The Holy Land of Hoops

http://www.guhoyas.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/102414aaa.html

Hoyas @ Uconn January 2016

Uconn @ Hoyas January 2017

Love it great OOC game and during BE play which is always nice having a big OOC game later in the year.

hoyahooligan wrote:http://www.guhoyas.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/102414aaa.html

Hoyas @ Uconn January 2016

Uconn @ Hoyas January 2017

Love it great OOC game and during BE play which is always nice having a big OOC game later in the year.

Great deal, I wish we can get the Huskies back on the schedule on a yearly basis.

I just saw it on the bottom scroll on FS1, during the Oregon-Cal game. Great series for G'town and Uconn.

hoyahooligan wrote:http://www.guhoyas.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/102414aaa.html

Hoyas @ Uconn January 2016

Uconn @ Hoyas January 2017

Love it great OOC game and during BE play which is always nice having a big OOC game later in the year.

That should be a hot ticket here in CT.

I have to tell you all that the formation of the AAC has really hurt UConn basketball -especially with the loss of Louisville and Rutgers. Fans here just don't care about match ups with these 2nd tier football schools. Games with Cincy, Memphis, and SMU are nice, but the real passion are for the old Big East rivalries.

The AAC made a huge mistake in choosing Tulsa instead of UMass. They have an old, historic rivalry with UConn and it would have made for a great border war. UMass won't help AAC football right now, but the conference is delusional about their ability to make a dent in the P5. They have a much bigger opportunity in basketball. UConn is their cornerstone franchise, but they're u here in New England on an island. They need some rivalry games that people will care about. Attendance is down and the AAC simply didn't care about them. Instead, the conference catered to southern football interests, bringing them ever closer to being nothing more than CUSA, Part Deux. They'll get what they deserve.

Bottom line is that UConn-Georgetown will have real juice. I was at Georgetown's last game up here and it was a classic overtime thriller that DSR kept them in until Otto Porter took over in OT. Fans remember that will look forward to seeing more of the same.

The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference. And they actually won CUSA last year so it's not like they are a dreg in basketball.

UConn's attendance was only down because the Temple game was in a snow storm last year and didn't get even 5k fans. Nothing to do with the AAC at all. Avg conference attendance went from 11729 to 10806 even with that- if Temple had been good weather- it would have been within at least a few hundred people- if not exactly the same...

And just to show how folks have reacted- look at Georgetown attendance...
2012-13 10911/13177 conference
2013-14 8670/10326 conference

we had NO games last year that beat our average conference attendance 2 years ago. So to be down only 900 fans with a snowstorm is not bad at all. You could take your statement Bill and apply it 100% to Georgetown basketball. Losing Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy is just huge.

stever20 wrote:The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference.

I let a lot of stuff go without responding, but c'mon Stever. Tulsa is 1-6 in football and among the worst D1 teams in America. I suppose you could argue that SMU (0-6) and UConn are worse (1-6), but they're also in the AAC. That league is an abomination.

stever20 wrote:The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference. And they actually won CUSA last year so it's not like they are a dreg in basketball.

UConn's attendance was only down because the Temple game was in a snow storm last year and didn't get even 5k fans. Nothing to do with the AAC at all. Avg conference attendance went from 11729 to 10806 even with that- if Temple had been good weather- it would have been within at least a few hundred people- if not exactly the same...

And just to show how folks have reacted- look at Georgetown attendance...
2012-13 10911/13177 conference
2013-14 8670/10326 conference

we had NO games last year that beat our average conference attendance 2 years ago. So to be down only 900 fans with a snowstorm is not bad at all. You could take your statement Bill and apply it 100% to Georgetown basketball. Losing Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy is just huge.

I notice you didn't mention that Providence played a game in a snow storm.

stever20 wrote:The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference. And they actually won CUSA last year so it's not like they are a dreg in basketball.

UConn's attendance was only down because the Temple game was in a snow storm last year and didn't get even 5k fans. Nothing to do with the AAC at all. Avg conference attendance went from 11729 to 10806 even with that- if Temple had been good weather- it would have been within at least a few hundred people- if not exactly the same...

And just to show how folks have reacted- look at Georgetown attendance...
2012-13 10911/13177 conference
2013-14 8670/10326 conference

we had NO games last year that beat our average conference attendance 2 years ago. So to be down only 900 fans with a snowstorm is not bad at all. You could take your statement Bill and apply it 100% to Georgetown basketball. Losing Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy is just huge.

