UCons sitting at home

[JasonEvans]

By the way, not that anyone would bother to notice, but UCon did not even get an invitation to the NIT.

I doubt you hear ESPN or anyone else mention that they had a down year though. Duke is in a "slump" and gets a #6 seed though.

Reality is that we are the standard against which all others are measured. Even in our "down year" we do things most schools only dream about.

-Jason "I think this 'slump season' will extend a few more games too!" Evans

[MarkD83]

of this season extend for 3 or 4 more games :)

[SeattleIrish]

:D It took a while, for me, but I'm finally getting over the sense of persecution most Duke fans feel from time to time...and more acutely this year than in the past decade.

However, it' seeping in that this is the flip side of the unparalleled media coverage we've received the past 20 years. Living on the left coast, I'm at the mercy of national television coverage; as a Duke fan, I'm blessed not to HAVE to purchase a separate plan just to watch my team play. I haven't kept exact count, but I'm guessing high-profile, top-of-the-heap, conference champion UNC was on national t.v. perhaps 10 times this year. I think I was able to watch all but 4 or 5 duke games! We are media darlings (at least as far as COVERAGE goes), and we reap the benefits almost every year.

This year I've seen us receive undue criticism. But that's certainly a small price to pay for what we receive even in our down years. Laugh while they cast stones this year, and snicker at UConvict and all the "Power Teams" that are seeded lower than us...just keep showing us on ESPN/CBS/et al ;-)

s.i.

[Methodistman]

Gotta admit, Jason - I'm with you 100% on this one - it seems like the ESPN darlings have truly gotten a free pass on this one. I despise in one way the way our struggles are magnified while theirs are completely ignored. It almost reminds me of some dude talking about removing the plank from one's own eye before they talk about removing the speck from someone else's.

[hurleyfor3]

It took a while, for me, but I'm finally getting over the sense of persecution most Duke fans feel from time to time...and more acutely this year than in the past decade.

Persecuted? Maybe that was sarcasm but I've never felt persecuted. If people don't like me because of the basketball team I root for, screw 'em.

There are three sports teams that effectively have their own national tv networks: the Chicago Cubs, Notre Dame football and Duke basketball. (The Atlanta Braves show most of their games on Sportssouth now, not tbs.) People hate Notre Dame too, but it's hard to hate the Cubs. Maybe we should try going 99 years without a championship, then more people will like us.

Hate on, losers.

[SeattleIrish]

Persecuted? Maybe that was sarcasm but I've never felt persecuted. If people don't like me because of the basketball team I root for, screw 'em.

There are three sports teams that effectively have their own national tv networks: the Chicago Cubs, Notre Dame football and Duke basketball. (The Atlanta Braves show most of their games on Sportssouth now, not tbs.) People hate Notre Dame too, but it's hard to hate the Cubs. Maybe we should try going 99 years without a championship, then more people will like us.

Hate on, losers.

Perhaps "persecuted" isn't the right word. "...being udged unfairly"? "...held to a different level of accountability"? "...subjected to a different standard"? The point being that this season has been held up largely as a failure by most members of the media, when other premiere programs seem to receive much less flack for their down year(s).

Of course, the even larger point is that I'm happy I get to see Duke on ESPN :D

s.i.

[heyman25]

When Duke finally gets on TV again,I bet the announcers will spend too much time talking about Gerald Henderson and his i game suspension. Just found out his dad went to VCU. Very interesting.UCONN was off the radar and Calhoun gets hardly any of the BS Coach K gets

[Virginian]

The media in the Northeast is saying Calhoun's problems are only going to get worse because he doesn't have scholarships to offer incoming talent. They're reporting that Calhoun will spend the coming weeks gently persuading some of this current crop to transfer to schools where they can "be more effective" and "be more happy." He says he won't "force" anyone off the team, but you get the picture.

Calhoun, the genius, was quoted in one local paper as saying about the NIT: "If we don't get invited to the NIT, we don't go." Sharp as a tack, that guy.

But it is amazing that the national sports writers don't seem to have noticed UConn's fall from NCAA heights. I guess not that many people really care.

