Precious to Memphis

[Hurleyman216]

I'm not happy that Precious has chosen Memphis per se, but I do like the fact that the entire Memphis story is poised to give this place life. We have been without a good rival since the BE ended for us. Now we have the building blocks for some passion again. Now many of us might actually pay attention to in conference games w/o UConn. There is now a compelling a story.

This is also a little bit of revisionist history...we've had Cincy as a rival since the conference started, we just haven't been able to beat them very often, so it's been lopsided. The blame lies on UConn being bad, not on everyone else in the conference being bad.

 

[Exit 4]

This is also a little bit of revisionist history...we've had Cincy as a rival since the conference started, we just haven't been able to beat them very often, so it's been lopsided. The blame lies on UConn being bad, not on everyone else in the conference being bad.

Revisionist or just no longer memorable? It was a boring rivalry in my book..thanks to us. Memphis might prove to be a bore too, we shall see.

 

[djct1999]

Sure, it benefits the conference if we have stronger teams and can muster up 4 or 5 bids. I am not sure that will ever happen but great if it does. The caveat in all of this is that it isn't going to be all that helpful if the conference gets better and UConn remains fifth or sixth. For it to help, UConn needs to dominate a stronger AAC. UConn needs to focus on UConn and as long as we become the champions consistently, this conference stuff will sort itself out. If not, we have no one else to blame but ourselves.

 

[superjohn]

Penny has been there for 1 season and I already see signs of this crashing and burning. Clearing everyone out and bringing in the #1 class, 8 players in a really short amount of time and he's already pissing off a lot of people who have been in this for a really long time with his actions and some of the things he says. It's healthy to have an ego but as we saw with our former coach it can also lead to crash and burns.

 

[BNich]

Did anyone hear where Princess committed to?

 

[Dooley]

Acting/Interim AD... Memphis Commercial Appeal:Who could replace Tom Bowen as Memphis athletics director?

>>... Tom Jurich: Jurich served as an athletics director from 1988-2017 at Northern Arizona, Colorado State and Louisville. His most notable achievements came in his 20-year stretch with Louisville, overseeing an Orange Bowl victory, Sugar Bowl victory and 2013 men's basketball national championship that later was vacated. While Jurich was in place for the controversial rehiring of football coach Bobby Petrino and retainment of basketball coach Rick Pitino, as well as NCAA sanctions in men's basketball, he also helped elevate the school's resources and profile to the point that it was invited to the ACC. Louisville and Jurich reached a $4.5 million settlement after he stepped down in wake the national federal corruption investigation of college basketball.<<

Good find. You really can't copy Louisville's AD model any better than by hiring Louisville's old AD. Jurich will make sure that the proper pockets are lined to get Memphis into a P5 conference.

 

[Dooley]

We’re in repair mode right now. I’m sure most of these kids would likely commit to a vintage UConn program right now but we’re trying to get back to being competitive. It’s a slow process. One misplaced duffle bag could set us back another 5-10 years.

Yeah, agree. Logically I know that slow-and-steady will repair our prestige. I'm just not looking forward to getting raced off the court twice (maybe thrice) by this Memphi$ squad...then having to stomach the inevitable P5 rumors that will no doubt start to swirl. Losing more AAC schools to P5 conferences will be too hard to stomach, especially a school as dopey as Memphi$.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Penny has been there for 1 season and I already see signs of this crashing and burning. Clearing everyone out and bringing in the #1 class, 8 players in a really short amount of time and he's already pissing off a lot of people who have been in this for a really long time with his actions and some of the things he says. It's healthy to have an ego but as we saw with our former coach it can also lead to crash and burns.

Other than the people on this board who are mad he got a player we wanted, who is he pissing off?

 

[Jbirdp5]

They knew we weren't getting him.

Most sentiment on here was we waited for This to play out before adding the backup center we have been talking about for a month.

 

[Jbirdp5]

We don't have a final roster spot. All full at the moment.


Obviously talking about what we all have been discussing since the borges article. The staff is recruiting as if there is another open spot

 

[GHSWolverines]

No sour grapes here. Congrats to Memphis for the #1 recruiting class. Caution though.
I believe 7 of their 8 commitments are freshmen. Penny will be in his second year coaching at the collegiate level. Time will tell... a lot of pressure on him for results. In my opinion, other than Wiseman I see a ton of growing pains. This is going to be an AAU circuit on steroids for many of these players. I will take Hurleys approach. He appears to be methodical in his approach to bring back UCONN back to where it should be

 

[InKembaITrust]

I don’t know. It probably helps ACC teams, though the ACC had cache before K started going heavily for 1-and-dones. But has Kentucky helped the recruiting at other SEC schools? Did UK help Auburn put together its team? I really don’t know, but it doesn’t feel like the SEC has become a better basketball conference.

