UConn rivals ranked by tiers

[FfldCntyFan]

They way I see it, if we were to schedule a game for tomorrow, at any qualified venue between NYC and Boston, the opponent that we would sell out our allotment the quickest (and require the most aftermarket traffic) would be Cuse, even as bad as they have been this season.

 

[HooperScooper]

Add Miami into its own tier under the header: never getting over Darius Rice 3.

That was 19 years ago? Holy crap. I just remember falling to my knees when Rice's shot went in and the buzzer went off.

 

[Inyatkin]

And please, people, stop saying Duke. Every school says Duke. I promise, Duke doesn’t think about us.

We have two titles Duke thinks belong to them. They think about us.

 

[UCFred]

We have two titles Duke thinks belong to them. They think about us.

Duke has worked along with others to marginalize UConn thru realignment. Their only motivation, we committed the unforgivable tournament Cinderella sin. UConn shed the Cinderella cloak for a Blue Blood Cloak. The only reason Duke is not a rival, is they don't want the rivalry.

 

[OkaForPrez]

That was 19 years ago? Holy crap. I just remember falling to my knees when Rice's shot went in and the buzzer went off.

We were pre-gaming a night out at the bars. Everyone just went home after that.

 

[Guapo]

We have two titles Duke thinks belong to them. They think about us.

Are they upset about those games? Sure.

Do they think about us in term of a “rival”? Uh, no.

Nor do they think of Cuse as a rival, or FSU or Villanova or anyone else, other than UNC and maybe NC State and Maryland

 

[bendm]

Cuse is UConn’s one and only true rival.

Than, a relatively stable group of Gtown, PC and Nova

Below that a rotating cast of dweebs and clowns

i agree with your second point. i'm more than happy competing for BET and regular season chips with those 3 teams.

but i'll ask again, how many years can we go without playing Cuse for them to still be considered a current rival?

we're at 3 years and counting... we need to play them at least 1x every 2 years at MSG in order to continue calling it a rivalry. i dont have much hope for that under Boeheim but maybe their next coach will be amenable to it.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

This is just so wrong. Georgetown was never really a rival. UMass was. BC really wasn't. PC is, always played us tough. Duke does belong. Pitt and St. Johns are too low.

You forgot those early - mid 90’s games
Morning
Mutumbo
Allen Iverson
Othella Harringto
Victor Paige

 

[Guapo]

i agree with your second point. i'm more than happy competing for BET and regular season chips with those 3 teams.

but i'll ask again, how many years can we go without playing Cuse for them to still be considered a current rival?

we're at 3 years and counting... we need to play them at least 1x every 2 years at MSG in order to continue calling it a rivalry. i dont have much hope for that under Boeheim but maybe their next coach will be amenable to it.

It’s more than just what happens on the court, that makes a rivalry.

In basketball, still, we compete for recruits.

Off the court, the schools compete for students and alum compete for jobs etc etc

 

[7774]

And please, people, stop saying Duke. Every school says Duke. I promise, Duke doesn’t think about us.

Duke men's basketball twitter put out a list of rivals a couple years ago and I'm pretty sure we were #2 after UNC.

 

[bendm]

It’s more than just what happens on the court, that makes a rivalry.

In basketball, still, we compete for recruits.

Off the court, the schools compete for students and alum compete for jobs etc etc

but the preliminary requirement should be something actually happening on the court, otherwise UConns biggest rival should be UMass or something. also non-alum fans couldnt care less about that stuff.

 

[bendm]

Duke men's basketball twitter put out a list of rivals a couple years ago and I'm pretty sure we were #2 after UNC.

pics or it didnt happen

 

[HuskyHawk]

You forgot those early - mid 90’s games
Morning
Mutumbo
Allen Iverson
Othella Harringto
Victor Paige

I was at some of those games. They simply belong lower on the list. Never really hated them despite having competitive games.

 

[storrsroars]

Trying to put a methodology to this other than emotions, I looked at every season since the BE started in 1979 and calculated the records for each conference opponent, plus some blue bloods and UMass.

In looking at the data, I propose that for our purposes, a true rivalry is one where UConn has faced an opponent an average of about once a year, has a record vs. that opponent between .450-.550 (e.g. not one-sided), and has challenged or been challenged by said opponent for conference supremacy on more than one occasion.

I found five teams that meet that criteria.
Villanova
Syracuse
Pittsburgh
St. John's
Georgetown

As we no longer play two of those regularly, one of the remaining three totally sucks, and another is middling. I guess we have to land on Villanova as the current #1. We are 26-38 vs Nova since 1979, but it's skewed because Perno went 1-13 against them.

FTR, if they were still in conference, Pittsburgh would be the very definition of rival. In 54 games since 1979, the series stands 27-27, each with multiple conference titles and #1 seeds.

