Was thinking about this yesterday...

I don't hate SMU. I have respect for them. They play hard, coach seems like a good dude, they're a good team who plays the right way. I hope they make the Sweet 16 and give Duke a run for their money!

Uconn...I hate them. I absolutely despise every thing about the program, the players, the coaches. I have zero respect for Ollie. Zero respect for the way they handle themselves on the court. They drive me insane. I never root for them to go far.

Curious of other's opinions on these two teams. Do you "hate" SMU as much as Uconn? Do you respect either of them?

I don't hate SMU and I find myself rooting for them most of the time.

I hate UCONN. It's fun to beat them because their fanbase is so smug.

(03-13-2017 10:05 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  I don't hate SMU and I find myself rooting for them most of the time.

I hate UCONN. It's fun to beat them because their fanbase is so smug.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Yeah, beating UConn was a fine consolation prize.

(03-13-2017 09:56 AM)thebearcat Wrote:  Was thinking about this yesterday...

I don't hate SMU. I have respect for them. They play hard, coach seems like a good dude, they're a good team who plays the right way. I hope they make the Sweet 16 and give Duke a run for their money!

Uconn...I hate them. I absolutely despise every thing about the program, the players, the coaches. I have zero respect for Ollie. Zero respect for the way they handle themselves on the court. They drive me insane. I never root for them to go far.

Curious of other's opinions on these two teams. Do you "hate" SMU as much as Uconn? Do you respect either of them?

Agreed. Plus I drive through SMU's campus every time I travel to my home office. Nice facilities and other nice sights. Been to Storrs, and it's surprising rural with a big Ag school. Pretty bleak place.

I honestly don't "hate" either one. UCONN has a right be arrogant with four national championships since 1999, more than any other program during these past 18 seasons (How about that KY and Duke fans?). Wow. And they're in our conference.

Yes, Ollie's pained expressions are amusing and their players' swagger is annoying to opposing fans but in an era when our rivals have parted ways with us and regional P5 schools refuse to play UC, I highly value UCONN in a conference weighted down with schools that know and care very little about college basketball.

SMU has the makings of a good rivalry and I wish them the best for a deep run. Our games with the Mustangs have been excellent. But it will take time to establish a rival relationship with a smaller, private school in Dallas, TX.

The loss of close geographic rivals remains the worst fallout from the conference alignment money grab.

Kind of ironic that you have respect for the program coming off a postseason ban from one of the most corrupt coaches in the game, but don't have any for the program that's won 2 national championships in the last 6 years.

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UCONN takes after their coach who is a jerk who suffers from ROFS (Resting Ollie Face Syndrome).

I don't even know the name of the head guy at SMU, so how can I hate them?

I hate that I don't hate SMU. We need rivals who we at least have the potential to hate.

How can you hate Smoo?

You cant hate smu...they are a feel good story

and I still feel sorry for what the ncaa did to their fb program

Ollie doesn't come close to the arrogance of Jim Calhoun, who never considered UC a worthy opponent.

(03-13-2017 01:47 PM)chatcat Wrote:  Ollie doesn't come close to the arrogance of Jim Calhoun, who never considered UC a worthy opponent.

Hope Calhoun enjoyed watching UC's three wins over the Huskies this year.

I have respect for what UCONN's basketball program has accomplished over the past couple decades. They are typically the team I look forward to playing the most and are the closest thing to a rivalry we have in-conference. But even with a d-bag coach and arrogant fanbase, I don't really hate them.

I don't really see SMU as a rivalry. I find that I have a general apathy towards most programs in this conference. I'm sure it'll change if we are stuck together long enough, but right now I genuinely don't have a feeling one way or the other for most teams in the AAC, they're just kind of... there. The way I feel toward a particular conference foe in any given year tends to fluctuate based on their ranking/record.

(03-13-2017 02:14 PM)burkat Wrote:  I have respect for what UCONN's basketball program has accomplished over the past couple decades. They are typically the team I look forward to playing the most and are the closest thing to a rivalry we have in-conference. But even with a d-bag coach and arrogant fanbase, I don't really hate them.

I don't really see SMU as a rivalry. I find that I have a general apathy towards most programs in this conference. I'm sure it'll change if we are stuck together long enough, but right now I genuinely don't have a feeling one way or the other for most teams in the AAC, they're just kind of... there. The way I feel toward a particular conference foe in any given year tends to fluctuate based on their ranking/record.

It's always fun to beat Memphis and Houston because we go so far back with them. Tulsa also, they were in the old MoValley during UC"s heyday.

I think it's just part of life... It's going to be really hard to have true rivalries in this conference.

To have a true rivalry, you have to have some key ingredients:
-Shared History.
-Competitiveness.
-Similarity.

It also helps to have:
-Geographical proximity.

So...
Shared History: UC has shared history with Memphis (Metro, CUSA), ECU (CUSA), Houston (CUSA), Tulsa (MVC, Metro?), USF (CUSA, BE), and UConn (BE).
Competitiveness: UC has been competitive (in BB) with UConn, Memphis, Temple, and recently SMU.
Similarity: The most "similar" Universities with UC (Large, Public, Research, Urban Universities) are Temple, Houston, Memphis.
and,
Geographical Proximity: None, but Temple is the closest.

There just are no "obvious" rivalries in this conference. Maybe something develops over time...some categories get checked in two categories, but no single institution checks all the boxes. UConn, in particular, has the strongest claim: we have some history with them and the series has been extremely competitive (I think they said we had 19 meetings coming into the game on Saturday and it was 10-9 favoring UC with something like 20 points separating the two schools total...).

But SMU? There's nothing there really to build a rivalry upon at this point. We've only been in the same conference for 4 years, they are a private, parochial school, that's over 1000 miles away. They've only been competitive with us for the past 2 years. We can have great games, but can they really be a "rival"? I doubt it.

Temple is almost 600 miles from Cincy, so if that is our closest geographic rival, it shows how nonsensically spread-out this conference is. UConn still leads UC in the head-to-head basketball series, notwithstanding our three wins this year. That fact is a remnant of our early struggles in the Big East, playing with walk-ons and MAC-level, and below, players.

(03-13-2017 01:10 PM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Kind of ironic that you have respect for the program coming off a postseason ban from one of the most corrupt coaches in the game, but don't have any for the program that's won 2 national championships in the last 6 years.

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If Larry the Clown was still in charge of that program, I would loathe SMU. With him gone, I'll root for them to make the finals.

As for UConn, I've hated them since March 18, 1995.