9 replies to this topic

[HartfordTycoon]

OK, as a UConn fan I hate Duke. So imagine my surprise when I saw the Rams taking it to them before half time yesterday. I immediately started rooting for the Rams and they almost pulled off the upset. Baron is phenominal. I wish we had him and his father who is the head coach seems to have a really good team on his hands. I hope you guys in RI start supporting your college athletics more. It could really be a driver for your state. That is where the national level excitement and notoriety can easily come from. My advice, let Boston's teams play second fiddle to URI and Providence this year for sports coverage in the state and see how it works out.  

UConn does have to exact vengeance on those miserable Friars that defeated us last year. I'm looking forward to the match up though. You guys have 2 very solid basketball schools in the state. Use that to your advantage. The state needs to rally around them and you guys could even have a great in-state rivalry. I really think you guys need to make those 2 programs higher profile nationally somehow.

[Griswald]

I agree - I think basketball was bigger here when PC was in the Final Four or at least got somewhat deep in the tournament, and URI as well - I still remember the loss to Stanford that would've taken URI to the Final Four, Standford fouled them at the end and it wasn't called.
Hopefully the renovated DDC arena will help bring more people to PC games. URI has a pretty new arena as well, the Ryan Center. For some reason though I just don't hear these two teams talked up a lot around here. I think part of that is because everyone around here is a huge Patriots, Celtics, and Red Sox fan - while in Connecticut, fans are too far away from the pro teams.  It's a lot easier to go see a UCONN game....

[runawayjim]

PC fired Tim Welsh and hired Keno Davis to re-vamp their basketball program.  I have a feeling it'll work.  There might be a bad season while they get settled in, but I imagine after that, they'll be doing better than in the past.

I'm a UConn graduate and work at PC, though I'm a Husky at heart.  URI's team has been doing better lately and seems to be working its way to the national scene.  PC is already on the national scene, but not really taken seriously.  Hopefully, the new coach will make them a real contender.  PC basketball is to Providence as UConn basketball is to Hartford.  They're the "pro" teams for our respective states.

[HartfordTycoon]

It comes down to the way it's covered and marketed in the state. Projo and your local TV Stations have to really make URI and PC seem to be the biggest thing in town. They need to lead with these stories and make the players into local celebreties so that RI will care enough to follow the season. The pro New England teams need no assistance from the Providence based media community and shouldn't be getting as free of a ride as they get.

[runawayjim]

HartfordTycoon, on Nov 17 2008, 10:23 AM, said:

It comes down to the way it's covered and marketed in the state. Projo and your local TV Stations have to really make URI and PC seem to be the biggest thing in town. They need to lead with these stories and make the players into local celebreties so that RI will care enough to follow the season. The pro New England teams need no assistance from the Providence based media community and shouldn't be getting as free of a ride as they get.

PC gets plenty of coverage (I think the firing and hiring of the coaches was front page news).  Honestly, since you're not here to see it, how can you really comment on how big PC and URI are here?  Media coverage is just a small part of it.  The bigger part is attendance.  As I said, PC is treated as RI's "pro" team (just as UConn is treated as CT's "pro" team).  The Celtics aren't as big here as PC and URI basketball.  It's the Pats and Sox that get most of the coverage (though when the Celts do well, they get a lot of coverage, and rightfully so).  UConn has been a national powerhouse for well over a decade.  Because CT, especially Hartford, falls far enough between NY and Boston, the coverage of the pro teams, especially basketball and football, isn't as big.  Down in Fairfield County, the rag known as the CT Post covers the NY teams quite a bit, often leaving UConn to the wayside.  UConn also has the benefit of a big football program now (and it doesn't hurt that the state throws a ton of money at UConn sports).

Anyway, we have a dedicated TV channel here for most URI and PC (as well as Brown and high school) games.  The first news story on the TV sports, unless the Sox or Pats did something big, is about the local colleges.

The one comment I will make, and this happened both while I was there and after I graduated, is that when the UConn players were made into local celebrities, they were soon arrested for various drug charges.  Khalid el Amin was one of them while I was there and this happened after he helped win the national championship.

[HartfordTycoon]

runawayjim, on Nov 17 2008, 11:34 AM, said:

PC gets plenty of coverage (I think the firing and hiring of the coaches was front page news).  Honestly, since you're not here to see it, how can you really comment on how big PC and URI are here?  Media coverage is just a small part of it.  The bigger part is attendance.  As I said, PC is treated as RI's "pro" team (just as UConn is treated as CT's "pro" team).  The Celtics aren't as big here as PC and URI basketball.  It's the Pats and Sox that get most of the coverage (though when the Celts do well, they get a lot of coverage, and rightfully so).  UConn has been a national powerhouse for well over a decade.  Because CT, especially Hartford, falls far enough between NY and Boston, the coverage of the pro teams, especially basketball and football, isn't as big.  Down in Fairfield County, the rag known as the CT Post covers the NY teams quite a bit, often leaving UConn to the wayside.  UConn also has the benefit of a big football program now (and it doesn't hurt that the state throws a ton of money at UConn sports).

