Who will be our "ND" next season?

[Husky Love]

Since the BE has dissolved and we're now in the AAC, who will be our competition? The Teams that are in the AAC are mid majors at best and they pose NO threat to us. We have some tough OOC games, but most are in the 1st half of the season. Us having to play ND 3 times prepared us for any and everything. Beating up on mid majors wont help us going into the Tourney. I just hope that we keep the same momentum/fire we had towards the end of this season, going into next season. Beating up on mid majors can get boring. #BleedBlue

 

[UConnCat]

Toughest competition in conference next year will be Louisville (joins ACC for 2014-2015 season). Rutgers will join the B1G in 2014 so it will be on the schedule again. Hopefully RU will be improved and make the NCAAs.

 

[UConnChapette]

Agree with UConnCat. Louisville it is.

 

[Tonyc]

What might be a problem for UConn next season is their conference schedule, being to easy. No offense but to many push overs. Yes we have a good OOC schedule but most of Feb will be almost effortless wins. This could be a problem in the NCAAs. I do think UConn has enough fire power to over come it and win their 9NC infront of our very good friends in Tenn but I am concerned about our conference schedule. It almost resembles UNCs.

 

[UcMiami]

The conference schedule being weak is not that big a deal I think. We won our earlier titles with pretty weak conference schedules and with much weaker OOC schedules.
Geno is a pretty good coach at focusing players on issues other than the scoreboard. Screw up a play in a blow-out and you will be on the bench maybe faster than doing so in a close game.

 

[alexrgct]

The conference schedule being weak is not that big a deal I think. We won our earlier titles with pretty weak conference schedules and with much weaker OOC schedules.
Geno is a pretty good coach at focusing players on issues other than the scoreboard. Screw up a play in a blow-out and you will be on the bench maybe faster than doing so in a close game.

Agreed. A weak schedule sucks for season ticket holders but probably doesn't hurt in terms of winning a national championships. I will say that in this season, it probably helped having Baylor and ND in February/March because so much hinged on the freshmen understanding what elite competition looked like.

 

[meyers7]

We'll probably end up playing Louisville 3 times next year. That's about it for the conference. Hopefully Rutgers can give us a couple decent games also.

Heck Cincy is probably going to be in the upper half of the league.

 

[connboy77]

It will be UCONN and Louisville and then a major drop off of epic proportions.

 

[dtbtbtb]

Temple is a decent team as well

 

[reno tony]

There won't be another team that has UCONN's number like N.D. did. Well, at least not for the next three years. The only teams that have recruiting classes that might compete are TENN, Duke and N.C. but we don't play them enough to be an arch nemesis.

 

[DobbsRover2]

It will be UCONN and Louisville and then a major drop off of epic proportions.

Nah, not really. First off, as you mention, the conference in 2013 has the two NC teams in it, which gives it some instant respect. After that you have USF in the top 30 this year and a Rutgers that fell way back to #54 in Sagarin but always has some potential. And none of the other 6 members are silly bad like the worst BEast members. Remember, if the 10 members of the 2013-14 AAC had their Sags rating average taken from this year, they would have a 79.17 ranking that would score them above the PAC as the 5th best conference. Sure, the scores for four of the teams were built largely on BEast and good OOC schedules, but the scores of five of the other six teams would have gotten a nice boost in their Sags scores by playing four of the five BEast crossovers, so it about evens out.

Nothing epic going on, and at least UConn won't have to play real creampuffs like Providence and Pittsburgh. Stanford and Cal did alright this year in the woeful PAC, so no big deal.

 

[msf22b]

I don't like it.
Long flights to games with no competition. Bah, Humbug.
Maybe Geno will turn the trips into a US gastronomic tour

 

[alexrgct]

I don't like it.
Long flights to games with no competition. Bah, Humbug.
Maybe Geno will turn the trips into a US gastronomic tour

There is absolutely nothing wrong with three trips to Texas (two in-conference, one to Waco). Huge opportunity to recruit down there.

 

[Phil]

First off, as you mention, the conference in 2013 has the two NC teams in it, which gives it some instant respect.

Your post prompted me to look at the FF participants over the last five years, by new conference.
The results are interesting, if my numbers are right. Over those five years, 20 teams made the Final four. The count, by 2014 conference:

• 7 AAC
• 5 PAC12
• 4 Big12
• 3 ACC
• 1 SEC

It isn't just UConn dominated. There are two appearances by AAC teams other than UConn. No there conference has more than one team beyond the first. (PAC 12, California; Big 12 Oklahoma).

Interestingly, all three ACC appearances and the single SEC appearance are by teams not in the conference at the time (ND and TAMU)

 

[UcMiami]

There won't be another team that has UCONN's number like N.D. did. Well, at least not for the next three years. The only teams that have recruiting classes that might compete are TENN, Duke and N.C. but we don't play them enough to be an arch nemesis.

For the last 20+ years there hasn't been a team that 'had Uconns number like ND did.'
Personally I think ND jumped from the BE/AAC because they knew with Diggins gone and Stewie and KML here, that they would return to their former state of never being able to beat Uconn. That ND AD/Pres acted just like Pat when Parker graduated and she started ducked us.