The End.

[CTBasketball]

So I created this thread about two months ago and everyone said I was a crazy lunatic who has mental issues. So it seems like now is a better time to bring it up.


Obviously the problem is Warde Manuel and Susan Herbst. Unless you live on cloud 9, have you heard any news of UConn pushing to join a conference? It's always been, "Well if they call us we'll consider. But we're going to wait for them to call." Ever since Herbst and Manuel arrived the program and the Big East has been steeply declining. To me Herbst and Manuel do not care about the athletics-side of the school. If they have they would have been knocking down doors in an effort to get an invite to the ACC or Big10. And it's not Danel Malloy's fault (as much as I dislike him), because he was the one actually pushing for BC and UConn to reunite in a conference and become rivals again.

I mean look at the baggage that the athletics program has acquired over the recent years.

• Jasper Howard gets murdered
• APR troubles/NCAA tournment ban
• Nate Miles issue

Clearly this is giving the school a bad reputation, no matter how good the academics or actual school is. Ollie would be on a long-term deal by now if it wasn't for Manuel. He is single-handily destroying recruiting for the basketball team. Sure, we won't have a good 2013 class I get that. But to be honest, the current team right now will probably not make the tournament next year either. We have no frontcourt and that will kill us for the upcoming years. Manuel pretty much shafted us for 2-3 years, and these years are crucial due to the current circumstances of conference realignment and TV deals.

Now the ACC said they were looking most at market size and academic standing and market size. But they more strongly considered athletic tradition and football success.

• Market Size: The Hartford/New Haven TV market is ranked 30th in the country (per Hartford Courant). Louisville is 48th.
• Academic Standing: UConn is ranked the 65th best university, while Louisville is ranked 160th. UConn is a top 20 public school in the US.
• Athletic Tradition: Of course we are loaded here. Numerous women's basketball titles, 3 men's basketball titles, a former HoF coach, tons of NBA players, a dominant soccer team, competitive baseball team, etc. What's missing?
• Football success: Here's where we bite the bullet. We've had decent success. Fiesta Bowl, Big East Championship (2008, 2010). Now here comes Pauly P the dinosaur, he takes a BCS bowl team and turns them into an absolute show. We went from a nearly packed-Rent every home game to a half-full non-existent crowd. It's evident that the football program is on the demise.

Now I know Manuel/Herbst had nothing to do with PP's hire. But it doesn't matter. He should have been fired earlier this season when things, once again, turned to crap. Having a coach who fought in WWI is such a turn-off to a conference. Football makes all the money, it is what is driving conference realignment. If you don't have a good football program, then you are left out in the cold. That's the distinction between Louisville and Connecticut.

So before you all flame me and hate on me and my opinions, you should think about who we have at the helm here. We have one Duke alum, an arguable rival from the days of Christian Laettner. And we have a Michigan alum who did nothing but change the U of Buffalo's logo during his tenure at Buffalo (among other minor things). I don't trust these two. I think the only good out of this is Manuel's connection to the Big10, but that's a longshot. The future looks grim. We've probably witnessed the last basketball title in 2011. Unless we get a miracle offer from the Big10, or FSU/VaTech/Clemson leave the ACC and we get an invite, I don't see us being relevant for the upcoming future. I don't think Manuel and Herbst are doing a good job when trying to sell the school. Clear as that. And if we are getting left behind on all this, they need to get left behind as well.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

It really is a wonder why we hired the only athletic director in the country who "doesn't care about the athletics-side of the school." We probably should have made that more clear on the job posting huh?

 

[ctchamps]

You're still a crazy lunatic. But I like you!

