Courant Article

[No Quarter]

Maybe already posted but if so I missed it.

Interesting piece about the future of UConn as a BB power in the AAC given that they are no longer with a bunch of top BB programs and in other than a P5 conference.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men ... tml#page=1

Some of this applies to us also, I think.

[Pony_Law]

Uncool to post a link to an article behind a paywall.

[b_caesar]

t$;dr

[No Quarter]

Uncool to post a link to an article behind a paywall.

I agree. But when I read the article it was not restricted. Don't now know how I sneaked in. Can't find the path now. Sorry.

[No Quarter]

I googled "ucon bb future" and one of the returns is the article and it was not restricted this time.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men ... tml#page=1

[whitwiki]

Still pay wall

[mustangxc]

HARTFORD — The good news for UConn is that the Huskies are hosting their conference tournament for the first time since 1982. And in many ways, that is also the bad news.

The last time UConn's league rivals gathered in Hartford was 1982, the Big East was in its growing stage and UConn basketball was years from the perennial national contender it would become.

As American Athletic Conference teams gather in Hartford for the league tournament this week, there are concerns about the future in all corners of UConn's immense fan base, even though the program is less than a year removed from a fourth NCAA title. Will its affiliation with the AAC turn back the clock and eventually relegate UConn to second-tier status?

"UConn has established a brand that's one of the strongest in the country," said Jay Bilas, ESPN college basketball analyst. "Even though the league may not be as big, the brand will overcome that for a period of time. How long that happens is a different question. I don't know the answer to that."

After playing at what was known as the Civic Center in 1982, the Big East moved its tournament to New York and Madison Square Garden where it became a marquee event and UConn won it seven times.

"New York is New York and everybody knows that," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "It was a great atmosphere, the Big East Tournament — every game was electrifying. But Memphis was a great host city last year, the crowds came out, Memphis is a great basketball town, great knowledge of how it's supposed to be played. The Big East was the Big East, it's hard to compare it to anybody."

Now it's back home and, perhaps, back a step. The Huskies finished 17-13, 10-8 and sixth among 11 AAC teams. In order to return to the NCAA Tournament they will have to win the AAC tournament for its automatic bid. Anything short will land UConn in the NIT, a consolation prize, or end this season altogether.

Those eight losses in league play indicate that the strength of the basketball in the AAC is competitive, but that is not the point. In the old Big East, UConn games against rivals like Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Pitt and Louisville were a happening, providing a recruiting tool many schools could not match.

In the present tense, UConn games against unfamiliar and far-away rivals in the AAC, such as Tulane, East Carolina or Tulsa, just do not create the same atmosphere to showcase to recruits.

"Rivalries are usually borne out of two really good teams playing against each other," Bilas said. "If those teams maintain really good programs, those games will be something that people want to watch. Five years ago, could you have imagined wanting to watch UConn play SMU? But SMU's proven to be good, those are good games, and when they play, people watch it."

If UConn and SMU meet for the conference title, it will be on ESPN on Sunday at 3:15 p.m. The earlier league games will be on ESPN's lesser networks, far from the spotlight the old Big East games at Madison Square Garden used to command.

"Playing in that old Big East Tournament, the rivalries, the way the fan bases were, I don't know how that can be replicated or duplicated," said Orlando Antigua, who played for Pittsburgh and will coach 11th-seeded South Florida against the Huskies on Thursday night. "Being a new conference, those rivalries will start to come to that. The Big East got to become the Big East after several years of those teams competing against each other."

Time, though, is something UConn might not have in the major college basketball landscape of the present day. UConn has landed two recruits from the Class of 2015, including guard Jalen Adams, who is generally considered a top 30 recruit, and forward Steven Enoch of Norwalk, considered a rapidly improving top 50 prospect. In recent months, they've lost out on highly touted players, including guard Isaiah Briscoe, who chose Kentucky, and forwards Tevin Mack (Virginia Commonwealth) and Derrick Jones (Nevada-Las Vegas). Recruits are teenagers, rarely well-versed or interested in a program's history.

"Kevin [Ollie] and his staff are doing the things on the recruiting trail to [maintain UConn's level]," UConn AD Warde Manuel said. "The [new training facility] we're in now is a testament to the commitment we have to basketball. Everything here is in place for us to continue with our success in the American, or any conference we're in. … There's no magic bullet to it, the key to our success is winning."

