UConn men's basketball rivalry with Providence moves to Madison Square Garden for Big East Tournament

[huskyjawz]

That's why there is the saying, "one-sided rivalry", and that's why you have :"throw the records out the window rivalries" b/c one team is way better than the other.

 

[ctchamps]

Absolutely this. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous.

Of course it's this but methinks more than one of the posts is employing smack talk that normally goes towards a team we love to hate when it's a conference rival. Especially with a big game approaching.

Remember the days when UConn, BC and Seton Hall were invited and accepted the invitation to the BE nucleus of Georgetown, Syracuse, St. Johns and Providence. We were an after thought to that nucleus' fans or at least the first three in that group until JC arrived. Providence had some good teams back then but they were never really accepted at the same level as the others. And when Nova rose to national prominence in 1985 they were part of the big four. Our rival back then was BCU. Yep Boston College University. We belittle what we most love to hate although our disdain is more from the way they kept us out of the ACC. But originally it was because they were our first BE rival. They were more on par with us than the four. That was until we got good and started beating the four consistently. Took a long time for them to stop looking down their noses condescendingly at us but now when they do the only thing they see is their own snot.

The Syracuse rivalry replaced the BCU one only after we went on that 28 or 29 game win steak against them and although they are still geographically close to us they became irrelevant bb wise.

They were replaced by Syracuse because we and they were the better teams in the league. When we remained good and Pitt was better than Cuse Pitt took over as our rivals.

So what about the Friars. I'm still waiting!!!!!

 

[Tenspro2002]

I don't think it can be considered a rivalry when it's one side's Super Bowl and the other side's Thursday.

 

[ElGreco]

Those matchups are both with the top 2 programs in the same state.

PeeCee hates URI now and are also hating on Marquette & Shaka

 

[ElGreco]

Long ago the football national championship was always won by one of Harvard, Yale or Princeton.

Times change.

We and Villanova are now national BRANDS. The others are good programs-mostly.

 

[ElGreco]

I don't think it can be considered a rivalry when it's one side's Super Bowl and the other side's Thursday.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I've struggled to capture my thoughts on this. PC is a rival of sorts. It reminds me of the way Kansas fans feel about K-State. KU's rival was always Missouri. K-State lives to beat KU, that's their holy grail every season. I think it's similar with UConn and PC. PC lives to beat UConn, has for decades. I used to go every UConn game at the Dunk and it's what PC lived for. To their credit, they played their butts off and beat us more than they probably should. That means it's an intense game both ways. More so than Georgetown, St. Johns, DePaul or Seton Hall.

Do we have a true rival that we UConn fans desperately seek to beat every year? No. Because with Jay Wright gone, nobody we play regularly is worthy of that attention on a regular basis. Maybe somebody will emerge.

 

[7774]

Rivalry doesn't mean that the programs have to be evenly matched. Alabama has had way more success than Auburn, but is anybody going to argue that they don't have a rivalry?

Same with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State

You guys are naming programs that exist in the same state, which is way different. Also, Auburn has multiple national championships in football. They are not as good as Alabama, but they are still an elite program, which Providence is not.

Obviously "rivalry" is subjective, so Providence being a rival completely depends on how you define that term. For me, a rivalry exists based upon playing many very important games over some extended period of time where the results of those games have large implications on the historical success and perception of each program involved. So Providence is not a rival to me, because we don't have that history. I consider St. Johns, Pitt, Louisville, and obviously Syracuse much bigger rivals.

If someone's definition of a rival takes into account fan interaction on the interwebs, or physical proximity, etc. then Providence would be a rival, and that's fair. It's just not how I would define it.

 

[ElGreco]

absolutely. Can you imagine a thread like this when UConn was in the AAC with the likes of Tulsa, Tulane, East Carolina, SMU, etc. That's my long winded way of saying to embrace the rivalry, it's good for the Big East conference.

Don’t remind us of our mediocrity in the AAC . The BE Tournament in MSG is by far the #1 conference championship venue. The AAC championship is pitiful and will be far worse when Houston & Cincy are gone. I actually feel bad for Temple.

 

[ElGreco]

I've struggled to capture my thoughts on this. PC is a rival of sorts. It reminds me of the way Kansas fans feel about K-State. KU's rival was always Missouri. K-State lives to beat KU, that's their holy grail every season. I think it's similar with UConn and PC. PC lives to beat UConn, has for decades. I used to go every UConn game at the Dunk and it's what PC lived for. To their credit, they played their butts off and beat us more than they probably should. That means it's an intense game both ways. More so than Georgetown, St. Johns, DePaul or Seton Hall.

