1)Big East - Pitt, UConn, ND, Cuse 2)Big 12 - Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, TTech 3)Big 10 - Illini, Indiana, MSU, Minnisota 4)ACC - Duke, UNC, MD, Wake, Clemson 5)SEC - Bama, Florida, Kentucky 6)Pac 10 - Zona, Oregon
My conference ratings: 1. Big 12 2. Big 10 3. ACC 4. Big East 5. SEC 6. Pac 10 7. CUSA 8. Horizon 9. MAC 10. MVC 11. WCC
1. ACC - Top to bottom, the best conference. As it always is. 2. SEC - Bama, MSU and Kentucky are very good. Then add Florida and LSU. I think this will be a good March for the SEC 3. Big East - Good start, but very weak at the bottom. 4. Big 12 - OU are fantastic. The rest need to show more than just paper champion material. March is the only thing that matters though. 5. Big 10 - 3 good teams 6. Pac 10 - They play basketball out there?
Here is the Jeff Sagarin rankings (I tend to use these rankings cause then there is no bias for/against a certain team or historical significance.) from Dec. 23. It is totally on computers and no bias. All games count equally. Also takes into account of games vs Top 10 teams and Top 30 teams (of the Sagarin rankings). Please check the link. UConn and Pittsburgh are 13 and 14 even though undefeated cause their strength of schedule is 298 and 323 respectively. Below are the top 50: 1. Creighton 9-0 2. Notre Dame 10-1 3. St. Joseph's 7-0 4. Wake Forest 6-0 5. Illinois 8-0 6. Indiana 8-1 7. Butler 7-0 8. Kentucky 6-2 9. Arizona 5-1 10. Duke 6-0 11. N. Carolina 7-2 12. Texas 7-2 13. UConn 7-0 14. Pittsburgh 14-0 15. Marquette 7-1 16. Wisconsin 8-2 17. Alabama 9-0 18. DePaul 5-2 19. BYU 8-2 20. Xavier 7-2 21. Florida 9-2 22. Missouri 6-1 23. Kansas 4-3 24. Michigan State 7-2 25. Boston College 6-2 26. Gonzaga 8-3 27. Texas Tech 7-1 28. Oregon 8-1 29. St. John's 5-1 30. Holy Cross 5-2 31. Virginia 5-2 32. Georgia 6-3 33. Kent St. 5-1 34. Louisville 6-1 35. LSU 7-1 36. Maryland 5-3 37. Georgetown 7-0 38. Purdue 5-3 39. Davidson 3-1 40. UNC Wilmington 5-3 41. Oklahoma 6-1 42. Mississippi St 7-1 43. Southern Illinois 5-2 44. Yale 5-2 45. Syracuse 6-1 46. Oklahoma St 7-1 47. Western Michigan 7-2 48. Stanford 7-3 49. Tulsa 7-1 50. Utah 7-3
Computer rankings look pretty rediculous in December. They really only matter (and thats just a bit) in late-Feb and March. What matters now is potential. Creighton are a good team, but their first big game comes on New Years Eve where they'll lose @ Xavier.
Xavier is going to surprise some teams in March! Once the real conference season starts, no more Creighton #1. Then it should get back to normal.
I hope you're right. So far we have had 3 real challenges and only passed 1 (beat Cincy, lost to Stanford and Miss St).
But that is when Miss St got Austin(?) back from suspension. And Xavier never should have had to play at Stanford in the Pre-NIT. That was just wrong. Thanks for beating Cincy tough. Bunch of thugs and non-college graduation capable players. I hate that school. I think that I am going to see UC play at Marquette this year. Will be classic.
