This Conference Needs Us

[Walker11]

We need to be the regular season Gonzaga of this conference, and then UConn in March.

Bingo. I think this will entirely depend on how good of a coach KO is. I am optimistic but the jury is out.

 

[MASSconn]

Agreed. We are just fine. We have everything we need to be the kings of the AAC. We just have to do it

Um we haven't done it once yet. We actually haven't even finished in the top 2. Classic optimistic thinking of this board "we'll dominate next year."

 

[KingAG]

Um we haven't done it once yet. We actually haven't even finished in the top 2. Classic optimistic thinking of this board "we'll dominate next year."

I didnt say we'd do anything. I said we have everything we need. I actually havent seen anyone make one gurantee. So who are you reffering to?

Classic boneyard case of creating issues

 

[MASSconn]

I didnt say we do anything. I said we have everything we need. I actually havent seen anyone make one gurantee. So who are you reffering to?

The many apologists on this board. Here's the reality: we haven't even come close to winning this conference, and if we don't next year we should think about sending Kevin Ollie back to the NBA as an assistant.

 

[UConnNick]

I hate being in this conference more than anyone but I can't get on board with any of these sentiments. No conference needs us. The conference isn't killing us. We need to perform to the potential of our talent and we will be all set and hopefully things will fall into place.

Yeah, nobody slights Gonzaga for playing in a pathetic conference that they perenially dominate. If you do that playing a tough OOC schedule, nobody berates you.

 

[KingAG]

The many apologists on this board. Here's the reality: we haven't even come close to winning this conference, and if we don't next year we should think about sending Kevin Ollie back to the NBA as an assistant.

No one disagrees. Weve covered this subject sooooo mamy times. I thinl everyone is tired of talking about it. KO has no excuses next year. THE ENTIRE FAN BASE AGREES WITH YOU

 

[ctchamps]

The many apologists on this board. Here's the reality: we haven't even come close to winning this conference, and if we don't next year we should think about sending Kevin Ollie back to the NBA as an assistant.

What a novel idea. Glad somebody thought about it.

 

[Milo65]

I would chuckle at some of the Mid Majors that would get one or two bids out of their conference, get a high seed, hear them bitch, and then one and done in the tourney. Let's face it, P5 fans are chuckling at us. The American Sucks, and we are destined to be dragged down with it.

 

[Walker11]

Yeah, nobody slights Gonzaga for playing in a pathetic conference that they perenially dominate. If you do that playing a tough OOC schedule, nobody berates you.

Exactly. Gonzaga got a 1 seed in a conference that has 3 teams in the KenPom top 100 and 4 teams lower than 200. The American sucks. The WCC is even worse. Especially considering decent programs like Memphis and Temple had down years. If we can take care of our OOC, we will have a great opportunity at a very high seed.

I do have to admit that trying to argue that we can be Gonzaga-esque does make me sick to my stomach. F conference realignment. But lets not absolve our program of all blame.

 

[CTBasketball]

Gonzaga plays a better OOC schedule than anyone in the AAC.

They beat Arizona, Iowa State, and Florida!

 

[KingAG]

Gonzaga plays a better OOC schedule than anyone in the AAC.

They beat Arizona, Iowa State, and Florida!

Quite similar to our OOC next year

 

[UConnNick]

Gonzaga plays a better OOC schedule than anyone in the AAC.

They beat Arizona, Iowa State, and Florida!

SMU played nobody but USC and Michigan in their OOC schedule that turned out to be any good. They lost by 22 to the Wolverines. They also somehow managed to lose to Boise State by nine points???

They got the seed and result they deserved. Until such time as these AAC teams want to go out and actually schedule some nationally relevant competition OOC, expect a continued diet of snow seeds.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

They got the seed and result they deserved. Until such time as these AAC teams want to go out and actually schedule and beat some nationally relevant competition OOC, expect a continued diet of snow seeds.

FIFY

And that goes for us, too. We do need to finish annually top in our league, no worse than third certainly. But we've also got to beat some pretty good teams OOC, like OKSt, Oregon, Auburn, Ohio State, Georgetown.

 

[huskymagic]

I don't know why anybody is surprised by SMU losing to a good USC squad with good talent who already beat them this year. Nobody in the American other than UCONN is anything.

Like I and a few others have said we need to be proactive and get Cinci onboard for a package deal to the Big East for basketball making the Big East the premiere basketball conference in the Northeast and America. By doing this the AAC will have no leverage to prevent us and will keep us in football. We need to force ESPN's hand bigly. Keep sitting on our ass and hope for the miracle to come and we become St. John's, UMess, Georgetown.

