According to poster on the boneyard fwiw:
The joy of recruiting. The new news I hear from two pretty good sources is that UConn and st. John's is neck-and-neck. His family really likes him being close to the city and family but coaches are big fans of UConn. Probably won't go on another visit. And the joy is that this all might be hot air.
Geez reading through that thread on the UConn board you would think they are kentucky. They were horrible last year and a lot of there talent transferred. Obviously there recent history has been miles better then ours but they are shocked Sid is even considering us over them. Hope we get him and roll into next season with a very talented squad.
They have won 3 national championships in the past decade. They should act like they're really good.
I'm well aware thanks. I'm only speaking to how they think they are currently way better then us, which I don't see.
I don't think he would, Kevin Ollie could point to the players if he wanted to justify the season Uconn just had. Ollie has accomplished more than any St.John's coach ever has. And, Uconn is still a premier program despite a losing season.
That said, if the wheels come off for years on end, he could be replaced. I don't see that happening.
You know, you could make the case that Uconn is a better program than UK last 10 years. It's a damn good case, too.
Sorry, you cannot make the case of UCONN being better than UK, sorry. You have to be careful with the National Championship stuff. Their run in 2014 was great but it was done with a pretty mediocre team with a hot player. If you are going to go by NC’s and not consistently good to great teams then UCONN is a better program than Bill Self and Kansas or Tom Izzo and Michigan St. And there is no one on God’s Green Earth that believes UCONN is as good a program as those two. Kevin Ollie has as many NC’s as John Calipari, Tom Izzo and Bill Self. So what!
The fact is UCONN’s program, built to a remarkable standard by Calhoun, had been slipping for a few years. Not just last year. Remember they got a gift banked, half court shot against Cincy in the AAC Tournament in 2016 or they don’t win the AAC Tourney and make the NCAA’s in 2016, and they missed it in 2015 which means they were a half court 3 point bank shot away from missing the NCAA’s 3 consecutive years. Go back to the BE, yes they won the NCAA’s in 2011, they were also 9-9 in conference play. They have not sniffed a serious conference title run since 2009 and that includes playing in a weak AAC. There is a reason why they are begging conferences to have them, their profile is not great right now.
All of that is not to diminish the fact that UCONN still has name recognition, good facilities and pretty good recent history. But their slip is showing. And the bad year followed by a mass departure of transfers and recruits (BTW they lost their best recruit to fellow New England program Providence-are you going to argue Providence is a better program than UCONN and if not how did they lose a recruit to them but can’t lose one to SJU?) has hurt them considerably.
Again if I were them I would be a bit humble right now as SJU fans should be.
Give you another program with a ton of success over the last decade or so, Ohio St. Thad Matta has a tremendous record. But the last few years combined with this off-season is humbling and I don’t think their fan base is acting as if they are better than any major conference program even if the rivalprogram has not had nearly the amount of success as OSU has had over this given period of time.