The AAC is a VERY good conference.

[husky91]

Nothing better than last Thurs having UConn-Temple on ESPN2 playing in front of 3k (max) and flip over to ESpN with UNC-Duke. Wow.

This league blows. Thx Warde!

From our perspective, the AAC is a trailer park in tornado alley.

It really is an unpleasant assortment of schools.

 

[Jerry1714]

Nothing better than last Thurs having UConn-Temple on ESPN2 playing in front of 3k (max) and flip over to ESpN with UNC-Duke. Wow.

This league blows. Thx Warde!

You would have the same thing last year when we were playing DePaul, USF, or Seton Hall.

Also it was not Warde who hired PP............

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Born in March 1954.

I got a tie that old. Fortunately ties are forbidden in AZ ,bolos excepted.

Pissing at each other is no fun.

Look ... in the beginning of the Big East, there were a bunch of schools simply not ready for the competitiveness that quickly came to the top. That is where we are today in AAC basketball. UConn, by the way, was one of the Programs that was just getting lapped by a few tougher Programs. Georgetown with John Thompson; St. John's with Carnesecca; Syracuse with Boeheim; Villanova with Massimino. Within a year or TWO, Dr. Tom Davis had a nice formula at BC. Seton Hall sucked. Dom Perno made us suck. When Pitt joined, they recruited well for a day or two under Paul Evans; but, mostly they weren't competitive.

UCF has never played at this level. They can get athletes. Will Donnie Jones raise their level? Dunno. USF? They suck today after 10 years in the BE; start all over again. Fire Heath. Houston? Man ... they have really impressive athletes. They aren't going to succeed with Dickey; that reminds me of us and Perno. Just not going to rise to compete. Temple? Again ... I have no doubt that Dunphy can be a solid competitor. Let's see what 2015 brings. And F Rutgers. Tulane, Tulsa and ECU? Tulsa has some pedigree actually. They are going to be just as awful as the current 5 dregs ... unless they quickly pull up their pants and play big boy. UConn took a while to learn. I think that's the lesson (Fishy): it can be a far better conference. Or we are going to see more 40 point losses going forward. I actually think that the dregs will re-calibrate and compete. Expect Heath and Dickey to be gone soon.

Of course Memphis is happy. That's clearly the easiest thing to predict.

If you listen to guys like JC or even PJ ( Seaton Hall was very good by the late. 80's.)
Their best recruiting tool was playing against schools like Georgetown.
Memphis, Cinn, and UConn,have to play that Georgetown role.
What we accomplish in the tourney will help recruiting in the rest of the league.

If one of those schools makes a run it helps recruiting through-out the league.
Women's is no exception. Schools in the AAC can go after a higher caliber of player simply by saying you will be playing against the best. In WBB especially a dozen recruits who wouldn't have come increase the quality of the league exponentially.

 

[Husky25]

I got a tie that old. Fortunately ties are forbidden in AZ ,bolos excepted.

If you listen to guys like JC or even PJ ( Seaton Hall was very good by the late. 80's.)
Their best recruiting tool was playing against schools like Georgetown.
Memphis, Cinn, and UConn,have to play that Georgetown role.
What we accomplish in the tourney will help recruiting in the rest of the league.

If one of those schools makes a run it helps recruiting through-out the league.
Women's is no exception. Schools in the AAC can go after a higher caliber of player simply by saying you will be playing against the best. In WBB especially a dozen recruits who wouldn't have come increase the quality of the league exponentially.

Then. That was then. Jim Calhoun said as much on CenterStage (Question: How did you convince a kid to spend his college years in a sleepy town in Northeast Connecticut?). The next comment out of his mouth though was that once Tate George, Scotty Burrell, and Donyell Marshall were drafted, his best recruiting tool was that he could get kids to the NBA.

Ollie will have that qualification in about 3 months time.

 

[husky91]

I don't think PP determined our conference fate. The AD and President play a much larger role. It was just bad timing hiring 2 incompetent faces of the University during this time. Jurich had a vision and could articulate it, Warde can't and didn't. People give him credit for Ollie, maybe, not sure that was some huge coup.

You would have the same thing last year when we were playing DePaul, USF, or Seton Hall.

Also it was not Warde who hired PP..

