The UConn Blog

What would happen to UConn if college football had relegation?

2012-05-17T19:18:04Z

What would happen to UConn if college football had relegation?

The mad geniuses over at the mothership are having "relegation" week, in which they imagine a world where college football is governed by EPL-style promotions and demotions. Spencer Hall introduced the concept here and the link up above plays out the last seven years as if relegation style. Check it out.

Shabazz Napier speaks out on NCAA ban, transfers

2012-05-17T17:02:05Z

Kevin Duffy is a very brave man. How do I know that? He ventured into the barren wasteland known as Storrs during the summer, somehow making it through its barren hellscape to bring us back some lovely tidings from the basketball team. He got a chance to sit down with juniors Shabazz Napier and Tyler Olander to talk about UConn's postseason ban, goals for next year and the flood of players transferring out of the program and got some nice quotes (do yourself a favor and read the whole article).

But the biggest thing I took away is that my fondness for Shabazz Napier knows no bounds ans only increases every time he opens his mouth. Part of me is starting to wonder if he's just a 20-year-old version of Jim Calhoun. They're both from Boston, they both have serious impulse control issues, and they both are going to do speak their mind and they'll be happy to let anyone who disagrees know what they can do with themselves.

A couple quotes will suffice to illustrate my point. Here's Shabazz on UConn's postseason ban:

It doesn't really matter what players think anymore. I mean, I don't think it ever did, but this is a great example of not caring what the players have to say. I feel as though, as players, you can't talk, you can't say much...it only gets you in trouble. There's nothing we can really do. I wish there was, but you really can't.

And here he is on the departure of several teammates:

"It's sad that we can't play in the NCAA tournament or the Big East tournament, but those are things you have to deal with. Like I said, some people deal with them, some people run away. It's how you're born. It' s how you live your life."

Never let it be said the man doesn't speak his mind.

*I actually spent two summers in Storrs and in reality it's stellar. Is it empty? Entirely, but the campus is beautiful, the weather is nice, and if you're an upperclassman the chances are good that you'll have several friends around to enjoy it with. Pay heed undergrads: if your best option is going home for the summer, don't. You won't regret a few more months on campus.

TheRoundUp 5/16: Hathaway named AD at Hofstra

2012-05-16T13:52:57Z

Editors Note: Things have been pretty quiet around here over the past month as I've had to contented with a much larger than usual workload in my non-blog life. That's over now, so expect to see more content in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.

SNY president provides answers on network's plans for UConn - Connecticut Post
Raab said that the search for on-air talent has begun. It is being handled by executive producer Curt Gowdy Jr. Individuals who have experience being around the program will have an advantage. And longtime CPTV announcers Bob Picozzi and Meghan Culmo will be considered.

Jeff Hathaway: Jeff Hathaway, Former-UConn AD, Named To Same Post At Hofstra - Hartford Courant
Less than a year after he resigned under pressure in Storrs, Hathaway was named vice president and athletic director at Hofstra University, a Division I school in Hempstead, N.Y., that plays in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Hofstra hasn't had a football team since 2009.

UCONN Transfer Roscoe Smith on His Official Visit to UNLV | Bleacher Report
With the UNLV Runnin' Rebels jumping back in the national radar after signing Rivals No. 7 ranked recruit , Anthony Bennett, the Rebels are looking to strengthen one of the best ...

UConn first to offer QB Richard Lagow - On The Trail Blog - ESPN (Insider)
In his first season as a starting quarterback, Lagow threw for 1,646 yards and 13 touchdowns for Plano. In addition to the UConn offer, Lagow has been receiving interest from Rutgers, Texas Tech, Houston and Arizona State.

Memorial Stadium: UConn football alumni gather to say goodbye to Memorial Stadium - Hartford Courant
Saturday was a reunion of former UConn football alumni from as far back as the 1940s through this decade who came back to say goodbye to Memorial Stadium because it's coming down, meticulously, starting soon and through the end of June to make way for the much-needed and long-awaited basketball facility for the men and women.

Auriemma on Griner, USA versus the world and the UConn connection - Olympics Blog - ESPN
Auriemma said Baylor star Brittney Griner had a good chance of being selected for the final spot on the Olympic squad before she took herself out of the running. Griner announced in a press release that she could not play due to an unspecified family illness and issues with her summer school schedule.

Connecticut and Rhode Island Play to 2-2 Draw at Dodd - University of Connecticut Official Athletics Site
The game went into a rain delay with two outs and the bases empty in the top of the ninth inning. After a two-hour delay the game was officially called by the umpires. Connecticut’s record now stands at 27-24-1, while URI is 29-23-1.

