Ok, look. Did we write all of these answers for a Friday mailbag? Yes. Did we then get distracted and forget to post them until now? Who can be sure? The world is full of mysteries.
Joel asks: Do you think our new incoming president is a good hire, and do you think he will have a positive impact on our conference and athletic issues?
The jury’s still out, but I see no reason to be down on Katsouleas. I know a lot of people bumped on his football and conference realignment remarks during his first day on the job but that’s just bland PR speak; if the opportunity arises to put UConn into a better conference, he will obvious jump at it. Clearly the university is not ready now (if ever) to consider the nuclear option of murdering football and finding a new basketball home. Even if he thought that was the most prudent approach, it wouldn’t be very smart to say so during an introductory interview with the Associated Press.
While we and everyone reading this stupid website probably want to look at this hire solely from an athletics perspective, I do think it’s important to look at the larger picture. UConn fancies itself a big time research university and has seen its reputation damaged in recent years by falling rankings and waning state funding — and a loss of political goodwill at the state capitol. The pick of Katsouleas is a reaffirmation of UConn’s commitment to STEM, a signal to the state’s business community that the notoriously aloof university is ready to engage and — hopefully — a reach into the pockets of a new group of donors that will be necessary to supplant the state funding that is either disappearing or being redirected towards failed sports programs (tweet complaints at @noescalators).
At this point, unless they start killing off entire sports, the president’s role in athletics will probably be minor. It’s up to the personnel in place to start winning and David Benedict and his team to figure out how to start making money. The biggest short-term impact Katsouleas can have is to raise enough outside cash to make the athletic department’s $41M annual losses more palatable. Or he could be offensive coordinator by the time football season kicks off, who knows.
Banner asks: First thing you do as AD tomorrow THAT ISNT drop fb or move everything from Hartford to Storrs. So, third thing I guess.
If we’re going to eliminate the most obvious answers, then here’s the third most obvious answer: Hire Chris Grosse. UConn educated a sports marketing genius, we should get the fruits of it, Penn State does not deserve him, is what I’m saying. But in all seriousness, the athletics marketing at UConn has been… questionable? for some time and hello have you seen all the cool shit that Grosse has come up with? Give that man a job.
Mike asks: Have any of you guys played Big Chungus?
[taps Meacham on shoulder] That’s the Big Chungus.
AP asks: How awful will attendance be at the AAC Tournament? Over/Under 1500 fans?
This will be the highest attendance of any AAC Tournament since 2013-14, simply because it is in Memphis again and that is the only city that has hosted this event that legitimately cares about basketball, even beyond its team. Throw in a suddenly fun Memphis squad and this could be the highest attendance ever. Here’s the average per-session attendance for each of the 3 cities to have hosted:
Memphis (2014): 12,275
Orlando (2016, 2018): 8,075
Hartford (2015, 2017): 7,436
Guess which one of those cities inexplicably gets to host the NCAA Tournament this year.
— Russ
GW06268 asks: Your predicted number of combined wins by AAC teams in this year’s NCAA tourney?
I’ll preface this response by acknowledging that (A) I’m a hater and (B) I always expect the worst from AAC teams. My answer is one (1) game. Houston has won one (1) tournament game in my lifetime (last year) and I’m willing to be charitable and predict they can match that feat this March. Cincy kinda sucks this year and I will one billion percent bet against Mick Cronin in a tough tournament game, especially one where they’re a 7-seed or worse. No chance. Who else plays basketball? UCF? Temple? Lol. One game total.
— Tyler
