginia and Rutgers, as institutions, all decided to sue the ACC, the departing institutions and their principals. A decision among the four of them (counseled by Skadden) was made that Connecticut was the best place to bring the suit, so the AG became lead counsel by law with Skadden doing most of the work. I have been sued twice. I would gladly punch the folks who sued me in the nose today, decades later, if I thought I could do so without consequences. I would happily buy their lawyers a drink if I ran into them in a bar. People who are sued know whom to blame. Obviously, idiots on internet message boards don't.

Most people would like to punch every lawyer in the face.

 

[businesslawyer]

Most people would like to punch every lawyer in the face.

LMAO. Fair enough.

 

[shizzle787]

Most people would like to punch every lawyer in the face.

I love professional liars; they are the only thing keeping our government from forcing us to bend over.

 

[joober jones]

Yeah I mean this all pretty loaded, for one. Because other things are at stake.

I guess my worldview of this whole period of athletics is/was this:

We had a chance to really run a draw play, and put together a competitive football program and simultaneously keep the basketball program at an elite level - but the window to do it and the margin for error was really small. It was made smaller by realignment and it's been shrinking even more (and more rapidly) with every misstep.

Edsall left. Then the Big East blew apart. Then Calhoun stepped down. Then probation. Then Pasqualini. Then Diaco. With the exception of a spirited '13 and the great run in the '14 tournament, Ollie's been almost a total bust. And it's just been more steps back since then. And more money spent for progressively worse results. And now you have this whole other element of the state budget crisis starting to bubble up and I dunno - it's a perfect storm of awful, really.

We had a chance to have both football and hoops and I just think that realistically, that window slammed shut pretty quickly and we didn't make it through the opening in time. Simple reality is that we're not at a point financially, from a recruiting standpoint, marketing standpoint, prestige standpoint where you can have both at a high level.

And that's not even getting into your standard-issue, sheer endurance test you're asking fans to take part in and expecting them to be OK with. You're asking fans to sit around and watch Villanova, Marquette, Butler, Creighton and even freaking Providence and Seton Hall doing *perfectly fine* in the new Big East and in other cases - seeing Xavier up their profile as well.... all of whom avoided football entirely - and they're fine, they've maintained, gotten better academically AND athletically.

And meanwhile they look at their pocket schedule and here's UConn playing none of those guys, but rather East Carolina with marketing behind it that says 'yeah we know we shouldn't be playing these bums, we're better than them anyway and don't worry, just show up and play pretend with us for a few years and we'll be on to facing the REAL teams in a few years. Once the football team figures its face out." It's legitimately counter-intuitive marketing.

And then I look at the long view for football and I dunno what we're really even chasing. I mean since the last round of realignment, the Big XII is already looking like that's going to fall apart. Which means the Pac-12, B1G, ACC and SEC pack in more schools - and then they may even consider kicking out social loafers. And that just leads to this endless cycle of stupidity. I love that TV $$ too but at what point do people just sit back and ask themselves whether chasing that is worth literally blowing every other thing up about your athletic department - especially the hoops program - which has quite literally been the rocket fuel to help the University boost its profile.

There's a TV rights bubble brewing. The conference realignment stuff is going to continue to be a mess. I don't know why, how or where we'd fit or whether it's even a real, legit fix long term. Now you've got the feds getting involved in hoops recruiting, and it's only a matter of time before they're involved in football recruiting, too. Football in general might be headed to a real bubble with the way it's youth participation rates are trending...

I'm sitting here looking at this really awesome basketball program (s) we've had over the years that's been really helpful to boosting the profile of the university and serving as a deep source of civic pride in a state where nothing seems to be going well anymore and saying to myself 'gee, this is really nice, I appreciate it and want to see it do well, let's just go to the new big east and see where things go.'

Instead - *because we are chasing football* - we are in a conference with opponents that no one has interest in seeing us play. With no real geographic bump... I mean honestly I'd rather see us play St John's 15 times a year than I'd want to see us play Memphis once. Because there's history there, a common, shared history. There's less interest in the hoops program not just because the team is getting worse - but because the opponents aren't interesting.

