Thanks so much for this Bigpetunia. I agree with a lot of it and take your point. But also: Holly has been coaching for 6 years now and, despite getting quality players, the program has never managed to achieve excellence. She was never a head coach elsewhere before then and so, between her lack of previous experience and her current poor track record, players who last year (after her 5th season as HC) committed for this season were really ignoring the reality of the situation. Geno's successor will, indeed, have a very hard act to follow. If she/he doesn't achieve reasonable success within 3 or 4 seasons tops, not only should we expect recruiting to drop off, but also the AD to think hard about the position.
Well, my friend, I do not know if I concur, but I do know that I hope you’re right. I grew up and spent most of my life in the Deep South, or, for purposes of this discussion, in the SEC. Down there, only one serious religion exists...it is called college football. The numbers involved in that “religion” are staggering. Folks in Knoxville may be lobbying Phillip Fulmer to take a serious interest in LV basketball, but I’m pretty certain that the only time he thinks seriously about the subject is when he’s pestered to do so. At UConn, things are somewhat different, of course, because since Geno’s arrival we all have, quite unpredictably, been treated to a magic carpet ride of unprecedented dimensions, and because football is not a State Religion here, at least for now, like it is elsewhere.
But let’s project forward to a hard-to-envision point in the distant future, say, ten years from now. Where will WBB be on the AD’s radar then, when UConn is likely to be just another good program, albeit one with a storied history? Will it still be taken as seriously as it is today? I suspect that, like UT, it will still attract its share of top talent, but, once it no longer is, as is inevitable, the premier program in the land, will a future AD continue to devote serious and precious resources to safeguard its future, or will a certain contentment to allow it to be just another good program prevail? Me, I’m not so sure the reality at that time will look all that different than it does in Knoxville today. Hope I’m wrong!
