The Athletic: KO Article | Page 3 | The Boneyard

The Athletic: KO Article

Status
Not open for further replies.
superjohn said:
Exactly. I still think we can get someone very good. The longer we mess around it will no longer be the case.
Expand ...

I agree. People on here act like there are no good coaches out there from smaller programs. Or that we have no shot at landing a good coach.

Which is ironic because the same people labeling others as “haters” for being realistic about ko’s performance are the ones who apparently think our program is so unappealing that we have no shot to land a decent coach. It’s pretty ridiculous.

We still can land a good coach. But the longer we wait the less appealing we become.
 
8893 said:
He's talking about the geography much more than the prestige of the program. I think someone else made the point that we're not necessarily losing recruits to these other AAC schools, because we generally haven't been competing for the same players; but I think it's just a matter of "fit," no matter how you define it. My logical mind still says the AAC is a better place for us right now, and agree with you that we fit best with a P5 conference like the Big Ten and that that should remain the long term goal. I think the question is becoming how long is that long term, and whether we will be so irreparably damaged in the meantime that we might as well give up that pipe dream and salvage at least our basketball legacy by trying to get into the NBE, apparently for fan nostalgia and fannies in the seats if little else.

All of which is to basically confirm what the article says and what we all know: we're stuck.
Expand ...

Yes, stuck I am on board with. What I reject is that success in this league is somehow impossible or out of reach. That's hogwash. With WSU and some other programs improving, it is not a bad league at all. The biggest problem the American has is that UConn isn't what it should be. We are letting it down much more than the other way around.

So long before we explore moving to a league without football, we need to explore any other changes around the hoops program that need to be made. You know what that is. And yet, I don't think we're quite there yet either.
 
Guapo said:
Let me ask you all this:

If you're rebuilding this program (which we have to do), which is a better foundation upon which to build?

Middling Big East team?

Or

Middling AAC team?
Expand ...

Does that athletics department "program" play D1 football? Does it play baseball? If so, clearly the AAC.
 
Guapo said:
Let me ask you all this:

If you're rebuilding this program (which we have to do), which is a better foundation upon which to build?

Middling Big East team?

Or

Middling AAC team?
Expand ...

Depends on what your goal is. Everybody has different goals it seems. High Risk/high reward, low risk/low upside.

1. If your focus is for UCONN to belong with like minded schools athletically/academically and to have the strongest athletic department possible, then you wait it out in the AAC. This might end up killing the BBall program. This is the high risk, high upside option.

2. If your main focus is to get the basketball program off life support, then you put the BB programs in NBE. I don't think the AAC would keep the football program, because, why bother? And football would die as an independent. So you are killing football, and lumping UCONN as a research institution into a group of independent Catholics. Low risk for the basketball team/ low reward for the school.

It's really that simple, irrespective of coaching.
 
.-.
Honestly, how much longer is the "UConn Brand" going to be enough to bring recruits here? Can we get away with it if everything remains the same for the next 5 years?
 
Paesano said:
Nice mental gymnastics. If a team, from a better conference, does better than UConn, it is because they are in a better conference. If a team, from a worse conference, does better it is because they are in a worse conference. Brilliant!!!

So did Gonzaga's weak conference get them all the way to the national championship game last year or was that coaching?
Expand ...
17 years to get there.

Mark few had the most wins of any coach in tournament history without a FF berth. Could you imagine our fan base under those conditions?

Holy lolz.
 
UConnJim said:
I reject the premise. The problem is that our men's basketball and football teams are underperforming and are both are cyclical lows. No matter what conference you are in, you need to have coaches that win. Winning begets more winning. It's that simple. If you look at the "G5", they have averaged ~ 3 teams in the AP Top 25 football and 5 teams in the AP Top 25 basketball polls over the past 4 years. If other schools are doing it, UConn should be able to as UConn is spending at the top of the G5.

I would agree that attendance is negatively impacted by the teams we are playing, but nobody is preventing the UConn home basketball schedule to be filled with old Big East rivals and attractive match ups instead of this year's Colgate, Stony Brook, BU, Columbia, Monmouth, and Coppin St.

The only way UConn is going to get a chance to move up during the next round of conference shakeups (and it will happen again) is to stay in the AAC and win at football.
Expand ...

Bravo!
 
August_West said:
17 years to get there.