PS: What does this say about Ollie and his consistent 6th place finishes in the American?

 

[Stainmaster]

The many apologists on this board. Here's the reality: we haven't even come close to winning this conference, and if we don't next year we should think about sending Kevin Ollie back to the NBA as an assistant.

Yeah, plenty of top candidates are going to be knocking down our door. Look at the great names other AAC schools have brought in: Johnny Dawkins, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Kelvin Sampson, Frank Haith. Definitely the kind of guys who are going to bring things back to Calhoun levels.

 

[CTBasketball]

Yeah, plenty of top candidates are going to be knocking down our door. Look at the great names other AAC schools have brought in: Johnny Dawkins, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Kelvin Sampson, Frank Haith. Definitely the kind of guys who are going to bring things back to Calhoun levels.

It's a morgue of washed up coaches. Watch Crean land here too.

 

[champs99and04]

Let's be clear: SMU was still a very good team and they were still under-seeded. Losing by one point in a game in which they led throughout is not an indictment on the league. The indictment on the league is what the league does OOC every year, which is nothing.

Cincinnati is also very good and they were seeded about where they were supposed to be. What they do in the tournament has little to do with the league being a train-wreck.

 

[Fishy]

Yeah, plenty of top candidates are going to be knocking down our door. Look at the great names other AAC schools have brought in: Johnny Dawkins, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Kelvin Sampson, Frank Haith. Definitely the kind of guys who are going to bring things back to Calhoun levels.

Sorry, but no.

Same conference or not, UConn isn't fishing off the same pier as Tulsa or South Florida.

 

[Stainmaster]

Sorry, but no.

Same conference or not, UConn isn't fishing off the same pier as Tulsa or South Florida.

We're not getting the Archie Millers who rebuff their ACC alma maters either.

If the people advocating for KO's removal think that the program has sunk low enough to warrant a coaching change, it's illogical for them to think that we'd have our pick of the litter when selecting his replacement.

 

[superjohn]

I made this point in another thread. And let me preface this - we got extremely unlucky with injuries this year. But the point remains that UCONN had 9 top 100 players on our opening season roster and the rest of the conference combined for 7 top 100 players. (Based on the composite recruiting system)

Yeah, plenty of top candidates are going to be knocking down our door. Look at the great names other AAC schools have brought in: Johnny Dawkins, Mike Dunleavy Sr., Kelvin Sampson, Frank Haith. Definitely the kind of guys who are going to bring things back to Calhoun levels.

Nice to see you think so highly of UConn basketball. Putting us at the same level as Tulsa and Tulane.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Let's be clear: SMU was still a very good team and they were still under-seeded. Losing by one point in a game in which they led throughout is not an indictment on the league. The indictment on the league is what the league does OOC every year, which is nothing.

Cincinnati is also very good and they were seeded about where they were supposed to be. What they do in the tournament has little to do with the league being a train-wreck.

+1. This is what really helps the Big East every year. They do well OOC, and then once inside their league, everyone beats each other up, and has good RPI/SOS/Kenpom numbers.

If you look at Big East this year, they had Villanova and Butler. Everyone else was a 6-11 seed. But because of their OOC schedule, they got 7 teams in.

 

[Stainmaster]

Nice to see you think so highly of UConn basketball. Putting us at the same level as Tulsa and Tulane.

Using your logic, how can we talk crap about Tulsa if they swept us this year?

We can't be both this hyper-elite program that can pick its coach from anyone in the game, and a program that's fallen so far off the deep end it needs to make a coaching change. Pick one or the other.

 

[ASweet3781]

Let's be clear: SMU was still a very good team and they were still under-seeded. Losing by one point in a game in which they led throughout is not an indictment on the league. The indictment on the league is what the league does OOC every year, which is nothing.

Cincinnati is also very good and they were seeded about where they were supposed to be. What they do in the tournament has little to do with the league being a train-wreck.

They were not under seeded. They just proved they were not under seeded.

When UConn was in the Big East did we schedule programs like SMU in high mid major leagues with high risk of losing? Would we play them at Moody? Of course not. The best teams SMU played out of conference they lost to. They feasted on a very down AAC.

And Cincinnati is not a "very good" team. I saw them up close this weekend. Very good gets thrown around a lot in college basketball these days. They are a good team. Nothing more.

SMU and Cincinnati going out in the first round against sub par Power 5 competition has nothing to do with the leagues stature? How about the fact the team that dominated the AAC didn't even look better than USC?

 

[CL82]

Classic optimistic thinking of this board "we'll dominate next year."

