It’s been over four full years since Syracuse and UConn last met as conference rivals on the basketball court, but if you walked around Madison Square Garden Monday night it felt like the good old days all over again.
The buzz around the Garden and New York in general had the feel of those old-school Big East days. UConn fans took the Metro North line down from Connecticut, pouring into Grand Central Station by the hundreds. Bars were packed full of orange and royal blue hours before tip-off.
The two teams met for the first time at Madison Square Garden since leaving their old conference a few years back on Monday night, (they played in the Bahamas last year) and when they did, it raised an interesting question: Can a rivalry still be a rivalry if the two sides don’t play regularly?
FOXSports.com went from bar to bar, seat to seat, and fan to fan to ask that question. The overwhelming response was “yes” and once that got cleared out of the way, it led to a more interesting follow-up: So, all these years later, how much do you still hate those other guys?
“I’m 34-years-old,” Kevin (who didn’t use his last name for work purposes) said. “Nothing gets me as passionate, as fired up, as angry as playing Syracuse.”
Kevin wasn’t alone, as the overwhelming sentiment from both sides was that yes, this is a rivalry. And yes, it still matters. A ton. Times change and conferences change. But the blood boils just the same when you see the other school and its fans.
“Oh absolutely this is still a rivalry,” said Josh, who was wearing an ugly Syracuse Christmas sweater he bought just a few weeks ago. “To my generation, it will always be important.”
In talking with a number of fans from both sides, what was fascinating was that -- as weird as it sounds -- the rivalry might actually be bigger now that the teams don’t play as often. Much like Texas and Texas A&M in football, the hatred is still clearly defined, but the lines are blurrier than ever over who is actually “on top of the rivalry.”
On Syracuse’s end, they can claim to have ended up on the right side of the realignment bubble, landing in the ACC, while UConn is in the much weaker AAC. But despite playing in the vastly inferior conference, UConn can still claim they’ve won bigger when it counts the most. The Huskies own four national championships (compared to Syracuse’s one), including their most recent run in 2014, their first season in the AAC.
“Their arguments over us has been shrinking,” Kevin said. “Like an island with the water line rising. First it was, ‘well, we have a better win percentage, more history.’ Then it was ‘we’ve we’ve won the Big East more.’ But eventually it became less and less until we blew well past them.”
“They didn’t have the on the court anymore, so then it became off the court. ‘UConn is a mid-major. We’re better than them now.’”
Much like any great sports debate, there is no true “right” or “wrong” answer. Which only angers both sides more.
So too does the proximity of it all, with the rivalry slowly evolving into a good, old-fashioned turf war. Each has claimed Madison Square Garden as their de-facto home court through the years. UConn fans have come down for big games in droves for decades, including in 2014, when they clinched a trip to the Final Four by beating Michigan State in the Elite Eight at MSG. Syracuse meanwhile has an inordinate number of alums in the city (and plenty of fans who drive down from upstate New York as well), turning the Garden into a sea of orange for their big games.
That’s also why Monday night was so special. Not only because it was the rekindling of an old rivalry. But because it was a rekindling of an old rivalry where so many of the biggest games between the two schools were played.
“The fact that it’s happening here in the Garden makes it extra special,” Kevin said. “Both fan-bases claim rights to it. There’s something territorial about it. Syracuse fans say it’s ‘New York’s college team.’ UConn fans take exception to that.”
And it was clear to anyone who actually watched -- and saw the electricity inside the arena -- how much this game still means to these two schools, regardless of how much time has passed since they played regularly.
Sure, the play on the court wasn’t pretty, with UConn holding on for a 52-50 victory in a game where neither team shot above 32 percent from the field and combined for 25 turnovers. Even still, the Huskies players sprinted onto the court after the final buzzer, while Syracuse players like Andrew White and Tyler Lydon -- who weren’t around for the Big East days -- admitted afterward that they knew how important this game was, and also said that they felt like they’d let Syracuse fans down.
Speaking of fans, there was no such concern for the Husky supporters, who had something extra special to celebrate Monday night. As the players left the court, “New York, New York” played in the background, with the entire student section staying until the final word was sung.
Andrew, a senior in Storrs this fall readily admitted that he hadn’t gone to class Monday. And he didn’t regret it for a second.
“I had class at 2:30,” he said. "And there was no chance I was going. I had a seven-page paper due on Thursday and I haven’t even started it yet.”
“But this is why you go to a school like UConn. This is a college basketball mecca right here.”
