UConn is re-joining the Big East. If you hadn’t heard, I was pretty upset about the move.
Alas, the decision is final. It is now time to look ahead. I will miss UConn football and going to the games with my friends. I apparently aged myself by talking about sold-out Rentschler Field and cross-country road trips to watch Notre Dame lose at home.
Today and for everyday forthcoming, UConn is a basketball school. To that end, here are 10 truths about the future of UConn athletics that every UConn fan, alum, and athletic department official needs to keep in mind.
1) Dan Hurley Needs to Win, and Quickly
One of my biggest concerns about UConn’s retreat to the (don’t say zombie, don’t say zombie) Big East is what I see every winter living a few blocks from Georgetown’s arena. Namely, the fact that no one in Washington, D.C. cares about Georgetown basketball.
The fact no one cares about Georgetown basketball can be partially attributed to the Big East and its current makeup of teams. But it’s more an indictment of a program still stuck in 1985. Since Big John Thompson left, only the Roy Hibbert teams coached by his son made any impact nationally. For a school accustomed to Final Fours and Top 10 rankings, that simply wasn’t good enough.
The feeling is heightened for the UConn men, which achieved far greater success than Georgetown did with four national titles in 15 years under two different head coaches. Those ridiculously high standards have made missing the NCAA Tournament for a couple of years feel like the death of the program.
2) Let Jim Calhoun Stay… in Our Memories
There are no words that can possibly capture what Jim Calhoun did for UConn, both the basketball program and the school. That will never, ever change. There needs to be a statue outside of Gampel for him tomorrow.
That said, he needs to stay in our memories. More than any other sport, college basketball is littered with once-great programs that are chasing the past glory of a singular coach. UNLV still misses Tark. Indiana still pines for Bobby Knight’s winning percentage.
These feelings can sink a program. Not to pile on Georgetown, but the school ran through the son of the best coach in history, and is now led by that coach’s best player. Time will tell if Patrick Ewing will succeed, but I get the very distinct feeling that Ewing would make an excellent pro coach, much like Kevin Ollie would have.
In the aftermath of the Big East news, there was a lot of chatter about “returning to the good ol’ days” and many quotes from Calhoun. Jim Calhoun’s time as coach has ended. Dan Hurley is now the coach. Let him run the program he wants, and let’s try to start a second act of UConn greatness.
3) Prepare for Life After Geno
At some point, Geno Auriemma is going to retire. Frankly, I’m shocked he hasn’t yet. Who knows how many years Geno has left at the helm? Regardless, UConn needs to start thinking ahead about the state of UConn women’s basketball when Geno is no longer the coach.
Unlike the UConn men, the UConn women’s dynasty has transcended the sport and become synonymous with greatness in global sports. You can go to China and say, “the UConn women,” and someone familiar with basketball would understand what that means.
That’s why it’s so vitally important the transition post-Geno is thought out years in advance. I’m not saying Geno needs to give a countdown clock to the world, but if he wants to coach one more year, or three more, or ten more – let’s start a plan that works back from that end date.
A huge impetus for the conference move was continued exposure for the women’s basketball team. UConn cannot risk a post-Geno era of chaos, like the post-Calhoun era has been so far for the men.
4) Prepare Fans for Streaming
One of the reasons I felt the Big East move was short-sighted – beyond the school having no plan for football – was the anger directed at the new AAC/ESPN contract because of ESPN+. The motivation, of course, is that many, many UConn basketball fans are older, and they are not ready for streaming. I understand this as a position, but it doesn’t change the reality that cord-cutting is very real, and streaming is the future of content.
As much as UConn loves and wants to keep its SNY deal, at some point in the not-too-distant future, a bulk of UConn games are going to end up being available only via streaming. Instead of fighting it, UConn needs to embrace it. My parents once resisted Netflix because they didn’t know how it works, and now they watch it on a regular basis. It’s not really that hard to figure out, if you ease them into it.
UConn basketball games, men’s and women’s, will be available only on streaming at some point within the next decade. It’s time to stop fighting the inevitable.
5) Fans Need to Show Up All The Time
Attendance for UConn basketball games, for both men’s and women’s, have gone down since the team joined the AAC. For the women, it was clear the conference had some impact since the AAC had zero teams that could test the UConn women. This is not likely to change too much in the Big East.
For the men, I believe the attendance drops are due more to the losing than the opponent, but all indications are that season ticket holders gleefully renewed when the Big East announcement was made. Who knows, maybe DePaul is a bigger draw than I give them credit for.
Regardless, this Big East deal is predicated on UConn seeing a dramatic increase in ticket sales to account for what likely is to be a loss on TV revenue. If the UConn men have another bad year or the women *gasp* lose three games, the fans need to keep showing up. The love affair with the Big East cannot be brief.
