Around the Big East 19/20

[quote="Adam" post=364245][quote="Mike Zaun" post=364227]Sorry guys, but I love the UConn addition. They just beat a ranked Florida team and if they beat Xavier they will be ranked again and nationally relevant again. I'd rather have a ranked UConn in our conference than watch it happen in the AAC. I dream of the day I see #18 St. John's vs. #20 UConn at MSG in front of a sold out crowd with tourney implications. They take an already good Big East and make it even better and much harder for ESPN to write us off as a conference. No more arguments about "aren't they just kinda a mid major league now?" among casual fans who don't know better. It's good for college basketball, good for the Northeast, good for tickets, good for hype, and prestige. They will also give us 2 chances to beat their behinds every year ; )[/quote]

Yeah, it seems most of those against it are older. Mike I believe is around my age (30), and our generation grew up not seeing any of the current Big East teams win championships. Georgetown was always decent, Marquette was solid, but the big, big, BIG exception was always UConn. They've won 4 during the past 2 decades, while nobody else (besides Nova) has won during our lifetimes.

Nova has obviously passed them during the past 5 years (in terms of elite status), but UConn is still a bigger/more popular brand than the rest of us. Our league is deep but we definitely need another top team, and UConn should be a Top 25 team next year. I look forward to our next TV contract, and the ideal scenario of a ranked UConn vs ranked St. John's at MSG. Perhaps that won't be too far away.[/quote]



Nah, I am 71 and am all for UCONN being back in the Big Fast. It can be a great rivalry again. Remember those classic battles at the Garden and in Storrs.
 
[quote="panther2" post=364248][quote="Adam" post=364245][quote="Mike Zaun" post=364227]Sorry guys, but I love the UConn addition. They just beat a ranked Florida team and if they beat Xavier they will be ranked again and nationally relevant again. I'd rather have a ranked UConn in our conference than watch it happen in the AAC. I dream of the day I see #18 St. John's vs. #20 UConn at MSG in front of a sold out crowd with tourney implications. They take an already good Big East and make it even better and much harder for ESPN to write us off as a conference. No more arguments about "aren't they just kinda a mid major league now?" among casual fans who don't know better. It's good for college basketball, good for the Northeast, good for tickets, good for hype, and prestige. They will also give us 2 chances to beat their behinds every year ; )[/quote]

Yeah, it seems most of those against it are older. Mike I believe is around my age (30), and our generation grew up not seeing any of the current Big East teams win championships. Georgetown was always decent, Marquette was solid, but the big, big, BIG exception was always UConn. They've won 4 during the past 2 decades, while nobody else (besides Nova) has won during our lifetimes.

Nova has obviously passed them during the past 5 years (in terms of elite status), but UConn is still a bigger/more popular brand than the rest of us. Our league is deep but we definitely need another top team, and UConn should be a Top 25 team next year. I look forward to our next TV contract, and the ideal scenario of a ranked UConn vs ranked St. John's at MSG. Perhaps that won't be too far away.[/quote]



Nah, I am 71 and am all for UCONN being back in the Big Fast. It can be a great rivalry again. Remember those classic battles at the Garden and in Storrs.[/quote]

I'd be a lot more for it, if they weren't a big state school, who will blow us, and the rest of the Big East schools, out of the water WRT to budget. Teams like UCONN are the reason we left the old Big East.

What we really needed to do, was to have a nice conversation with Villanova, and told them that we're bringing Temple in, whether you like it, or not. They would have been the best fit, IMO. We also could have taken Dayton. Coming into this league would probably do for them, what it's done for Creighton.
 
As a general rule I think UCONN is a good addition. That said we have the most to loose of all BE teams because they recruit in our backyard.
 
SJU61982 is right on the money. The issue is resources. Right now every team in the BE is similarly resourced. By letting UConn back in we are setting ourselves to be on the short end of a huge resource disparity against a flagship state school. That was the problem with the old Too Big East.

Count me as someone who hates the move to let UConn back in. I'm 52 years old, so I can remember back when they were a doormat and watched their rise to a national powerhouse.

Now they are completely irrelevant, which is why they came crawling back with their tail between their legs. I have no idea why we would want to throw them a life preserver. Let them drown in the ridiculous polyglot AAC conference.

Does anyone have any doubt that they will leaver the Big East if they get a better offer? If the Big 10 or ACC comes calling, watch how fast they leave...
 
[quote="RedmanMike" post=364255]SJU61982 is right on the money. The issue is resources. Right now every team in the BE is similarly resourced. By letting UConn back in we are setting ourselves to be on the short end of a huge resource disparity against a flagship state school. That was the problem with the old Too Big East.

Count me as someone who hates the move to let UConn back in. I'm 52 years old, so I can remember back when they were a doormat and watched their rise to a national powerhouse.

Now they are completely irrelevant, which is why they came crawling back with their tail between their legs. I have no idea why we would want to throw them a life preserver. Let them drown in the ridiculous polyglot AAC conference.

Does anyone have any doubt that they will leaver the Big East if they get a better offer? If the Big 10 or ACC comes calling, watch how fast they leave...[/quote]

If I was the pres I say to yukon: "You really really want back? ok, then agree to a $50million. hey, since you really want back then 50million mean nothing since you won't try to leave anyway, right?????
IT'S CALLED PUTTING UP OR SHUTTING UP
 
It's a tough call for me on UConn and to be honest I'm still pretty 50/50.

My reasons against are basically what Redman Mike laid out. They're a big, well-funded state school that doesn't fit the profile of the new, leaner conference at all. If you put aside history and geography they really don't make any sense. Also, I've really been enjoying the 10 team round robin format and the collection of schools in it.

