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

[TRest]

The original Big East Conference was founded in 1979, when Providence College basketball coach Dave Gavitt spearheaded an effort to assemble an east coast basketball-centric collegiate athletic conference.[14] The core of the Big East formed when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut (UConn), Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College (BC). Holy Cross turned down the invitation, as did Rutgers initially, while BC, Seton Hall, and UConn accepted.[15][16][17] Gavitt became the Big East's first commissioner, and Villanova and Pittsburgh joined the conference shortly thereafter.

Pretty soon we are going to be calling the 85 championship the fluke that it was.

 

[jcp33]

Jay Wright is locked into the HOF IMO, pretty much every college coach with more than 1 National Championship has gotten in. Just a matter of when for him. I hope us and Nova can battle at the top of the BE for years to come.

 

[Ratso]

so the midwest took advantage off the brand

seton hall, providence, st. john’s and gtown not as much

 

[Chin Diesel]

Pretty soon we are going to be calling the 85 championship the fluke that it was.

2014 team says shush yo mouff.
Plenty of teams have won a one he championship they never win Ina best of 3, 5, 7.
But they had that one shining moment when it counted. 'Nova in '85 against Gtown was the better team that night. No fluke. And I was rooting as hard for Gtown against Nova as I was for Houston against Gtown the year before.

 

[Fishy]

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?

There is a middle ground that doesn‘t involve thread titles requiring three lines on a mobile browser.

 

[upstater]

I did not say UConn sucked. I did not say UConn was the bottom of the barrel. I do disagree that UConn made the Big East. It’s the other way around. The Big East was the platform on which JC built his program. In the early years of the Big East Georgetown, St Johns, Nova, and Cuse were the top tier. UConn got there, but not until about 10 years into the conference history.

look it up!

I was there. I don't need to loo it up. You're capturing a 4 year period when UConn sucked. Prior to that and forever long after they were good. And indeed, a short window of 4 years doesn't mean a thing in the context of several decades expanse. The conference was represented by UConn for over 20 years, and not much of anything else.

 

[goskis2018]

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.

I'm not sure I'm willing to just hand the 10's to Nova. Sure, over the last 5 or so years they have been head and shoulders above us, they were an elite program while we couldn't make the tournament. Ultimately, we still won as many national championships as they have in the decade, so to me the decade is a draw.

 

[David 76]

My niece is an Assistant Athletic Director at Nova. Jay Wright is the real deal.

 

[PRHusky]

The question I often ask is whether Nova would have won it all in 2016 and 2018 if they still shared a conference with UConn (and Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, etc.) during those years. I think the answer is no. But credit to them; they took full advantage of the conference breakup to build championship rosters. Let’s see what happens now with another big boy in town.

 

[RichZ]

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.

UConn and Georgetown have each won 7 BE Tourneys. 6 of GTown's 7 came in the first decade of the league's existence. Since UConn's first BE Tourney title, GTown has won it only once.
Nova and NosepickerU have won it 5 times each. 'Cuse's last stab at basketball relevance was the '05/'06 era, when they won back to back BETs. Nova on the other hand, won the real BET only once, in '95. They have dominated the BELite however, winning 4 of 5 (and losing the championship game in '16 by 2 points).
In semi-related news, the Louisville Interlopers won the BET once. Or three times, if you count the years in which their record was vacated by the NCAA.

 

[RichZ]

There is a middle ground that doesn‘t involve thread titles requiring three lines on a mobile browser.

Or you could turn your phone to landscape mode.<G>

 

[Kenny11]

Great team, great coach but I’m not reading this and I haven’t read any of the recent ones. We don’t need these coaches to kiss UConn’s ass or be forced to say nice things about us. Nova is the enemy.

 

[Ha Who]

Great team, great coach but I’m not reading this and I haven’t read any of the recent ones. We don’t need these coaches to kiss UConn’s ass or be forced to say nice things about us. Nova is the enemy.

Ah, the same attitude as Washington

 

[CL82]

Correct, 8th member a year later. The original 4 were Prov, St Johns, Georgetown, and Cuse. They invited the others to form the conference. Nova sat on the fence for a year.

Sort of, but that's like saying PC was the only original BE team since it was Gavitt's brain child. The original BE teams Providence College, St. John's, Georgetown, UConn, Seton Hall, and BC. They were the teams who formed the conference in 1979.

You are right that UConn wasn't dominant from the start, but despite not playing in the Big East for last seven years, no team has won more regular season championship, BET championships or National Championships in the Big East than UConn. (Not even counting the natty we won in the American.)

 

[Waquoit]

... and one could easily argue that the 1979 class of Corny Thompson, Mike McKay, and Chuck Aleksinas was better than any class UConn had until 2002.

Fun Fact: Those guys lost 7 out of their last 8 college games. How good were they really?

 

[BGesus4]

My God it's nice to be able argue about the Big East finally

Had about all I needed of East New Orleans State

 

[upstater]

Fun Fact: Those guys lost 7 out of their last 8 college games. How good were they really?

2 were good enough for NBA

 

[PChoops]

The question I often ask is whether Nova would have won it all in 2016 and 2018 if they still shared a conference with UConn (and Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, etc.) during those years. I think the answer is no. But credit to them; they took full advantage of the conference breakup to build championship rosters. Let’s see what happens now with another big boy in town.

2016 yes.... They killed every team(esp Oklahoma led Buddy Heild team)out on the way to the title game.

 

[CL82]

Fun Fact: Those guys lost 7 out of their last 8 college games. How good were they really?

Corny? Outstanding. Mike? Very good. Chuck? Meh, but we’d love to have a big body like him right now.

How good they might’ve become under Jim Calhoun is an interesting question.

 

[upstater]

Corny? Outstanding. Mike? Very good. Chuck? Meh, but we’d love to have a big body like him right now.

How good they might’ve become under Jim Calhoun is an interesting question.

Aleksinas actually went on to have an international career in Spain, but his one year in the NBA he played 15 minutes a game, 74 games, 4 rebounds and 5 points average.

 

[CL82]

Aleksinas actually went on to have an international career in Spain, but his one year in the NBA he played 15 minutes a game, 74 games, 4 rebounds and 5 points average.

Chuck is dead to me every since he purged UConn from his online presence. Is that the court performance at UConn was disappointing. Great guy off the court though.

 

[PRHusky]

2016 yes.... They killed every team(esp Oklahoma led Buddy Heild team)out on the way to the title game.

That’s not the point. Of course the 2016 team was great (as was the 2018 team). The point is that 2-3 players on those teams would not have attended Villanova if the 2012-2013 Big East remained in place.

 

[CallMeBruce]

That’s not the point. Of course the 2016 team was great (as was the 2018 team). The point is that 2-3 players on those teams would not have attended Villanova if the 2012-2013 Big East remained in place.

[citation needed]

 

[Waquoit]

2 were good enough for NBA

Three if you count Bruce Kuczinski. He started for the Sixers on his birthday.

 

[Ratso]

2016 yes.... They killed every team(esp Oklahoma led Buddy Heild team)out on the way to the title game.

gotta admit we all loved nova taking out kansas in 2016 after they beat uconn. it’s like the BE gods said “we got you”. i’ve always supported BE teams regardless of that realignment nonsense