I guess, or maybe some familiarity with next seasons roster.

 

[Fishy]

We're not getting the Archie Millers who rebuff their ACC alma maters either.

If the people advocating for KO's removal think that the program has sunk low enough to warrant a coaching change, it's illogical for them to think that we'd have our pick of the litter when selecting his replacement.

You're putting us on a plane with Tulsa, South Florida and UCF, so perhaps logic isn't one of your strong suits.

 

[superjohn]

Using your logic, how can we talk crap about Tulsa if they swept us this year?

We can't be both this hyper-elite program that can pick its coach from anyone in the game, and a program that's fallen so far off the deep end it needs to make a coaching change. Pick one or the other.

We are one of the best college basketball programs in the country. If Kevin Ollie doesn't turn it around in the next couple of years we will bring in a great coach who will. I love Ollie but this notion that he is the be-all and end-all of UConn basketball is insane.

 

[Stainmaster]

You're putting us on a plane with Tulsa, South Florida and UCF, so perhaps logic isn't one of your strong suits.

Who do you think is a realistic target to choose us over a P5 job then?

 

[Fishy]

We are one of the best college basketball programs in the country. If Kevin Ollie doesn't turn it around in the next couple of years we will bring in a great coach who will. I love Ollie but this notion that he is the be-all and end-all of UConn basketball is insane.

Bingo.

You can win a national title at UConn and be paid $3.5M a year doing it.

If you don't think that will draw major interest, you don't know what you're talking about.

 

[BUConn10]

Using your logic, how can we talk crap about Tulsa if they swept us this year?

We can't be both this hyper-elite program that can pick its coach from anyone in the game, and a program that's fallen so far off the deep end it needs to make a coaching change. Pick one or the other.

Look, Im with you that I think our attractiveness as a coaching destination may be weak at the moment and some of our fans calling for Ollie to go have their eyes set at targets possibly out of our range.

But whats the alternative? Just keep mssing tournaments completely or at best limping in late in the season? Teams like VCU, Wichita State, Florida Gulf freaking Coast are becoming regular fixtures in the tournament every year and most of us don't really know what we are going into season to season anymore. KO is not above UConn as a program, and if the time comes that we just aren't moving forward, we may have to make a change, no matter how weak you think we stand in the coaching free market.

Losing and slipping farther and farther down while not making any changes is like sinking in quicksand, especially when we need to be winning to attract conference eyeballs. If UConn misses the tournament 3 out of 4 years immediately following a national championship then we need evaluation. I hate everything about this predicament we are in...

 

[Stainmaster]

Look, Im with you that I think our attractiveness as a coaching destination may be weak at the moment and some of our fans calling for Ollie to go have their eyes set at targets possibly out of our range.

But whats the alternative? Just keep mssing tournaments completely or at best limping in late in the season? Teams like VCU, Wichita State, Florida Gulf freaking Coast are becoming regular fixtures in the tournament every year and most of us don't really know what we are going into season to season anymore. KO is not above UConn as a program, and if the time comes that we just aren't moving forward, we may have to make a change, no matter how weak you think we stand in the coaching free market.

Losing and slipping farther and farther down while not making any changes is like sinking in quicksand, especially when we need to be winning to attract conference eyeballs. If UConn misses the tournament 3 out of 4 years immediately following a national championship then we need evaluation. I hate everything about this predicament we are in...

The key with Ollie (and what made this season's finish all the more frustrating) is the talent factor. Sniping over just how good our recruiting actually is aside, last year's class would've been good for #2 in the B1G and B12, and #3 in the ACC. You're someone who's very keen on us competing with the blue bloods, the Dukes and Kentuckys of the world - despite what our frequent arguments may suggest, I'd really like that as well. The only way to do that is to stockpile as much talent as we can given the limitations we're dealing with (i.e. conference and having a 5th year HC recruiting against HOFers like K, Cal, Pitino, etc.). Even if you disagree with me in that you don't think KO's player development and strategic capabilities will improve over time, there's something to be said such that the more talented players you have, the easier it is to mitigate certain weaknesses on the staff.

In my mind, Ollie is pretty clearly the only guy who can recruit as well as he does at an AAC level. And I am quite frightened of what happens when we don't have a 15-year NBA veteran whose unique personal background makes him especially adept at building relationships with prospects and their parents. I've seen a couple of people mention King Rice, the Monmouth guy -- how many Top 100 kids would he be able to pull here? How many McD AAs? The guy can't even make it out of the MAAC tourney. When you say "coaching free market," that's where my mind wonders, and it scares the heck out of me.