 

[Marty Jackson]

"Never mind that this conference has five top-25 caliber teams, It's terrible. Don't worry about the AAC potentially having two top-10 teams tomorrow, it means nothing. The bottom half of this conference is horrible, that's why Houston beat us"

you have to realize that there is a large contingent on this board that are simply downers. Nothing you say will convince them otherwise.

The league isn't that bad. Yes, the bottom is weak, but that includes Houston and Temple, both of which have history. Temple is simply rebuilding. Getting 5 into the tourney will make a statement. Getting 3 or 4 into the 16 would be awesome.

 

[Marty Jackson]

The AAC has some good teams but is not a strong conference. Having come from the best basketball conference of all, it is tough transition. Unfortunately, we are losing Louisville (a tough loss) and Rutgers (no big deal). We have three weak programs joining and one of the top programs (Cincinnati) openly looking for a new home. Clearly, the conference will be weaker next year whether Cincinnati leaves or stays.

Given whom KO is already bringing in, we should still be a top 20 team but a weak schedule will not help us prepare for the NCAA tournament. I guess I also feel sorry for the women who will have no in-conference competition next year. How many fans are going to continue to want to watch 40 to 50 point blow-outs.

Cincy is going somewhere? Next year?
Is that even a possibility?

 

[jibsey]

Then. That was then. Jim Calhoun said as much on CenterStage (Question: How did you convince a kid to spend his college years in a sleepy town in Northeast Connecticut?). The next comment out of his mouth though was that once Tate George, Scotty Burrell, and Donyell Marshall were drafted, his best recruiting tool was that he could get kids to the NBA.

Ollie will have that qualification in about 3 months time.

In 3 months Bazz is maybe a high first round choice? Calhoun actually has said that he sold the BE conference and that was his main selling point. I'm actually amazed KO is recruiting into the AAC as well as he has so far, but make no mistake we have to achieve in the tourney and OOC to keep it going in this conference.

 

[Scot-e]

I honestly thought it would be a worse league than it is but I am disgusted by the fact the Tulane and whoever the hell is is joining next year.

Unfortunately beggars can't be choosers and I think we all know where we fall.

At least Tulane means we can go to New Orleans for games that we win by 40. Love that city.

 

[Husky25]

He absolutely did say that he used the Conference...just before he said he used the NBA. After Calhoun proved that UConn was on the same level as Gtown, Syracuse, and St. Johns on the court, he needed a different hook. In steps the NBA. Also I did not say Napier was a high first rounder. It wasn't even implied this time. I said drafted. Tate George was drafted in the middle of the first.

 

[NickyNewark]

Born in March 1954.

Were about the same age.....Nov 51. Boy were they beautiful,simpler times. I don't feel anywhere near 62(I wish my body didn't)ha ha!

 

[NickyNewark]

I got a tie that old. Fortunately ties are forbidden in AZ ,bolos excepted.

If you listen to guys like JC or even PJ ( Seaton Hall was very good by the late. 80's.)
Their best recruiting tool was playing against schools like Georgetown.
Memphis, Cinn, and UConn,have to play that Georgetown role.
What we accomplish in the tourney will help recruiting in the rest of the league.

If one of those schools makes a run it helps recruiting through-out the league.
Women's is no exception. Schools in the AAC can go after a higher caliber of player simply by saying you will be playing against the best. In WBB especially a dozen recruits who wouldn't have come increase the quality of the league exponentially.

Remember SH's C Luther Wright? What an imposing kid he was.

 

[NickyNewark]

All due respect, Nicky (and I mean that. After thinking you were a troll, I've really come around on you), I stopped reading after this. How young do you think Geno is? Don't let his Grecian formula fool you, he turns 60 in less than a month. He is absolutely in rarified air, but he is rounding Amen Corner. Who come in behind him? Who replaces Chris Dailey? As recruiting coordinator, she is just as instrumental in the Women's success as Geno.

Ollie is about to put Napier in the NBA, with potentially Boatright, Daniels, and Brimah to follow and has good/great recruiting classes (by the rankings) coming up in for the 2014/15 and 15/16 seasons.

When it comes to rating a conference like the AAC, fans cannot miss the forest for the trees like what is going on above. Individual teams, as they currently are playing, mean exactly zero. What matters is the quality of the programs that make up the league. Temple is down, but they are a good program. Memphis has had some recent success and Pastner seems like he has them on an upward trajectory. SMU will be good for as long as Brown is there. Cinci is quality, and UConn at this point is the Crème de la Crème in terms of the overall program.