Obviously highly talented teams don't help other schools in their conference build their teams in a literal sense....it's that the level of talent they are brining in raises the standards of other teams in the conference, including the standards of their recruiting efforts (whether it be legal or not).

I could argue that Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, and South Carolina have all gotten vastly better since the one-and-done era of Kentucky & Calipari. The only real slight drop-off has been Florida.

 

[superjohn]

Other than the people on this board who are mad he got a player we wanted, who is he pissing off?

Other coaches.

 

[CallMeBruce]

No sour grapes here. Congrats to Memphis for the #1 recruiting class. Caution though.
I believe 7 of their 8 commitments are freshmen. Penny will be in his second year coaching at the collegiate level. Time will tell... a lot of pressure on him for results. In my opinion, other than Wiseman I see a ton of growing pains. This is going to be an AAU circuit on steroids for many of these players. I will take Hurleys approach. He appears to be methodical in his approach to bring back UCONN back to where it should be

Are you suggesting that UConn could have gotten the #1 class, but Hurley chose not to because that would be... reckless?

 

[CallMeBruce]

Other coaches.

Based on what? Who has complained? What are these offensive things that he's said?

 

[mdkhusky]

i obviously have zero respect for our fanbase - but you losers cheering for memphis state are by far and away the worst. you get the bob diaco seal of approval.

Hey squirrel brain. Our rating is higher if we beat better teams

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Other than the people on this board who are mad he got a player we wanted, who is he pissing off?

Well his AD left like two days ago

 

[superjohn]

Based on what? Who has complained? What are these offensive things that he's said?

Based on him acting like a jackarse towards other coaches who have been doing it forever and he's been doing it for a few months.

 

[Horatio]

Penny Hardaway is not a regular college basketball coach. His swag alone is worth luring in a #1 recruiting class. He was one of the best players in the NBA when he played. He played with Shaq. He had and still has one of the most popular signature basketball shoes. They still sell them. The Ad campaign for his shoes is legendary. The only other sneaker Michael Jordan ever wore in a game besides his own was Hardaways sneaker.
There was also a hit song named after him about 18 months ago. And he played at Memphis. If he wins he’ll be impossible.

 

[bobbyinaz]

Love the passion but we need the AAC to be good. It's better for UConn to play Memphis at 7pm on ESPN right before Duke/UNC (won't happen but still). If Memphis didn't have a dynamite class we would be playing them on Thursday @ 9pm on Espn+ or CBS Sports Network.

Except, what happens when ESPN decides to show Memphis/Tulane because of the "glitter" around the Memphis program and relegates UConn/Cinci to +?

The Boneyard will go ballistic.

It has been demonstrated for years that you can be a strong program regardless of conference affiliation. Look at Gonzaga. Their ridiculously weak conference hasn't affected them.

If UConn returns to it's level the conference won't matter other than getting a few dollars from other teams NCAA credits.

 

[Towney007]

Penny’s gotta show he can coach. We’ll see.

 

[Towney007]

Also I said if before. I think had he come here fans would have been disappointed in him. He’s really raw.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

People baffled by the allure of playing for Penny are clueless.

 

[Mokum]

Hardaway is following the Kentucky one and done model. Good luck being an NBA farm team. It doesn’t work all that well. Hurley has the Calhoun approach. It worked quite well. I am not losing any sleep over this. Penny has to prove himself as a coach, and being an NBA icon is not a gaurantee that you will be a good coach. Many great coaches were bench warmers in college. Let’s just move on.

 

[UconnPT2007]

This post makes zero sense, Memphis and UConn are in the same conference. Akok was ranked like #22.

I used the most recent updated ESPN rankings for those numbers.

Yes, same conference, but Memphis has major geographic advantages. Non-power 5/major city vs non-power 5/cow country. Yes, we have the advantage with the superior history, titles, NBA alumni etc but even with Calhoun and in a major conference we rarely landed top 15 players. Don’t get me wrong, If we could get a top 15 and then get the domino effect that comes with it I’d be ecstatic. But, after a few years of enduring massive yearlong Boneyard threads on top recruits that always end the same way I’ve become disillusioned with chasing 5 stars.