Gato78
09-15-2012, 12:05 PM
We do not sufficiently appreciate how good the remaining basketball programs in the BIG EAST are historically and currently. I spoke with an MU administrator last night at the B&G banquet. He said he was surprised that the national media and fans are doing so much hand wringing over the loss of Notre Dame, or even West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse--because there have been more national championships and recent NCAA success in the remaining schools. The conference losses are important but the remaining conference members are head and shoulders ahead of the old CUSA and may still be equal to the ACC in hoops. The argument makes sense. UConn has three titles in the Calhoun era, Louisville has several and we have one. The Iscariot wing of the BIG EAST does not have the same history. In fact, if you take out Duke and NCarolina, and compare the balance of the schools in the new ACC to the remaining schools in the BIG EAST, there is almost no comparison. BIG EAST needs the bottom feeders to get better to help the process. The bottom line is this: we have overreacted to the losses with a sky is falling attitude.
We need to appreciate how all of this landscape will look when Coach K, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim retire--which is where Syracuse may not have properly considered this long term. We need to consider what we have after the Iscariots have left the conference, remembering Memphis and Temple's additions (Houston has a great history, too) and look at how strong Louisville and UConn have been. If UConn keeps Kevin Ollie, they will be excellent long term since he is an up and comer who can rely on UConn history as well. Even if Pitino retires in the next few years, there is so much money in that program that they will not take a step back, they will pay more money than anyone for a quality coach--hell, the YUM Center was built for Louisville basketball. SMU has some incredible potential if Larry Brown sticks arouns a few years to get it going for Tim Jankovich.
I was a bit of a doom and gloomer, I have to admit. I did appreciate how important Louisville is from a basketball standpoint but the ND loss caused me concern about the future of the conference. However, assuming there is no more movement (unlikely at this point because there is nowhere for Louisville and Cincy and UConn and Memphis to go), we are still in a really good basketball conference which is still equal to the Big Teneleventwelve and the ACC. Note: the sky is not falling.
We need to appreciate how all of this landscape will look when Coach K, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim retire--which is where Syracuse may not have properly considered this long term. We need to consider what we have after the Iscariots have left the conference, remembering Memphis and Temple's additions (Houston has a great history, too) and look at how strong Louisville and UConn have been. If UConn keeps Kevin Ollie, they will be excellent long term since he is an up and comer who can rely on UConn history as well. Even if Pitino retires in the next few years, there is so much money in that program that they will not take a step back, they will pay more money than anyone for a quality coach--hell, the YUM Center was built for Louisville basketball. SMU has some incredible potential if Larry Brown sticks arouns a few years to get it going for Tim Jankovich.
I was a bit of a doom and gloomer, I have to admit. I did appreciate how important Louisville is from a basketball standpoint but the ND loss caused me concern about the future of the conference. However, assuming there is no more movement (unlikely at this point because there is nowhere for Louisville and Cincy and UConn and Memphis to go), we are still in a really good basketball conference which is still equal to the Big Teneleventwelve and the ACC. Note: the sky is not falling.