6) Everything Revolves Around Basketball Now
In January, it was reported that the UConn athletic department had a roughly $40 million budget shortfall and there were public comments from UConn officials that ending programs to balance the books was an option.
I am never in favor of killing athletic teams, but this is the situation that UConn now faces after a decade-plus of horrible, stupid decisions from previous leaders. If UConn must end a team to help balance the budget, that’s fine. The goal, now and forever, is to make sure the basketball teams have enough support. Frankly, nothing else matters.
7) Cut Kevin Ollie a Check & Get Him the Hell Out
Kevin Ollie lied to the NCAA. He messed up, badly. But the contentious back and forth between Ollie and the school has been a bad look for all involved. When Ray Allen, the school’s most famous alum, is publicly bad-mouthing the school over their treatment of Ollie, it’s gone too far. Negotiate in good faith and find a common ground for a settlement. Enough is enough, let’s turn the page.
8) No More Excuses
I will remember the UConn/AAC era as one where UConn fans discovered new things to bitch and moan about on a constant basis. Of course, 99% of this was aimed at the conference. I’ve repeatedly said that the AAC is not why UConn sucks at men’s basketball right now. It’s not why Bob Diaco was a dumpster fire coach. And it’s not why the UConn women keep losing in the Final Four.
I implore all UConn fans to stop blaming outside factors for our team’s poor performance. At some point, UConn needs to look inward when things go sideways. What has changed from a fan perspective? What has changed within the athletic department?
The Big East move provides a fresh slate. There are no more excuses now for UConn athletics.
9) Win Some Games
Wait, I think I covered this one already. UConn needs to win, big, at everything. That’s what UConn is supposed to do.
10) Don’t Be Rutgers On The Way Out
The first year of the AAC was the last year for Rutgers and Louisville. The two schools could not have treated its lame duck year any differently. Rutgers complained about having to keep the AAC logo on its football field. Louisville provided Top 25 teams in basketball and football, and helped to legitimize the league on both fronts by playing up to its potential and rarely, if ever, harping on its lame duck status.
Louisville was rewarded by even greater success upon its entry into the ACC, as that momentum carried over. Rutgers is the butt of every Big Ten joke and its football program is a blight on the entire league.
UConn is much better than Rutgers, so let’s act like it.
If UConn hates the AAC so much, the best way to show disdain would be to win as many games as possible on the way out.
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Today and for everyday forthcoming, UConn is a basketball school. To that end, here are 10 truths about the future of UConn athletics that every UConn fan, alum, and athletic department official needs to keep in mind.
1) Dan Hurley Needs to Win, and Quickly
One of my biggest concerns about UConn’s retreat to the (don’t say zombie, don’t say zombie) Big East is what I see every winter living a few blocks from Georgetown’s arena. Namely, the fact that no one in Washington, D.C. cares about Georgetown basketball.
The fact no one cares about Georgetown basketball can be partially attributed to the Big East and its current makeup of teams. But it’s more an indictment of a program still stuck in 1985. Since Big John Thompson left, only the Roy Hibbert teams coached by his son made any impact nationally. For a school accustomed to Final Fours and Top 10 rankings, that simply wasn’t good enough.
The feeling is heightened for the UConn men, which achieved far greater success than Georgetown did with four national titles in 15 years under two different head coaches. Those ridiculously high standards have made missing the NCAA Tournament for a couple of years feel like the death of the program.
2) Let Jim Calhoun Stay… in Our Memories
There are no words that can possibly capture what Jim Calhoun did for UConn, both the basketball program and the school. That will never, ever change. There needs to be a statue outside of Gampel for him tomorrow.
That said, he needs to stay in our memories. More than any other sport, college basketball is littered with once-great programs that are chasing the past glory of a singular coach. UNLV still misses Tark. Indiana still pines for Bobby Knight’s winning percentage.
These feelings can sink a program. Not to pile on Georgetown, but the school ran through the son of the best coach in history, and is now led by that coach’s best player. Time will tell if Patrick Ewing will succeed, but I get the very distinct feeling that Ewing would make an excellent pro coach, much like Kevin Ollie would have.
In the aftermath of the Big East news, there was a lot of chatter about “returning to the good ol’ days” and many quotes from Calhoun. Jim Calhoun’s time as coach has ended. Dan Hurley is now the coach. Let him run the program he wants, and let’s try to start a second act of UConn greatness.
3) Prepare for Life After Geno
At some point, Geno Auriemma is going to retire. Frankly, I’m shocked he hasn’t yet. Who knows how many years Geno has left at the helm? Regardless, UConn needs to start thinking ahead about the state of UConn women’s basketball when Geno is no longer the coach.
Unlike the UConn men, the UConn women’s dynasty has transcended the sport and become synonymous with greatness in global sports. You can go to China and say, “the UConn women,” and someone familiar with basketball would understand what that means.
That’s why it’s so vitally important the transition post-Geno is thought out years in advance. I’m not saying Geno needs to give a countdown clock to the world, but if he wants to coach one more year, or three more, or ten more – let’s start a plan that works back from that end date.
A huge impetus for the conference move was continued exposure for the women’s basketball team. UConn cannot risk a post-Geno era of chaos, like the post-Calhoun era has been so far for the men.
4) Prepare Fans for Streaming
One of the reasons I felt the Big East move was short-sighted – beyond the school having no plan for football – was the anger directed at the new AAC/ESPN contract because of ESPN+. The motivation, of course, is that many, many UConn basketball fans are older, and they are not ready for streaming. I understand this as a position, but it doesn’t change the reality that cord-cutting is very real, and streaming is the future of content.
As much as UConn loves and wants to keep its SNY deal, at some point in the not-too-distant future, a bulk of UConn games are going to end up being available only via streaming. Instead of fighting it, UConn needs to embrace it. My parents once resisted Netflix because they didn’t know how it works, and now they watch it on a regular basis. It’s not really that hard to figure out, if you ease them into it.
UConn basketball games, men’s and women’s, will be available only on streaming at some point within the next decade. It’s time to stop fighting the inevitable.
Attendance for UConn basketball games, for both men’s and women’s, have gone down since the team joined the AAC. For the women, it was clear the conference had some impact since the AAC had zero teams that could test the UConn women. This is not likely to change too much in the Big East.
For the men, I believe the attendance drops are due more to the losing than the opponent, but all indications are that season ticket holders gleefully renewed when the Big East announcement was made. Who knows, maybe DePaul is a bigger draw than I give them credit for.
Regardless, this Big East deal is predicated on UConn seeing a dramatic increase in ticket sales to account for what likely is to be a loss on TV revenue. If the UConn men have another bad year or the women *gasp* lose three games, the fans need to keep showing up. The love affair with the Big East cannot be brief.
6) Everything Revolves Around Basketball Now
In January, it was reported that the UConn athletic department had a roughly $40 million budget shortfall and there were public comments from UConn officials that ending programs to balance the books was an option.
I am never in favor of killing athletic teams, but this is the situation that UConn now faces after a decade-plus of horrible, stupid decisions from previous leaders. If UConn must end a team to help balance the budget, that’s fine. The goal, now and forever, is to make sure the basketball teams have enough support. Frankly, nothing else matters.
7) Cut Kevin Ollie a Check & Get Him the Hell Out
Kevin Ollie lied to the NCAA. He messed up, badly. But the contentious back and forth between Ollie and the school has been a bad look for all involved. When Ray Allen, the school’s most famous alum, is publicly bad-mouthing the school over their treatment of Ollie, it’s gone too far. Negotiate in good faith and find a common ground for a settlement. Enough is enough, let’s turn the page.
8) No More Excuses
I will remember the UConn/AAC era as one where UConn fans discovered new things to bitch and moan about on a constant basis. Of course, 99% of this was aimed at the conference. I’ve repeatedly said that the AAC is not why UConn sucks at men’s basketball right now. It’s not why Bob Diaco was a dumpster fire coach. And it’s not why the UConn women keep losing in the Final Four.
I implore all UConn fans to stop blaming outside factors for our team’s poor performance. At some point, UConn needs to look inward when things go sideways. What has changed from a fan perspective? What has changed within the athletic department?
The Big East move provides a fresh slate. There are no more excuses now for UConn athletics.
9) Win Some Games
Wait, I think I covered this one already. UConn needs to win, big, at everything. That’s what UConn is supposed to do.
10) Don’t Be Rutgers On The Way Out
The first year of the AAC was the last year for Rutgers and Louisville. The two schools could not have treated its lame duck year any differently. Rutgers complained about having to keep the AAC logo on its football field. Louisville provided Top 25 teams in basketball and football, and helped to legitimize the league on both fronts by playing up to its potential and rarely, if ever, harping on its lame duck status.
Louisville was rewarded by even greater success upon its entry into the ACC, as that momentum carried over. Rutgers is the butt of every Big Ten joke and its football program is a blight on the entire league.
UConn is much better than Rutgers, so let’s act like it.
If UConn hates the AAC so much, the best way to show disdain would be to win as many games as possible on the way out.
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