Mark few had the most wins of any coach in tournament history without a FF berth. Could you imagine our fan base under those conditions?

Holy lolz.
Expand ...
It took Calhoun 12 or 13. We were considered a blue blood by many, nowadays just making the tournament seems like an insurmountable task.
 
superjohn said:
It took Calhoun 12 or 13. We were considered a blue blood by many, nowadays just making the tournament seems like an insurmountable task.
Expand ...

Yeah. And people were on Calhoun big time before 99. " Might not have what it takes to win a title"
 
.-.
intlzncster said:
Depends on what your goal is. Everybody has different goals it seems. High Risk/high reward, low risk/low upside.

1. If your focus is for UCONN to belong with like minded schools athletically/academically and to have the strongest athletic department possible, then you wait it out in the AAC. This might end up killing the BBall program. This is the high risk, high upside option.

2. If your main focus is to get the basketball program off life support, then you put the BB programs in NBE. I don't think the AAC would keep the football program, because, why bother? And football would die as an independent. So you are killing football, and lumping UCONN as a research institution into a group of independent Catholics. Low risk for the basketball team/ low reward for the school.

It's really that simple, irrespective of coaching.
Expand ...

That's a good post

I'd say like minded schools include schools like Georgetown and Villanova.

What say you?
 
Penfield said:
I'm not going to pay to read the article but some thoughts.

We are not landing GREAT recruits but we are having some success. I think the biggest issue is recruiting big men that are either ready to play, or getting an assistant that actually knows wth he is doing. Issue number two is having to cobble things together after de-commits and transfers. We will have to keep bringing in lower tier players as long as kids continue to bail on us. Would moving to the Big East solve this problem? Maybe recruiting would improve a bit. I'm not sure.

If we went to the Big East tomorrow we would still be a bad basketball team. Coaching needs to improve regardless of which conference we are in. Whether that means Ollie getting his shiz together or bringing in someone else- That is a question for the end of the season IMO.

I think people need to ask themselves if the Conference is really the reason we are not playing good basketball. I think the answer is no. If we had taken advantage of winning in 2014, landed some great recruits and continued to win I don't think we would be having this conversation. People would be more content waiting out the process if we dominated this league the way we all expected we would. Would we be happier in the Big East, maybe? But we wouldn't be content. We would still be hoping for a spot in the ACC or Big 10.

I think Big East would improve attendance, but it's only a band aid. People don't want to pay to watch bad basketball. That isn't going to change if we are playing Georgetown every year, and its certainly not going to change if we are playing DePaul & St. Johns every year.

The American conference is improving in basketball. It is a slow process though. The question is if people will ever really care.

I still think UConn deserves a spot in a P5 conference. Unless we are able to work out a deal that allows football to play in the American, moving our basketball teams to the Big East is likely the end of that dream. It is not an easy decision to make and it shouldn't be made on a whim.

TL;DR - Move BBall to the Big East if we can leave football in the American, but our problems won't be solved if the team still sucks.
Expand ...
The question is will we recruit better out of the NBE? Not so sure. We could be middle of pack there too. Players=Success. Ain’t complicated.
 
August_West said:
17 years to get there.

Mark few had the most wins of any coach in tournament history without a FF berth. Could you imagine our fan base under those conditions?

Holy lolz.
Expand ...
Nice try but we aren't Gonzaga when Few got there and we are in a better conference. Take Few, circa 11 years ago, and put him in charge of this program, today, and it doesn't take him 11 years to get to the final four. Not even close. Take Few 17 years ago and give him the program Calhoun handed Ollie and we would look a lot better right now. But you guys keep fighting the good fight. Your arguments are flawed but, hey, you are able to inject noise into the discussion so maybe you can convince a few people that it will just take Ollie another 11 years and we will be back in the final four. Gotta give you, stain and danny credit for being persistent.
 
Paesano said:
Nice try but we aren't Gonzaga when Few got there and we are in a better conference. Take Few, circa 11 years ago, and put him in charge of this program, today, and it doesn't take him 11 years to get to the final four. Not even close. Take Few 17 years ago and give him the program Calhoun handed Ollie and we would look a lot better right now. But you guys keep fighting the good fight. Your arguments are flawed but, hey, you are able to inject noise into the discussion so maybe you can convince a few people that it will just take Ollie another 11 years and we will be back in the final four. Gotta give you, stain and danny credit for being persistent.
Expand ...

