Storrs South this year

[BugsyCT]

Does Pitino take another P4 job? The biggest attraction of the St. John's job was that it didn't require him to move. I'm not convinced that he'll be up for the disruption again for a new start up.

I said the same thing in the chat. Pitino is a scummy human, but a very good basketball coach. This last run at St. John's confirms that and rehabilitate his reputation, somewhat.

He may not want to move again at his age, but he's moved around a lot in his career. Depends what he wants, how much longer he wants to coach and if he feels the new Big East will continue to get snubbed by the committee most years because it's a weaker league now.

 

[Marat]

You should be because they typically have in the past. That raises an interesting point that our crowds in MSG I have not only been due to Connecticut fans unwavering interest, but also opposing teams lack of fan support.

Said differently, it's easier for Connecticut fans to get tickets when opposing teams fans are staying home

Exactly. SJU was a preseason top 10 team. Their fans bought tickets early for this one expecting a top 10 match up.

 

[mussels]

Watched on TV, and the vibe was unmistakably that we were playng an away game against a team with an energized enthusiastic fan base. Hats off to the Jonnies fans for bringing the energy.

Great game that we unfortunately lost.

 

[CL82]

Exactly. SJU was a preseason top 10 team. Their fans bought tickets early for this one expecting a top 10 match up.

And I think they pretty much got it. St. John's looked very, very good. Whether their defense would look quite so good without James breeding officiating is a question to be decided later.

 

[mike012]

There was even a game chat for this game on rupp rafters. Its good to see a BE game get attention

 

[Class of 09]

Isn’t the lower bowl mostly SJU season ticket holders? The SJU fans all around me said they are season ticket holders. So tough for UConn fans to get their hands on those tickets if those season ticket holders don’t sell them. When SJU wasn’t good they would sell them. They weren’t selling for this game.

When I say lower bowl I mean all the100 sections, I don’t think those are all season ticket holders but idk.

 

[Kemba15]

Does Pitino take another P4 job? The biggest attraction of the St. John's job was that it didn't require him to move. I'm not convinced that he'll be up for the disruption again for a new start up.

I said the same thing in the chat. Pitino is a scummy human, but a very good basketball coach. This last run at St. John's confirms that and rehabilitate his reputation, somewhat.

They also are in the top tier of NIL spending, over $10M a year. We obviously pay a lot too but Pitino’s job has been made easier when Repole & co. can top most offers for stud transfers. Something @RuffRuff also doesn’t mention when comparing the rosters and coaches

The $10 million club: College basketball's portal recruiting hits unthinkable levels of financial chaos

The price of talent is spiking to record amounts -- again -- now with hundreds of millions at stake in college hoops' unregulated economy

www.cbssports.com

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Does Pitino take another P4 job? The biggest attraction of the St. John's job was that it didn't require him to move. I'm not convinced that he'll be up for the disruption again for a new start up.

I said the same thing in the chat. Pitino is a scummy human, but a very good basketball coach. This last run at St. John's confirms that and rehabilitate his reputation, somewhat.

I'm not sure many schools would consider hiring someone his age (73, will be 74 before the next college basketball season starts).

A school that wants to legitimately build something that can be sustained would want someone considerably younger, one looking to find a quick solution likely wouldn't be attractive enough for him to leave St John's.

Look at it this way, he's already two years older than Roy Williams was when he retired and only about half a year younger than Jim Larranaga was when he retired. His window is closing.

 

[FightOnCT]

Repole money isn’t that relevant when comparing Hurley and Pitino’s recruiting, they simply have different philosophies.

I still think UConn is the better team, one game doesn’t change that, but Pitino recruits guys that happen to play to Hurley’s recruiting weaknesses

 

[Kemba15]

Repole money isn’t that relevant when comparing Hurley and Pitino’s recruiting, they simply have different philosophies.

I still think UConn is the better team, one game doesn’t change that, but Pitino recruits guys that happen to play to Hurley’s recruiting weaknesses

It is relevant though. They likely spent millions for Jackson and Sanon, 2 guys who don’t even play that much anymore. Do you see us doing that for role players? Again, not saying they shouldn’t, but it’s a completely different approach to roster construction and Pitino does not care anymore about building organically (and organic is harder)

 

[huskdogs]

I'm not sure many schools would consider hiring someone his age (73, will be 74 before the next college basketball season starts).

A school that wants to legitimately build something that can be sustained would want someone considerably younger, one looking to find a quick solution likely wouldn't be attractive enough for him to leave St John's.

Look at it this way, he's already two years older than Roy Williams was when he retired and only about half a year younger than Jim Larranaga was when he retired. His window is closing.

It’ll be interesting to see what level of coach St. John’s can pull for its next hire. They’re arguably the second best job in the league right now. Blows my mind that STJs was able to figure it before Georgetown who is close to being an afterthought for eternity.