Steve, you've got to do a better job with your math. UConn attendance dropped by about 1000 fans per game last year. UConn had 18 home games last year. That's a drop of about 18,000 fans total. Temple was a bad team last year. Even without the same snow storm, that game was not a big draw. A week later, UConn played another bad AAC team in that same XL Center and Drew 10,000 fans, giving a good indication of what the Temple game would have drawn. That's another 5,000 fans, still leaving UConn down by about 13,000 fans total from the year before. And UConn was on a national championship run last year while the team the year before was suspended from the tournament and had no hopes of going anywhere.

As for Tulsa being a good add for football, they were not even close. Football is all about attendance and they draw 20,000 per game. With an enrollment of 3000 and a small market, that attendance Is going nowhere. There was simply no up side to adding them. UMass is a state flagship with an enrollment of 30,000 in one of the larger states in the country. They bring an historic rivalry with the best basketball program in the AAC. Their addition would have brought increased interest in football at both schools. There was nothing but up side in adding them.

stever20 wrote:The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference. And they actually won CUSA last year so it's not like they are a dreg in basketball.

UConn's attendance was only down because the Temple game was in a snow storm last year and didn't get even 5k fans. Nothing to do with the AAC at all. Avg conference attendance went from 11729 to 10806 even with that- if Temple had been good weather- it would have been within at least a few hundred people- if not exactly the same...

And just to show how folks have reacted- look at Georgetown attendance...
2012-13 10911/13177 conference
2013-14 8670/10326 conference

we had NO games last year that beat our average conference attendance 2 years ago. So to be down only 900 fans with a snowstorm is not bad at all. You could take your statement Bill and apply it 100% to Georgetown basketball. Losing Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy is just huge.

The comparison of UConn attendance last year during a national championship run with the previous one with the year before when the team was on suspension and had lost a whole group of players to transfers and early departure to the NBA partly as a result is simply not a fair comparison.the fact that attendance was down at all when interest should have been revitalized is shocking.

A more realistic comparison would be with the last season that UConn was NOT on suspension (2011-12) when they averaged 12,600 per game vs last year when attendance was 10,100. That's a drop of 2500 fans per game. It's real and it has nothing to do with a snowstorm affecting a game against a bad opponent with whom the school has no history.

Bill Marsh wrote:

stever20 wrote:The AAC is trying to compete with the rest of the G5. That's why they didn't add a putrid football team in UMass. Tulsa is better in football and has a lot more history with most of the rest of the conference. And they actually won CUSA last year so it's not like they are a dreg in basketball.

UConn's attendance was only down because the Temple game was in a snow storm last year and didn't get even 5k fans. Nothing to do with the AAC at all. Avg conference attendance went from 11729 to 10806 even with that- if Temple had been good weather- it would have been within at least a few hundred people- if not exactly the same...

And just to show how folks have reacted- look at Georgetown attendance...
2012-13 10911/13177 conference
2013-14 8670/10326 conference

we had NO games last year that beat our average conference attendance 2 years ago. So to be down only 900 fans with a snowstorm is not bad at all. You could take your statement Bill and apply it 100% to Georgetown basketball. Losing Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, Cincy is just huge.

Steve, you've got to do a better job with your math. UConn attendance dropped by about 1000 fans per game last year. UConn had 18 home games last year. That's a drop of about 18,000 fans total. Temple was a bad team last year. Even without the same snow storm, that game was not a big draw. A week later, UConn played another bad AAC team in that same XL Center and Drew 10,000 fans, giving a good indication of what the Temple game would have drawn. That's another 5,000 fans, still leaving UConn down by about 13,000 fans total from the year before. And UConn was on a national championship run last year while the team the year before was suspended from the tournament and had no hopes of going anywhere.

As for Tulsa being a good add for football, they were not even close. Football is all about attendance and they draw 20,000 per game. With an enrollment of 3000 and a small market, that attendance Is going nowhere. There was simply no up side to adding them. UMass is a state flagship with an enrollment of 30,000 in one of the larger states in the country. They bring an historic rivalry with the best basketball program in the AAC. Their addition would have brought increased interest in football at both schools. There was nothing but up side in adding them.

I said average CONFERENCE attendance. So that's a difference of 9000 fans.. So we're talking a difference of maybe 4000 fans.

I would say this- look at 2011-12 season that you bring up. 9 conference games averaged 13,516. The 9 home games- St John's, WV, Cincy, ND, Seton Hall, DePaul, Marquette, Syracuse, and Pitt. Only 4 are in the Big East still.
The 2012-13 season schedule was DePaul, Louisville, Rutgers, USF, Syracuse, Villanova, Cincy, Georgetown, and Providence. Also only 4 in the Big East still.

The point is the loss of WV, ND, Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, and Louisville is JUST as big of a loss- if not more than the loss of the C7 schools for UConn. You look at the stats- the last 2 years- the games with the others averaged 13286. The games with the C7 averaged 12963. So there was going to be a down tick no matter what.