Anyway, we have a dedicated TV channel here for most URI and PC (as well as Brown and high school) games.  The first news story on the TV sports, unless the Sox or Pats did something big, is about the local colleges.

The one comment I will make, and this happened both while I was there and after I graduated, is that when the UConn players were made into local celebrities, they were soon arrested for various drug charges.  Khalid el Amin was one of them while I was there and this happened after he helped win the national championship.

That's not fair to say that because some got into trouble it's not good to give these guys some limelight. CT media has not played a minor role in getting the most players from any school currently in the NBA to the next level. As someone interested in all of New England I read the Projo online occassionally and just thought they could do a little more hyping of the programs. I also don't think it's accurate to say that the SW CT papers don't cover UConn as much. They may not be as gung ho as the Courant about it, but it's still the biggest sports news there as well. I didn't know URI was any good, so really I was just surprised about what  saw yesterday. I think that on the state level there are things that your elected leaders and media folks can do to push these programs to a higher echelon. I don't know how big PC and URI are in the state. I know that neither are known or respected as much as they could be in CT and feel that RI could do something about that for starters.

[runawayjim]

HartfordTycoon, on Nov 17 2008, 10:44 AM, said:

That's not fair to say that because some got into trouble it's not good to give these guys some limelight. CT media has not played a minor role in getting the most players from any school currently in the NBA to the next level. As someone interested in all of New England I read the Projo online occassionally and just thought they could do a little more hyping of the programs. I also don't think it's accurate to say that the SW CT papers don't cover UConn as much. They may not be as gung ho as the Courant about it, but it's still the biggest sports news there as well. I didn't know URI was any good, so really I was just surprised about what  saw yesterday. I think that on the state level there are things that your elected leaders and media folks can do to push these programs to a higher echelon. I don't know how big PC and URI are in the state. I know that neither are known or respected as much as they could be in CT and feel that RI could do something about that for starters.

CT as a whole doesn't seem to respect RI very much.  URI's success is fairly recent, like in the past year.  PC has had troubles that many blame on the coaching by Tim Welsh who seemed to play favorites.  I'm sure most younger kids here can name the PC greats just as those in CT can name the UConn greats.  ProJo is undergoing some major changes and I'm not sure it's all that respected in the state at the moment.

As for the UConn players, giving them limelight makes them heroes and role models to children.  What do you do when those heroes or role models are arrested for drug possession?  I think one was even caught driving a stolen car.  It's not a good thing for UConn, for the player, or for the children, many of which are inner city youth who need good role models (and what better role models than a UConn basketball star who made it to Div 1 basketball from the inner city?).  That's why I have a bit of a problem with the UConn players.  I've seen what the college gives to them.  Many of them don't deserve to be the role models they are.  I've had classes with them, I've seen how they act in those classes, and I've seen the benefit of the huge curve given in the easiest of classes because the star athletes were in those classes.  I went to UConn during the "golden years" with final 4 appearances and national championships.  I have a lot of respect for the women who worked their butts off in class, and little respect for the men who were the quintessential slackers hand fed from a silver spoon.

[webbage]

So I'm completely biased here, but Bryant's team is making progress as the whole school is moving up to D1.

Though UConn did beat Bryant pretty bad this weekend.

[HartfordTycoon]

Providence Journal

College basketball no longer has the stranglehold around here that it once did. There are reasons for this, of course. The incredible appeal of the Patriots, a season that usually goes deep into January. The incredible popularity of the Red Sox, which has become a year-round phenomenon. The fact that it’s been a decade since the Friars or the Rams went deep into the NCAA Tournament. The lack of a daily sports talk show around here that focuses on local college basketball. A local sports world that’s more and more pro-oriented all the time.

Add it all together, and it takes its toll, a chipping away of the popularity of college basketball around here, to the point that one day you wake up and it’s not quite the same and no one really knows why.

Which means that anything we can do to boost college basketball is a good thing. Everything we can do to give people games they can get excited about, care about, is a good thing. Every time we get people talking about college basketball is a good thing. Every time we can do something to grow the game around here is a good thing.

But guess what?

People aren’t going to talk about PC-Sacred Heart or URI-Hartford. That’s just the way it is. And it’s no secret that both schools play nonleague schedules full of too many games that not a lot of people care about. The Friars have Dartmouth. Sacred Heart. Jackson State. Bryant. And outside of tomorrow’s date with the Rams, they don’t have one nonleague home game that anyone cares about. Not one.

The Rams counter with Hartford, New Hampshire and Central Connecticut. Their home schedule wouldn’t be perked up with a game against the Friars?

Please.

[runawayjim]

We were discussing having 2 PC-URI games a season here at work the other day.  While I don't think it'll happen, it would make complete sense, especially as URI builds their program.  The new coach at PC is doing pretty well and I have a feeling by next season PC basketball will be talked about a bit more than it is today.

One could also make the argument for a second PC-UConn game or PC-BC, as those rivalries are pretty big.