The Athletic: KO Article

[intlzncster]

That's a good post

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

What say you?

To a degree. They both value education highly, obviously, but the difference in resources is just too great to make them peers. I'm not saying who's a 'better' school. Just that UCONN's focus is, and should be, grander than the smaller private institutions.

 

[superjohn]

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.

I could also care less about academics but who are the three or more AAC schools who are academically superior to Georgetown?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

No, we were blue blood status to many when Calhoun turned the program over.

Yes, that is true.

I did quite a bit of business travelling during the 1990's and it was amazing how many outside of the northeast believed (in large part due to Majerus, who enjoyed knocking us) we were an overrated program (until we did win it all).

 

[DAC17]

So...if we were winning, people wouldn't be complaining about the fact that program isn't winning?

Agreed.

Now is the time to stay the course and hope, against all reason, that will get a P5 invite. If nothing happens after the end of the current TV deals for the B1G, the ACC and the Big 12, we are done and will have to adapt our program expenditures to that reality.

Until then stay the course. Oh and enjoy what we have now, because things will get worse before the stabilize.

As I understand it, the TV deal comes to pass in 2021. Do most people think we can continue to run big losses in the sports programs, given the disastrous state budget deficit, until 2022??

 

[Scrutineer]

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.

Please think twice about including Providence in any list of fine academic institutions. They are like a commuter school and always have been.

 

[Waquoit]

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?

I don't have to. I lived it. Before '99, UConn held the record for most NCAA appearances without a FF. And I don't know how many wins Few had before his FF, was it more than JC before '99?

 

[Hoophound]

PC is/was a good school. Most people over 3o would consider PC a tier below BC, but still a very good school.

The AAC has good schools with the exception of ECU, Houston and Memphis. SMU, UConn, Tulane, Tulsa and Navy are top notch. USF, UCF, Cincy and Temple are considered pretty good these days. In fact, UCF and USF are way harder to get into these days than most notherners probably think. With the growth in Florida, state schools have become very competitive.

 

[superjohn]

Please think twice about including Providence in any list of fine academic institutions. They are like a commuter school and always have been.

PC is a pretty good school, not amazing but it's certainly not a commuter school.

 

[Paesano]

I don't have to. I lived it. Before '99, UConn held the record for most NCAA appearances without a FF. And I don't know how many wins Few had before his FF, was it more than JC before '99?

You recall correctly. Yes, many of us wondered if we would ever get to the final four. But here is the thing, we were always only a year away, it seemed. Calhoun screwed up at times and we did have the occasional bad season but he always bounced back and it never felt like an out of control downward spiral. Calhoun may have been criticized and doubted but he never completely lost the majority of the fans. People still went to games in droves because, even at our worst, our most pessimistic fans had hope. And the teams were still fun to watch. We bounced back from bad games just like we bounced back from bad years. It never got this dark.

 

[Javjudah]

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.

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.

what do you think happens when Geno leaves?

 

[Scrutineer]

Everyone should go to the US News and World Report rankings and compare the schools.

UConn is #18 of all National Public Universities, tied with Purdue, UT Austin and Washington.

Out of all National Universities (public and private), Tulane is the highest ranking in the AAC at #40. UConn is #56 and for those comparing our pals at BC, they're in at #32. SMU is one of several at #61, tied with Syracuse, and the next AAC school is Tulsa at #87 .

Providence is rated #1 of Northern Regional Universities, with some others in the top ten including the College of New Jersey, Emerson, the University of Scranton and Marist. That's a whole different league and level compared to UConn and the National Universities.

Maybe someone can point out a ranking system that compares all colleges and universities.

 

[UConnNick]

what do you think happens when Geno leaves?

That's a good question. The UCONN brand has become so iconic in women's BB that it will probably survive with the right coach in place, but it's going to be a virtually impossible task for his successor to duplicate Geno's record. I'd therefore expect some fall off, which will be even greater if we're non-P5 for good and the P5 schools ultimately decide to form their own separate athletic governing body, or carve out their own association within the structure of the existing NCAA.

 

[UConnNick]

I could also care less about academics but who are the three or more AAC schools who are academically superior to Georgetown?

If you want to rate Georgetown academically superior to the top level academic schools in the AAC that's fine, but grads of Tulane, SMU, UCONN, Tulsa and Navy certainly don't have to go to the back of a long line with Georgetown grads at the front of that line at job interviews. They'd all be behind the Ivy League grads and maybe roughly on a par with Patriot League grads. The point is the AAC, except perhaps at the mid and lower tier academic school levels, isn't all that much worse than the NBE, which has it's own fair share of large, urban schools with at least high numbers of commuter students, if not predominantly commuters. Schools like DePaul, Creighton, Butler and Marquette have their fair shares of commuter students like some of the AAC schools do, and St. John's is almost nothing but commuters.

My point is that the NBE being seen as some vastly superior collection of academic schools over the AAC is nonsense.

 

[UConnNick]

Please think twice about including Providence in any list of fine academic institutions. They are like a commuter school and always have been.

Academically, Providence would certainly rate below the upper echelon of AAC schools (Tulane, SMU, UCONN, Tulsa and Navy), but it's superior to most of the rest of the AAC, and it doesn't deserve the commuter school tag.

