(01-18-2019 09:26 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-17-2019 09:08 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  https://www.courant.com/sports/hc-sp-uco...story.html

Yep, all is well in UConn-land. Clearly.

Stever, I won't go back-and-forth with you. I know where you stand, and I respect your stats - so I won't continue the debate (it's been argued enough here, there, everywhere). I do think that being in the American is a detriment to UConn Athletics, and I'll just leave it at that. For what it wants/desires, the Big East would not be a fit for them either (thus, the BE should NOT want them in current form either).

UConn is Example A for Victims of Realignment 101. In retrospect, UConn needed to elevate football in the 70's/early 80's to have ever had a shot at the ACC, or not elevate it at all in the early 2000's.

I just think UConn can be very successful in the AAC. I mean, look at where Houston is right now. looking at the Matrix, just ahead of Marquette as the 14th best team. And UConn would frankly have more respect than that.

Folks want to argue that there is a ceiling in the AAC, and I just don't see it. Last year Cincy got a 2 seed, Wichita got a 4 seed. Now this year with Houston. the league is doing well enough OOC now that end of the year, their overall SOS is strong enough to support the high seeds. And the league is just going to get better- next year Memphis and UConn will be both bringing in top 20 recruiting classes. Wichita has a top 50 class, and has transfer coming in from WVU who is pretty good I believe.

Well, there is a ceiling to every conference. The law of averages guarantees that. Even if/when, Memphis and UConn raise their level of play, they will be taking the spot of another program within the AAC. It is also likely that, due to some success experienced by a number of programs (that have taken advantage of Memphis/UConn being down), that those coaches may get poached by P5 programs. Due to the lack of historical success (and quite frankly fan support), it could be very hard to sustain that success at a number of programs. Johnny Dawkins could be getting a better job offer this off-season. So can Kelvin Sampson. UCF and Houston are by no means examples of sustained success in basketball.

Bottom-line, it is six years into the league. For it to hit its potential, the top programs need to be firing on all cylinders (UConn, Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston, Wichita State, Temple), the middle needs to be competitive (UCF, USF, Tulsa, SMU) and the bottom needs to be decent in OOC, but soak up most of the losses in conference (Tulane, ECU). That's a lot to ask for in order to hit on that potential, IMO (which is why the league has, via perceptional, under-performed).