You are right! I mean, who doesn't remember all of the Providence national championships, I mean final fours, I mean elite eights, umm Sweet 16's? Round of 32? Uh... you know what I stand by what I said.
I agree that it was a strange hire. He was a hero in Providence because he was a local guy, not because he was the second coming of Dave Gavitt. But then, I think it would be great if Georgetown was mediocre. They haven’t reached that stage for 10 years. An 11 team league cannot carry 25% of its membership as a joke. It absolutely hurt last year. The Johnnies crying that they missed a bid despite winning 6 in a row, but failed to admit that 4 of the 6 were against 2 of the worst D1 teams in major college basketball. Nobody takes those wins seriously. They only take it seriously if you lose to one.
I'm not sure I agree about DePaul. It has some history and if they compete, I think they have more than enough fan interest to fill Wintrust. If worse comes to worst, just sell $2 Millers. It's a great basketball arena in downtown Chicago. At least one home game will sell out, although it falls on January First
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They joined in 2005 and have been bad since they joined, haven't made an NCAA tournament since 2004.
Stop defending the indefensible. DePaul hasn’t been even slightly below average for decades. Last year they drew a whole 3400 for the defending National Champs. Doubt they will do much better this year.I'm not sure I agree about DePaul. It has some history and if they compete, I think they have more than enough fan interest to fill Wintrust. If worse comes to worst, just sell $2 Millers. It's a great basketball arena in downtown Chicago. At least one home game will sell out, although it falls on January First
DePaul's success tied to Holtmann's roster construction
CHICAGO -- When Chris Holtmann took the DePaul job in March, he knew the challenge ahead. The challenge, though, in getting the Blue Demons back to where they once were is…
I wasn't kidding that Georgetown has logistically nowhere to go. It's not a good fit for a lot of conferences because of the number of teams it fields (30) and that men's basketball is so overweight in the budget (57% of opex) that it puts strain on all the other teams to adequately compete. That, and a nonscholarship football program averaging 3,600 a game is not a calling card.
I say this as a fan of Patrick Ewing (and to a lesser extent Alonzo Mourning), I hope Georgetown can turn things around. It would great for them and the Big East.
I honestly think, and have heard from alums I know who are more recent grads, that Georgetown cares about athletics, but not that much. They see themselves as the Catholic Ivy even if the real Ivies don’t see them that way. LOL. They really don’t want to be embarrassed in athletics, but they don’t need to be NCAA Champs to be happy either. The occasional bid would be fine. It is much more of a Ivy Patriot League world view. Maybe it is partly that if you graduated from Georgetown over the last 15-20 years, you really haven’t experienced much more than that. And basketball is no longer “a thing” on campus. I’ve always thought a long history of bad teams can really hurt because when students don’t care, that Carrie’s over to when they are alumni. They simply have other connections to the school. And you can’t rebuild that with 1 good season.
I'm not sure I agree about DePaul. It has some history and if they compete, I think they have more than enough fan interest to fill Wintrust. If worse comes to worst, just sell $2 Millers. It's a great basketball arena in downtown Chicago. At least one home game will sell out, although it falls on January First
DePaul's success tied to Holtmann's roster construction
CHICAGO -- When Chris Holtmann took the DePaul job in March, he knew the challenge ahead. The challenge, though, in getting the Blue Demons back to where they once were is…
well then, may as well consider the program dead.
I think DePaul has a chance to turn it around. They hired an experienced HC in Chris Holtman who won at Butler and at Ohio St. Was Big South COY in 2013, Big East COY in 2017, and Big 10 COY in 2018. Has made 7 NCAA Tournaments and is 7-7. He completely flipped the DePaul roster so it's hard to say how the team will work out this year.
The C7 certainly did not ask UConn to move up their timeline... that would be all our former friends playing in the ACC and Big 12.
Were? There are still plenty of fans that would rather see our athletic department flounder than leave the Big East.
This is absolutely true.
It always fascinates me that some people believe our conference affiliation, rather than our coach, is the biggest factor in UConn's men's basketball most recent revival.
100% agree. That's why I use the phrase "biggest factor"
Agreed. I also think it made recruiting somewhat easier. That said, I'm pretty confident that we have similar success in the American so long as our coaching staff remains the same.
That's the 15% I was talking about. For basketball, being in the Big East was healthier for us than the American because we could go back to selling the importance of basketball and regaining our control over NYC and MSG.
So in your opinion is the bigger factor conference affiliation or Coach?
This is exactly right and I don’t get why people don’t understand this. I concede I don’t completely understand the quad system. But the NEWBE has 2 quad 4 teams last year. The BIG 10 and Big 12 had 0 and the SEC and ACC each had 1. But all those leagues had many more teams.
The entire post was written in past tense, but go off.