Mike Cardillo: UConn fans should relish chance at UMass rivalry - Connecticut Post
Let's forget in its infinite wisdom that the Big East added Boise State and San Diego State for football, which, unless you have plenty of disposable income and a love of middling NCAA football, are impossible for fans in the Nutmeg State to reach for road games. More than that, it's almost impossible to muster up any sort of feeling about the new additions to the Big East other than gross indifference. It's not like New England is crawling with Boise State alums, is it?

Hockey East targeting UConn, invitation could come in June

2012-05-11T14:47:06Z

UConn and Hockey East have entered into serious negotiations about the Huskies joining the conference, and an invitation could come as soon as next month according to the AP. Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna told the wire service that the Huskies aren't so much a target of the league as they are the target of the league:

"Our attention is pretty focused on the University of Connecticut. There are other institutions that have had casual conversations. But I think it would be disingenuous to suggest that there is someone else, that our conversations are this far along."

I could offer to read between the lines of that statement for you, but I'm not sure they are even lines to read between, as it looks like UConn will be heading to Hockey East barring a surprising turn of events. UConn officials are on board as well. Connecticut governor Dan Malloy has made no secret of his desire to see the Huskies join the nation's premier hockey conference and new athletic director Warde Manuel told the AP he's on board as well, calling the chance a great opportunity.

The logistics of the move seem to be in place already, with Manuel saying that the Huskies would start off by moving Hockey East games off-campus to Hartford's XL Center before looking at updating the on-campus Freitas Ice Forum down the road. Here's Manuel:

"It would be starting off playing Hockey East games in XL and then looking down in the future at what we would be able to do for a campus facility as well. "Whether it would be new or renovated, it would be where the hockey rink is currently in that Freitas footprint."

Statements like that lead me to believe that UConn has looked at the costs of upgrading hockey (the school had a consulting firm look into it and published the results last month) and decided it is a price worth paying. XL center officials are on board as well, so if all goes well at next month's meeting of Hockey East schools it should be smooth skating ahead.

The move also fits in nicely with recent public statements by Malloy and Manuel expressing a desire to resume serious competition with Boston College. If the governor and the athletic director are making unprompted public statements in the same voice you can bet there is a coordinated plan behind it, and joining Hockey East is an easy way to reopen the connection between the schools. And not to put too fine a point on it, but better relationships between UConn officials and BC can only increase the chance that this isn't the last time UConn joins the Eagles' conference.

TheRoundUp 5/11: Could the UConn-BC cold war be coming to an end?

2012-05-11T14:13:24Z

Connecticut governor says time for UConn and Boston College to put differences behind them - The Washington Post
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says it is time for the University of Connecticut and Boston College to put hard feelings behind them and work to re-establish an important New England rivalry on the football field and basketball court. In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Malloy, an alumnus of Boston College, said he has expressed those sentiments in talks over the past year with Boston College President William Leahy.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and UConn athletic director Warde Manuel Want Renewal Of UConn-BC sports Rivalry - Courant.com
It does not hurt that Manuel and his BC counterpart, Gene DeFilippo, are friends. "I talked briefly with Gene [Wednesday]," Manuel said Thursday. "Gene and I have been friends for a long time. … It's a process that will happen over time."

UConn spring wrap - Big East Blog - ESPN
1. Ryan Wirth steps up. UConn is taking a major hit to the middle of its line with Kendall Reyes and Twyon Martin both gone. Defensive tackle Wirth had one of the best springs for UConn and capped it with a terrific spring game, getting 4.5 sacks, 5.5 tackles for loss and a safety. He could be a really good replacement up front.

Our View: UConn women deserve SNY deal - Norwich, CT - The Bulletin
The deal is one piece to help ensure that UConn continues to be the dominant presence in women’s basketball. But to make this leap into the national television stage, UConn had to cut ties with its longtime broadcaster, Connecticut Public Television. While CPTV’s financial offer was only slightly less than SNY’s $4.55 million over four years, it could not offer the same exposure.

UConn Ends Season With 8-0 Loss To Louisville - University of Connecticut Official Athletics Site
The Husky softball team ended their 2012 season with a 8-0 loss in five innings against the Louisville Cardinals in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship on Thursday afternoon. UConn, who reached the postseason for the first time since 2009, concludes its season with 21-27 (9-13 BE) overall mark. The Cardinals advance to the semifinals and improve to 51-3 on the season.

