UConn rivals old and new: Big East feels more complete to Jay Wright, builder of Villanova’s championships | The Boneyard

UConn rivals old and new: Big East feels more complete to Jay Wright, builder of Villanova’s championships

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10th and final installment on the series from Dom Amore.

In June 2019, the word began to filter out that UConn would rejoin Villanova and its other former rivals in the new Big East. The move became official July 1, 2020.

“Finally,” I thought,” Wright said. “I don’t see any other school that was a natural fit. We were happy at 10 [members], and if we stuck with 10, I think we would have continued to grow in different ways. But we always thought the one that was natural that could really help the conference and strengthen the purity of the conference as a basketball conference was UConn. When it finally happened, I was relieved that we didn’t lose that opportunity.”

www.courant.com

UConn rivals old and new: Big East feels more complete to Jay Wright, builder of Villanova’s championships

In advance of the UConn men’s basketball team’s move to the Big East, The Courant will acquaint fans with the Huskies’ 10 new league opponents — some of them established riv…
www.courant.com www.courant.com

For those without Courant access: UConn rivals old and new: Big East feels more complete to Jay Wright, builder of Villanova’s championships
 
Jay throws a nice jab. He sees the BE native footprint as basically being the I-95 corridor.

“I wasn’t happy about the breakup of the old Big East,” Wright said, “and there were certain northeastern teams, Connecticut and Boston College being the main two, that were just so natural to the Big East. The other ones that came on later, losing them wasn’t a big deal to me, but Connecticut and Boston College were always the two that I felt really hurt us. They’re native to the footprint.”
 
Some of the best rivalries can be against programs you respect. You know the rivalry is a pure competitive rivalry and not based on ancillary reasons.
 
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We knew it wouldn’t be the same, but we knew we could recapture the unique unity of Northeast basketball. The purity of Northeast basketball, Madison Square Garden, basketball schools — we knew we could recapture that in a new era.”
 
Outside of valuing the UConn/Villanova BE rivalry.. Jay does a great job of promoting the BE brand nationally.. The BE is a stronger league because of coaches like him.. Now let's remind him who owns MSG..LOL
 
Kudos also to Villanova for sticking with Jay Wright. There were ups and downs in his earlier years, and a lot of schools might have brought someone else on.
 
Tampahusky said:
When we were in the Big East, Nova wanted to be like us. Now we want to be like them. Kudos to Nova but now it’s time to take over again.
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Well, technically, UConn wanted to be like the Nova of the 80's, then Nova wanted to be like the UConn of the 90's and 00's and now UConn wants to be like Nova of the 10's.

I think my memory is still good enough to say Rollie would have rarely traded rosters with Perno in the 80's.
 
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Chin Diesel said:
Well, technically, UConn wanted to be like the Nova of the 80's, then Nova wanted to be like the UConn of the 90's and 00's and now UConn wants to be like Nova of the 10's.

I think my memory is still good enough to say Rollie would have rarely traded rosters with Perno in the 80's.
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That's because all his talent came from Connecticut!!
 
Without Uconn's success, Nova wouldn't be on the map. They all owe Uconn
 
Fishy said:
First, everyone, stop using the entire title of the article in your post header. Such a waste of space on a mobile browser.
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The reason I do that is so it's easier for someone to scan the board quickly and see the title and then they know they don't need to post the same article again in another thread. If I just wrote, for example, "Villanova article" in the title someone might miss that the article has already been posted. Unless you don't mind multiple threads of the same posted article. Isn't that more of a space waster?
 
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Chin Diesel said:
It's early Friday afternoon. I'm bored. I'll play along.

Please explain how Nova needed UConn's success for them to be successful.
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Personally, I think Uconn's success, both men and women's teams, helped every other team in the BE.

Maybe I'm overstating it, but that's how I see it.
 
tzznandrew said:
Seriously. Before UConn won anything, Villanova had a title, a title game loss, a Final Four, 7 other Elite Eights, and some deep runs in the NIT when that meant something.
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Nova was never top dog in the conference year to year until lately after all these schools left. UConn was that .
 
B1GEast said:
Personally, I think Uconn's success, both men and women's teams, helped every other team in the BE.

Maybe I'm overstating it, but that's how I see it.
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It's an odd take but I doubt I have anything that will convince you otherwise.
 
B1GEast said:
Without Uconn's success, Nova wouldn't be on the map. They all owe Uconn
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Tampahusky said:
Nova was never top dog in the conference year to year until lately after all these schools left. UConn was that .
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The statement wasn't that 'Nova wasn't the top program. Statement was Nova wouldn't be on the map. Nova was a well known national program with decades of success before UConn even won an NIT.
 
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Chin Diesel said:
The statement wasn't that 'Nova wasn't the top program. Statement was Nova wouldn't be on the map. Nova was a well known national program with decades of success before UConn even won an NIT.
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Massimino did a wonderful job at Nova, but when he left, the last guy that took them anywhere for a while was Lappas in 95.