 

[DOZE860]

Im not gonna put this totally on Herbst and Manuel..Ever since Lew Perkins left the athletic department, UCONN has not had a person with a vision to put UCONN in a position to be safe and have a spot at the table. Jeff Hathaway did not have a pulse on the landscape of college athletics..he was happy with the status quo, and did not really put UCONN in position to grow to its potential. And lets be honest, good ol JC didnt exactly do us any favors with our APR scores, i mean at least the Louisville will be able to play in the NCAA and big East tourney..with that being said, Herbst and Manuel have only be reactionary, to the situation.. We kno that she is not gonna be able to boost the endowment to over a billion in 3 years. and Manuel is just took a job, were hall of fame coach, and only relevant name tide to uconn sports, want to appoint "his guy", i can see he is in a bind, HOWEVER Manuel and the athletic department need to be more creative about selling the UCONN program to CT as a whole. For example, the university cancels spring weekend, tell the kids to go home for that weekend...u know what happened the same weekend... the spring game.. Now someone thinking outside of the box would realize that the kids at UCONN have nothing to do this weekend since we shut down all of the other events, we want football to be more relevant...why dont you make the spring game the only UCONN sponsored event of the weekend..have a party in the Rent parking lot, and oh by the way, go in to the spring game....That's the kind of thinking that this university needs. It doesnt have to be some contrive, lets sing the fight song at the end of the game kinda thing to build a tradition. So while im not going to put it all on them, the problem has been there for longer than they have been here, i certainly waiting to see some out side of the box thinking from the both of them.

 

[dante]

Reason why Rutgers and Louisville got picked over us because they committed to football, Rutgers expanded their football stadium to 50k plus even though it cost them to drop some olympics but 4-5 years from now Big Ten is going be paying them 40 million a year while UConn in the BE will be lucky sniff the 6 million they been getting. Same thing with Louisville they expanded their stadium to 50k plus and upgraded their facilities, Cincinnati also has been upgrading their facilities they have more things going on to better themselves then UConn.. these are two mid major programs that are kicking our chops.

While I was a some what supporter of Ward I think this guy is just clueless, there was no reason for him being in the virgin islands he should of been in his office on the phone preaching to the ACC.

 

[Husky Dad]

Warde has no pull with anyone. Why would it matter where he was. Herbst is also just not important in the world. It is above their heads who is ultimately responsible and the style by which we operate.

 

[amory]

I don't really know what they could've done different. I mean doesn't it seem pretty clear at this point we were never realistically going to be the choice? This was a decision based on athletics, plain and simple. Not market share, not academics, but the pure strength of the programs. It's oddly refreshing, and it's ultimately what hurts the most.

We've accomplished more overall, but right now they've got a 9-2 football team that's clearly on its way up, and they've got a very strong basketball program that isn't banned from the postseason and didn't just lose its high profile coach.

 

[Gurleyman]

Louisville had the worst APR score in all of FBS football in 2012 (911). APR didn't matter.

 

[DOZE860]

not saying are APR score had anything to do with not getting into the acc, but our apr score is preventing us from putting our best foot forward in terms of athletics as a whole. when your bread and butter sports team gets band from post season play, its not a good look regardless.. we didnt get into acc this time around because there is no other conference looking at us for expansion...therefore we are a back up plan for the acc when the next acc school gets pouched. for all you people out there that think we have a shot at the B1G, if they were looking at us, acc would have jump over backwards to put us in the league..

 

[Gurleyman]

This year's postseason ban is entirely a short-term issue based on past problems which have been corrected (our current APR is exemplary, or at least it was before all the transferring - don't know if everyone left with a 2.6 or higher). Conference realignment is a long-term issue (in theory - these days, nothing stays still very long). There is perhaps some vague abstract perception issues involved, but in the context of how these decisions are made, it really shouldn't have come into play. It was more about what we and Louisville could bring to the table moving forward.

 

[caw]

This year's postseason ban is entirely a short-term issue based on past problems which have been corrected (our current APR is exemplary, or at least it was before all the transferring - don't know if everyone left with a 2.6 or higher). Conference realignment is a long-term issue (in theory - these days, nothing stays still very long). There is perhaps some vague abstract perception issues involved, but in the context of how these decisions are made, it really shouldn't have come into play. It was more about what we and Louisville could bring to the table moving forward.

It's still fine.

 

[joober jones]

The whole situation is like a Rubik's cube