Has it been 15 months since our last Mailbag? Yes. Is that your fault? Yes. Let’s bag.
Dave asks: What school do you think will be most impacted (positively or negatively) by UConn (re)joining the league?
When we began talking about this it became clear that there isn’t really one other school that will be most positively or negatively impacted by UConn’s return to the conference of which it is a Founding Member. So we decided to break the league down into tiers.
Positively Impacted:
Butler, Creighton and Xavier: UConn is a premier basketball brand. That’s not our opinion, that’s a fact as evidenced by the Big East admitting UConn despite it being the only public institution with an FBS Football program and in the amount of hardware in the trophy cases at Werth. While there’s no debating that Butler, Creighton and Xavier have thrived as athletic departments since joining the Big East seven years ago, they will still absolutely benefit from being associated with UConn Basketball on the court and on the recruiting trail.
Marquette: Bringing the best women’s basketball program in the history of college sports into the conference is definitely going to be a boon for Marquette, a program that is right on the bubble of being: actually good. Getting to recruit with two or three games against UConn on your schedule is only going to help them, and I, for one, look forward to having legit WBB teams in the conference.
DePaul: Same story as above, except DePaul’s WBB program is already pretty legit. It’s perennially ranked and Doug Bruno has done a really great job building that program. I am sure they will be sad not to be able to drive to the BET anymore, but playing in the same conference as UConn will absolutely be a net positive for any school that wants to take WBB seriously.
Negatively Impacted
Providence, Georgetown and St. John’s: With the exception of maybe Villanova, nobody in the men’s game benefited from conference realignment in the Big East more than Providence. With UConn, Syracuse and BC gone, all of a sudden, Providence became the sole Big East program left in the Northeast – and boy did it manifest in recruiting. And yet what does Providence have to show for stumbling into this golden opportunity? A single NCAA Tournament victory.
Now Daddy’s home and that recruiting advantage is going away. Since the arrival of Dan Hurley, UConn has left Providence in its dust on the recruiting trail, securing back-to-back Top 25 classes while Providence has been multiple “load more” clicks away on most recruiting rankings.
Similarly, St. John’s squandered its opportunities. UConn has recruited the hell out of NYC for decades, getting top talent to come to Storrs with the promise of joining a competitive program while still being able to playing in the NYC-area thanks to annual games against St. John’s, Seton Hall and, of course, in the Big East Tournament. With UConn stuck playing in Tulsa, Houston, Memphis and some place called “East Carolina” for almost a decade, St. John’s had a chance to keep some of those players home. Were they able to capitalize on this advantage? No. No, they were not. With UConn back, this advantage on the recruiting trail is gone and St. John’s fans will be back to taking the subway home from MSG surrounded by UConn fans after another embarrassing “home” loss yet again.
If you want a deep dive on how Providence and St. John’s have benefited from UConn’s absence on the recruiting trail, check out the great work from Anonymous Eagle.
Georgetown is like that friend of yours from high school who at 18 seemed like they really had everything figured out. They were good looking, charming and seemingly on a path to lifetime success. Then you show up 20 years later at the reunion and all you can think is “what the hell happened, man?” Georgetown has been so exceptionally mediocre-to-bad over the last seven years that adding another brand name program, with a top recruiting class with an excellent head coach, can’t be viewed as anything but bad news.
No impact/neutral impact
Seton Hall and Villanova: Seton Hall found itself in the same position as Providence and St. John’s when conference realignment hit in 2013. The difference? The Pirates have taken advantage of UConn’s absence thanks to Kevin Willard’s impressive ability to recruit excellent players and win on the court. Assuming Hall can hold onto Willard, and if he can continue to recruit at a high level and win games, UConn’s presence shouldn’t have a huge impact. There is certainly a possibility of a recruiting rivalry heating up, with Hurley’s New Jersey connections potentially creating some conflict, but the impact of that is still TBD.
Has Villanova won nearly all their Big East championships post conference realignment? Yes. Does that cheapen them at all? Also yes. But kudos to Jay Wright for taking advantage of this new league and just absolutely dominating. Also, Wright finally broke through with a pair of national titles – that’s really awesome! Overall, it’s good for Villanova to have UConn back, but other than not having a coronation every March at MSG, Wright has the ‘Cats rolling at a high level that should continue despite UConn’s return.
— Chris Licata & Meghan Bard
Zach asks: All time Big East villains team
This will, of course, be heavily biased towards my own experience, and based on which guys I personally hated the most.
Center – DeJuan Blair, Pitt
Blair was labeled as undersized, but that really just meant “a little short.” At 265 pounds (conservatively), he was a powerful player who would play very physically, culminating with a body slam of Hasheem Thabeet that somehow went unnoticed by officials.
Honorable mentions: Luke Harangody, Notre Dame; Alonzo Mourning, Georgetown
Power Forward – Troy Murphy, Notre Dame
Murphy was somewhat of a rough surprise, as his emergence coincided with Notre Dame no longer being the embarrassing mess they had been reduced to under John MacLeod. So suddenly not only was ND not a pushover, but they had the best player on the floor, and I hate him. He was also ugly.
Honorable mentions: Anthony Glover, St. John’s; Danya Abrams, Boston College
Small Forward – Jared Dudley, Boston College
Dudley is the most obnoxious person I’ve ever directly interacted with, as he had a lot to say to the pep band during BC’s win at UConn in 2005, and I had a lot to say back. He was flashy, he was cocky, and most infuriatingly, he was dunking on Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva pretty consistently. Complete douchebag.