 

[UConnNick]

You recall correctly. Yes, many of us wondered if we would ever get to the final four. But here is the thing, we were always only a year away, it seemed. Calhoun screwed up at times and we did have the occasional bad season but he always bounced back and it never felt like an out of control downward spiral. Calhoun may have been criticized and doubted but he never completely lost the majority of the fans. People still went to games in droves because, even at our worst, our most pessimistic fans had hope. And the teams were still fun to watch. We bounced back from bad games just like we bounced back from bad years. It never got this dark.

Yes, but Calhoun did enjoy one big advantage. He wasn't in the Conference of Misfit Toys, which basically consists of southern football schools.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

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.

SMU, Houston and UCF are in a better athletic conference than before, we are in a worse. Thats a two level difference thats been joined to make the AAC. Their level of recruiting should be better than the past.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

what do you think happens when Geno leaves?

No one will need to schedule UConn OOC. See ODU LaTech. Mid-Major conference that will not continue to help fund a P5 AD. At some point the students/parents will get really po'd at the level of student funding.

 

[UConnNick]

SMU, Houston and UCF are in a better athletic conference than before, we are in a worse. Thats a two level difference thats been joined to make the AAC. Their level of recruiting should be better than the past.

Historically, more like ancient history, UH and SMU had great BB programs in the SWC. Since then both programs suffered in lesser conferences, however, the AAC is essentially the old C-USA plus UCONN and Temple. It's no major upgrade for BB over the old C-USA. They're still having to recruit to a mid major league just like they were in C-USA.

 

[Huskybass]

That's a good question. The UCONN brand has become so iconic in women's BB that it will probably survive with the right coach in place, but it's going to be a virtually impossible task for his successor to duplicate Geno's record. I'd therefore expect some fall off, which will be even greater if we're non-P5 for good and the P5 schools ultimately decide to form their own separate athletic governing body, or carve out their own association within the structure of the existing NCAA.

I would guess that one of the assistant coaches becomes head coach when Geno decides to retire. Chris Dailey will be the logical successor and she has been with Geno for so long that it might not be a massive drop off in success.

 

[8893]

I would guess that one of the assistant coaches becomes head coach when Geno decides to retire. Chris Daly will be the logical successor and she has been with Geno for so long that it might not be a massive drop off in success.

I know very little about the women’s team but isn’t she about as old as he is, and been there almost as long too? I’d guess she leaves when he does but that’s nothing more than a guess.

I would think Jen Rizzotti would be high on the list.

 

[Huskybass]

I know very little about the women’s team but isn’t she about as old as he is, and been there almost as long too? I’d guess she leaves when he does but that’s nothing more than a guess.

I would think Jen Rizzotti would be high on the list.

I think Chris Dailey is about 57 Years old. Geno is 63. My guess is that she coaches the team for a handful of years before handing it off to a younger assistant. I am by no means an expert on UConn basketball, just speculating that CD is the logical choice.

 

[8893]

I think Chris Dailey is about 57 Years old. Geno is 63. My guess is that she coaches the team for a handful of years before handing it off to a younger assistant. I am by no means an expert on UConn basketball, just speculating that CD is the logical choice.

I’d be surprised if she wanted it.

 

[Paesano]

Yes, but Calhoun did enjoy one big advantage. He wasn't in the Conference of Misfit Toys, which basically consists of southern football schools.

I don't dispute that. I was just trying to point out that the fan base has and will be patient and support a coach that is putting a competitive team on the floor. They don't need to win championships or even get to the final four every four or five years.

 

[auggie22]

I could also care less about academics but who are the three or more AAC schools who are academically superior to Georgetown?

Or Villanova, for that matter.

 

[August_West]

I was just trying to point out that the fan base has and will be patient

 

[shizzle787]

Moving to the NBE would be a godsend for the basketball program. You can say this and that about the AAC and the teams, and the rankings blah blah. You''re not wrong, but perception is everything. NBE > AAC in recruits eyes.

Like I've said before: in the five years of the American, it has NEVER been ranked higher than 7th in conference RPI. The New Big East has been ranked between 2nd and 4th every year. It is unequivacolly a better conference in RPI and recruiting, in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee, the media, and pollsters. The reason we are even thinking about the moving back to the NBE is because it is miles better than the American.

 

[Paesano]

Oh, auggie. Nice job at not including the rest of that statement. Let me clue you in. KO is done. As soon as the university can financially afford it, they are dumping him. In the mean time, he is in a flat spin he won't recover from so nothing is going to change their minds.

You had better hope we can attract a better coach and, for now, your time is probably better spent crafting your, "I told you so" post for the first time the next coach struggles.

 

[shizzle787]

Villanova is just Xavier with a slightly better coach. In a few years they will fall again. It’s still surrendering the dream that UConn can be considered a major public university alongside our peers. Joining up with small, private schools does great damage to our reputation in other ways.

This isn’t just about sports. This is about UConn looking at Michigan, Virginia, UNC, Penn State and Wisconsin and saying “We are with you. We are like you”. No other New England public can do that. We have a chance and we have to see it through. That’s what the move to D1 football was all about.

Wrong. The move to D1-A football was about protecting our basketball program. 1-A football is now currently HURTING our basketball program.

 

[shizzle787]

Again. My point is that I laugh when people wish us to be Gonzaga. It's stupid.

To be Gonzaga in the regular season, UConn in the tourney.

 

[August_West]

To be Gonzaga in the regular season, UConn in the tourney.

Cool . 350 schools would sign up for that including Kentucky and Duke.

Classic shizzle