04-09-2014, 10:07 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-09-2014, 10:44 AM by Viking_Guy.)
Terry--
Not only a structural advantage from ESPN currently, but in helping to build the program. Specifically the 1995-96 team.
UConn had been good before; they made the Final Four in New Orleans in 1991 (I remember seeing them there and thinking their coach was a bit over the top). But in 1995, they had a good team (adding Nykesha Sales from Bloomfield, CT to Rebecca Lobo), they played in a bad league, their toughest game (ESPN's first big women's college regular season telecast against Tennessee) was at home and they went undefeated.
THAT was when the synergy started. ESPN gushed over everything that team did. Connecticut was in the process of losing its only major league franchise - the Whalers moved to Carolina in 1997. They showed more highlights from that team than any prior women's basketball team (and UConn's Wikipedia page for women's basketball says "That team was credited with helping popularize women's basketball." Why that team, and not the great Tennessee teams that surrounded it? Oh, and the 1996 Olympic team may have had something to do with it as well.)
What was interesting was that UConn really wasn't that successful in the succeeding couple of years - they had great records in a weak conference, and beat Tennessee in Knoxville in 1996, but lost to them in the 1996 NCAA semifinals, then failed to make the Final Four again until 2000. And yet, they were the program that appeared on ESPN all the time, especially their games with Tennessee. I don't know, do you think that might have had something to do with the fact that in 1998, they signed a class featuring 5 of the top 15 players in the country? That really was the catalyst for their dominance in the last 15 years.
It became a self-reinforcing cycle - UConn appears on TV UConn signs dominant classes UConn wins a lot UConn appears more on TV. Even in their down years, the late 90s and the mid 2000s (after Taurasi graduated), they still were on TV more than any other program. Heck, in Connecticut, every game not televised by ESPN was picked up and broadcast by public television. They were the only game in town.
The other side of this coin - ESPN made them into THE national brand for women's basketball, along with Tennessee, but with a heavy dose of "Pat Summitt is the Evil Empire" that Geno liked to run out when UConn was losing to them consistently in the late 90s. NO OTHER PROGRAMS got enough national exposure to build a national following - there wasn't any other national media space for women's basketball. And a lot of other programs ONLY got national exposure through their interaction with UConn or Tennessee; Notre Dame rose to prominence in part as the only program in the Big East that ever showed any sign of being able to challenge UConn (with occasional forays from CVivian's Rutgers and the slow-down play of Villanova). Their dominance in recruiting is a natural consequence.
Again, Auriemma has made the most of it - he's a great coach, and he's made the most of his advantages. I also think there were long-term consequences of Tara's taking the year off to coach the Olympic team and the post-1996 exhaustion that Stanford has never really recovered from - the lost opportunity to build on the success of the mid-90s teams with a lull in recruiting in the late 90s. But it helps to have a national cable network catapult your program to everyone's TV screens and saturate every high-caliber recruit with UConn coverage. It would be interesting to do what some people have done with football recruiting classes - track recruiting rank against lagged results.
VG
Not only a structural advantage from ESPN currently, but in helping to build the program. Specifically the 1995-96 team.
UConn had been good before; they made the Final Four in New Orleans in 1991 (I remember seeing them there and thinking their coach was a bit over the top). But in 1995, they had a good team (adding Nykesha Sales from Bloomfield, CT to Rebecca Lobo), they played in a bad league, their toughest game (ESPN's first big women's college regular season telecast against Tennessee) was at home and they went undefeated.
THAT was when the synergy started. ESPN gushed over everything that team did. Connecticut was in the process of losing its only major league franchise - the Whalers moved to Carolina in 1997. They showed more highlights from that team than any prior women's basketball team (and UConn's Wikipedia page for women's basketball says "That team was credited with helping popularize women's basketball." Why that team, and not the great Tennessee teams that surrounded it? Oh, and the 1996 Olympic team may have had something to do with it as well.)
What was interesting was that UConn really wasn't that successful in the succeeding couple of years - they had great records in a weak conference, and beat Tennessee in Knoxville in 1996, but lost to them in the 1996 NCAA semifinals, then failed to make the Final Four again until 2000. And yet, they were the program that appeared on ESPN all the time, especially their games with Tennessee. I don't know, do you think that might have had something to do with the fact that in 1998, they signed a class featuring 5 of the top 15 players in the country? That really was the catalyst for their dominance in the last 15 years.
It became a self-reinforcing cycle - UConn appears on TV UConn signs dominant classes UConn wins a lot UConn appears more on TV. Even in their down years, the late 90s and the mid 2000s (after Taurasi graduated), they still were on TV more than any other program. Heck, in Connecticut, every game not televised by ESPN was picked up and broadcast by public television. They were the only game in town.
The other side of this coin - ESPN made them into THE national brand for women's basketball, along with Tennessee, but with a heavy dose of "Pat Summitt is the Evil Empire" that Geno liked to run out when UConn was losing to them consistently in the late 90s. NO OTHER PROGRAMS got enough national exposure to build a national following - there wasn't any other national media space for women's basketball. And a lot of other programs ONLY got national exposure through their interaction with UConn or Tennessee; Notre Dame rose to prominence in part as the only program in the Big East that ever showed any sign of being able to challenge UConn (with occasional forays from CVivian's Rutgers and the slow-down play of Villanova). Their dominance in recruiting is a natural consequence.
Again, Auriemma has made the most of it - he's a great coach, and he's made the most of his advantages. I also think there were long-term consequences of Tara's taking the year off to coach the Olympic team and the post-1996 exhaustion that Stanford has never really recovered from - the lost opportunity to build on the success of the mid-90s teams with a lull in recruiting in the late 90s. But it helps to have a national cable network catapult your program to everyone's TV screens and saturate every high-caliber recruit with UConn coverage. It would be interesting to do what some people have done with football recruiting classes - track recruiting rank against lagged results.
VG