I think it'd be good for the conference because of the history and if they can climb back to the top it would be great to have another Big East program that we can count on to be consistently nationally relevant. While I believe they can do it, I have much more faith in Hurley as a recruiter than an in game coach. I don't think Dan Hurley is a bad coach by any means but I also think he's wildly overrated. They talk about him like he's a savant when nothing backs that up. He can recruit at a very high level. I think he's a fantastic recruiter. I think he's an average to maybe slightly above average in game coach. I don't think he's great at developing players and while he does a good job of replicating the classic Hurley tough love/yelling motivation, that gets old and doesn't work with every group of players. I have faith Hurley gets them back to being consistently top 50 because he'll bring in talent. I don't think we'll see a 2nd coming of Calhoun's Huskies ever again. I'd be more worried about going up against him in recruiting than on the court.
 
[quote="Moose" post=364259]I hope Xavier takes them out back and gives them an old school beating[/quote]

Sounds good to me. STOMP them with steel toed boots.
 
[quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364261][quote="Moose" post=364259]I hope Xavier takes them out back and gives them an old school beating[/quote]

Sounds good to me. STOMP them with steel toed boots.[/quote]

I knew you would agree! ;)
 
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[quote="Mike Zaun" post=364227]Sorry guys, but I love the UConn addition. They just beat a ranked Florida team and if they beat Xavier they will be ranked again and nationally relevant again. I'd rather have a ranked UConn in our conference than watch it happen in the AAC. I dream of the day I see #18 St. John's vs. #20 UConn at MSG in front of a sold out crowd with tourney implications. They take an already good Big East and make it even better and much harder for ESPN to write us off as a conference. No more arguments about "aren't they just kinda a mid major league now?" among casual fans who don't know better. It's good for college basketball, good for the Northeast, good for tickets, good for hype, and prestige. They will also give us 2 chances to beat their behinds every year ; )[/quote]

And as soon as they become ranked again and gain national recognition, they'll start asking about joining the ACC. THAT"S why I do not want them back in the BE.
 
[quote="Moose" post=364262][quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364261][quote="Moose" post=364259]I hope Xavier takes them out back and gives them an old school beating[/quote]

Sounds good to me. STOMP them with steel toed boots.[/quote]

I knew you would agree! ;)[/quote]

Cool, you're Nostradamus huh?
Good to know buddy
 
[quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364264][quote="Moose" post=364262][quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364261][quote="Moose" post=364259]I hope Xavier takes them out back and gives them an old school beating[/quote]

Sounds good to me. STOMP them with steel toed boots.[/quote]

I knew you would agree! ;)[/quote]

Cool, you're Nostradamus huh?
Good to know buddy[/quote]

Not sure why the harsh reply. I was always a fan
 
[quote="Moose" post=364265][quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364264][quote="Moose" post=364262][quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364261][quote="Moose" post=364259]I hope Xavier takes them out back and gives them an old school beating[/quote]

Sounds good to me. STOMP them with steel toed boots.[/quote]

I knew you would agree! ;)[/quote]

Cool, you're Nostradamus huh?
Good to know buddy[/quote]

Not sure why the harsh reply. I was always a fan[/quote]

Harsh,? I was always a fan of nostradamus also.
Just hoping you're the next nostradamus
 
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Back to hoops.....

Villanova in a tight one leading unbeaten Mississippi State by 4 with 15:45 to go.
 
My belief is that UConn will get back to being relevant by next year. It's much better for them to do that in the Big East than the AAC. AAC has been running obnoxious "Power 6" ads and the bigger the separation between us, that more ridiculous they'll look. UConn has been recruiting very well the past few years and will get back to being a great team. Will they win National Championships again? Probably not for a while, but they don't need to. Just being a consistently good team with a big fanbase would be enough.

As for the 2 main concerns mentioned:
1. Leaving for the ACC/B1G/BXII. It's possible, but I doubt it. They weren't invited 5 years ago when they won the National Championship. They weren't invited when the Big 12 publicly looked for teams to join a couple years ago. They weren't invited when the ACC/B1G tried taking MSG last year. Nobody invited Nova despite their 2 Titles in 3 years, because realignment isn't about basketball. It's about football, and UConn's football is worse than ever before. Further, we have MSG locked up and the ACC/B1G can't overtake that for at least the next decade. UConn also has a massive exit fee of $30 million. Putting all of this together, I think it's very unlikely they leave.
2. As for the public vs private competitive angle, I disagree. It's not like we have too many top teams like the old Big East. If anything, we need more. They'll help us get an additional bid more often than not. Also, we currently have 3 schools in the top 15 recruiting for next year. They are Marquette, Xavier and Butler. Not the big schools like UConn, Georgetown, St. John's or DePaul. Nova this year had a top 5 class and they're not a huge school either. So that theory in year 1 at least doesn't hold any weight. The question is do you want their great class (#45 nationally) added, or not? The answer for me is an obvious "yes". They will take some recruits from us, but that has happened plenty of times the past few years regardless of their conference affiliation.
 
I see pc is one of 6 b.e. teams in the ncaa tournament projection, and they lost at n'western, n'western sucks, they lost to merrimack and Radford at home.

If pc is projected in. Then I fully expect sju, if they beat Az st. & play uva close the whole game to be one of the b.e teams projected in
 
Much too early in the year to make postseason predictions.
 
[quote="Knight" post=364272]Much too early in the year to make postseason predictions.[/quote]

True, but ESPN is doing it, so I'm just stating that.
 
[quote="Tom H O'Toole" post=364273][quote="Knight" post=364272]Much too early in the year to make postseason predictions.[/quote]

True, but ESPN is doing it, so I'm just stating that.[/quote]

[attachment=1170]49EB9A4C-EA02-45C9-88E6-252048C1051B.jpeg[/attachment]
 
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