American Athletic Conference's success a labor of love for Commissioner Mike Aresco

Aresco reflects on bumpy path to league's success and what lies ahead for AAC.



No one knows better what Mike Aresco has been through during the past 20 months than his wife, Sharon. She was there by his side when Aresco was named the commissioner of the Big East in 2012.

Read the rest here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os...418.column

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The AAC has a great leader.

(04-20-2014 03:23 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  American Athletic Conference's success a labor of love for Commissioner Mike Aresco

Aresco reflects on bumpy path to league's success and what lies ahead for AAC.



No one knows better what Mike Aresco has been through during the past 20 months than his wife, Sharon. She was there by his side when Aresco was named the commissioner of the Big East in 2012.

Read the rest here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/os...418.column

We can't read the rest here unless we subscribe.

Aresco...meh

Aresco is proving everyone wrong!!

(04-20-2014 05:36 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Aresco...meh

Nearly all of the problems this conference has faced is because of meatball the previous commish. Look at the mess Aresco had to cleanup.

Luckily the AAC has turned lemons into lemonade and we are continuing to get better.

(04-20-2014 05:36 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Aresco...meh

The guy is a machine and a constant media pimp. Not sure how anyone wouldn't love the guy.

(04-20-2014 06:39 PM)mwp1023 Wrote:  

(04-20-2014 05:36 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Aresco...meh

Nearly all of the problems this conference has faced is because of meatball the previous commish. Look at the mess Aresco had to cleanup.

Luckily the AAC has turned lemons into lemonade and we are continuing to get better.

We Cougars follow our leader Madame Khator , our President and Chancellor,when she says "while others are thinking about turning lemons into lemonade we think about making margaritas" . She is the best at her job in the Nation . Period !

Go Coogs !

(04-20-2014 05:36 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Aresco...meh

Dude was dealt a bad hand from the get go.

Can someone paste the article?

(04-20-2014 07:51 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  Can someone paste the article?

ARESCO ARTICLE

Same article in the Sun Sentinel

(04-20-2014 08:23 PM)ECUPirated Wrote:  

(04-20-2014 07:51 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  Can someone paste the article?

ARESCO ARTICLE

Same article in the Sun Sentinel

I like this part:

So it was only fitting that in the minutes following UConn's win over Kentucky for the national championship that Aresco would seek out one person — his wife.
"I gave my wife the longest hug probably in the history of the NCAA basketball," Aresco said in an interview with the Sentinel after announcing the city would host the American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament in 2016 and 2017. "She knows what we all went through."

"You can never really expect this level of success," Aresco said. "We thought we would be good and have a fighting chance. I don't think anybody can take any swipes at us after what we've done."

(04-20-2014 08:49 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  "You can never really expect this level of success," Aresco said. "We thought we would be good and have a fighting chance. I don't think anybody can take any swipes at us after what we've done."

I just don't get this notion of crediting UConn success to the AAC. If Duke was suddenly a member of the MAC next year, and won the national title, it would be silly to characterize that as a MAC victory, right? What would the MAC have had to do with it?

If a school like Michigan State wins the national title, it's fair to give the B1G some credit for that, because MSU is a B1G school through and through. Their program is a product of many years of competing in the B1G. That competition has shaped their program and prepared it for national combat. Same was true of UConn in the old Big East, North Carolina and the ACC, etc.

But that is not true of the AAC, since this is a new conference with radically different membership and of just one year tenure.

The American is the old BE. Uconn built their program in the old BE. Uconn deserves tons of credit for what they built. But the American is their home and should be treated as such.

(04-21-2014 07:22 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-20-2014 08:49 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  "You can never really expect this level of success," Aresco said. "We thought we would be good and have a fighting chance. I don't think anybody can take any swipes at us after what we've done."

I just don't get this notion of crediting UConn success to the AAC. If Duke was suddenly a member of the MAC next year, and won the national title, it would be silly to characterize that as a MAC victory, right? What would the MAC have had to do with it?