You would never stand for fews recruiting classes.
.and few took over the year after monson had them in elite 8
 
.-.
Call me naive but I don't think our struggles are due to realignment as much as everyone else. If we were in NBE or P5 conference, the only difference I think you'd see is a spike in revenue and attendance due to marquee opponents. Six years in with Ollie and the product on the floor is what it is. I have no reason to believe the product on the floor would look any better in a better conference.
 
Paesano said:
You are right. But the UConn women won championships from both a bad and a good conference. The key is coaching. Everything else is an excuse and noise.
Expand ...

True. Geno is a transcendent college BB coach, men's or women's. Few is a great college BB coach, but he has benefited from being in a garbage conference for his entire career. That's not to say he hasn't had lots of success against Top 25 competition outside of his garbage conference, but he still hasn't won the big prize.
 
Paesano said:
You are right. But the UConn women won championships from both a bad and a good conference. The key is coaching. Everything else is an excuse and noise.
Expand ...

Paesano completely stupid comparison please say you didn't compare Geno and the womens game, conference, recruiting and winning to the mens? I mean he's BY FAR the best coach in the womens game and #2 isn't even on the radar. He could play in America East and do the same damn thing. Try to keep your negativity at least apples-to-apples.
 
superjohn said:
It took Calhoun 12 or 13. We were considered a blue blood by many, nowadays just making the tournament seems like an insurmountable task.
Expand ...
To be clear; are you claiming that we were considered a blue blood prior to 1999?
 
.-.
mauconnfan said:
Paesano completely stupid comparison please say you didn't compare Geno and the womens game, conference, recruiting and winning to the mens? I mean he's BY FAR the best coach in the womens game and #2 isn't even on the radar. He could play in America East and do the same damn thing. Try to keep your negativity at least apples-to-apples.
Expand ...
I didn't bring the women's team into the discussion. And you made the same point I did. A great coach can win from any conference.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Dude, we swept UCF last year with half a roster. That argument is nonsense. We won a national championship 3 years ago. Houston never has and hasn't been to final four since before these kids were born. UCF has, quite literally, never done anything at all in the sport of basketball, except suck at it. We went to the tournament two years ago. Houston and UCF didn't. UConn still has a better name and more allure than any other school in the league, and it isn't close. There are other things that are to blame here, things that would not be fixed by being in the Big East.
Expand ...

Gee, athletic dept. insiders are blaming the AAC for our recruiting woes? What a surprise! In other words, folks who may likely be apologists for our recent recruiting losses and struggles want to blame the conference instead of Ollie?

How convenient, and also how irrelevant. If traditional football schools like SMU, Houston and UCF have been able to figure out a way to upgrade their BB programs and recruiting SINCE joining the AAC, then it can be done. Our pedigree and facilities as compared with other AAC schools are second to none. A bunch of naysayers in the UCONN athletic dept. whining and crying about how they can't get it done is a complete joke. Get out there and do the work. Quit whining about why you can't.
 
Paesano said:
I didn't bring the women's team into the discussion. And you made the same point I did. A great coach can win from any conference.
Expand ...

A great coach in mens isn't the same with a great coach in the womens - try to stay with me on that.
 
Guapo said:
I agree with you. This isn't about sports.

But I'd argue that a protracted stay in the AAC would do more damage to our academic brand than joining the Big East would.
Expand ...

First, who cares about academics anymore? Second, thinking that the NBE is somehow academically superior to the AAC is mostly hogwash anyway. Ignoring for a moment the commuter schools, and even the NBE has at least one of those (St. John's), The AAC has at least three or more schools that are academically superior to ANY schools in the NBE. Tulane, SMU, Tulsa and UCONN are all outstanding academically. Tulane is among the best academic schools in the country. The NBE has Georgetown, Villanova, Providence, and then who? The rest of the schools in that conference are not academic juggernauts. This whole thing is about $$$ and lots of it. Academics got left behind some time ago. Heck, even the NCAA won't sanction schools for offering fake classes, and we're talking about a public university which I believe ranked in the top 10 nationally or close to it in the USN&WR rankings. Nobody gives a damn about academics anymore, even if they claim they do. If it mattered, we'd be sitting in the ACC right now, not Hookers & Blow U.
 
.-.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Forum statistics

Threads
168,327
Messages
4,564,284
Members
10,464
Latest member
Rollskies27


Top Bottom