Originally Posted by CT Flyer
You are correct that it is in the middle of nowhere and the campus is so-so at best. There is a cool little downtown about 15 minutes away with some good bars and restaurants. For people in RI it is far from Providence but for anyone else in the world it is about a 35-40 drive from Providence (For Rhode Islanders anything over 30 minutes away is an overnight trip for them).
UConn's NCAA issues are not FBI related, they are run of the mill recruiting violations.
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URI is starved by the State,..gets only 6% of its operating budget from the State. Hurley is paid about one million...URI can't get that up to two million, in my opinon.
Originally Posted by Flyer68
OK so my memory has not completely gone south. I prefer my bars and restaurant within 15 minute at most walking distance. Actually my other daughter went to JWU in Providence, which was a city I came to like.
Be interesting to see if one of Hurley's assistants gets the job or how many follow him to UConn. Despite being a whiner, I think it is a good spot for him. Only way is up for UConn and he can ride it. From what I have read in NYC papers, over the years UConn is either still angry at Pitt, BC and Syracuse for leaving - and not taking UConn with it - or with UConn having to struggle playing elsewhere.
Hurley can provide or exacerbate any "chip on the shoulder" mentality and bring UConn back. Should be interesting to watch. I don't know if Hurley had good Connecticut recruits at URI.
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UConn paid Ollie three million and ordinarily would match that for Hurley. But UConn has itself in a deep financial hole over Ollie's buy-out. Not at all clear to anyone how that will be handled and how it may affect negotiations with Hurley. Would Hurley be willing to work for two million when Ollie was paid three?....perhaps with really juicy incentives.
UConn is not Power 5 but is still UConn....magnificent facilities second to none....still able to schedule Power 5 opponents with little difficulty.
The bad blood between UConn and other schools over abandonment of the Big East is ancient history. In fact, only BC was involved and now UConn and BC have resumed scheduling. No issue there.
The entire Power 5 things smacks of an illegal cartel. The majority of American Conference schools invest in facilities matching at least half of the Power 5 schools. And the top half of the AAC is much better than the bottom half of a typical Power 5 conference....three AAC schools in final top 25 FB poll, one in top ten. Yet the conference is locked out by the Power5/TV cartel. That is killing schools like UConn and UC...while bottom feeders like Illinois and other similar schools in the Power 5 thrive financially.
