Rothstein: St. John’s/UConn is college basketball’s burgeoning rivalry. | The Boneyard

Rothstein: St. John’s/UConn is college basketball’s burgeoning rivalry.

UConnSwag11 said:
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Once again, this site really needs a barf emoji.
Vomit Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 
The thing that is missing here (and with some who responded to a thread on the same topic) is that a rivalry isn't something that pops up occasionally when a couple team that play each other regularly both happen to be good; it's the result of years of accumulating competition.

There is no sustainability to what is currently going on at St John's and in all candor, it is very likely that once Pitino's replacement gets somewhat comfortable in his position, we will be at the next round of major conference musical chairs and our conference opponents will all play football.
 
St. John’s is a rival in the sense that they’ll be good enough to beat us this season. But we’ve gone through rivals like that for decades. Georgetown with Iverson, then Syracuse, then Pitt, then Louisville, then Villanova, then Marquette.

St. John’s is the flavor of the month. I’m just amused at the fact they think they have a relevant program. They rank behind Loyola of Chicago for historical relevance. Loyola has a nattie … and they’ve made a Final Four since Freddie Mercury performed at Live Aid
 
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Since we rejoined the NBE, I would claim Marquette has been our rival.

I can't quite say that the same for Creighton since we've not done too well vs them . St Johns hasn't been our rival until beating us recently - so similar situation.

Things change, so SJU is our rival for the time being.
 
Marat said:
Since we rejoined the NBE, I would claim Marquette has been our rival.

I can't quite say that the same for Creighton since we've not done too well vs them . St Johns hasn't been our rival until beating us recently - so similar situation.

Things change, so SJU is our rival for the time being.
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I don't disagree with you factually. I do think what you describe is more our principal competitor than our rival. A true rival doesn't have to be good or even competitivefor you to actually hate them.
 
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FfldCntyFan said:
The thing that is missing here (and with some who responded to a thread on the same topic) is that a rivalry isn't something that pops up occasionally when a couple team that play each other regularly both happen to be good; it's the result of years of accumulating competition.

There is no sustainability to what is currently going on at St John's and in all candor, it is very likely that once Pitino's replacement gets somewhat comfortable in his position, we will be at the next round of major conference musical chairs and our conference opponents will all play football.
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And yet people are arguing Syracuse is our rival, a team we will not have played in 8 seasons.
 
superjohn said:
And yet people are arguing Syracuse is our rival, a team we will not have played in 8 seasons.
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I believe they were arguing that Syracuse was our rival.

The reality is we don't have a rival, at least not a true one, merely a number of schools that we have differing scattered histories with.

I will repeat something I posted earlier on this, what we had with Syracuse was well above what we've had with every current BE member combined and what we had with Pitt was above anything we've had with any individual current BE member.

That's our fate and it is what it is. We've accomplished quite a bit, either because of this or in spite of this. We will accomplish a lot more as time goes on.
 
There really would be no better rival than UMass. Neighboring states, short drive, a lot in common, plenty of cause for bad blood. But they'd have to take basketball seriously for that to happen.
 
The NY media mafia (beginning with Mike F) has been trying to make St John's happen for a very long time.

STJ was so bad that Mike became a closet UConn fan.

Maybe they have a magic run before Pitino quits, maybe they don't but the idea StJ is going to be a long time player after the P2 take a hammer to the NCAA and it's tournament is just silly.

There isn't enough time for a true rivalry to develop. As I said, UConn/StJ is a storyline for this season because both are expected to be decent.

I think it's 50/50 STJ will be relevant at all. Just throwing a group of transfers together doesn't work out that often.
 
SJU has another 3 years in them at most before Pitino dies. Call me when they're anything but a flash in the pan every few decades.
 
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Never underestimate the sheer hyperbole of New York City. Writers will stop at nothing to make anything sound better than it is: Is MSG really the most famous arena in the world? Seems fairly subjective.

Is this a rivalry? Nah, St. Johns is trying at all stops to become relevant again is all. Pitino will get them so far, but it's not sustainable as been pointed out already.

Whole think reeks of desperation.
 
