Requiem for the Big East

[HomeKing93]

Well, that was a waste of DVR space. What a joke.

 

[MattMang23]

So, were we in the Big East? Because nobody else in the league won more than ONE national championship! They even mentioned Seton Hall's nice run (though they lost). And nobody won more league championships, but they did mention our 6 OT loss!

No they didn't. That was a Jay Bilas cut out spot that wasn't even officially part of the doc. The official doc didn't say our name once for on court achievements.

 

[peeps]

We understand that it was more about the conference's formative years. But to act like the most successful school in the history of league flat out doesn't exist is utter BS. How about just one thirty second bone about how we once played in the Allen vs Allen game in '96 in the most hyped Big East game of the 90s? Something! Anything!

dude... it wasn't about the 90's and 00's (save for the defections from those BC scumbags). those years had less to do with the story and certainly had NOTHING to do with keeping the conference together.

 

[huskies20]

This is actually painful to watch and I dont know why I am putting myself through this.

 

[MattMang23]

dude... it wasn't about the 90's and 00's (save for the defections from those BC scumbags). those years had less to do with the story and certainly had NOTHING to do with keeping the conference together.

You're right, a bunch of nationally irrelevant Syracuse teams and flameout Georgetown teams from the 90s kept the league afloat after the initial boom. We only got good because those teams allowed us to. Sorry your highness.

 

[UConnNick]

What's wrong with you people? At least there was a still photo up on the screen for maybe two seconds showing our former AD, John Toner, throwing his hand into the middle of a huddle, with the other athletic directors of the original Big East Conference. And John was right in the middle of them all, sporting a big smile! What more do you want?

 

[peeps]

You're right, a bunch of nationally irrelevant Syracuse teams and flameout Georgetown teams from the 90s kept the league afloat after the initial boom. We only got good because those teams allowed us to. Sorry your highness.

you really don't get it. basketball had nothing to do with how this conference went following the expansion. you guys were a great program during that time... but it had NOTHING to do with "keeping the conference together".

 

[ecasadoSBU]

....and there you go. Im sure Connecticut fans who still love ESPN are happy about this documentary. What a shame. Nothing said about the three national championships and how important connecticut was for the late BE to keep that sense of Basketball tradition and quality despite the realignments. Connecticut kept the Big East basketball on a lifeboat by winning those three precious championships but no one that watched would ever know. It was a Georgetown/Syracuse lovefest, at times St. John's and Villanova, a bit providence, lastly like 30 seconds of UCONN material. Connecticut extended the life of the Big East by probably a decade or so with their basketball success, but it wasn't metioned. I hate ESPN, and I hope Fox Sports brings that network down to its knees.

 

[geohusky]

I actually enjoyed it. We need to remember that in the beginning we were the cellar dwellers. It wasn't a chronological history of the life of the conference. It was about the beginning and reasons for the inevitable end. Having gone to almost all the BE tournaments those early games between GT, Cues and St. Johns were the BE conference.

The thing that really hit home for me was how lucky we were to be a part of it and how it gave UCONN the opportunity to accomplish all that we did. I'm sure we all would agree if we were the ones with the opportunity to move with Cues to the ACC instead of Pitt we would have left as well.

It really is sad having been able to follow the conference from day one seeing something that really will never be duplicated die a painful death. After watching, the thing I am the most bitter about is the conference not allowing us to play in the final Big East Tournament, knowing it was the end they should have had us there. Finally it also drove home the point without saying it our future and survival as a national power is certainly not in the AAC.

Greed is a powerful thing!

 

[OkaForPrez]

you really don't get it. basketball had nothing to do with how this conference went following the expansion. you guys were a great program during that time... but it had NOTHING to do with "keeping the conference together".

Thank god we took a pause there to acknolwedege Cuse's 03 championship. That had a lot to do with it.

 

[MattMang23]

you really don't get it. basketball had nothing to do with how this conference went following the expansion. you guys were a great program during that time... but it had NOTHING to do with "keeping the conference together".

Because if the league hadn't started playing football, UConn would never have improved? That's your argument?

Please tell me what Georgetown did to "keep the conference together." I'll wait.

 

[peeps]

the 03 championship was only acknowledged because it happened at the exact same time as the defections from BC et al. you guys are really dull sometimes.

 

[peeps]

Because if the league hadn't started playing football, UConn would never have improved? That's your argument?

Please tell me what Georgetown did to "keep the conference together." I'll wait.

uh... NOTHING. because basketball had NOTHING TO DO WITH KEEPING THE CONFERENCE TOGETHER!! football drove the ship. the 03 defections were the first domino to fall... cuse and pitt was the death knell.

 

[BleedBlue14]

If Jim Calhoun was Italian we would have had more face time. Damn it! Where is Geno when you need him!

 

[BleedBlue14]

Yeah we got lumped in with the other bad schools who got better. Providence and Seton Hall. Because obviously the schools were so similar.

Yeah I guess we got a LITTLE better. What a joke!

 

[MattMang23]

uh... NOTHING. because basketball had NOTHING TO DO WITH KEEPING THE CONFERENCE TOGETHER!! football drove the ship. the 03 defections were the first domino to fall... cuse and pitt was the death knell.