While Uconn was in the BE, they never stood in our way. They didn't flourish until we were in the AAC. The won in 16 and 18. I give them credit, love there coach and program.

My whole point was that Uconn's success helped every other team. Uconn was the crown jewel of the BE, but we didn't fit in with the remaining schools, so they booted uconn out.

It's quite possible, that if Uconn remained in the BE, Uconn might have been a road bliock to two national titles, so Nova, who knows what uconn back in the BE means, should also be thankful uconn wasn't around to stop their teams
 
B1GEast said:
Massimino did a wonderful job at Nova, but when he left, the last guy that took them anywhere for a while was Lappas in 95.

While Uconn was in the BE, they never stood in our way. They didn't flourish until we were in the AAC. The won in 16 and 18. I give them credit, love there coach and program.

My whole point was that Uconn's success helped every other team. Uconn was the crown jewel of the BE, but we didn't fit in with the remaining schools, so they booted uconn out.

It's quite possible, that if Uconn remained in the BE, Uconn might have been a road bliock to two national titles, so Nova, who knows what uconn back in the BE means, should also be thankful uconn wasn't around to stop their teams
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They had a lull for sure, but they were still always one of the better teams in the Big East. If Lappas could have capitalized on the success of his Kerry Kittles teams, we might have grown to hate them. I mean, they crushed us in the 1995 BET finals.

But they faded until the mid-2000s. Then, though, they were a continual challenge, we just had grown to hate Pitt (who rose about 4 years before they did), already hated Syracuse, and Louisville was a step or two ahead of them as a program when they joined the league. Still, they were a 1 seed in 2006 and tied us for the regular season title (somehow our last), and they were in the 2009 Final Four.
 
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tzznandrew said:
Seriously. Before UConn won anything, Villanova had a title, a title game loss, a Final Four, 7 other Elite Eights, and some deep runs in the NIT when that meant something.
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Don't you know UConn is the king of the universe, nothing happened without us. They stopped playing basketball when we weren't good.
 
B1GEast said:
Massimino did a wonderful job at Nova, but when he left, the last guy that took them anywhere for a while was Lappas in 95.

While Uconn was in the BE, they never stood in our way. They didn't flourish until we were in the AAC. The won in 16 and 18. I give them credit, love there coach and program.

My whole point was that Uconn's success helped every other team. Uconn was the crown jewel of the BE, but we didn't fit in with the remaining schools, so they booted uconn out.

It's quite possible, that if Uconn remained in the BE, Uconn might have been a road bliock to two national titles, so Nova, who knows what uconn back in the BE means, should also be thankful uconn wasn't around to stop their teams
Expand ...

You keep dying on the "BE teams didn't flourish til UConn left" hill and that's a really bad take. Even passionate UConn fans are aware other BE teams had significant national success before Calhoun. Oddly enough, UConn not being successful in the BE actually led UConn to make a coaching change.

Do you not know anything about the 1980's?

That was when the BE started on national TV and flourished. There was G'towns three Final Fours in four years. Hoya Paranoia?
There was the 3 BE teams in the same FF.
There was 'Nova winning a national championship.

All that happened before UConn even won the NIT.

The BE didn't need UConn to flourish for the conference to flourish.

Now, did UConn have a longer and stronger string of success than any other BE program? Absolutely.
Did UConn carry the BE banner when several other marquee program floundered? Absolutely.
Does UConn have the chance to reclaim that status? Absolutely.
 
Chin Diesel said:
You keep dying on the "BE teams didn't flourish til UConn left" hill and that's a really bad take. Even passionate UConn fans are aware other BE teams had significant national success before Calhoun. Oddly enough, UConn not being successful in the BE actually led UConn to make a coaching change.

Do you not know anything about the 1980's?

That was when the BE started on national TV and flourished. There was G'towns three Final Fours in four years. Hoya Paranoia?
There was the 3 BE teams in the same FF.
There was 'Nova winning a national championship.

All that happened before UConn even won the NIT.

The BE didn't need UConn to flourish for the conference to flourish.

Now, did UConn have a longer and stronger string of success than any other BE program? Absolutely.
Did UConn carry the BE banner when several other marquee program floundered? Absolutely.
Does UConn have the chance to reclaim that status? Absolutely.
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They aren't lol. Look around.
 
B1GEast said:
Massimino did a wonderful job at Nova, but when he left, the last guy that took them anywhere for a while was Lappas in 95.
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there have only been 2 coaches since Rollie: Lappas and Jay.
 
Villanova has had a great decade.

BUT--the vast majority of us would be lying if we said anything other than UConn carried this conference and Villanova from 1990 up until Kemba left.

This was considered absolute dogma on this board up until 2011. It was stated repeatedly. And not a single person ever apologized for it.

The last decade has changed that perspective, but it would be a lie to say it was anything other than received wisdom prior to that.
 
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