Who would you rather be?

[Jaydumo20]

Listening to TopDogs the other day, Rob was saying how UConn's ability to retain juniors/seniors, and develop and utilize freshmen, still resembles the non NIL era where you dont solely buy a team (a la BUY, INDIANA football/basketball etc)

This is not a question of would you rather have a lot of money and still do things the UConn way.

as a fan, since we don't have the bank roll the others schools have and still win, do you like it better this way as long as we're still elite, or do you prefer a high payroll bought team with less anxiety going into the next season.


"I just want to win, I don't care how" is not an option for a reason. You have to choose between more risk/higher integrity (sometimes out of necessity), or more money/more turnover.

 

[Jaydumo20]

I chose option 2 because I like to get to know our dudes. I love that we are able to watch Solo, AK, JRoss, and Stew develop and win rings. It would not be as satisfying if we didnt have that base of true blues.

 

[AllHusky]

Yes, having elements of old school program/individual development does have a certain charm, and lends itself to fandom moreso than the St Johns Hessians.

 

[superjohn]

We pay our players a lot of money and the staff finds the right players for our system. The staff retains the players they want to retain and jettisons the ones they don't want to retain and replaces them with better players they pay a lot of money for.

I like our system the most.

 

[thekollieman]

I think we do have a lot of money and still do things the UConn way. That’s the beauty of Hurley’s approach in these new times of college bball: he’s struck the perfect balance. I see the question as posed to be a choice between, for example, Marquette (don’t want to be like them) or St John’s (don’t want to be like them either). I abstained from voting.

Edit: out of respect for the thought behind the thread (must choose), I choose option 2 for same reasoning as JayDumo in his own answer.

 

[Jaydumo20]

We pay our players a lot of money and the staff finds the right players for our system. The staff retains the players they want to retain and jettisons the ones they don't want to retain and replaces them with better players they pay a lot of money for.

I like our system the most.

I get you.
If we had BYU $$$ do you still think we'd keep all of the OG recruits we have?
Let's say we replaced Ross over the summer? Is it better for you as a fan to go into the season with Ross, a true Husky but largely unproven, and watch him grow. Or watch a bigger $$$ transfer guy take his spot?
I guess this is the gist of my post. As clunky as I worded it...

 

[NJHusky]

I saw a post on cuse board saying we had a 12m Nil. Is that accurate?

 

[Hoophound]

Our system clearly builds a good team consistently. It's kind of a no brainer to choose it. However, we have money. Not f u money, but quite a bit.

 

[Jaydumo20]

I saw a post on cuse board saying we had a 12m Nil. Is that accurate?

Good question. I'm not sure what our payroll is.

 

[thekollieman]

I get you.
If we had BYU $$$ do you still think we'd still keep all of the OG recruits we have?
Let's say we replaced Ross? Is it better as a fan to go into the season with Ross, a true Husky but unproven, and watch him grow. Or watch a bigger $$$ transfer guy take his spot?

If we had BYU money I think the biggest difference for me as a fan is I wouldn’t be concerned at all about whether or not Stew and Ross will be with us next year.

 

[imno1]

We are not the richest but we have more money to offer than most schools.

 

[Jaydumo20]

We are not the richest but we have more money to offer than most schools.

Im pretty sure AJD would've chosen us over BUY if we could've come close $$$ wise. So we still miss out on guys we target because of this..... but we beat them anyway. I like that better. He didnt want to be a Husky bad enough. Dont let the door hit ya

 

[storrsroars]

I get you.
If we had BYU $$$ do you still think we'd keep all of the OG recruits we have?
Let's say we replaced Ross over the summer? Is it better for you as a fan to go into the season with Ross, a true Husky but largely unproven, and watch him grow. Or watch a bigger $$$ transfer guy take his spot?
I guess this is the gist of my post. As clunky as I worded it...

I'll agree with SJ. Especially the part of identifying talent that works with what Hurley wants to do. That's how you end up with Tristen Newtons and not Boogie Flands.

 

[Jaydumo20]

I'll agree with SJ. Especially the part of identifying talent that works with what Hurley wants to do. That's how you end up with Tristen Newtons and not Boogie Flands.

I agree with him too. I think we have it right where we are now. We have enough money to compete on that stage but we still need to be smart and make the right moves.we still look like UConn

 

[Palatine]

For a coach that values relationships, just buying players for a year, would take the fun and meaning out of coaching.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I saw a post on cuse board saying we had a 12m Nil. Is that accurate?

It's in the ballpark.

 

[HuskyHawk]

 

[bendm]

We are the Goldilocks program. Being a Duke fan by comparison does not seem fulfilling. I would hate to have their roster turnover, year in year out, not to mention they haven’t won championship in over a decade

 

[willie99]

I couldn't be happier

 

[boog204]

the more retention, the better. A couple of weeks ago I was looking for info on Nico Bundalo and the Ole Miss fans didn’t even know who was on the team as I think they had one returnee and 14 new players. I think that’d be miserable. Even Pre-NIL, I would’ve hated being a Kentucky fan and having a new set of mercenary freshmen each year. I mean the joy we’re taking from Ross or Stew having a day or the fact that we’ve had a four year starter in AK is next level awesome. We do it the right way. Hopefully we can continue with it.

 

[lateralous]

I prefer watching players grow from year to year. I don't mind transfers but I like that we skew toward multi year guys in the portal. Mahaney didn’t work out and Specer was a late add but otherwise we’ve been able to see guys like Newton, Reed and Diarra grow from year to year. Hopefully Demary is a two year guy as well.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Dont think this had to be a poll. We are extremely fortunate to have Hurley and his system. Watching guys develop is a joy that fans of many programs don't get these days

 

[TheChamps990411]

Listening to TopDogs the other day, Rob was saying how UConn's ability to retain juniors/seniors, and develop and utilize freshmen, still resembles the non NIL era where you dont solely buy a team (a la BUY, INDIANA football/basketball etc)

This is not a question of would you rather have a lot of money and still do things the UConn way.

as a fan, since we don't have the bank roll the others schools have and still win, do you like it better this way as long as we're still elite, or do you prefer a high payroll bought team with less anxiety going into the next season.


"I just want to win, I don't care how" is not an option for a reason. You have to choose between more risk/higher integrity (sometimes out of necessity), or more money/more turnover.

Please take no offense but its a silly question completely out of context. Option #2 is only worth it if youre Uconn. Why would we want to do it any other way other than the way we do it here? I personally could not care less about having a 5 man, 5* class filled with one and dones. I like having a mix of burger boys and developmental players who stay two, three or all four years. This has been the Uconn way since i became a fan 35 years ago, it has worked and i hope it doesnt change.

 

[B1GEast]

I bet if you changed the question to

Big money
or
UConn

And asked other fan bases, you'd probably get a lot of UConn. We have become the envy of many fan bases

 

[Jaydumo20]

Please take no offense but its a silly question completely out of context. Option #2 is only worth it if youre Uconn. Why would we want to do it any other way other than the way we do it here? I personally could not care less about having a 5 man, 5* class filled with one and dones. I like having a mix of burger boys and developmental players who stay two, three or all four years. This has been the Uconn way since i became a fan 35 years ago, it has worked and i hope it doesnt change.

No offense taken. There have been enough posts that show envy of the big money schools that I thought it would be prudent to ask if some would rather just load up with big money guys every year.

Whether that means the people who envy that budget want to be just like them I don't know. I'm sure there are some who wouldve wanted to replace some of our true blues judging by the way they were talked about pre-season. That's the temptation when you have SEC type money.

but i agree with you. the point here is that we have it pretty damn good in storrs.