Honorable Mentions: Darius Rice, Miami; Jamel Thomas, Providence
Shooting Guard: Gerry McNamara, Syracuse (Captain)
McNamara will be no surprise to most UConn fans, as he was a four-year starter for Syracuse during a period when they were good enough to be consistently annoying. He was also loudly overrated by his coach and certain announcers, and worst of all, he hit a shot in the Big East Tournament that had seriously deleterious effects on my evening plan. We’ll leave it at that.
No we won’t. Fuck you, Gerry.
Honorable Mentions: Darius Lane, Seton Hall; Kerry Kittles, Villanova
Point Guard: Allen Iverson, Georgetown
This one was compulsory for every UConn fan who worshipped Ray Allen. Iverson was the overhyped ballhog on the Bad Team (this was easy for me to identify as a kid because the Georgetown logo looked mean but the UConn logo looked nice). Ray beating Iverson in the 1996 BET Final (and also winning Big East POY over him) was awfully satisfying, at least for a couple of weeks until Ray’s team shit the bed against Mississippi State. Oh well.
Honorable Mentions: Carl Krauser, Pitt; John Linehan, Providence
Head Coach: Jim Boeheim, Syracuse
Who else would it be? Boeheim runs a gimmicky system that regularly fails him against mid-major teams in the tournament, he throws his players under the bus when they have the audacity to decide they want to play basketball professionally rather than play for him for free, and he consistently wins enough to always be annoying.
Honorable Mentions: Mike Jarvis, St. John’s; Rick Pitino, Louisville
— Peter Bard
Postradamus asks: Is Providence the Tulsa of the Big East?
Is who the who of the Big East?
— Chris Licata
Puneet asks: Rank the top ten things you’ll miss about the AAC.
I tried to answer this earnestly. I genuinely did. I feel pretty confident that between the (estimated) seven other league members, various referees and Mike Aresco I could get to ten moderately funny jokes. But I wanted to give you, Puneet, a serious ranking. I’ve failed.
I have some fun memories of UConn’s time in the American. Obviously the 2014 dual titles tops the list. The women’s basketball team never losing a game in conference was funny. Jalen Adams’ full-court shot in the 2016 conference tournament was a classic. But what’s to miss, really?
I suppose the top of a real ranking should include the quality of football opponents, but I’d be lying if I told you I cared all that much. I’m far more interested in UConn cobbling together a winning record at some point than who it does it against. Cincinnati has been the most noteworthy basketball rival during UConn’s time in the AAC but the games have been chronically ugly and, when paired with the aforementioned officiating, often unwatchable. I’m willing to admit that Cincy and UConn had meaningful clashes as conference-mates but I genuinely hope UConn never plays them again — at least not on television.
I really enjoyed covering the AAC women’s basketball tournaments at Mohegan Sun. It was always a well-run event that UConn never lost. But the Big East women’s tourney is moving there this year so the good parts should carry on, and we’ll get to stop pretending USF is a real program.
I’m clearly never getting to a top ten list so after a lot of thinking I determined what I will miss the most is AAC baseball. More specifically, I really enjoyed the conference tournament games that aired on Facebook. Not the games so much, though they were fine, but engaging with the AAC baseball community. I will miss this, and only this:
— Tyler
Hurley Mania asks: What sport are you most interested to watch UConn play in the Big East that ISNT basketball?
There’s a couple ways to go with this one.
1. I’m very interested in watching Jim Penders and UConn baseball — who have built themselves into the northeast’s best college baseball program, and who now own a brand-new, gorgeous field of dreams on campus — just absolutely wreck shit in a fairly mediocre Big East. Just that Bugs Bunny baseball cartoon 25 times per year.
2. The more serious answer is men’s soccer, in a walk. The AAC wasn’t a complete waste in the sport (SMU and Tulsa were typically very good, and the Florida schools were capable of having solid teams), but it, like basketball, just isn’t on the same level as the Big East.
Just last season, the Big East had three teams (Georgetown, St. John’s and Providence) rated in the top 12 of the RPI; the worst of the league’s 10 teams was Seton Hall at #87. (UConn was 103rd, which, what the hell Ray Reid, although there were two AAC teams rated lower.) So the competition level is going to be a step up.
Besides that, the resumption of meaningful UConn-St. John’s soccer games, a legit rivalry between two of the best programs in this part of the country led by two perennially successful coaches.
UConn soccer has always been low-key the most fun sport you can watch on campus besides basketball, and with a new stadium and a much more competitive schedule, the sky should be the limit.
— Kevin Meacham
AJ asks: Do you think the athletes from the sports that got cut have a legit gripe in blaming the move to the BIG EAST for it?
Honestly? No. If anything, the move to the Big East saved some programs. UConn’s budget subsidy was simply too large, and it existed solely to show P5 conferences that we are a serious athletics department. But now that we’ve moved to the Big East and are no longer trying to position ourselves for a potential move to a P5 conference, the subsidy is simply unsustainable — and would have been so had UConn remained in the AAC. Even factoring in the $17M UConn is paying to leave the AAC, the Big East move is actually going to save UConn money in the long term, especially for Olympic sports, where travel costs are a huge part of the budget. Instead of sending out teams to various and sundry part of the south, UConn teams will be playing against opponents much closer to home, including several a simple bus trip away. It really sucks for these athletes to lose their teams, and I truly feel for them. I get wanting to blame something for that loss, but the Big East isn’t it. (Please see: Jeff Hathaway). In all likelihood, there are some other athletes who can thank the Big East move for saving their team.
— Meghan Bard
