National Perception | The Boneyard

National Perception

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This is not a huge deal at all, but its one of those thing that you notice and then can't shake. Tonight during this Washington-Stanford game, the announcers had two conversations that stuck out. Naturally, during a PAC-12 game, UConn was not the focus of the conversations, but I believe that the way the were dicussed/ignored is a reflection of how people around the country see the program.

During the first instance, the two commentators were discussing last years Stanford's team, listing off the good wins they had. They spent a solid 2+ minutes of game time on the Kansas game they won in the tournament (their biggest win of the year), mentioned their wins over ranked UCLA and Oregon squads and their 3 point loss to Arizona, yet failed to mention the time they beat the eventual national champions, which might not have meant much at the time, but ended up second to Kansas in terms of how impressive it was. I know this is not the worst thing anyone has ever said about UConn, but I cannot understand how you spend so much time talking about big wins without ever mentioning your win over the champs on the road.

A few minutes later, they were talking about future opponents this year. The color guy raved about Arizona (rightly so) and how good they were, their upcoming SoCal swing, @ UCLA, @ USC & @Cal and then of course "a solid UConn program at home". The defending champs, who have won four national championships since 1999 and are tied for the 5th most titles all time, are a "solid program". Which, yes is true, but would be similar to calling the patriots the same thing.

I know it isn't much and is a west coast game that started at 10 pm eastern, but i believe it is indicative of the perception UConn has nationally. Maybe I am grasping for straws here, but would he ever refer to Duke, or Louisville, or even Michigan State as "solid program's". I did not expect the guy to stop the conversation, ignore the game and rave about how incredible uconn is, but at the same time, better branding/media presence would help alleviate this issue and raise our profile from maine to texas to oregon. Again, I know that this is a very minor thing and is not a pertinent issue in the slightest way, but it was noticeable (maybe more to me than the average viewer) and I wanted to put this out there to see if any of you saw or understand why this type of thing would be annoying.

Sorry this is so long.
 
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Funny. I was watching the same game and was pretty irritated by the description of UConn as a "solid program". I know it's fairly innocuous, but there were definitely undertones of disrespect/neglect. I try not to be one of those guys who flips at any hint of anti-UConn sentiment, but it's pretty obvious, at least to me, that a program like Kentucky or Duke would never be described that way.
 

Fishy

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It is what it is.

Three years ago, you would not have heard that, but with the demise of the Big East and the creation of the American, I think we're automatically relegated in some minds.

But that's the intent - if you're not in the P5, the media will put you on a lower shelf.
 
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Like you said 4 National Championships would signify a very solid program. We are not a very good team right now hope the Florida win is a sign of things to come and not an aberration. I don't wanna say who we lost to. I think with the last 2 improbable title runs the national media knows not to count us out. The fact is we are a very good program but not a very good team at the moment.
 
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Funny. I was watching the same game and was pretty irritated by the description of UConn as a "solid program". I know it's fairly innocuous, but there were definitely undertones of disrespect/neglect. I try not to be one of those guys who flips at any hint of anti-UConn sentiment, but it's pretty obvious, at least to me, that a program like Kentucky or Duke would never be described that way.

Exactly. Wish I could have made the post shorter, but I figured there were too many people who didn't see the game that would have no clue what I was talking about; I also wanted to make it clear that I wasn't freaking out about it, just that I noticed it and it seemed strange (I will always write more to make sure my post is clear than write less and then have to type 10 different one sentence responses to clarify what I meant). I'm just glad I'm not crazy and other people caught the same thing. When he was talking about last year I was just sitting there waiting for him to say anything about them beating the team that eventually won the national title but it never came. Your right, it was "fairly innocuous", but the utter lack of respect was clear. I really don't intend for this post to be whining about respect, because if we are winning titles I couldn't care less than what the rest of the country thinks. In the grand scheme of things this specific comment was meaningless, yet it still provides insight into how people see the program. I mean if the announcer in game is bragging about stanford last year and leaves that win out and then describes the program that way in the season when they are the defending champs (which he also failed to mention), then what do recruits think? How much must other coaches be ripping the program to recruits? In the end it is a very minor occurrence, but reveals very much.
 
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who was on the call for the game? if they were some nobodies, i wouldn't look into it much. their just doing there job and filling time. give the mic to bills or verne or even dicky v...guarantee we get more love. they understand the landscape of college ball. others just don't. heres all the love we need, from the guy that knows college bball the most: . "the unquestioned capital city of college basketball"
 
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UCONN is not well thought of because it has many failures to go along with great success.

Usually feast or famine since 2006 debacle vs Georgy Mason Bricks or free masons or any who and rarely in Top 10 or Top 25 for that matter and even in recent several title years it was never talked about during regular season because it was uneventful until postseason.

Also, NBA alum are mostly flunky.

Recruiting for the most part is crumb grabber.

Brand of ball is defense without flashy offense.

Blue collar pales to glitz of teams like ks, dooker, ky with big in conference titls and bigger venues which are always SRO compared to playing Central State in half empy gym and currently has no true rivals to drum up press clippings leading up to the "big" game not to mention 2013 postseason ban.
 
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Also, other university sports impact the overall image. Check current AAC website for standings of UCONN in all sports across the board. It depicts huskies as a soccer school for men and women! Foosbal: 1-7 conf, 2-10 with losses to 1-11 smu, 3-9 tulane, 4-8 usf! bottom feeder in entire fbs!

softball: 3-17 conf, 13-38 overall, bottom feeder
ms. volleyball: 12-19, next to last
hoop: 0-1, 7-5, bottom feeder
baseball : 0-0 only because season is yet to begin
ms. hoop: world beaters
ms. soccer: 14-5-5, upper mid of pack
mr. soccer: 6-1-1, 10-6-3

conclusion: UCONN is very down in sports in toto therefore image as powerhouse waning , especially when one considers the competition which is suspect
 
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then what do recruits think?

