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Message: [QUOTE="Plebe, post: 4052463, member: 6927"] I was looking for the "100 likes" button for this post, but apparently it hasn't been added yet. These narratives reflect IMO a psychological urge to pin the blame for past or future losses on external factors outside of UConn's control. I suppose deep down this is a comfort to some, as it implies we were/are the primarily a victim of circumstance, rather than having the agency to take full credit/blame for our wins/losses. Last year, UConn traveled to Arkansas and lost. Predictably, up sprang a panicked thread: "[B]Has playing in the[/B] [whatever conference] [B]caught up to UConn?[/B]" In other words: "Surely it can't be our team's fault for losing! It's the crappy conference we're stuck in!" As if UConn, in a dreamed-up scenario where they were an SEC team and this game had been an SEC contest vs. Arkansas, would have surely won instead. The OP brought up the 2012-13 season. Well, believe it or not, the team that played the toughest SOS that season wasn't UConn or any other Big East team. It was Baylor, who played 5 top-10 opponents in the nonconference plus a then-very respectable Big 12 slate. But that tough schedule didn't immunize Baylor against a stunning Sweet 16 loss to a 5 seed. Another team that didn't seem to benefit from their tough schedule that season was Notre Dame, who not only played the same "tough" Big East conference as UConn but ran the table in it. But guess what, that didn't immunize Notre Dame against a poor performance in the national semifinals, against a team they'd already beaten 3 times. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach