Big East Conference Realignment v2018

[MullinMayhem]

Gotta wonder how long this will be tolerable for UConn. From champs seemingly every other year and in the top 25 every year to total irrelevance the last several. They keep trying to force football to happen but it just won't. The hotbeds for recruiting are in the country, not in the tri-state area. It's just not a cultural fit or a recruiting fit. College basketball however is a cultural and recruiting fit in the tri-state area. The bad news is they will probably stop the bleeding after firing Ollie and hiring Hurley.

[Bill Marsh]

Gotta wonder how long this will be tolerable for UConn. From champs seemingly every other year and in the top 25 every year to total irrelevance the last several. They keep trying to force football to happen but it just won't. The hotbeds for recruiting are in the country, not in the tri-state area. It's just not a cultural fit or a recruiting fit. College basketball however is a cultural and recruiting fit in the tri-state area. The bad news is they will probably stop the bleeding after firing Ollie and hiring Hurley.

I can’t see why Hurley would want to go to UConn. He’s the hottest young coach in the country, and there have to be better opportunities than that.

[BEwannabe]

Not everyone is desperate enough to hire the jackass! He's the biggest whiner in college basketball but knowing my luck he'll go to AAC and UD will follow and it'll be 1 big happy reunion.

[GoldenWarrior11]

If/when UConn lets go of Ollie, it will be telling to see how much they are able to offer prospective candidates. They spent a boat-load on getting rid of Diaco (and hiring Edsall), and now if they get rid of Ollie (he has a big buyout), they will be paying a significant amount of money on former coaches. UConn isn't getting the $50 million annually in TV money like Rutgers is, or the $35/$40 million annually that Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Louisville and Maryland all receive.

Each year, they get further and further behind.

[stever20]

Gotta wonder how long this will be tolerable for UConn. From champs seemingly every other year and in the top 25 every year to total irrelevance the last several. They keep trying to force football to happen but it just won't. The hotbeds for recruiting are in the country, not in the tri-state area. It's just not a cultural fit or a recruiting fit. College basketball however is a cultural and recruiting fit in the tri-state area. The bad news is they will probably stop the bleeding after firing Ollie and hiring Hurley.

I can’t see why Hurley would want to go to UConn. He’s the hottest young coach in the country, and there have to be better opportunities than that.

UConn is a major step up from Rhode Island. Not even remotely close. A10 is right now #11 in Ken Pom barely ahead of Conference USA. #10 in the RPI- barely ahead of the MAC. If St Bonaventure loses a game this week, the only way the A10 gets 2 teams in the tourney is if Rhode Island doesn't win the conference. The AAC on the other hand will get 3 teams in easily, with a 4 still pretty possible- and that's with UConn and Memphis being really down right now.

Also, you wonder if guys like Hurley won't go to the bigger programs right now due to the stuff going on right now. I could see him wanting to make what is still a pretty major step up while not having to worry about the crap going on.

[MullinMayhem]

Yes but UConn can fire Ollie for just cause which would barely cost them. This is of course contingent on the fact that the NCAA finds he was involved in shady practices recruiting.

[kayako]

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2 ... on-gonzaga

Probably more realistic destination for Gonzaga .

[ecasadoSBU]

Definitely a better move for everyone involved.

We dont need them in the Big East.

BYU/Gonzaga would be a nice addition to the MWC

[kayako]

Definitely a better move for everyone involved.

We dont need them in the Big East.

BYU/Gonzaga would be a nice addition to the MWC

It's kind of funny that MWC looks like the more stable football conference than AAC.

[Bostonspider]

University of Richmond set to build $15 million basketball training and performance facility
JOHN O'CONNOR Richmond Times-Dispatch·10 minutes ago


The University of Richmond announced Wednesday before its men's basketball game against visiting Massachusetts that a training and performance center for the men's and women's hoops programs will be built adjacent to the Robins Center.

The new facility, expected to cost $15 million, launches with a $7.5 million lead gift by Paul and Anne-Marie Queally, 1986 UR graduates. Construction is expected to begin late in the spring of 2019, following the completion of a successful fundraising effort, and the projected opening is fall 2020.


The Queally Athletics Center will be located behind the Robins Center, as one faces the arena's main entrance. Future Spiders will "enjoy the benefits of one of the absolute best training and performance facilities in the country," John Hardt, a UR vice president and director of athletics, said in a school release.

Richmond's campus already includes Queally Hall, part of the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, and the Queally Center, the school's headquarters for admissions, financial aid and career services. Paul and Anne-Marie Queally made the lead gifts for both of those buildings.

Included in the Queally Athletics Center will be coaches' offices, locker rooms, a practice gym, sports medicine and strength-and-conditioning areas, an academic-support area, and a Spider Heritage Hall that celebrates the tradition of UR athletics.

"We've always been a place where we've really tried to get good players, but more importantly, really help those guys develop and become great players," said men's coach Chris Mooney, who recognized the recruiting assistance the facility will supply, as did Michael Shafer, the women's coach.


Shafer, in the school statement, called the Queally Athletics Center "a strong statement that the University of Richmond is committed to the success of its basketball programs and its student-athletes."


UR announced in June of 2008 that Millhiser Gymnasium, also adjacent to the Robins Center and where the Spiders played home games 1922-46, would be converted into a basketball practice facility at a cost of approximately $1.5 million.

By early in 2009, the school put that plan on hold, primarily because of deteriorating economic conditions.

About one-third of the 14 A-10 schools have basketball training-and-performance centers of some sort. They are beneficial from a practical standpoint, but also are recruiting tools as demonstrations of basketball commitment.


Typically, these support facilities include coaches' offices, locker rooms, meeting rooms, strength-and-conditioning areas and sports-medicine areas. Some have two full courts.

VCU is an A-10 member, as is Richmond, and the Rams opened their $25-million Basketball Development Center in 2015 behind the Siegel Center.

Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena, opened in 2006, features a built-in practice facility. At Virginia Tech the $21-million Hahn Hurst Practice Center opened in 2009. At Old Dominion, the $8.5-million Mitchum Basketball Performance Center opened in 2017. At George Mason, an existing gym was renovated and became a practice facility. That 2017 remodel was part of a $2.2-million phase of the school's Basketball Excellence Plan.

The Queally Athletics Center is the latest among a few significant facility upgrades at Richmond in recent years. UR in January began gutting much of the Robins Center's ground floor, the first phase of a $7 million project that will deliver a new football locker room, a new sports medicine area, a new strength-and-conditioning setup, a new equipment room, a new men's lacrosse locker room and new men's and women's coaches' locker rooms.

The Robins Center upstairs arena underwent a $17-million renovation in 2013, and renovations of some Olympic sports locker rooms and offices were recently completed.






Of course, now Richmond is not mediocre, but down right shitty this season.. timing is always great, lol.