Despite a disappointing 10-point loss to #5 Louisville in the AAC Tournament Final, UConn had a reason to feel good. Their week included wins over 19th-ranked Memphis (and a blowout, at that) and 13th-ranked Cincinnati. Surely the Huskies, who started the week ranked #21, would be no worse than a 5-seed, with a chance at a 4-seed, potentially ensuring that they’d be favorites throughout the first weekend.
A 7-seed? Are you f@#$ing kidding me?
And, by the looks of it, it could have been worse. Louisville, which seems likely to move up the #4 in the country after steamrolling the AAC tourney, somehow got a 4-seed, despite having a credible argument for a 1-seed. Cincinnati and Memphis got a 5- and an 8-seed, respectively. SMU, a team still listed in the top-25 on both the AP and Coaches’ Poll as of my writing this, was left out of the tournament altogether. Meanwhile, BYU and NC State made it in despite mediocre resumes, and teams like UMass, 12-loss Baylor, VCU, and St. Louis all got higher seeds than UConn. UConn had the same record as VCU and a better record than UMass, with the same number of wins as a St. Louis team that collapsed down the stretch. This tells me a few things:
The AAC has some serious work to do: This is a league that is getting worse, not better, as Louisville and Rutgers will be replaced next year by Tulsa, Tulane, and East Carolina. Meanwhile, take a look at those schools I mentioned before. UMass, VCU, and St. Louis are in the A-10. The AAC is rated considerably below the A-10 by the selection committe, and that’s WITH Lousville. Tulsa, the only incoming team to make this year’s field, managed to snag a 13-seed after winning the Conference-USA tournament. Tulane and ECU figure to nestle in nicely among the bottom feeders currently pulling down the RPI of the league. This league and its member schools are going to have to do things differently going forwards. I’ll put some suggestions below.
There is a huge disconnect between the selection committee and the polls: Going strictly by the polls, UConn was probably in range of a 4- or 5-seed, Louisville probably should have been a 1-seed, Cincinnati a 4-seed, Memphis a 6-seed, and SMU probably a 7- or 8-seed. Cincinnati was the only one who came close to their ranking, while everyone else dropped at least 2 lines from even a conservative pick. UConn’s seed is lower than six teams who went into last week ranked behind them (UMass, VCU, UCLA, Michigan State, Baylor, Ohio State).
I don’t care about anyone in the world except for me, so I’m only going to offer suggestions on how to improve UConn’s situation. We’re going to be playing 10 games against Houston, UCF, USF, Tulane, and ECU. There is no score by which we could win those games that they’d help our tournament chances. Given that the “top” of the AAC is going to be UConn (which wouldn’t make a suitable opponent, for obvious reasons), Memphis, and Cincinnati for the near future, the out-of-conference schedule is going to have to be pumped up a bit.
We need to start playing UMass again. This one seems almost painfully obvious to me, but I’m putting it down anyway. UMass is a regional opponent who was already considered a pretty significant rival, and now they’re in a league that is rated above ours. This is a gimme, and it’s likely that UMass would be interested, since the travel costs are virtually nil, we’re a marquee opponent, and you’d sell the game out every time.
While we’re at it, let’s play the A-10 more. The Atlantic-10 used to be the Big East’s little brother in basketball, but that is no more. Scheduling against opponents like VCU, St. Louis, and George Washington should be a priority. These are regional games that would require less travel than schools like Gonzaga or conference opponents like Tulane, Tulsa, Houston, or SMU. Meanwhile, they would be quality, name-brand opponents that would improve our national standing.
Let’s rekindle some other old rivalries. You know where this is going to go. We need to play some old Big East opponents. The ones who have moved on to the ACC are probably going to be tough gets, but the “new” Big East has several teams worth playing, and I know that I would be thrilled to see Georgetown and Villanova on the schedule every year.
It might seem like I’m suggesting a lot of tough non-conference opponents, but it’s clear that our current schedule isn’t going to cut it. There are going to be too many cupcakes in conference play, and that means that we need to play better teams elsewhere. Of the 13 teams UConn faced in non-conference play this year, only 3 (Florida, Harvard, and Stanford) will be playing in the NCAAs. Some of that is bad luck (Maryland and Indiana are name-brand schools that missed out due to disappointing seasons), but what’s the value in playing all of Yale, BU, Detroit, Loyola, Maine, and Eastern Washington? My recommendation would be to drop BC, Detroit, Loyola, Maine, and Eastern Washington, and pick up UMass, VCU, St. Louis, Villanova, and Georgetown. Keep schools like Florida, Stanford, and IU on the schedule, and suddenly that’s a tough non-conference plate that will draw attention nationally.
While starting the season with the stronger part of the schedule isn’t ideal, it can work in our favor (see the Florida game for details). And doing nothing isn’t going to work. Under Jim Calhoun, UConn had become one of the elite, blue-blood programs. I’m not ready to give that up, but staying at that level is going to take some doing. So let’s get doing.
