I believe it may be enlightening to consider the life experience of a Cuse fan.
Just to start, many Cuse fans never even went to the school, so right off the bat, the intellectual level, critical thinking, and executive functioning are low.
Many Cuse fans grew up in an era where Cuse was actually somewhat dominant in the Big East. They also have a nice little average of 1 FF per decade. It was during this time, the mid 70s through the 80s and into the 90s, that I posit a self-perceived paradigm was formed; a kind of folklore, if you will, of Cuse's dominance. Attitudes and stories are passed down to younger fans, and Cuse's dominance became a kind of legend.
Next, we have to consider the town of Syracuse itself. The people who grew up there can't have much to live for other than Cuse basketball. It's a completely understandable attachment when the next most exciting thing that occurs during your year is the new record lake effect blizzard that rolls through or whatever. Basketball is, far and away, their only real hope of receiving any semblance of town recognition or gaining of any town pride. So, when you combine this folklore with a relatively under-educated fanbase who is also highly attached to the subject of legend, strong emotional ties are made. People start identifying with the folklore itself, as it is a significant part of their year. The dissonance that results from a salty taste of UConn in the mouth causes a similar emotional reaction as a devout Christian is shown the logical and empirical arguments against their beliefs. Their self-esteem must be in some way affected by the outcomes of basketball games played out by teenagers in order elicit such hatred. They respond with nonsensical and non-starter arguments that come from their deeply learned legend, not unlike a Christian reverting back to something they heard in Sunday school when their folklore is challenged. Kind of like the way some Christians treat their faiths, when you attack the Cuse folklore, to them, you are attacking the person themself.
Now, this kind of dissonance with the folklore of Cuse dominance has been thrown and pressed in to the faces of Cuse fans for two decades now, and they've been able to do nothing but take it and cry. We now eclipse them in every stat except, as both fan bases have come to know through ad nauseam repetition, Big East regular season wins. It would be interesting if Cuse never rented Melo for a championship, as I am not sure how this folklore would have lasted without the reinforcement of 2003, albeit now being over 10 years old. Regardless, you see this clinging to the past: Helms Championships and regular season wins. Just recycling the same defeated arguments, completely unaware that said arguments mean nothing to anyone other than themselves.
I think with this in mind, we can understand why Cuse just can't stand UConn. We have been and continue to be the symbol of their sinking to irrelevancy. While we have a shining beacon of the future in KO, they must be shaking in their boots over the eventual departure of the ol' gold digger. The longer we stick around and beat them, the longer they will have to deal with the challenge that Cuse is not dominant anymore. We all know that this is the reason Cuse (and BC) is actively blocking UConn from the ACC. This is their way of plugging their ears and going LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU. How'd that work out for BC? I'm not sure how much better they expect to fare in the ACC. Maybe losing to Duke and UNC is somehow more acceptable to them because Duke and UNC have been better than Cuse for longer than we have.