Inyatkin said:
There really would be no better rival than UMass. Neighboring states, short drive, a lot in common, plenty of cause for bad blood. But they'd have to take basketball seriously for that to happen.
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I'm not sure that will ever happen again. They got lucky for a few years. There's just not enough support for UMass in Massachusetts. I'm not sure what it is but I always surmised that it's just too far from the population and money center of the state. I wasn't living here in the mid 1990s but I wonder if I would feel differently if I was and could have seen how people around here got behind UMass hoops. That was now 30 years ago when they were good.
 
Inyatkin said:
There really would be no better rival than UMass. Neighboring states, short drive, a lot in common, plenty of cause for bad blood. But they'd have to take basketball seriously for that to happen.
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Who was that coach they had maybe 5-10 years ago who came from one of those fake high school programs, he ended up landing a top-50 recruit bc he was dating the kids mother? lol.
 
HooperScooper said:
I'm not sure that will ever happen again. They got lucky for a few years. There's just not enough support for UMass in Massachusetts. I'm not sure what it is but I always surmised that it's just too far from the population and money center of the state. I wasn't living here in the mid 1990s but I wonder if I would feel differently if I was and could have seen how people around here got behind UMass hoops. That was now 30 years ago when they were good.
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UConn is also far from the population and money center of the state. But we benefit hugely by being the only game in town, which UMass is really not
 
Inyatkin said:
UConn is also far from the population and money center of the state. But we benefit hugely by being the only game in town, which UMass is really not
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True. The Emily Dickinson House is also in Amherst. You can see the actual window she used look out of all day.
 
This is not so much about St John's as it is about Rick Pitino. It makes great excitement for them and us and the Tri-State area. I expect that they will be more than competitive with Rick in the Big Apple for as long as he is there (5 years?). He is a NYC guy and a great arch villain. He's also a hell of coach. So, going to sit back and enjoy this for as long as it lasts. It should also attract a lot of interest from all the big cities as far as recruiting. After Rick retires I expect St John's to go back to what they have been

Uconn and St John's in MSG? Better than Syracuse, Georgetown and other rivalries for as long as it lasts because they are recruiting at the top of college BB world and this takes the lights off Duke, Squid (ALA) , Kentucky, Kansas and Auburn and other would be suitors.

It will only be sweeter if we have to face off against Rick and them every winter. Bring it on!
 
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I love this space. I love reading about UConn and I love reading from people that love UConn as much as I do. But some of you are flat out . St. John's was relevant last year. They are absolutely going to be a top 5 program NATIONALLY, again this coming year, and they are in the same conference as us. And they beat our a-- every time they played us last year. And the games the year before were ultra competitive. If that is not the very definition of a rivalry I do not know what is.
We complained forever about how the weak nature of the BE was costing us. Well, the BE is a little less weak now, isn't it???
 
Iluvsuebird said:
I love this space. I love reading about UConn and I love reading from people that love UConn as much as I do. But some of you are flat out . St. John's was relevant last year. They are absolutely going to be a top 5 program NATIONALLY, again this coming year, and they are in the same conference as us. And they beat our a-- every time they played us last year. And the games the year before were ultra competitive. If that is not the very definition of a rivalry I do not know what is.
We complained forever about how the weak nature of the BE was costing us. Well, the BE is a little less weak now, isn't it???
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Yeah, I guess we’re all wrong about this. This is more like Duke /North Carolina with us being Duke and them being NC, except North Carolina would have had no national championships. And were hardly ever in the tourney. Yup, it’s a Yankees / Red Sox rivalry.
 
Inyatkin said:
There really would be no better rival than UMass. Neighboring states, short drive, a lot in common, plenty of cause for bad blood. But they'd have to take basketball seriously for that to happen.
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U Hartford would also make a great rival if they still had a Division I basketball team.
 
Beyond the Bird lover's use of a very politically incorrect term, his claiming (because of the past two seasons) we now have a rivalry with St John's is a stretch.

Using his logic, since we beat San Diego St in the national championship game and sweet sixteen n consecutive seasons, we should claim them as a rival as well.
 
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