My single best takeaway from this year's tourney show...

[zls44]

This is my take as well - how fun would college basketball even be if you looked at the schedule in February and saw games against Tulane, Houston, and East Central Georgia coming up? I think it would kill me.

If you win out in conference, well, you should because you're UConn. Those seasons you can probably deal with - still awful, but you're probably getting a great seed. Yay!

If you lose to these teams, and don't win the conference...it's slit your wrist time.

Those titles are phenomenal, but I'm not sure I could deal with the sadness that would follow not making the tourney in a conference with THOSE teams...it's tough. I do feel a little bad for their fans.

I understand why you'd think this from the outside, but there was a surprising amount of energy and excitement for playing those crap teams over the weekend with an NCAA spot on the line. The XL Center was full and loud for the last 2 games (USF game less so, lol).

 

[Toga]

My single biggest takeaway is that I don't care nearly as much without SU in the tournament. UConn may become the CCC, i.e. Connecticut Community College, but I don't wish them any ill will. We had an important rivalry with them in the best basketball conference in the US for many years, and we were much more fortunate than they were when it all fell apart. I don't really enjoy anyone's agony unless it's a direct result of us beating them in a game. I will savor the memory of the 6 overtime game till the day I die but not their school's demise. I have friends in Connecticut that will never recover from the snubs unless they eventually find their way into a conference with standing. I feel for them in the "There but for the grace of God" kind of way. I'd much rather beat them on the field or on the court than how they lost this game.

That's just crazy talk.

 

[Ghost]

I understand why you'd think this from the outside, but there was a surprising amount of energy and excitement for playing those crap teams over the weekend with an NCAA spot on the line. The XL Center was full and loud for the last 2 games (USF game less so, lol).

Hope so - I think I would find it miserable. Not even meaning that to take a shot at UConn. I would just hate to see that schedule laid out before me. Again, if we trounce them all I laugh all the way to the one seed I suppose, but in down years, I can't fathom how blah I would feel that we were on the same level as some of those schools.

 

[jgeorge322]

Uconn wouldve been so much better staying in the big east and going indepedent for football. They should still consider it.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

They return 9 of 10 guys (sans Boatright) and insert a top-3 PG recruit, plus another top-100 big guy.

But, you know, whatever fuels your delusions of UConn falling to the wayside.

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Without Boatright, your team doesn't win 10 games...those other guys better improve...a lot...

Ollie better be the right guy.

Very few teams remain nationally relevant sans affiliation with a power conference. Those that do have a superior coach. They are few and far between.

The far more common outcome is for those programs to fall off the radar screen.

If Ollie turns out to be the wrong guy, the program may not recover...

And even if he turns out to be the right guy, what is your ceiling, given your conference affiliation?

For the last 20 years, you guys are used to operating at a Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, Carolina level.

Even the very top teams from non-power conferences don't operate at that level.

Gonzaga, Butler, VCU - all strong programs but not operating in close to the rarified air that you have enjoyed...

 

[Shenexon]

That's just crazy talk.

(Sigh)...I know, but delusion is one of my strengths...

 

[SU2NASA]

They return 9 of 10 guys (sans Boatright) and insert a top-3 PG recruit, plus another top-100 big guy.

But, you know, whatever fuels your delusions of UConn falling to the wayside.

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[CraigForth]

I don't know - I think if I could have it my way, UCONN would suffer in the low major conference they are in for like 5 more years. Just because their tears taste so good and I love reading on their message board all of the posts where people think not being in a p5 is somehow ok and the other half trying to show them the light. Then I would like for a re-org in the ACC where we pull the old switcheroo on BC and kick them out of the league in favor of UCONN and Cincy. I hate UCONN but they are too good a program and rivalry to leave out in the cold forever.