If a school like Michigan State wins the national title, it's fair to give the B1G some credit for that, because MSU is a B1G school through and through. Their program is a product of many years of competing in the B1G. That competition has shaped their program and prepared it for national combat. Same was true of UConn in the old Big East, North Carolina and the ACC, etc.

But that is not true of the AAC, since this is a new conference with radically different membership and of just one year tenure.

It's just the sexy storyline and the one that the league is trying to embrace. Journalism can only be written by the quotes you have. Author asked Aresco about what he did after the final buzzer at the championship and Aresco fed him quotes about excitement for the conference. It's hard to spin that to a UConn piece when all the quotes you are getting are American Victory quotes.

Also, going into the tournament the talk was all about SMU being criticized for level of competition. The American's strength was questioned publicly for days before the tournament. Now a member of the same conference won the whole tournament. The author wanted to tap into that already highly publicized topic. It's smart journalism since college athletics is on the back burner currently with the NBA playoffs going on.

As to your point, I agree. Its too soon to tell if this is an indication of long term success for the conference. Next season we take another huge loss in Louisville and Rutgers and adding Tulsa, Tulane, and ECU. None of these teams have the well roundness of Louisville. Just be glad we are winning now. We could have been like the Catholic Big East and laid a stinker in the NCAA.

(04-21-2014 07:31 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  The American is the old BE. Uconn built their program in the old BE.

But it isn't. And FWIW, the new Big East isn't either. Radically different basketball conferences.

(04-21-2014 07:56 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-21-2014 07:31 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  The American is the old BE. Uconn built their program in the old BE.

But it isn't. And FWIW, the new Big East isn't either. Radically different basketball conferences.

Well, Quo---we all know you would proudly lay any losses directly at the feet of the AAC and proclaim them to be indicative of the overall strength of the league. The subtext of your thought process is quite telling. Your perfectly willing to throw "facts" against the wall to tear down the league. Then when the facts don't fit the narrative, the facts are not really the facts. So, how many years does UConn need to be in the AAC to count as an AAC school? And by the way, does the UConn and USF crap seasons in football no longer count against the AAC since they are old Big East schools? Does UCF's Fiesta win actually count for CUSA since that team was recruited to play in CUSA and the team was honed in CUSA making it a legacy CUSA team? So the basic Quo logic is----losses count against the AAC since the narrative says they suck, but wins do not count, becuase the teams all came from other places and the wins really should revert to the previous conference. Lucky there is no agenda behind that shakey argument.

(04-21-2014 08:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Well, Quo---we all know you would proudly lay any losses directly at the feet of the AAC and proclaim them to be indicative of the overall strength of the league. The subtext of your thought process is quite telling.

Hell, after the first games in the NCAAs, Quo was saying that the American struggled.

(04-21-2014 08:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(04-21-2014 07:56 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-21-2014 07:31 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  The American is the old BE. Uconn built their program in the old BE.

But it isn't. And FWIW, the new Big East isn't either. Radically different basketball conferences.

Well, Quo---we all know you would proudly lay any losses directly at the feet of the AAC and proclaim them to be indicative of the overall strength of the league. The subtext of your thought process is quite telling. Your perfectly willing to throw "facts" against the wall to tear down the league. Then when the facts don't fit the narrative, the facts are not really the facts. So, how many years does UConn need to be in the AAC to count as an AAC school? And by the way, does the UConn and USF crap seasons in football no longer count against the AAC since they are old Big East schools? Does UCF's Fiesta win actually count for CUSA since that team was recruited to play in CUSA and the teams was honed in CUSA and is actually a legacy CUSA team? So the basic Quo logic is----losses count against the AAC since the narrative says they suck, but wins do not count, becuase the teams all came from other places and the wins really should revert to the previous conference? Lucky there is no agenda behind that shakey argument.

Drop the mic. Lock the thread.