 

[UCLJ0211]

I would just list:

1. Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown
2. PC, UMass, BC, Pitt
3. Louisville, Seton Hall, St Johns

There’s really no reason to list USF or any of those guys. I have trouble listing UMass and BC - that peaked in the 80s-early 2000s.

I would add Cinci to that list because of the history in both the BE and AAC. We’ve had many classic battles with them.

 

[Guapo]

pics or it didnt happen

To be fair to @7774 I remember this as well. But, I believe it was meant to be provocative and he was pretty thoroughly roasted by other Duke fans lol

 

[Chin Diesel]

Add Miami into its own tier under the header: never getting over Darius Rice 3.

To me that was always Taliek's fault for not coming towards the inbounds pass instead of running away and losing Rice to steal it.

 

[Guapo]

but the preliminary requirement should be something actually happening on the court, otherwise UConns biggest rival should be UMass or something. also non-alum fans couldnt care less about that stuff.

That’s fair. I dunno, hard to explain. I’d say Texas-TAMU is a rivalry still despite not having played. Also, the UConn and Cuse fanbases certainly still trash talk etc. You’re telling me the fans aren’t rivals?

 

[CL82]

And please, people, stop saying Duke. Every school says Duke. I promise, Duke doesn’t think about us.

Not actually true in my experience. We’ve beaten them when it counts and it sticks in their crawl a bit. But Duke‘s rival is North Carolina.

 

[bendm]

That’s fair. I dunno, hard to explain. I’d say Texas-TAMU is a rivalry still despite not having played. Also, the UConn and Cuse fanbases certainly still trash talk etc. You’re telling me the fans aren’t rivals?

also fair. i just think at a certain point, not having played in years, it's going to fizzle. with them being so bad it already has for me, and i hated them as much as anybody.

 

[Guapo]

That’s fair. I dunno, hard to explain. I’d say Texas-TAMU is a rivalry still despite not having played. Also, the UConn and Cuse fanbases certainly still trash talk etc. You’re telling me the fans aren’t rivals?

Fans are what makes a rivalry more so than what happens in a game, in my humble opinion

 

[Guapo]

also fair. i just think at a certain point, not having played in years, it's going to fizzle. with them being so bad it already has for me, and i hated them as much as anybody.

We’ll play again plenty when they come crawling back to the Big East

 

[AdamaNation]

I would just list:

1. Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown
2. PC, UMass, BC, Pitt
3. Louisville, Seton Hall, St Johns

There’s really no reason to list USF or any of those guys. I have trouble listing UMass and BC - that peaked in the 80s-early 2000s.

Cinci was a big rival for us and started annoying us in the big east. Memphis should get a slight bump. But really for annoyance again.

 

[Zissou]

Cuse is UConn’s one and only true rival.

Than, a relatively stable group of Gtown, PC and Nova

Below that a rotating cast of dweebs and clowns

Georgetown is Cuse’s true rival.

It’s a little sad when your true rival ranks you second tier.

 

[Kolumbo]

I know many were too young to remember but this is one reason I considered Georgetown, SJU and Nova our rivals. They set the bar. This bracket and the huge games. Syracuse and then Pitt also became huge rivals.

 

[huskyfan224]

Dook needs to be in with BC and Louisville too, I’d put them in that one and the category they’re in

 

[tzznandrew]

And please, people, stop saying Duke. Every school says Duke. I promise, Duke doesn’t think about us.

They may think about us more than some other non-ACC schools, but we ain't their rival. We're a school that cost them two titles almost two decades ago now.

 

[superjohn]

And please, people, stop saying Duke. Every school says Duke. I promise, Duke doesn’t think about us.

I wouldn't agree with that, I used to hang out with a couple of Duke grads and they used to think about UConn all the time, same goes for Kentucky. We kept them both from winning 2 more championships.

 

[superjohn]

Georgetown is Cuse’s true rival.

It’s a little sad when your true rival ranks you second tier.

You're ranking UConn as Nova's top rival, most UConn fans rank Nova as like their 4th or 5th rival. That will change going forward but it's a little sad when your true rival ranks you like 4th or 5th tier.

 

[drayenob]

From 2011:

bleacherreport.com/articles/855794-duke-basketball-ranking-the-10-teams-blue-devils-fans-hate-most

No. 2: UConn Huskies​

Twice they denied Duke a championship and now they want to join the ACC. This will be epic.
Duke fans will remember losing to UConn in the 1999 finals. Then failing to get by UConn in the 2004 Final Four.
Oh yea, there is a rivalry here, just not spoken about as much as the other more high profile cases.
Both these teams were on a collision course before Arizona got in the way and bounced Duke from the last NCAA tournament.
UConn joining the ACC will bring this quiet storm of a rivalry to the forefront.