I think the scenario that no one wanted to have happen - having to choose between football and hoops - is going to be a decision they're going to have to make. And if it's me - i'm for saving hoops all day over anything with the football program. I dunno where i'm even going with all this, but I'm just cooked on this stuff. They're outta time. They've gotta make a decision. What sucks is the progressive incompetence of Ollie is helping to close that window, so a first part of that bigger decision is figuring out what to do with him.

You've essentially just written a 30 for 30. Impressive.

 

[LIuconn]

Yes, we definitely punched above our weight class in games and in talent development, and Calhoun is one of the best to ever do it.

Right now we/I can't point to one redeemable facet of our game or philosophy.

 

[whaler11]

Who knew it just took a couple of years of losing and so many blowhards would admit they aren’t all that interested unless the team is winning.

At least that got cleared up.

 

[UCFan1513]

Yeah I mean this all pretty loaded, for one. Because other things are at stake.

I guess my worldview of this whole period of athletics is/was this:

We had a chance to really run a draw play, and put together a competitive football program and simultaneously keep the basketball program at an elite level - but the window to do it and the margin for error was really small. It was made smaller by realignment and it's been shrinking even more (and more rapidly) with every misstep.

Edsall left. Then the Big East blew apart. Then Calhoun stepped down. Then probation. Then Pasqualini. Then Diaco. With the exception of a spirited '13 and the great run in the '14 tournament, Ollie's been almost a total bust. And it's just been more steps back since then. And more money spent for progressively worse results. And now you have this whole other element of the state budget crisis starting to bubble up and I dunno - it's a perfect storm of awful, really.

We had a chance to have both football and hoops and I just think that realistically, that window slammed shut pretty quickly and we didn't make it through the opening in time. Simple reality is that we're not at a point financially, from a recruiting standpoint, marketing standpoint, prestige standpoint where you can have both at a high level.

And that's not even getting into your standard-issue, sheer endurance test you're asking fans to take part in and expecting them to be OK with. You're asking fans to sit around and watch Villanova, Marquette, Butler, Creighton and even freaking Providence and Seton Hall doing *perfectly fine* in the new Big East and in other cases - seeing Xavier up their profile as well.... all of whom avoided football entirely - and they're fine, they've maintained, gotten better academically AND athletically.

And meanwhile they look at their pocket schedule and here's UConn playing none of those guys, but rather East Carolina with marketing behind it that says 'yeah we know we shouldn't be playing these bums, we're better than them anyway and don't worry, just show up and play pretend with us for a few years and we'll be on to facing the REAL teams in a few years. Once the football team figures its face out." It's legitimately counter-intuitive marketing.

And then I look at the long view for football and I dunno what we're really even chasing. I mean since the last round of realignment, the Big XII is already looking like that's going to fall apart. Which means the Pac-12, B1G, ACC and SEC pack in more schools - and then they may even consider kicking out social loafers. And that just leads to this endless cycle of stupidity. I love that TV $$ too but at what point do people just sit back and ask themselves whether chasing that is worth literally blowing every other thing up about your athletic department - especially the hoops program - which has quite literally been the rocket fuel to help the University boost its profile.

There's a TV rights bubble brewing. The conference realignment stuff is going to continue to be a mess. I don't know why, how or where we'd fit or whether it's even a real, legit fix long term. Now you've got the feds getting involved in hoops recruiting, and it's only a matter of time before they're involved in football recruiting, too. Football in general might be headed to a real bubble with the way it's youth participation rates are trending...

I'm sitting here looking at this really awesome basketball program (s) we've had over the years that's been really helpful to boosting the profile of the university and serving as a deep source of civic pride in a state where nothing seems to be going well anymore and saying to myself 'gee, this is really nice, I appreciate it and want to see it do well, let's just go to the new big east and see where things go.'

Instead - *because we are chasing football* - we are in a conference with opponents that no one has interest in seeing us play. With no real geographic bump... I mean honestly I'd rather see us play St John's 15 times a year than I'd want to see us play Memphis once. Because there's history there, a common, shared history. There's less interest in the hoops program not just because the team is getting worse - but because the opponents aren't interesting.

I think the scenario that no one wanted to have happen - having to choose between football and hoops - is going to be a decision they're going to have to make. And if it's me - i'm for saving hoops all day over anything with the football program. I dunno where i'm even going with all this, but I'm just cooked on this stuff. They're outta time. They've gotta make a decision. What sucks is the progressive incompetence of Ollie is helping to close that window, so a first part of that bigger decision is figuring out what to do with him.

Oddly, this is a comforting take. Good work

 

[Marty Jackson]

First, he doesn’t deserve to be fired right now. Not even at the end of the year...

That’s not what I’m saying.

The best thing for us is that he right the ship.

Clearly something isn't clicking. he gets to the end of the year.

 

[shizzle787]

Who knew it just took a couple of years of losing and so many blowhards would admit they aren’t all that interested unless the team is winning.

At least that got cleared up.

Sure, except for the fact those same people are posting on a UConn basketball forum at 2 in the morning.

 

[Sea Goat]

Absolutely. When I'm sued personally, I have no problem with the people suing me and will forgive them immediately but I blame their lawyer forever.

Seriously, do you not realize how idiotic that theory is? You think other people are so dumb that they are o.k. forgiving those who actually sued them but not their lawyer?

As I said I didn't want to get bogged down with this or get into it with anybody on the Blumenthal thing. But, I must follow up and say that I had conversations BC folks and Miami folks at the time of the ACC expansion. For some reason, fair or not, the blame was focused on UConn and Blumenthal. The individuals associated with those institutions that were sued personally (a famous Blumenthal tactic) felt it was gratuitous and unnecessary. Hard to disagree with them.

Your experience apparently stems from being a business lawyer (or playing one on TV) and a two time defendant in lawsuits. You know when the dust settles and former non-lawyer adversaries meet up again; the lawyers always get thrown under the bus. Does this sound familiar? "My lawyer told me I had to X or I had to sue - there was no other way!". Now whether was just a factor or a deciding factor, I don't know. But there was an undercurrent of bitterness towards UConn and Blumenthal and it didn't help. Pitt and Syracuse got passes, but they were not perceived as the movers in this case. Further, I think Syracuse started working back channels soon after the case was resolved because they saw the writing on the wall for the BE. So is it an idiotic theory? I suppose reasonable people may differ, but surely the litigation didn't help our cause.

I will be happy to continue this or we can meet and punch each other in the nose! Your call...

 

[8893]

Most people would like to punch every lawyer in the face.

Not the face!

 

[Palatine]

Meanwhile, Calhoun is focused on helping St Joe's get their program together.

If I'm Benedict, I call JC and say earn some the $300K a year and tell me what the UConn program needs.

 

[Hoophound]

There is a lot of fear in this thread. Reality is, a great coach will win here. It is an easy place to win. We have great proximity to players, awesome facilities, huge tradition and pay really well. SMU and Cincy have no trouble winning and Wichita St. will win too.

The coach is the problem. The only question is whether or not he can turn it around.

 

[intlzncster]

If I'm Benedict, I call JC and say earn some the $300K a year and tell me what the UConn program needs.

You don't think he's consulted with him already?

 

[Padutch5]

What's ironic is one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time is currently active and employed and kicking ass for the millionth year in a row with great ball movement and tenacious defense and he's coaching the women's team when its the men's team that really needs him most.

Finally, someone has the guts to say this. I actually think the men have quite a lot of talent but they are missing the fundamentals. Passing, back door plays, boxing out are all missing. We are trying to play the NBA one on one game without NBA talent. That hall of fame guy coaching the other team on campus actually teaches that fundamentals game.