 

[FightOnCT]

Georgetown from what I remember had a shot at Pitino but didn’t go for him. Fail.

Honestly blows my mind St. John’s itself has sucked for so long considering NYC and Repole lurking behind

 

[LIUCHusky]

When Pitino retires or gets a better P4 job those seats will open up again. Once every quarter century the Jawnnies are contenders and their fans awaken from their dormant state and fill MSG. Pitino's a slimeball but he's a great basketball coach who knows how to build teams that neutralize our strengths and expose our weaknesses.

St John’s will be good as long as Mike Repole wants them to be.

 

[RuffRuff]

Repole money isn’t that relevant when comparing Hurley and Pitino’s recruiting, they simply have different philosophies.

I still think UConn is the better team, one game doesn’t change that, but Pitino recruits guys that happen to play to Hurley’s recruiting weaknesses

I think UConn may be the better team in March - but StJ may be the better team in the BE head to head. They're just a tough matchup. That said, if StJ goes up against anyone who relies on one offensive catalyst, Mitchell will be an issue. It's been really clear that Hurley's phillosophy works best in March. We'll see if Pitino can change his narrative.

There was even a game chat for this game on rupp rafters. Its good to see a BE game get attention

They love them some Ricky.

 

[CTBasketball]

If we can only fill the building on Saturdays is it really Storrs south? Think the fan base has had a bad showing all year except for the Arizona game

St John’s resurgence has hurt our showing and ability to get cheap tickets. Neutral site games we still show up down there.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Said differently, it's easier for Connecticut fans to get tickets when opposing teams fans are staying home

Paraphrasing LL Cool J in the Ripper Strikes Back... "Cause ninety-nine percent of your fans don't exist"

I think that was probably the bigger hurdle for SJU in previous years.

 

[nycscooby]

Agree.

Does Pitino take another P4 job? The biggest attraction of the St. John's job was that it didn't require him to move. I'm not convinced that he'll be up for the disruption again for a new start up.

I said the same thing in the chat. Pitino is a scummy human, but a very good basketball coach. This last run at St. John's confirms that and rehabilitate his reputation, somewhat.

Biggest attraction is Repole. And, Pitino’s coaching ability has never been questioned other than by Celtics fans which was somewhat legitomate.

 

[nycscooby]

Paraphrasing LL Cool J in the Ripper Strikes Back... "Cause ninety-nine percent of your fans don't exist"

I think that was probably the bigger hurdle for SJU in previous years.

They existed but from 2000 - 2024 largely comatose

 

[RuffRuff]

It is relevant though. They likely spent millions for Jackson and Sanon, 2 guys who don’t even play that much anymore. Do you see us doing that for role players? Again, not saying they shouldn’t, but it’s a completely different approach to roster construction and Pitino does not care anymore about building organically (and organic is harder)

Is organic harder?

Lots of varying approaches to top teams.

UM - all portal
AZ - freshmen
Illinois - Europe
Duke - freshmen
ISU - organic

 

[JB75]

You guys must be crazy. That was the lowest I’ve seen the Uconn crowd at MSG in years - maybe because it was Friday night and the game was later - it was easily easily 75-25% Johnny’s -maybe there wasn’t much to cheer about, but it sure did seem like way more Johnny fans than normal.

 

[gampelcrazies]

IMO too many games there the past 4 years

 

[ecasadoSBU]

You guys must be crazy. That was the lowest I’ve seen the Uconn crowd at MSG in years - maybe because it was Friday night and the game was later - it was easily easily 75-25% Johnny’s -maybe there wasn’t much to cheer about, but it sure did seem like way more Johnny fans than normal.

Uh? Who is saying otherwise.

We all agree here that it was 80-20 at best.

No biggie though.

(1) They made it a friday night game
(2) St. John's sold more season tickets this year thus locking up more seats
(3) they have their own SJU Ticketmaster app to sell to their own fans and made it difficult to buy tickets (at face-value) in the open market

I, myself, had a SJU friend get me a ticket through their market place.

But no need to panic. We don't have to own MSG every time. It's their home after all... and the fans wasn't the reason UConn lost anyway.

Time to move on. Get 'em back at Hartford in two weeks!!!

 

[superjohn]

A St. John's crowd at a St. John's home game. I'm not sure why this is shocking for so many people.

 

[Umami Zen]

It’ll be interesting to see what level of coach St. John’s can pull for its next hire. They’re arguably the second best job in the league right now. Blows my mind that STJs was able to figure it before Georgetown who is close to being an afterthought for eternity.

Rick has said he'd like to keep the seat warm for his son. We'll see if he can make it happen.

 

[gsmooth]

Paraphrasing LL Cool J in the Ripper Strikes Back... "Cause ninety-nine percent of your fans don't exist"

I think that was probably the bigger hurdle for SJU in previous years.

LOL. That was when LL Cool J and Cannibis were having their feud.