Speaking of caring, I wonder if it's possible to get any data on Duke's fan base. I don't think CBS and ESPN would be so zealous about carrying Duke games all year (not to mention Comcast Sports Network and Fox Sports Network) if there weren't lots of people watching those games. And I don't think people who hate Duke spend their Saturday afternoons watching Duke just hoping to see us lose.

I suspect that there are many more Duke basketball fans than some might suppose. So that when Greg Doyle and others write their monthly columns about "this is why everyone hates Duke!!" they're really talking out their...er, hats.

Tomorrow the real basketball season begins. Go Blue Devils!

[feldspar]

Persecuted? Maybe that was sarcasm but I've never felt persecuted. If people don't like me because of the basketball team I root for, screw 'em.

There are three sports teams that effectively have their own national tv networks: the Chicago Cubs, Notre Dame football and Duke basketball. (The Atlanta Braves show most of their games on Sportssouth now, not tbs.) People hate Notre Dame too, but it's hard to hate the Cubs. Maybe we should try going 99 years without a championship, then more people will like us.

Hate on, losers.

Hurley, wouldn't it still be accurate to say, though, that the Braves have more games on standard cable TV than any MLB team? They show at least 3 or 4 games a month on TBS. And doesn't WGN now show just as many Sox games as they do Cubs since the World Series a couple of years ago?

[phaedrus]

the toronto maple leafs also have a (canadian) national tv network. this does not sit well with montreal fans from the west.

[gw67]

I must admit that I have enjoyed their misery this year but I am perplexed by the comment in one of the posts that he is trying to convince players to leave. Their top 12 players are sophs and frosh (I believe 8 freshmen.) Like most young teams, I expect them to be better next year as their young players mature.

gw67

[3rd Dukie]

Virginian,
Good call. I feel really bad for Calhoun. (YEAH. RIGHT!!, SNORK)
That guy is a total thug and he recruits the same type.
At the risk of being terribly impolitik, could it possibly be that character might matter, after all? Furthermore, I hope that they all stay there.

3rd

[Virginian]

GW67:

That's the point of the reports: his team is very young but not very good. Evidently he feels some of them won't ever develop and he doesn't want to be stuck with them for four years. If he can get a couple to leave, he can then recruit some more incoming freshmen who might be better. Cold business that.

[RelativeWays]

Its is a bit disconcerting that UConn isn't even making the NIT and the media in general just couldn't seem to care. Not as lucrative as DUKE AM DOOM3D articles I suppose. I mean these guys just won a championship 3 years ago and were a number 1 seed just last year. Where are the great diatribes lamenting or extolling the demise of the great UConn basketball dynasty?

[superdave]

is better in a "bad" season than 8-20.
I dont think much else needs to be said!
Super Dave

[Lord Ash]

I can tell you why no one has mentioned it;

Outside of Connecticut, no one really cares about UConn.

[fisheyes]

I live in CT and have noticed very few articles in the local papers regarding the UCONN downfall. It's almost irrelevant here too. Maybe it's because the state favors the women...or at least they would prefer to this year. I work with the father of one of the UCONN freshman and from conversations with him, it seems that Calhoun lost control of this team midway through the year.

The UCONN fans are very similar to the Maryland fans...obnoxious. Several years ago I took my then 12 year old son to the Duke-UCONN football game. By 10am most of the crowd was plastered, wearing shirts saying "Duck Fuke" (some skipping the formality), and were generally spitting vulgar remarks toward my son and I as we walked into the stadium. No class.

Living in CT, the best thing about this season is clearly....NO UCONN!

GO DUKE!!!

[Fish80]

I too live in CT. UCONN fans can be pretty bad. At a gas station last year, a UCONN fan saw my license plate and yelled "Duke Sucks", for no reason other than to hear herself yell. Lovely.

UCONN fans are a lot like MD fans in a lot of ways. They desperately want to be important, and somehow hate comes spewing out. Perhaps we should arrange a UCONN v MD matchup and let them beat each other silly.

[JasonEvans]

UCONN fans are a lot like MD fans in a lot of ways. They desperately want to be important, and somehow hate comes spewing out. Perhaps we should arrange a UCONN v MD matchup and let them beat each other silly.

As a friend of mine who reads these boards sometimes says:

"Who would you root for in a UConn vs. Maryland matchup?"
"I'd root for the meteor."

