RE: X or Cincy?
A CINCY FAN WROTE:
"As far as thriving, UC built its basketball program back to respectability in the Big East. UC went from a completely bleak outlook in basketball a mere 6 years ago to respectability, and 3 straight NCAA appearances. Something that SJU can't say and they have had the Big East name surrounding them forever."
I RESPONDED:
---> "The "Big East" name allowed Cincinnati to recruit and re-build from their mid-00's disaster, and that Big East name was built on the backs of St John's and the original 7/8/9... without the Big East name, where would UC be right now?"
A CINCY FAN WROTE:
"Why has St. John's had such a problem rebuilding then? Providence? DePaul?
UC has won in every conference it has ever played in... yes, maybe the name helped a bit to get their foot in the door to recruit, but at the end of the day it is all about the coach selling a recruit on the advantages of their school.
The Big East did not build UC, Louisville, or WVU into great basketball schools. Great coaches did that through the years. All of them will still be very good in the future as their history dictates it."
I WROTE THIS WHILE THE OTHER THREAD WAS BEING LOCKED, AND SINCE THIS SIMILAR THREAD IS STILL REMAINING OPEN I MIGHT AS WELL POST IT HERE:
---> Because of football and other pressures, PC (and others) eventually agreed to expand the conference to 16 schools. This coincided with two fair-to-poor coaching hires pre-Cooley (I called mulligans on these two coaches on another thread). In the 90's, we had some great teams and excellent players and had around 12 NBA players in the league at one point around that time. We had three great coaches in Pitino, Rick Barnes and Gillen (with a disaster year in Gordie Chiesa when Pitino left late for the Knicks).
The Big East decision to expand and invite West Virginia, Notre Dame, and others, was excellent choice to build the greatest basketball conference in college basketball history. But in doing this, it allowed these additional teams better hoops cred in the northeast and PC’s main recruiting territory back then (metro NY) was more crowded. St John's also had a bad hire after Jarvis (their mulligan), and now they're getting 5-star recruits and have a great coach.
Also, Notre Dame hadn’t made the NCAAs in the 5 years leading up to their Big East entry. West Virginia hadn’t made the Sweet Sixteen from 1963 til three years after their Big East entry. While both programs were solid pre-Big East, I think carrying the Big East name helped each school move from "solid" program to "excellent" program – better recruits, better coaches now available (like, in West Virginia’s case I don't think Huggins would've gone to the A-10; even Beilein wouldn't have laterally moved from Richmond (A-10) to West Virginia (if in the A-10)). Going forward, I'm still gonna pull for our former Big East compatriots in their other conferences, but I'm really looking forward to the Big East and having Cooley.
(This post was last modified: 08-29-2013 01:27 PM by billyjack.)
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