That's actually a great point. As a Mets and Bills fan, it's a little easier to keep myself grounded in terms of expectations for UConn and Penguins (big hockey fan). Anyways, we have people saying the basketball program has been down the last few years because we only have an E8, FF and NC in the last 6 years. Huh?
That basketball program has taken UCONN to places I never thought possible. That said, this group of kids is unwatchable. With the talent that team possesses, if each of them had half the heart of a Kevin Freeman this team would be undefeated. Grab your balls and take a charge for god sake. Leave it on the floor or go home.......or the NBA.....hardly matters to me. I just want the effort.
I don't blame the Hoop dysfunction on just the Kids. There is a core issue that is threaded through this whole year that NEEDS to be fixed. Otherwise, you can just say the loss of Kemba Walker ... and the add of Andre Drummond, Daniels & Boatwright ... are the killers. It's a fundamental malaise that I think Calhoun recognizes. And, George B. is not even a bandaid.
Y-E-S. Though from perusing message boards of various teams college and pro, I don't know that there's a significant fanbase anywhere that is reasonable all the time.
Why do you think I'm over here right now? Players that were wonderful a couple days ago are now overrated and Geno doesn't know how to coach anymore. Geez.
I don't disagree Pudge. But, some of these players are much more focused on the NBA than they are on winning college basketball games. That is what I suspect anyway.....
I'm avoiding the women's board like the plague. Usually I just lurk there once in a while. I can only imagine it must be cats and dogs living together over there right now.
yeah its so terrible they are getting the number 1 and 2 recruit next year, 24-3 for them is a rebuilding year they are a shoe in for the sweet 16 every year, even Geno has said how spoiled the fans are.
High school players #1, #2 and #6, three of the five finalists for Naismith High School POY. I don't know how a team can lose a player like Maya Moore (or Kemba Walker) without feeling some pain.
When the fan base doesn't expect success, you won't see every game at the Rent played to 96% capacity. The novelty/newness has worn off at this point. I know people who no longer get season tickets and instead cherry pick a few select games, but I think the program is establishing a hardcore fan base as well. Its a small stadium, but the people of this state have taken to this team. Having expectations is good. A great deal of good has happened to this program both on the field and off since the moment the decision was made to go 1A in football. I've seen games on TV of both SMU and UCF where their similar sized, new stadiums have tons of empty seats, for conference games. It doesn't look good. Will that change in the Big East, who knows, but to me those are signs of an apathetic fan base. I don't think you can spoil an apathetic fan base. UConn's fan base cares. Boise State's fan base cares. They're probably more spoiled than us since they also upgraded from 1AA and have had a ton more football success than us to date. They always pack their small stadium probably more so than us. Sorry for the diatribe, but I don't think we are spoiled. Like everything else involving competition, you're in it to be the best. The best to me will be to compete for (not necessarily win) the conference title every year going forward and to ditch the excuses of small state, no recruiting base, no history, etc. We are paying the FB head coach a seven figure salary to compete to be the best, if he can't do it, get someone else up for the challenge. P gets a mulligan for the first year, going forward he HAS to do better with wins and losses or he has to go.
Yes, we are a spoiled fanbase. One thing that is starting to worry me on the football side is that our fanbase is so used to top 25 teams and postseason success in basketball that slightly above average is just not going to cut it, even in off years. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about top 25, but we're just not there yet. Sometimes it's better to have a healthy serving of lemmings to get you through the lean years. Rutgers has a drop of football success and their fanbase goes crazy - because they've never seen it before.
When you are the Yankees and have the history and the fan base and the money and you can outspend everyone, you should expect to win every time. But while we are paying a lot for a coach and to run the program, so is everyone else and while our facilities are great they aren't far and away the best and we cannot lure the best players in the country to UCONN. And while I think you are right that we should expect great things here, I think the biggest disagreement is about the timeline. I feel we should keep steadily improving and I do think that we should be able to be a top 25 team on a consistent basis if we run the program right. To be a top 10 team and have a perennial shot at BCS games? I think we can get there but I'm not crying if it takes some time.