When the Big East broke up, Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame and Louisville landed in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Rutgers in the Big Ten, and UConn was left to scramble for a new home. It's investment in football made going to a basketball-only conference like the new Big East a non-starter, but Power Five conferences like the ACC, Big Ten or Big 12 have yet to offer invitations.

"You had that consistency of matchups [in the Big East]," Manuel said. "You had that love-hate relationship that happens over time in leagues. Those things take time to grow. They happen over time, you can't just create it because you want to say it's a rivalry."

So to remain on top, UConn will have to capitalize on its brand in recruiting, in spite of the league, and strengthen its nonconference schedule. This season UConn played high-profile powers Texas, West Virginia, Stanford, Duke and Florida, but won only one of those five games.

This season, road games at Stanford and Florida had to be wedged in after the start of conference play in January, creating a stretch of 11 road games, played coast-to-coast, during a 19-game, nine-week stretch. Generally a team gets better as the season goes on, but UConn must load up early with tough nonconference games.

In the future, UConn will be among strong fields in the Battle4Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas next season, and in the Maui Classic in 2016. Among the nonconference opponents lined up are Maryland, Ohio State, Georgetown and Arizona.

With this, along with its four championships and sending players to the NBA, UConn must convince recruits that Storrs is still a destination on par with the Kentuckys and Dukes of the world. Cincinnati, which also moved from the Big East to the AAC, is in a similar situation.

"The way we look at it, the way we sell it," said Larry Davis, the Bearcats' associate head coach, "is that we're still Cincinnati. We've always been a team that has been in or at the top 20. We sell the fact we're a high-level program and it doesn't matter what conference we're in. We're going to be on TV, we're going to be relevant."

The AAC, though, has only one Top 25 team, SMU (24-6). Many of its teams have not yet beefed up their nonconference schedules — the league is exhorting them to do so. SMU, despite 23 wins last season, was left out of the NCAA Tournament, but will make it this season because of a strong nonconference schedule. Because of the league schedule, teams have a hard time achieving a high ranking in RPI, a metric that figures significantly into the NCAA selection process. In 2011-12, UConn, for example, finished 18-13, and 8-10 in the old Big East, but its RPI was among the top 40 and it was a slam-dunk for an NCAA at-large bid. This season, with a similar record, UConn is 79th in RPI. Last season, with a 24-7 record, UConn was a seventh seed in the NCAA Tournament, but went on to win it.

"Connecticut winning the championship last year as a seventh seed is a pretty good indication of how good our league is," said Larry Brown, SMU's Hall of Fame coach. "I think [the AAC] is going to get tougher and tougher, and when that happens people will recognize how strong the league is."

The UConn program will have to play the hand it is dealt.

"The league doesn't give UConn as much help," Bilas said. "But that doesn't mean you can't be among the highest profile programs in the country. The long term goal, you want to get into one of the other leagues. But right now there doesn't seem to be any movement toward that. It will be more difficult for UConn than it was in the Big East, but Gonzaga is still a really high profile program, so it can be done."

Twelve of the top 30 teams in RPI and nine of the AP's Top 25 this week are not in Power Five conferences, though SMU is the only AAC team in either group.

[CalallenStang]

^ Better hope the Hartford Courant isn't as litigious as the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other papers

[mustangxc]

I was able to access it without registering.

[CalallenStang]

I was able to access it without registering.

That is irrelevant if they go after PonyFans for copyright infringement like the LVRJ has done with several message boards

[PonyKai]

Seems to me that between UCONN's unfortunate location (Northeast) it's atrocious football program, and it's down year in hoops, it's doing plenty fine a job in relegating itself to second tier status.

[No Quarter]

The first time I saw the article there was no restriction so far as access was concerned. Later, starting with the newspaper web site there was a "register before viewing" screen. The last time there was no barrier - seeing it then was a matter of using GOOGLE and recognizing the article and using the link and maybe that is what mustangxc did also.

I suppose the mods will delete the thread if they see a problem.

[CalallenStang]

The first time I saw the article there was no restriction so far as access was concerned. Later, starting with the newspaper web site there was a "register before viewing" screen. The last time there was no barrier - seeing it then was a matter of using GOOGLE and recognizing the article and using the link and maybe that is what mustangxc did also.

I suppose the mods will delete the thread if they see a problem.

It doesn't matter how it's accessed; an article is copyrighted and shouldn't be copied and pasted in its entirety. The standard procedure is an abstract or quote and link.