Wir haben viel von Deutschen: Leon Tolksdorf commits to UConn

2012-05-09T20:34:13Z

We kid because we love, and we better love because an extremely large percentage of UConn's roster next year is going to be made up of Germans thanks to the arrival of Leon Tolksdorf, a 6'8" forward who will presumably be playing the role of Roscoe Smith on the 2012-13 UConn Huskies. Tolksdorf with be joining fellow countrymen Niels Giffey and Enosch Wolf, and will help give the Huskies some much needed size in the front court.

If you're anything like me, you'd never heard of Tolksdorf until a few hours ago, but two videos on YouTube seem to indicate he'll be at a combo-forward and has at least some promise. It's not immediatley clear to me where he played last year, but wherever it was he apparently averaged 17 ppg and 12.4 rebounds per game. If he can put up even a third of those numbers next year he'll be a success. The first is below, the second is after the jump.

Memorial Stadium will be torn down next week to make room for basketball practice facility

2012-05-08T17:00:53Z

Buried at the bottom of the AP's interview with Warde Manuel was a delightful non-succession nugget: Memorial Stadium is being torn down starting next week. The stadium was the home of UConn football for fifty years, but hasn't hosted a game since 2002. Over the past decade it has served the dual purpose of being a delightful set of stairs for athletes to train on and being an eye-sore the rest of us couldn't wait to see destroyed as we longed for a basketball practice facility.

Those of us in the second camp won't have our entire wish granted yet -- UConn is still raising money for the new facility -- but tearing down the old stadium is an important first step and creates the impression of real progress, and Manuel hopes that actual construction could start within the year.

Here's the relevant portion of the AP report:

Manuel also said that UConn will begin in the next week tearing town its old on-campus football stadium, Memorial Stadium, to make way for its new basketball practice facility. But he said the school is still working to raise the needed money (estimated at between $35-40 million) to fund the facility.

"We are hoping at some point this year to be in a financial position to put a shovel in the ground and break ground on the actual construction," he said.

UConn will not name a coach-in-waiting to replace Jim Calhoun

2012-05-08T14:56:21Z

Kevin Ollie may one day succeed Jim Calhoun as UConn's head basketball coach, but he won't be doing it as UConn's coach-in-waiting. At least not yet.

New UConn athletic director Warde Manuel spoke with the Associated Press and said that as of now he has no plans to name a coach-in-waiting to follow the Hall of Fame coach:

"Jim's going to participate in the future direction of the program when he decides that he's not going to coach anymore. But at this time, I haven't made a commitment to a coach in waiting. That doesn't mean that in the future I wouldn't change my position. But right now, I'm not naming a coach in waiting for men's basketball or any program."

Furthermore, Manuel said he's working under the assumption that Calhoun will return to the sidelines next year:

"I don't sit here wondering on a day-to-day basis who is going to be my coach next year. Unless something changes that I don't foresee ... Jim's our coach and I'm moving forward in that direction."

The AP also reached out to Calhoun, who said he was fine with the decision. Calhoun still has not reached a decision about returning next year, but said for now he was dealing with recruits and working on the future of the program and making sure its next 25 years would be as strong as the last 25.

If Calhoun really is fine with this, then it's hard to argue with Manuel's logic. No one is sure exactly what the future holds, but it's hard to see any scenario in which UConn could not hire Ollie if they wanted him to be the next coach.

I understand the argument for naming a coach-in-waiting: it gives a sense of continuity, especially for recruits, but I'm not terribly persuaded by that argument. I find it hard to believe that a removable, speculative job title is going to have more of an impact that is more persuasive than whatever assurances Calhoun and Ollie are already giving behind closed doors on the recruiting trail.

If you add in Ollie's inexperience in the coaching profession it makes even more sense. Why foreclose the option of a national coaching search now? UConn fans who watched the team miss the tournament in 2010, win it in 2011 and experience misadventure after misadventure in 2012 should know better than anyone that a lot can change in just a year or two. Yes, Calhoun has made it clear he wants Ollie to follow him, but Ollie will be there. A national search can start at home.

One final thing: Manuel has only been UConn's AD for a handful of months. Even if he wanted to name Ollie a coach-in-waiting it probably makes sense to give things a little time as he gets the lay of the land in Storrs. Better to take a little longer to make the right decision (even if that ultimately means choosing Ollie) than to rush into a poor choice because of pressure to act too soon.