For a comparison, look at the Big 12. Only 2 teams are shoe-ins for the Tournament. The AAC has four by my count.

Reading you're post with a fresh mind this morning I see the point and when I think of it you're spot on....the program's can make the conference esp in hoop's(better than most) but the downside is due to the instability(CR) can people wait for it to brand itself before say a UConn moves on? Not many conferences are deeper with even the bottom filled w/potential. I've always had a ton of respect for a school like Temple but what bad fortune they've had after moving back up to the BE from the MAC only to see it disintegrate and everytime they find a good FB coach(Golden,Adazzio) they move on. Thats another school I wish the best for ! I don't understand these guys who take good cheer in others misfortune !?!

 

[CTBasketball]

This year it is a very good conference. Next year, it will be an average conference. Louisville's departure is huge and cannot be underestimated. Without Louisville, we get 2-3 less Top 25 games a year. So does Memphis and Temple and Cincinnati. Hurts everything about rankings, scheduling, and people's perception of the league. And we're replacing them with Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa.

As much as I want to believe it'll be a good conference and we'll be fine, I can't.

 

[60'sfan]

This year it is a very good conference. Next year, it will be an average conference. Louisville's departure is huge and cannot be underestimated. Without Louisville, we get 2-3 less Top 25 games a year. So does Memphis and Temple and Cincinnati. Hurts everything about rankings, scheduling, and people's perception of the league. And we're replacing them with Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa.

As much as I want to believe it'll be a good conference and we'll be fine, I can't.

I think we have to be patient. Years ago Uconn was a weak team in almost all sports. We couldn't even compete with the top schools in New England. In basketball, we were dominated by Holy Cross and Providence. In fact Providence usually wouldn't play us. In football, it was years before we were able to beat Yale.

The key is the coaches and almost nothing else. We are blessed to have Kevin Ollie and Geno and I am optimistic about the new football coach. If the other teams decide they are going to hire good coaches (SMU already did), they will get better and so will the conference. It is not going to happen overnight, however. Currently the conference is ranked 8th (according to the Sagarin poll) but we will most likely drop one or two places next year when Louisville leaves. Remember, it is a marathon and not a sprint.

 

[ctchamps]

This season the AAC was far better than anyone projected.

Next year the conference should be significantly worse than this season with the loss of Louisville. UConn, Memphis and Cinci lose multiple players that play significant roles for their respective teams. They should have down years. There should be an improvement with SMU, Houston and Temple. "The sky is falling" people will have their moment next year.

It's hard to project further than that. Relative to the old BE this conference is pathetic. But so was/is every other conference. The BE was special. Maybe the ACC pimped their way into a comparable conference. Time will tell. From a relative standpoint (compared to the old BE) UConn and its basketball fans have taken a significant hit.

All of us know it. Some of us will cry about it year in and year out. Others of us will move on and make the best of the hand being dealt. UConn can still be relevant on the national scene with this conference. DePaul and Rutgers had limited success in the best bb conference of all time. Kentucky has a history of success in one of the worst bb conferences. I root for UConn not the conference. The BE was about bragging rights, some icing to a cake. But UConn was successful on it's own merit. It got some help by being associated with that conference. But people are kidding themselves if they think the major reason for UConn's success was the BE. My feeling is JC was the major reason for UConn's success and he would have accomplished this in most of the other conferences as well.

 

[Tenspro2002]

I don't think PP determined our conference fate. The AD and President play a much larger role. It was just bad timing hiring 2 incompetent faces of the University during this time. Jurich had a vision and could articulate it, Warde can't and didn't. People give him credit for Ollie, maybe, not sure that was some huge coup.

Most of these failures fall on the old regime. Insofar as conference realignment is predicated on football success and marketing, this is principally a failure of Hathaway's for (1) hiring a boring, retread coach to try to consolidate our meager headway in the national football landscape, rather than making a bold hire that proclaimed we wanted to be bigger, and (2) failing to market UConn as NYC's and/or New England's college team. UConn is the dominant sports entity in something like the 30th largest (not to mention among the wealthiest) TV market in the country. However, most of the country perceives UConn territory as sleepy suburbia/cow-country, rather than one of the most fertile regions for attracting television viewers and dollars.

