The talking heads at CBS Sports got UConn fans riled up this week when they left the Huskies off their list of 15 schools that were set up to be the most successful over the next five years.
The crew justified their decision on the Eye on College Basketball podcast, where it became clear that UConn was close to making the cut. Gary Parrish had the Huskies on his list, while Sam Vecenie said an argument could be made to include UConn and Matt Norlander said he’d put the Huskies in the 18-20 range.
But as we all know, unless you pick UConn to go undefeated, win every national championship and declare Jim Calhoun’s birthday a national holiday, bicycle-accident-enthusiast website “The Boneyard” will not be happy. (Ed. Note: I’m not opposed to closing school/work on Calhoun’s birthday)
Listen to the podcast yourself here:
Let’s fairly analyze the points that CBS made, one by one. Believe it or not, they aren’t crazy, even if you don’t agree with them all!
Vecenie says the biggest factor for him is that Kevin Ollie’s future is uncertain
He’s right! Each of the last two seasons, Ollie’s name has been floated as a possible NBA target. The guy played in the league for a decade, where he is universally respected. Not being able to say with relative certainty that he will be the coach five years from now is a good reason to deduct points in this top 15 list. As we’ve seen with football, the wrong hire can torpedo a program quickly.
Vecenie also says the 2014 championship run came from an underperforming team that had a great three-week stretch
Right again. Ollie and that 2013-14 team deserve a ton of credit for putting together that title run, don’t get me wrong. It was incredible, it was fun to watch and they earned that championship by beating a 1, 2, 3 and 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But let’s not forget how bad they looked at times. The Houston-SMU debacle in January? Those burn-the-tape home games against Stanford and SMU? The 81-48 embarrassment at Louisville? The Huskies were a good team that became great at the right time, but let’s not pretend they were dominant.
Parrish, who put UConn in his top 15, points out that Ollie has had a 10-loss team and a 15-loss team in his three seasons.
True, yes. But he neglects to mention that the 10-loss team was an utter miracle. Ollie lost half of his roster after UConn was banned from the NCAA Tournament and he was in his first year after Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun retired at an inopportune time. Somehow he still managed to guide them to a 20-10 season in a brutal Big East. That 10-loss team shouldn’t be a knock on him; it should be a highlight. The 15-loss team on the other hand? Yeah, we’ll give you that one.
Norlander does not think UConn’s 2016 recruiting class will be “anywhere near” the top five once everyone has committed
This is one that I disagree with. Even if it’s not a top-five class, it should be in the discussion. UConn has three top 100 commitments already in Alterique Gilbert, Juwan Durham and Mamadou Diarra. I expect at least one, maybe two more. I asked Matt on Twitter who he expected to be better and this was his response:
@Russ_Steinberg (I’m not bullish on Gilbert.) Projecting out … UK, Duke, NCSU, MSU, UCLA, FSU, A&M, perhaps Auburn and AZ St.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) September 16, 2015
You’re not getting an argument from me about Duke, especially if Harry Giles ends up there. The same could be said for Michigan State if Cassius Winston commits and NC State if Bam Adebayo commits (the Wolfpack might get Rawle Alkins too). And Florida State already has a better class than UConn.
After that, I don’t know. Kentucky is tough to project because the Wildcats have only one major commitment, but are supposedly in a good position on a lot of other four- and five-star guys. I could definitely see Kentucky jumping UConn in the rankings, but it’s no guarantee. Arizona State, meanwhile, is a threat to jump UConn with Thon Maker and Mario Kegler still on the board. UCLA might end up with TJ Leaf, which would make its class comparable to UConn’s, but again, if the Huskies land Vance Jackson or get a certain player to reclassify, I say UConn still has the edge.
I’ll disagree outright on Texas A&M and Auburn. Credit to Bruce Pearl for the talent he’s hauled in so far, but I don’t see him making another big splash in 2016. I’ll say the same for A&M.
If you want to know my thoughts on Gilbert, who Norlander is not sold on, read this. It took me a while to warm up to him, but I am full-on #TeamGilbert right now.
Moral of the argument: You can make a case that UConn should not be in that top 15 list. Let people have opinions, UConn fans.
But there was one part of the podcast that I don’t think it was particularly fair.
It occurred when Gary Parrish compared Jim Boeheim’s nine-game suspension this season to Calhoun’s three-game suspension after the Nate Miles incident.
This is not an apt comparison, to me. Calhoun’s suspension, plus the scholarship reduction, recruiting restrictions and probation that UConn faced, came as a result of a series of incidents involving one player. Over three years, former manager Josh Nochimson allegedly took prohibited steps to guide Miles toward UConn, and Calhoun and his coaching staff allegedly knew about it.
Boeheim’s punishment, on the other hand, comes from similar incidents spanning nearly a decade, plus gross academic misconduct and a failure to adhere to a university drug testing policy. The first instance of Syracuse not following that policy occurred in 2001. A YMCA employee began giving athletes impermissible benefits, including money, in 2002. This carried on for five years. After that, the same employee began receiving “an excessive amount of” free tickets to basketball games
The next year (2003-04) was the start of a stretch that included approximately 12 instances of academic misconduct. This includes excessive efforts by the coaching staff to keep Fab Melo eligible, including members of the program even completing part of a paper for him.
The scope of Boeheim’s alleged misconduct and lack of institutional control is far greater than Calhoun’s, at least judging solely by these two investigations.
OK, so you can be mad about that, UConn fans.
I think you summarized it well… Ollie’s first season was nothing short of a miracle. That win against Providence was one of my favorite UConn wins of all time. Last year was down, yes. I think Boat was pretty beat up and there were other things going on with Ollie as well. That’s settled now.
and being 18-20 isn’t a bad thing… not once did they mention “conference” either. I was ready to be mad when I listened but it was fair. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked if they do end up being in this mythical top 15 other the next five years.