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Message: [QUOTE="tomcat, post: 2670082, member: 961"] As to the principal argument here... 1. I would say that yes, UConn men and women have won national championships as part of the AAC. But there is absolutely no question that playing Tulane and SMU and Houston and for cryin' out loud, Wichita State and Cincinnati, not once but twice a year does absolutely nothing to help the team prepare for the tournament. Playing them once is punishment. Playing them twice is to descend into a lower level of Dante's hell. 2. Anyone who thinks that the Big East gauntlet wasn't harder than the AAC of today either was not there or just wasn't watching. Villanova was not a very tough team, year in and year out, but they had a style that forced good teams to really think hard about how to attack them. DePaul was DePaul -- tough and well-coached, especially at home. And speaking of well-coached, what about West Virginia? Mike Carey is a darn good coach and had some good years. And speaking of home, does anyone recall trying to play Rutgers at the RAC? It may not have been pretty, but it certainly was not easy, either. And, of course, Notre Dame and Louisville were part of it for a while as well. If you spend your in-conference time playing that group, one after another after another, you are better prepared than you would be otherwise. 3. No, it was not all salad days then, just as it's not all awful now. And like all great arguments, this one cannot really be answered, because we don't know what would happen if UConn were in a league that simply does not exist any more. The AAC may not hurt the other sports as much. You could argue that for men's basketball, the AAC is a reasonably tough conference. And from what I am told, you could argue that when it comes to football, what UConn plays is not really football, anyway. But for WCBB, the way the University played its cards way back when the leagues were shifting and forming was the worst possible outcome for WCBB short of abolishing the sport altogether. For that we can thank blockheaded administrators and egotistical sate leaders, except it's too late now, isn't it? [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach