Why do you like UConn?

[RJScootin]

I saw a lot of people complaining specifically about the lack of NBA prospects on our roster a few nights ago.

Only you can take NBA prospects and stretch that to lottery picks.

 

[CL82]

Lifelong CT resident. Didn't attend UConn. (BEI, nights, but ended up dropping out.) Played BBall though my teens. Just fell in following the Huskies -- probably because Tommy Penders, who I played pickup ball against on occasion, went there. Didn't hurt that he eventually went on to start his HS coaching career at my alma mater.
But my first Husky hero was his teammate, Toby Kimball.
Endured the lean times under Rowe and enjoyed the great times under JC.
Been a UConn fan for more than 50 years. I think I'm in it for the long haul.

Wow, you really are old!

 

[Sphinx]

Saw my first UConn game in 1954 (Patterson, Ahern, the great Quimby). I confess to being as guilty as any in saying negative things about the current state of the program. Fortunately I've had a course in Psychology 101, so I can guess why I do it. It is to say it before someone else does, because I can't stand to hear it from someone else. I'd rather be the one to post negatives and hear people tell me why I'm wrong. I am so involved with this team that I can't bear to watch them lose. I record games in progress, checking the score on the internet every ten minutes. If they're ahead, I go back and watch the recording up to that point; then I pause, check the score again, if they're ahead, I watch the next segment, and so on.

A true fan does not "enjoy" UConn basketball. It is a life experience, akin to seeing a kid safely through his/her teen years. It is mostly sitting up late at night, waiting for the car to pull in. "Enjoy" is not the word.

 

[temery]

I don’t understand. Are we less of fans for demanding greater success?

Yes

 

[CL82]

Saw my first UConn game in 1954 (Patterson, Ahern, the great Quimby). I confess to being as guilty as any in saying negative things about the current state of the program. Fortunately I've had a course in Psychology 101, so I can guess why I do it. It is to say it before someone else does, because I can't stand to hear it from someone else. I'd rather be the one to post negatives and hear people tell me why I'm wrong. I am so involved with this team that I can't bear to watch them lose. I record games in progress, checking the score on the internet every ten minutes. If they're ahead, I go back and watch the recording up to that point; then I pause, check the score again, if they're ahead, I watch the next segment, and so on.

A true fan does not "enjoy" UConn basketball. It is a life experience, akin to seeing a kid safely through his/her teen years. It is mostly sitting up late at night, waiting for the car to pull in. "Enjoy" is not the word.

Until the '89-90 season, then I enjoyed it quite a bit. 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014 were particularly pleasant.

(Truth be told I even enjoyed the Perno years, painful though they were.)

 

[mauconnfan]

I don’t understand. Are we less of fans for demanding greater success? The day I stop caring about performance is the day we become Rutgers fans. I’ll never stop supporting UConn sports but that doesn’t mean we should be content with 6th place conference finishes.

No... we should demand success and expect it based on what's been built over the last almost 30 years. But like a person we also need to remember where we came from and in the face of diversity find a way to demand or expect that success in which doesn't create being "spoiled". To me I see a lot of fans on here who have been in this only since winning NC's or at least getting to the NCAA tourney/Sweet 16/elite 8 etc etc annually. They are spoiled and lucky them I guess. But they are also not able to process what's happening right now without being irrational from what I have seen.

 

[temery]

Oh.... you mean "Facebook"...

I have no idea what that means.

 

[UConnDan97]

I have no idea what that means.

My Facebook feed has turned into the cesspool with a little bit of baseball news. Let's hope the Boneyard doesn't turn into my Facebook feed...

 

[EBonz30]

Considering I am 32, I’ve been a fan since 1992, Donyell Marshall years. Also I grew up in Long Island, New York where there really isn’t many Uconn fans at all. Didn’t go to college at Uconn so this board is really the only people I know who are Uconn fans, that’s the main reason I come on.

Even though I have only seen a lot of success, I wouldn’t say I am spoiled because my expectations are not high ever since Calhoun left. I have a great appreciation for what both Calhoun and now Ollie has done for this program.

To understand where the program was, where it is now, & where it is going I believe it is extremely important.

Not going to get into why my expectations are not high, but I am happy with where the program is going.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I have no idea what that means.

Why am I not surprised?

My advice: keep it that way, unless you prefer cat videos & pictures of people's meals to OT posts about pizza/wings/burgers/hot dogs/condiments, bourbon, big screen TVs, pest control, medical diagnoses, and the Song Game.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I don’t understand. Are we less of fans for demanding greater success? The day I stop caring about performance is the day we become Rutgers fans. I’ll never stop supporting UConn sports but that doesn’t mean we should be content with 6th place conference finishes.

Demanding? As a fan you don’t have any control over any aspect of the basketball program. Or maybe you do, but I, like most I’m sure, don’t. I’m not sure where demands get you. Expecting? Even that’s a bit pushy, but closer to the mark.

Again, after Calhoun retired I dropped my expectations down to hopes, but I’m still rooting for great recruits to choose UConn, whether they are listed at 5, 50, 150, or 250 in the rankings. I’m still rooting for UConn to string wins together, I’m still hoping to see the same smart, tough basketball we all know from the last 30 years, and I’m still tuning in to every game that I can.

And I come here to be in contact with others like me, regardless of your hopes, expectations, or even demands.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Yes

BS. Winning increase expectations.

As long as you support the team and the players I don't see how you can't watch with a critical and discerning eye.

It's high level D1 sports. Not little league

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

Grew up in CT and started watching UCONN basketball in 1988 at age 10. Been a fan since, moved to NC 15 years ago, but still watch every game. It's hard to believe where our program is now.

 

[Travelman6]

I grew up in Connecticut. Of course eventually I would be exposed to Uconn. Who else did CT have at the time? Hartford for a few more years?

Any way, it must have been 1994. My 4th grade teacher, otherwise an , decided to put the Rider/Uconn game on for the class to see, which was cool of him considering what I just said. It must have been a 2:00 game because it was after lunch and I remember getting on the bus and running home to watch the final minutes. I had loved the Bulls prior to that for a few years so I had that Bball pedigree. I loved to just shoot hoops for hours, even during those cold winter days (I think 1995 was especially brutal). I watched most of the games in 1995 and 1996.

I digress. I think Florida came a little later that year and I realized I really liked the team when I got so pissed at those missed free throws and eventual overtime loss. I was probably only 10 at the time, first time I ever dropped the ¨F bomb¨ so to speak, going to bed so angry about the loss.

From there, the interest just grew rapidly, heart breaking loss after heart breaking loss...Ole Miss, UCLA, UNC and so on. Until 1999 when they shocked the world. I was hooked by 1998 though, I would say. I watched every single game of that season.

Even though I have only lived in CT for probably 1 year of the past 12 years, I watch them no matter where I am: I have lived in Maine , Washington DC, China, Colombia and now Guatemala in 11 of the past 12 years and I still follow them. I saw them win it all in Maine (2004), later back in CT (2011) for that 1 year stint, recovering from C@ncer (why is THAT word censored??) as well as that final four run when I was living in China when they lost to MSU in 2009 (ugh) and in Washington DC (2014). It seems I am somewhere else when they make the final four...Guatemala now?

 

[gampelcrazies]

I was born into this. Same with the Red Sox and Cowboys

 

[temery]

BS. Winning increase expectations.

As long as you support the team and the players I don't see how you can't watch with a critical and discerning eye.

It's high level D1 sports. Not little league

Demand is an absurd word in the context of a fan. You are not in the position to demand anything.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Demand is an absurd word in the context of a fan. You are not in the position to demand anything.

You're playing semantics.

Demand, expect, desire, whatever.

UConn has built a basketball program where making the tournament with regularlity and fielding a top 25 team has become the norm. Let's act like it.

Conversely, I'm a big UConn football fan. We're 3 and 4. Guess what? I'm happy with that. It's different expectations. UConn football may never be a top 40 team consistently. And that's fine with me.

You can't be as good as we have been and then just be content with sitting back and letting us be medicore.

 

[ctchamps]

I'm a fan because all my dresser drawers and closets are filled with UConn stuff. I'm not switching teams because I don't want to change my wardrobe.

I still have championship stuff that I keep saying I'll wear but knowing I won't be able to find replacements am hesitant to wear. I'm trying to calculate how long I'll live to be certain I can have something new to wear in the future and still have one "brand new" championship shirt that I can wear at my funeral. I literally live and die UConn men's bb.

I watch UConn football and that's already killed me.

 

[Stainmaster]

You can't be as good as we have been and then just be content with sitting back and letting us be medicore.

Using past performance to completely write off present conditions is fallacious.

 

[dennismenace]

Grew up in CT but wasn't a fan of college BB until I went to college. Went to Manhattan and Uconn used to play them over the Christmas vacation in the late 60's and I went to the games in the old Fieldhouse. Started to become interested while listening to Arnold Deane show as a Yankee fan in the late 70's. When the Big East was forming that was a very hot topic on the Deane show and when Corny Thompson got recruited I started to follow. Immensely enjoyed the whole Big East rivalry and becoming a fan of Uconn. What Jim Calhoun did is really hard to even put into words. Everyone around looked at Uconn as the doormat and Calhoun just kept believing and taking everyone with him. One of the greatest things I ever heard was a national tv announcer
referring to Uconn as THE dominant team in the Big East during the 1990's! Who'd thought? Been a little rough the last few years and things have not gone our way but I have great hopes this will turn around. We need only look back to 2014 and continue to recruit the caliber of young men and staff who are believers and refuse to quit.

 

[temery]

You need a thesaurus. Demand implies authority. Fans have no authority over a team whatsoever.

You're playing semantics.

Demand, expect, desire, whatever.

UConn has built a basketball program where making the tournament with regularlity and fielding a top 25 team has become the norm. Let's act like it.

Conversely, I'm a big UConn football fan. We're 3 and 4. Guess what? I'm happy with that. It's different expectations. UConn football may never be a top 40 team consistently. And that's fine with me.

You can't be as good as we have been and then just be content with sitting back and letting us be medicore.

 

[HooperScooper]

Surprised nobody posted this.

 

[ctchamps]

You're playing semantics.

Demand, expect, desire, whatever.

UConn has built a basketball program where making the tournament with regularlity and fielding a top 25 team has become the norm. Let's act like it.

Conversely, I'm a big UConn football fan. We're 3 and 4. Guess what? I'm happy with that. It's different expectations. UConn football may never be a top 40 team consistently. And that's fine with me.

You can't be as good as we have been and then just be content with sitting back and letting us be medicore.

And here in lies the gist of this discussion. Each of us handle things we observe differently.

Football has been so bad you've capitulated to the point that a 3-4 season feels good to you.

BB is different for you because between the two sports your expectations are different given that bb has not gone through such a terrible state.

Different experiences giving you different reactions.

But each of us are different. Some of us are not interested in football. Some of us are not as content with a 3-4 record. Some of us are happy and some of us are thrilled (me).

Different types of reactions apply to those of us who root for the men's bb team.

The funny (or sad) thing is everyone is telling everyone else the proper way they should react. people react to the world in the manner they consider appropriate. And for most of us what is appropriate is how we react to things.

 

[UC1995]

We are the the team that could prove that every team can have the chance to compete if you find the perfect coach. We were so bad in the early 80s and turned into a juggernaut. We got to live through what some only dream about. Having that happen when you are a kid is the thrill of a lifetime. Maybe that is why I am not jaded now. I had great memories before during and after college and that can't be ever changed!

 

[TheChamps990411]

Maybe it would benefit all of us to take a step back and enjoy what we have.

Maybe it would benefit you to not give two fcks what other people say and think and let them take away your enjoyment of something you love.