Ok so please justify the hour and a half of Georgetown/Cuse tonsil hockey without a single mention of UConn?

Your argument:

The ESPN documentary was about the conferences good basketball teams of the 80s and the crumbling of the league in the 2000s-2010s ------------->

Football expansion killed the Big East-------------->

UConn's teams were only good post football expansion -------------->

UConn's basketball success-or anyone's basketball success for the matter- was not integral to the conference staying together

Therefore UConn wasn't even mentioned in the documentary because nothing it did added value to the conference.

So again, I ask you, what did Georgetown do that was so great post-1985 that warranted the last 30 minutes of the film to be devoted to them and Syracuse IN THE EXPANSION ERA, if that era of basketball had nothing to do with the conference's chances of sticking together?

 

[ecasadoSBU]

My question is: (sorta unrelated) HOW LONG will the SOUTHERN ACC powerhouse football schools subsidize Northeast weak Football schools before they realize they can make more money without the BC and Syracuse's of the world who no one watches on TV anyway. I mean, Cuse football sucks, so does BC and Pitt. whats gonna happen then?

 

[HuskyV]

Well, that is exactly the way fans from the slums of the fingerlakes remember the last 30 years.

"We were really good, G'town was mean, time passed (we had Mello & 2003) & then we had to leave because we are a football school."

 

[BleedBlue14]

I hope Amida's inner Patrick Ewing comes out in the tourney and he becomes this scary imposing force in the paint no one wants to face. Amida needs that tough attitude Ewing had, blocking everything even if its a goal tend just to let the opponent know he is there. Maybe throw a couple punches once and a while.

 

[OkaForPrez]

the 03 championship was only acknowledged because it happened at the exact same time as the defections from BC et al. you guys are really dull sometimes.

Alright you got all the answers. Explain the lamenting of the loss of the leagues toughness with the departures of Rick and Rollie which coincided directly with the emergence of Jim Calhoun in the conference. There was an agenda here and they went to great lengths to protect it by ignoring Calhoun and UConn. The story was how expansion doomed the purity of the basketball conference, but the reality is that the expansion coincided with the emergence of one of the most successful programs to come out of the conference. Which. Makes. The. Whole. Premise. Bull$hit.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It does make me angry. the rationale for the ACC raid was 100% the lousy contract with ESPN. There is no other reason.

 

[BleedBlue14]

I actually enjoyed it. We need to remember that in the beginning we were the cellar dwellers. It wasn't a chronological history of the life of the conference. It was about the beginning and reasons for the inevitable end. Having gone to almost all the BE tournaments those early games between GT, Cues and St. Johns were the BE conference.

The thing that really hit home for me was how lucky we were to be a part of it and how it gave UCONN the opportunity to accomplish all that we did. I'm sure we all would agree if we were the ones with the opportunity to move with Cues to the ACC instead of Pitt we would have left as well.

It really is sad having been able to follow the conference from day one seeing something that really will never be duplicated die a painful death. After watching, the thing I am the most bitter about is the conference not allowing us to play in the final Big East Tournament, knowing it was the end they should have had us there. Finally it also drove home the point without saying it our future and survival as a national power is certainly not in the AAC.

Greed is a powerful thing!

They kept us out of the last BE tourney because then Georgetown and Cuse might have not played if we got in the way. It was all planned out ahead of time.

 

[joober jones]

I think that janitor who they showed cleaning up at the end of the documentary got more screen time than we did.

 

[peeps]

Ok so please justify the hour and a half of Georgetown/Cuse tonsil hockey without a single mention of UConn?

Your argument:

The ESPN documentary was about the conferences good basketball teams of the 80s and the crumbling of the league in the 2000s-2010s ------------->

Football expansion killed the Big East-------------->

UConn's teams were only good post football expansion -------------->

UConn's basketball success-or anyone's basketball success for the matter- was not integral to the conference staying together

Therefore UConn wasn't even mentioned in the documentary because nothing it did added value to the conference.

So again, I ask you, what did Georgetown do that was so great post-1985 that warranted the last 30 minutes of the film to be devoted to them and Syracuse IN THE EXPANSION ERA, if that era of basketball had nothing to do with the conference's chances of sticking together?

almost the entire story was about the first 6 years of the conference and the personalities of the original coaches. the story pretty much stops at the first expansion with miami and pitt until it comes back again in 03 when conference realignment changed the face of intercollegiate athletics.

i know you think i'm crapping on uconn... nope. not at all. a great program that existed after the story of this documentary really ends. uconn had little to do with the initial success of the league. it's just a fact. it also had little to do with the collapse of the league. and them being a great BB program did NOTHING to keep the conference together.

i know you don't like cuse or respect gtown, but they really got the conference going. calhoun himself basically said that his success came from selling the conference that was built before uconn got going as a program.

is it that you don't want to accept that the big east helped lift the program and not just uconn itself?

 

[cto44]

My question is: (sorta unrelated) HOW LONG will the SOUTHERN ACC powerhouse football schools subsidize Northeast weak Football schools before they realize they can make more money without the BC and Syracuse's of the world who no one watches on TV anyway. I mean, Cuse football sucks, so does BC and Pitt. whats gonna happen then?

BTW, Syracuse won a bowl game during its first season in the ACC. (And the entire conference got to share in the revenue).