Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="JonathanXIV, post: 2927205, member: 9217"] It's been tough to read the Boneyard over the past 16 hours. The proclamations of doom because a top ranked recruit decided to attend another school. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of recruiting and getting the right players into a program, but success on the court is not perfectly correlated with recruiting success. Consider schools that have had top recruiting classes year after year and still come up way short (looking at you Tennessee, Texas, Baylor, Maryland). UConn fans have long believed in the value of coaching and the difference it makes on the court. We have been told over and over how UConn practices are different from other schools. We have seen how are players commit to team defense, how our offense has more movement and variety than other teams whose players stand around or only look for one-on-one opportunities, and how UConn players give full effort regardless of the score or circumstance. Even the little things, how the players relentlessly support one another, how they stand for the anthem, how even after a tough loss they leave the court the same way as they do after a win, all mark UConn as a special program. We hold firmly to the belief that UConn is different, special. That one plus one can equal more than two. That the team is more than just five talented individuals. That no one is bigger than the program. This has been true for a generation, and I see no reason why the decision of one or two players changes that. Yes, UConn has won a lot. But they have won the right way as well. So let's have a little faith and remember that, while important, success is dependent on more than recruiting success. And that after a generation of unprecedented success, that we should all have a horizon that extends a little further than the early signing period. There is no reason to believe that our tradition of excellence has ended. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach