Stephen A. Smith at UConn

[Madmannsucks]

Bayless hasn't been on ESPN for 2 years. Stephen A no very little about college hoops, and less about UConn. Nature of the beast. He is an entertainer. BE not in the cards unless they want to scrap football.

 

[uconnphil2016]

You kinda gotta love the troll game. Calls out for the players, tells them he will go easy and then obliterates the program. Cant teach that level of a hole

 

[raf46]

I attended the Stephen A. Smith lecture at UConn this evening

-He came out immediately with "Let me start off with this, are there any UConn basketball players in the house?"
I was sitting in the same section as Cobb and Onuorah. Cobb shouted something like "Yeah, whatchu want?"
Stephen A. responded "Alright I'll go easy then. There was a time when you hear UConn basketball and you think 'national championship'. Ben Gordon, Okafor, Kemba and the crew. Those days are over, sorry to say. And it will be a long time before you get back there."

-He also went on multiple occasions saying that he loves Ollie, and although he had to go, the root problem is the conference affiliation. He says they have to get back into the Big East.
He said something like-
"I didn't even know where Wichita was until I did a College Gameday there. The interest in UConn basketball, for me, is when they play the St. Johns, Georgetowns and Syracuses. You can't be playing Wichita, Cincinnati, UCF."

-Thinks if there is anyone that can do the job, Dan Hurley is capable.

A self promoting gas bag. He is Jeff Jacobs, with a microphone.

 

[Stinger92860]

Does he realize that Cuse is not in the big east? What a tool. Somehow Cinncy is getting over the conference issue.

 

[HooperScooper]

I used to hate Stephen A. but he's grown on me. As others have said you don't take him seriously and just enjoy the rants. I find him amusing now.

I still hate Bayless though. His schtick is just annoying as heck. I haven't seen him since he left ESPN.

 

[goskis2018]

I went to the lecture and I loved it. He started off with UConn related sports talk and ended with some Q/A on sports that was entertaining to watch. The majority of the lecture was on being competitive out there in the real world. He spoke about a lot of the values you hear about in the business school, for example "make your boss money and you'll make money", " make yourself valuable or you'll be unemployed", "everything you want someone already has and you have to earn it", "networking" etc. Etc. Talked glowingly about capitalism and so on. I came in pretty skeptical but honestly a great lecture.

 

[StoweD210]

It's safe to say Stephen A. Smith isn't a big fan of this song:

 

[sledog]

Cobb is still at UConn??

 

[Rocktheworld]

Stephen A Smith is Skip Bayless wearing better clothes.

Meh I’d take Skip’s wardrobe over Stephen A’s hairline

 

[ARIDE]

I attended the Stephen A. Smith lecture at UConn this evening

-He came out immediately with "Let me start off with this, are there any UConn basketball players in the house?"
I was sitting in the same section as Cobb and Onuorah. Cobb shouted something like "Yeah, whatchu want?"
Stephen A. responded "Alright I'll go easy then. There was a time when you hear UConn basketball and you think 'national championship'. Ben Gordon, Okafor, Kemba and the crew. Those days are over, sorry to say. And it will be a long time before you get back there."

-He also went on multiple occasions saying that he loves Ollie, and although he had to go, the root problem is the conference affiliation. He says they have to get back into the Big East.
He said something like-
"I didn't even know where Wichita was until I did a College Gameday there. The interest in UConn basketball, for me, is when they play the St. Johns, Georgetowns and Syracuses. You can't be playing Wichita, Cincinnati, UCF."

-Thinks if there is anyone that can do the job, Dan Hurley is capable.

SAM IS A BLOW HARD..

 

[Kemba429]

Did you see the players reaction to him saying those days are over? Im glad we have all these doubters though, gonna be great when were “back there.”

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Didn’t attend but I could hear it all the way in Manchester

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Did you see the players reaction to him saying those days are over? Im glad we have all these doubters though, gonna be great when were “back there.”

I looked over immediately at Cobb and Onuorah and they didn't react, certainly didn't find it funny though.
Then again, it's not like either figure to be a significant part of the future of UConn basketball.