Probably not the same way as fans that have their ears unnaturally tweaked for taking offense at every UConn mention.

And I'm not singling you out. This is a common symptom on this board.
 
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I just think we need to get back to a few more 30 win seasons, to add to our Championships. Not for the media ( the media) but us fans.

Lord knows we've had enough since 99: linky (just give up to see results).
 

nelsonmuntz

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The thing is, despite our four titles, I don't think we were ever part of the club.

If we were in a major conference, including the Big East, we would absolutely be part of the club. Unfortunately, with our conference affiliation we are in the same "little engine that could" bucket with VCU and Gonzaga.
 

Waquoit

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If we were in a major conference, including the Big East, we would absolutely be part of the club. Unfortunately, with our conference affiliation we are in the same "little engine that could" bucket with VCU and Gonzaga.

I'm saying even in the pre-American days we were never looked upon the same way the other big programs were. I think we were still the newbies, the interlopers.
 
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As I've said many times, the lack of recognition for our program helps drive it. We aren't college basketball royalty and I think that keeps everyone in the program hungry. Every team wants to use the same tired "everyone doubted us" line, UConn can actually say it and mean it every single year.
 
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I'm saying even in the pre-American days we were never looked upon the same way the other big programs were. I think we were still the newbies, the interlopers.

This is wrong. We were definitely considered an elite program in the mid-aughts.

Also, listening to a west coast broadcast, you're going to hear a lot more talk about west coast teams.
 
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I love this perception personally. While it probably hurts us a little bit in the recruiting world I think its part of what helps us to continue to be a force in college basketball. Teams usually take us lightly, especially because we aren't in the big east anymore. With less media pressure our kids have the room to make some mistakes here and there and grow and mature into the basketball players they have the potential to be. I feel UConn players are truly groomed and a lot of other programs just have these kids for a year or 2 and they don't really grow and mature much. Also I think the lack of respect our kids and program gets fuels these kids to work harder and harder. Its the perfect set up to get good hard working kids to work even harder and perform better. The media and national perception of UConn deserves some credit for our amazing program. I want it to stay exactly the way it is now.
 
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The thing that irritates me about threads like this is that it's mostly about what they didn't say. They didn't spend time drooling over UConn, so that means they hate UConn.

They called this year's team "solid" so that's apparently a massive insult. I know he used the word program, but my first reaction would be to interpret that not in the sense of "everything the school has ever accomplished is just solid" but as "they are going to be a tough opponent." A comment made in passing, without malice.

Stop brooding.
 
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It is a perception problem tied to the American.

I've heard it from some Kentucky fans recently about their preference for being a team that is competing every year rather than once every 5 years.

Inconveniently, they forget that Kentucky was in the NIT 2 years ago, and that last year, Kentucky was an 8 seed.

While UConn certainly has down years, people tend to forget that it has:

ONE: 2 championships in the last 4 years.
TWO: 3 final 4s in the last 6 years
THREE: 8 final 8s since 1998, or 8 in 16 years.

So, somehow, being nationally competitive every other year boils down to once every 5 years in the minds of many fans. Few realize that UConn goes to the Final 8 every other year, and wins the national championship half the time they get to the Final 8.

No one has as good a record over that expanse of time other than Duke. Not Kentucky, that's for sure.
 
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UCONN is not well thought of because it has many failures to go along with great success.

Usually feast or famine since 2006 debacle vs Georgy Mason Bricks or free masons or any who and rarely in Top 10 or Top 25 for that matter and even in recent several title years it was never talked about during regular season because it was uneventful until postseason

While everyone had higher expectations of the '05/'06 UConn team (arguably the most talented UConn team not to win a title unless maybe the '94/'95 which got outscored by the one team that year who could outscore them in UCLA); but, making it to the Great 8 should not be considered a failure of a season. Just 1 poorly played game during a really good season.
 
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Was this on ESPN or CBS? if so, I am not surprised. The only time it is mentioned that UConn is the defending NCAA Champion is when the Huskies are losing or lost a game. The rest of the time, ESPN makes it sound like Kentucky has not lost a game in years and is the defending champ.
 
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I'm sorry but not people in the know, they still include UConn. If you don't know UConn is a major player for the past 25 years you're lost.
 

Penfield

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At halftime of the UNLV - Kansas game, Gottlieb was discussing "Power House" programs that were struggling this year and mentioned Michigan, Michigan St, Syracuse, & UCLA. This confused me, are we not a power house or are we not struggling???? Is he disrespecting us or complimenting us?

Needless to say I freaked out and my wife made me change the channel.
 
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At halftime of the UNLV - Kansas game, Gottlieb was discussing "Power House" programs that were struggling this year and mentioned Michigan, Michigan St, Syracuse, & UCLA. This confused me, are we not a power house or are we not struggling???? Is he disrespecting us or complimenting us?

Needless to say I freaked out and my wife made me change the channel.

Well he also didn't mention Florida who we beat a day prior so it's not all about P5 in this case right? And Lord knows they're struggling and are a major player on the national scene.
 

Waquoit

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I'm sorry but not people in the know, they still include UConn. If you don't know UConn is a major player for the past 25 years you're lost.

But if we were really, truly considered one of the elite; we wouldn't have been left out in the cold.
 
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