The groundwork for these debacles was laid well before Herbst and Manuel got here.

 

[UofMemphis]

This year it is a very good conference. Next year, it will be an average conference. Louisville's departure is huge and cannot be underestimated. Without Louisville, we get 2-3 less Top 25 games a year. So does Memphis and Temple and Cincinnati. Hurts everything about rankings, scheduling, and people's perception of the league. And we're replacing them with Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa.

As much as I want to believe it'll be a good conference and we'll be fine, I can't.

It doesn't seem like you want to believe at all...I want to add schools like WSU and VCU to the basketball side but everyone's scared ****less of being a hybrid.

 

[metsfan2323]

I've always had a ton of respect for a school like Temple but what bad fortune they've had after moving back up to the BE from the MAC only to see it disintegrate and everytime they find a good FB coach(Golden,Adazzio) they move on. Thats another school I wish the best for ! I don't understand these guys who take good cheer in others misfortune !?!

No, to date the conference has had very bad luck with Temple not the other way around.

Their basketball team has been good for years then they finally get upgraded and they deliver a crap team. Thanks Temple! The next good thing Temple does for this conference will be the first good thing, ever. To date they have been dead weight.

 

[NickyNewark]

It doesn't seem like you want to believe at all...I want to add schools like WSU and VCU to the basketball side but everyone's scared *less of being a hybrid.

I'm pretty sure everybody wants to believe it but after what happened to the BE and in turn a big state school like UConn can you blame them? Poor Temple fans after just getting called up from the MAC only to find the BE disintegrate in front of them are probably just as wary of another hybrid? Everyones waiting for the next CR move IMO !?!

 

[Huskygrad88]

Most of these failures fall on the old regime. Insofar as conference realignment is predicated on football success and marketing, this is principally a failure of Hathaway's for (1) hiring a boring, retread coach to try to consolidate our meager headway in the national football landscape, rather than making a bold hire that proclaimed we wanted to be bigger, and (2) failing to market UConn as NYC's and/or New England's college team. UConn is the dominant sports entity in something like the 30th largest (not to mention among the wealthiest) TV market in the country. However, most of the country perceives UConn territory as sleepy suburbia/cow-country, rather than one of the most fertile regions for attracting television viewers and dollars.

The groundwork for these debacles was laid well before Herbst and Manuel got here.

I know this is not the CR board! but thanks Tenspro for at least responding to the complete and utter nonsense that continues in every thread that this is Warde's fault. The book on WM is still completely unwritten. He had been on the job for 9 months at the time. Jurich - 15 YEARS! Our football program was backsliding because of a poorly conceived coaching hire by an AD who was over his head, wanted to stay in good with the NCAA (yes some blame falls to Calhoun and the NCAA problems), and could not figure out how to hire a coach that could win and not make the NCAA more angry.
To blame WM for this is similar to being a employee at a company where the management failed and gets replaced. The new manager has a setback early in his career and all of the problems the company built up over the years suddenly become the new guy's fault. Not fair; not accurate.
CanWM turn out to be a great AD? Absolutely. Is it too early to tell. Absolutely. Is it realistic to think he could have moved the needle fast enough to stop the CR train. Absolutely not.

 

[ctchamps]

It doesn't seem like you want to believe at all...I want to add schools like WSU and VCU to the basketball side but everyone's scared *less of being a hybrid.

The hybrid BE conference probably was the single greatest reason for the disintegration of the BE conference. The two groups had needs that were too dissimilar.

 

[MattMang23]

This conference is so much fun...Louisville, Cincy, UConn, Memphis and SMU all NCAA locks at this point...the Fightin' Larry Brown's are a very good basketball team.

With all the hemming and hawing, this has become a most impressive conference.

It is a good conference for Memphis. It is not a good conference for UConn.

 

[MattMang23]

Coming from CUSA, 5 teams out of 10 are NCAA locks...the other 5 are quality teams like Temple and Rutgers...not one member has an RPI over 200.

Perspective.

Rutgers is a quality team!?!? Compared to who? Don't talk to us about Rutgers. We've played in a league with them for 25+ years and not one year of those 25+ were they even decent.

Leave this board.

 

[UofMemphis]

Rutgers is a quality team!?!? Compared to who? Don't talk to us about Rutgers. We've played in a league with them for 25+ years and not one year of those 25+ were they even decent.

Leave this board.

No.