Congrats to Courtney Ekmark

[DobbsRover2]

Well, for openers, UConn could work out a way to play Tennessee. At this point, the LV's are (or were) apparently willing to play UConn if there are no preconditions to doing so.

Given the conference situation, UConn really needs to schedule as many Top 25 (or if necessary Top 50) out-of-conference games as they possibly can. Clearly Geno is trying to do that (except in the special case of Tennessee). But it's equally clear that there is a serious shortage of such teams willing to play UConn. I'm sure they think that a 30-point blowout on national television will not do their program any good, either from the standpoint of player morale or their seeding in the NCAA tournament. They probably also worry about how they will look in the eyes of potential recruits who are watching on TV.

I'm not sure any of these concerns are reality-based. Notre Dame, Stanford, Duke, and Louisville seem to be recruiting top talent just fine, despite the fact that they have been drubbed on ESPN by UConn often enough in recent years. (Admittedly that is less true of Notre Dame and Stanford than the other two.) And their reluctance to play seems to ignore the upside benefit for them -- if they manage to pull off an upset (or even come within 10 points), it would be a bigger coup for their recruiting than almost any other single event short of winning an NC. Look at Kim Barnes-Arico: one 1-point victory over UConn at Gampel (even though her team lost by 20 in a rematch a few weeks later) got her a job coaching at Michigan. Another example: the former Georgetown coach's close games with UConn got her a job at Auburn, even though I don't believe she ever actually got a victory.

It's good to see that Florida State and LSU (both probable Top 25 teams) will start a series with UConn next year. And Tennessee-Chattanooga may be reasonably good also. A regular series with Wisconsin Green Bay might be a good move for both teams.

But unfortunately, just as UConn can't make a major conference accept it, it can't make Top 25 teams schedule games with Geno's team. That is why the Tennessee game seems like one opportunity that needs to be seized.

Just no, and this is just silly.

What's with all the heebie-jeebie "no one will play us stuff?" UConn's future schedule is already filled up with a lot of top teams that want to play against the best. UTenn? Mehhhhhhhhhh!. Total non-issue. Who really wants to play that sad sack program with the "Diamond will save us" mentality? UConn is well set, the AAC is on the way up, and we should learn to just enjoy the NCs and stop twisting the undergarments into a knot.

 

[EricLA]

Just no, and this is just silly.

What's with all the heebie-jeebie "no one will play us stuff?" UConn's future schedule is already filled up with a lot of top teams that want to play against the best. UTenn? Mehhhhhhhhhh!. Total non-issue. Who really wants to play that sad sack program with the "Diamond will save us" mentality? UConn is well set, the AAC is on the way up, and we should learn to just enjoy the NCs and stop twisting the undergarments into a knot.

No--- it doesn't.

Bingo to both of you. UCONN "needs" to play Tennessee? Seriously? Let's be honest - the AAC sucks, but it won't be that way forever. UCONN managed to be in the big east when it had about nobody and it still didn't stop them from growing their program bigger and better every year. Now they are in a crap conference, but hopefully one that will improve over time.

I think UCONN, Tulane and USF make the NCAA's. Probably the same as the Big east, and honestly, as of today, the Big 12 probably gets only 4 teams in. Maybe 5. I'm not going to sit here and argue that we have a good conference. But there are a bunch of teams that could be approached (OSU, Minny, Nebraska, Purdue, RU, Princeton, Western Kentucky, etc etc). the list of teams out there who are potential top 25 or could be decent games is long.

However the list of teams who could give UCONN a good game is exceptionally short. We will see if SC can step up to the plate and be the only team to challenge UCONN this year. Last year it was no one. This year it may be no one as well.