 

[nycorange]

If we don’t win a championship for the next 25 years, we’ll still have more than 99.9% of all schools to have played the game. Took Nova 31 years to win their second. So, he can shove it.

The math nerd in me, not the syracuse fan I promise , felt compelled to note that you currently ONLY have more championships than 98.2 percent of D 1 schools. Pretty impressive, as much as I hate to admit, but not 99.9%. There would have to be 1000 D1 men's bb schools for that even to be a mathematical possibility.

 

[gtcam]

Weird spring weekend event but spring weekend isn't like it was in the mid 70's
Never was a fan of SAS but he is entertaining at times
While folks may love to say he doesn't know sports but I think he does to an extent - it's usually the people who don't agree what he says who make that claim
He is not wrong about the conference
Wonder what the reaction would have been if he said KO sucked - both here and there
At least he is all for Coach Dan Hurley

 

[TheChamps990411]

SAS knows the NBA as good as any talking head but he doesnt know the college game and i cringe when he tries to talk boxing. Jeesh! What a trainwreck he is.

 

[UconnU]

Did people actually PAY to hear him speak?

 

[Towney007]

Part of the reason I like it when exciting rebuilds happen is because guys like Smith... their opinion just doesn't matter. It's about keeping the nose to the grindstone - getting better, focusing on your own as a program. Focusing on kids that fit, keeping a long view of where things are at. Enjoying the progress, chuckling at the growing pains....

Smith isn't the only guy who's said this and won't be the last for a while. Oh well. He can say whatever.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Did people actually PAY to hear him speak?

No. Free and open only to students.

 

[KemBaller]

I used to hate Stephen A. but he's grown on me. As others have said you don't take him seriously and just enjoy the rants. I find him amusing now.

I still hate Bayless though. His schtick is just annoying as heck. I haven't seen him since he left ESPN.

Skip and SAS are the same thing though. I also don't love SAS calling out college kids essentially to their face.

 

[UconnFanDC]

1. UConn has already won a championship in this conference.
2. Wichita State is in... wait for it... Wichita, a city that anyone who spent some time with a map of the US is familiar with.
3. The dude just likes to hear himself talk and give whatever hot take he can conjure up.

They won fresh out of BE and with the players from Jim Calhoun era. Soooooo what has happened after that?

 

[UconnFanDC]

he's not wrong

I agree. We Uconn fans are in denial. We have not done anything after all of JC players were gone. Ollie won with leftovers

 

[goskis2018]

ESPN TV personality Stephen A. Smith brings jokes and advice to students for Spring Weekend

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Stephen A Smith is Skip Bayless wearing better clothes.

Okay let's not say anything we can't take back.

 

[ctchamps]

The math nerd in me, not the syracuse fan I promise , felt compelled to note that you currently ONLY have more championships than 98.2 percent of D 1 schools. Pretty impressive, as much as I hate to admit, but not 99.9%. There would have to be 1000 D1 men's bb schools for that even to be a mathematical possibility.

99.9% is closer to 98.2% than 4>1 when considering math.

 

[UofCT]

ESPN TV personality Stephen A. Smith brings jokes and advice to students for Spring Weekend

This article was a waste of time.

 

[XLCenterFan]

I've always liked Steven A. He's hilarious-you just can't take him too serious. And he's right about the conference...it's a weight around the neck of the men's hoops program.

 

[Adios]

Yeah, C-USA was such a bad conference for Memphis. They lost to Kansas in the championship game because they were in C-USA, dammit.

A single Loyola-Chicago player has more cajones than probably half of this board. At least when it comes to basketball.

 

[willie99]

He's cracking on Wichita St? Does he know where Creighton is?

If there's one thing the AAC has going for it, it's the cities. Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Cinci, Philly, Annapolis and UNCASVILLE , are all pretty cool destinations, so Stephen shouldn't be picking on the cities of the AAC.

the AAC will be fine, once we make it so



PS: the banners in Storrs are a site to see for any college hoops junkie. Not sure you can find more basketball banners hanging in any other rafter

 

[Palatine]

Smith opinions are not serious. He makes a bunch of noise and moves on never taking responsibility for anything he said yesterday. He is a noise machine.