Do we have a true rival that we UConn fans desperately seek to beat every year? No. Because with Jay Wright gone, nobody we play regularly is worthy of that attention on a regular basis. Maybe somebody will emerge.

Absolutely totally agree with everything you said! KS & KState is the perfect example.

 

[huskyjawz]

You guys are naming programs that exist in the same state, which is way different. Also, Auburn has multiple national championships in football. They are not as good as Alabama, but they are still an elite program, which Providence is not.

Obviously "rivalry" is subjective, so Providence being a rival completely depends on how you define that term. For me, a rivalry exists based upon playing many very important games over some extended period of time where the results of those games have large implications on the historical success and perception of each program involved. So Providence is not a rival to me, because we don't have that history. I consider St. Johns, Pitt, Louisville, and obviously Syracuse much bigger rivals.

If someone's definition of a rival takes into account fan interaction on the interwebs, or physical proximity, etc. then Providence would be a rival, and that's fair. It's just not how I would define it.

I don't think same state is way different than cross-state.

 

[ElGreco]

I've struggled to capture my thoughts on this. PC is a rival of sorts. It reminds me of the way Kansas fans feel about K-State. KU's rival was always Missouri. K-State lives to beat KU, that's their holy grail every season. I think it's similar with UConn and PC. PC lives to beat UConn, has for decades. I used to go every UConn game at the Dunk and it's what PC lived for. To their credit, they played their butts off and beat us more than they probably should. That means it's an intense game both ways. More so than Georgetown, St. Johns, DePaul or Seton Hall.

Do we have a true rival that we UConn fans desperately seek to beat every year? No. Because with Jay Wright gone, nobody we play regularly is worthy of that attention on a regular basis. Maybe somebody will emerge.

As an addendum to my previous reply I add that same for UNC & Duke rather than .NCState

 

[HuskyHawk]

As an addendum to my previous reply I add that same for UNC & Duke rather than .NCState

Sure, except UNC still has Duke. KU and UConn have nobody right now. Baylor...maybe could become that for KU.

 

[T-Squared]

Eric Murdock - the Spitter

 

[huskyjawz]

Pee Cee doesn't matter enough to be a rival. No one is really emotionally invested in the game more than any other. Can you remember any game with the Friars that was meaningful to a Huskies season or championship? In fact, I don't think we have a true rival in the Big East.

A contest with Syracuse still holds more importance in Huskies fandom than any BE foe. There is real history there, the six overtime classic, losing three times to SU and still winning the NC. It is one match up that people outside the conference would watch with interest. It could fill up the garden. I still fear Preston Shumpert.

That's how I feel about Malik Sealy.

 

[Deepster]

Your board said our last game with you was “our Super Bowl”.

 

[August_West]

I disagree with people saying it's not. People on here do disagree often you know. Plus Dove is an idiot.

 

[August_West]

While you're here, what is your guess on which Friartalk member offered CTBasketball's buddy some Yayo after pushing him in a urinal? I want to tell him Im a fan.

 

[Deepster]

While you're here, what is your guess on which Friartalk member offered CTBasketball's buddy some Yayo after pushing him in a urinal? I want to tell him Im a fan.

Richard Coren?

Just kidding. I really like that guy. He always treated me fair over there back in the day.

 

[connVA]

Don’t remind us of our mediocrity in the AAC . The BE Tournament in MSG is by far the #1 conference championship venue. The AAC championship is pitiful and will be far worse when Houston & Cincy are gone. I actually feel bad for Temple.

AAC without Houston & Cincy = the A-10 discount aisle

 

[tzznandrew]

Remember the days when UConn, BC and Seton Hall were invited and accepted the invitation to the BE nucleus of Georgetown, Syracuse, St. Johns and Providence. We were an after thought to that nucleus' fans or at least the first three in that group until JC arrived. Providence had some good teams back then but they were never really accepted at the same level as the others. And when Nova rose to national prominence in 1985 they were part of the big four. Our rival back then was BCU. Yep Boston College University. We belittle what we most love to hate although our disdain is more from the way they kept us out of the ACC. But originally it was because they were our first BE rival

You can see that because until just this year we had a losing record against all four of Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, and St. John's, and a winning record against everyone else in the original BE. We only just this year tied Georgetown. After 2014, we were 31-32 against Nova, but they've since surged ahead

v. Syracuse: 39-56
v. Georgetown: 36-36
v. Villanova: 34-38
v. St. John's: 31-36

Should catch and pass St. John's in the next three years or so. Maybe we'll catch Villanova again. Should start putting some distance between ourselves and Georgetown. Sucks that Syracuse is still +17 on us.

PC, by the way: 40-30, good guys.