-Jason "I think most folks will get that" Evans :cool:

[hurleyfor3]

Hurley, wouldn't it still be accurate to say, though, that the Braves have more games on standard cable TV than any MLB team? They show at least 3 or 4 games a month on TBS. And doesn't WGN now show just as many Sox games as they do Cubs since the World Series a couple of years ago?

I just counted this.

WGN is showing at least 66 Cubs games this year and at least 29 Sox games. This doublecounts a couple of the Cubs/Sox interleague games. Also, a handful of games for each team are on Espn or Fox, and a few games are to be determined.

Throw in the odd Cubs/Braves game that gets on TBS and the Cubs end up with half their season on national cable.

[Virginian]

A few months after Duke's last champsionship I visited a fellow Duke grad friend of mine who lives a few miles from the UConn campus. He suggested we get together in the evening and shoot some hoops. I thought he meant at his house or at a nearby playground, so I showed up in my Duke gym shorts and a brand new NCAA championship tee-shirt (I had been on the Duke campus the night we won the final -- sweet!). I brought a similar shirt for my friend.

Turns out he wants to go over to the UConn campus to the gym and get into a pickup game. So we stroll into the gym each wearing all our Duke clothes. The first person we see coming out of the gym is Calhoun. He looks at us, looks at our clothes, smiles and keeps going. Inside we had no trouble getting into a pickup game with a bunch of UConn students. No one said a word about Duke, no one elbowed me in the head, punched me in the kidneys or slammed me into the wall when attempting a layup.

I'm no fan of UConn or Calhoun, but I sure wouldn't try that on the Md. campus!

[hurleyfor3]

I grew up in Fairfield County. When people there talk about the university of Connecticut, they mean Yale.

[phaedrus]

GW67:

That's the point of the reports: his team is very young but not very good. Evidently he feels some of them won't ever develop and he doesn't want to be stuck with them for four years. If he can get a couple to leave, he can then recruit some more incoming freshmen who might be better. Cold business that.

prophetic.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/ncaa/03/20/bc.bkc.uconn.eaves.ap/index.html

[pato]

A friend of mine told me about this thread, good stuff in here.

1) UConn has been unequivocally dreadful this year. No UConn fan is disputing this, and nobody wasn't expecting it to some extent. But, it's not even the first time this has happened this decade. In 2001 they missed the NCAA when Butler was a freshman, the next year they made it to the Elite Eight behind Butler and Brown, with Gordon and Okafor as freshman. If you look at some of the best players who've come out of UConn in the last 10 years, none of them have had outstanding, blow-the-doors-off freshmen years. Perhaps that's a product of Calhoun being the coach, who knows. And their defense has been pretty solid this year more or less. Offensive coordination can be learned, but it's somewhat heartening that they're a team that's willing to defend.

2) As for the media coverage (or lack thereof) being paid attention to UConn this year, I don't think it's gone completely unignored. I've seen several mentions on the ESPN website and telecasts about it, all of which have been pretty fair as far as I remember. If every Connecticut game was televised, I'd imagine more attention would be paid to this year's performance.

3) I know this is going to burn, to whomever started this thread, but Carolina really is the standard in college basketball now. They are a godzilla as far as recruiting, they've obviously had a lot of success recently, and they rebuild/reload quicker than anyone in the country.

4) Calhoun obviously went overboard with recruiting last year, and burning up a scholarship on a practice player like Eaves was unquestionably a bad move. Hopefully if they clear some space they'll use it more wisely (McLain or 2008) instead of another shooting guard ranked in the 100's. Eaves can stay at Connecticut for another three years and never even sniff a game, or he can go somewhere where he has a chance at playing, I don't see how this is a bad thing for either side. Hopefully Garrison is hot on his heels.

5) Funny stuff about Calhoun and his players being "thugs." The Price/Williams incident last year was pretty gross, even if you just solely consider the future earning potential that both endangered by pulling that ****, much less the moral/criminal/academic facet of such a transgression. Other than that, I'm not sure what the poster was referring to that led him to think UConn are a "thug" team.

6) As far as the general antipathy towards UConn in this thread, why does everyone hate Duke? Because they're successful, right? Maybe there's a little of the same thing going on here, re: 1999, 2004? Always shake hands after the game, kids.