Hartford

Surely, some of you will see this as contrived. SMU. Rivalry game. Ha. Good one. SMU. Not exactly the old days with Jim Boeheim sneering on the other bench.

But then, our new reality played out before 15,564 in-full-throat witnesses Sunday at the XL Center. Our new reality: SMU is a big game.

SMU: Ranked in the top 25, the only NCAA Tournament lock in the American Athletic Conference, per all the bracketologists.

SMU: with the Hall of Fame coach, Larry Brown.

SMU: the potential resume-builder.

SMU: The team that was a crisp 3-0 against UConn, at least before Sunday.

SMU: The team that could very well be in the same location in two weeks, this time in the AAC championship game at the XL, perhaps the roadblock between the Huskies and the NCAA Tournament.

Our new reality isn't our old one. Not the same cachet. All those years on the street corner watching the parade pass … and suddenly Jim Calhoun comes along and starts writing the script. We had something. It was ours. A passion of Connecticut, by Connecticut, for Connecticut. Different from the Yanks and Sox.

And then we lost some identity by losing the Big East. Nobody knows what to think even now, even after a national championship. The new reality is confusing. The new reality is about lament. Maybe too much.

But … you know … it wasn't so bad here Sunday. It was kind of fun to watch SMU's Sterling Brown affix his index finger to his lips, as if to tell the crowd to pipe down, after he made a three-pointer in the second half. Or Markus Kennedy talk some trash to UConn free throw shooters late in the game. Or the satisfaction of scoring 81 points, turning a normally stout SMU defense into a bunch of Mustang Sallys for a day.

Hmmm.

UConn-SMU.

Could this be the beginning?

"The most powerful thing," Kevin Ollie said after UConn's 81-73 win, "is a changed mind."

This is open to many different interpretations. Here's one: SMU is our new reality. And in the words of Stephen Stills, "If you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with."

"Definitely," Ryan Boatright said of a budding rivalry within the programs. "We've got to see each other twice. The storyline KO playing for coach Brown (in the NBA). They beat up on us three times and we caught them at home. Definitely a rivalry brewing."

Boatright is one of the few Connecticut players who can offer historical perspective. He remembers enough of the old days. He remembers the venom aimed at Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Georgetown.

"It could become that," Boatright said. "Two great coaches. They're going to get recruits and play hard all the time. Two programs that can always be ranked."

True, true. This will require some work, however. For one thing, it's hard to dislike Larry Brown. The man is a statesman, almost too dignified to be a college basketball coach. He was charming after Sunday's game, certainly not like, you know, Boeheim would have been here after an eight-point loss.

He even uttered the word "gosh" at the podium, which is believed to be the first time any coach after any UConn game ever said the word "gosh."

"A phenomenal environment. Gosh," Brown said. "I hope our program someday is going to be received like this. Great to be part of."

Then there's this: UConn and SMU need each other, if for no other reason than to raise awareness for the AAC. Brown was asked after Sunday's game if he thought UConn deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament. Brown's team was snubbed last season.

"I don't know if anybody knows what conference we're in," Brown said, eliciting some chuckles. "I don't even know the criteria. I never said anything last year about us not going. I didn't want to not be appreciative of some other team getting in. … I don't know what a BPI or RPI or who the hell knows that stuff. … I hope we have someone in the room that realizes there's some quality teams in this conference. This is a quality win for Connecticut. I don't know how they'll look at it. They might just think it's just SMU, like SMU was years ago."

It's not, of course. Good team. Not the greatest matchup for the Huskies, either. Brown alluded to "four quality big guys" after the game, while Ollie said "we're down to three posts." Do the math. Still, the Huskies played with some of the March-like toughness that had Ollie talking about last year's postseason after the game.

With any luck, UConn and SMU aren't done in 2015. They're here again in two weeks playing for the whole Heineken truck. Maybe the game that gets UConn in. Maybe another chapter in the new reality.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.

Twitter: @BC Genius