I think the best conference award should go to the Big XII this year in basketball. 1. I think they have 3 legitimate final four contenders. Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Pac X has 2 with Zona and Oregon. They don't have much depth after that though. Stanford has turned out to be better than expected though. SEC has 2 with FL. and Bama. Miss. St. could be on the way up as well. Big X has 0. A slew of very good teams. Indiana and Illinois are right on the bubble as far as i am concerned though. ACC has maybe Duke until they lose. UNC is too young, Wake is bubble but not final four material yet. Big East has 2 Pitt and ND. Cuse and Uconn are good bubble teams, but not yet final four material. 2. Depth. The Big XII just has more depth than just about everybody else. I mean A and M, the worse team in the conference last year has already beaten LSU and Tenn. When you add up Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Missouri, to the top 3 above. Throw in a good A and M team this year, a good Iowa State team, a decent Colorado team, a decent Nebraska team, a decent Baylor team and a sub par Kansas STate team. Personally the bottom four will probably most definitely fall off. That gives the Big XII a good 7-8 teams in the tourny again. Several of the other conferences I think are hurt here with 2 Final Four capable teams. Pac X is hurt here, Big East is hurt here,
I remember just a few short years ago people were saying the Atlantic 10 was better than the Big East now flash forward a few years later and the Big East has some fine teams while the Atlantic 10 is really looking bad. Part of the reason is because Temple and Umass two of the conferences annual best aren't good anymore. Xavier is carrying the flag by themselves St.Joe's they do well every couple of years they aren't consistent.La Salle,Fordahm,Duquense they never win. Dayton is decent. Rhode Island and Richomd will be good in a few years. I would put he A-10 behind the Mountain West and just ahead of the WAC.
Totally agree. Big 12 is the best. Anyone should be able to see that. The Big 12 should get 7-8 teams into the Dance. Very good. The Big 10 has two star teams (Indiana, Illinois), three real good teams (Michigan St, Minnesota, Wisconsin), three good teams (Iowa, Purdue, Ohio State), and the rest (Northwestern, Penn St, Michigan).
You know, people say this every year, yet the Big 10 has more Final Four teams the last few years than anybody else. I've only really watched Ohio State play so far this season (snippits of other games too), so I'm going to have a hard time coming up with an accurate ranking. However, OSU has played 'Bama, Duke, and Pitt, and I have to say that Pitt is hands down the best of the three, by a large margin. Pitt crushed (a slightly less than full-strength) OSU. Duke beat OSU by about 15, and was up by about 30 at one point, but OSU scrapped back into it (got it to less than 10 with just a few minutes to go), and that was with three players who played all 40 minutes. 'Bama was lucky to beat an understrength Buckeye team that also played 3 guys the full 40. In my mind, smart money says a healthy Pitt wins the whole thing. The top conference still has to go to the ACC in my mind. It's no easy thing to win the ACC/Big10 Challenge. I'd say the Big 10 are next - there are a number of teams that could make some waves in March, including Ohio State if healthy, IMO. I couldn't really differentiate between the BigXII and the SEC - I'd probably give a slight edge to the midwestern boys. The Big East is right in there too, methinks.
Pac-10 is good basketball Oregon and Arizona are Final 4 contenders. Cal and USC are decent programs.UCLA and Stanford are always in the tournament. Washington is up and coming. Arizona St, Oregon St, Washington St. are mediocre.
Not trying to be a homer here, but I think OSU falls into the "real good" category when healthy, and the "good" category right now. Their three losses came to #1, #2, and #3 all on the road, and they were missing two key guys in the rotation for two of those games (and one for the other game). OSU has missed a lot of player-games already, and our starting power-forward and point guard both look to miss at least the next game.
I have to agree. Move OSU to the real good category. I have only seen parts of the game verses Pitt and can't remember much from last year.
I really can't disagree with you on the A10 (and no other Xavier fans would either). Its a sad state - especially UMass - what a catastrophe up there. The only point I would object with are Richmond (a fine team that should contend for an NCAA bid this year. Nice win for them @ Stanford last week). Its kind of rediculous that two of the most recent additions to the league are head and shoulders above the rest this year. Also, look out for GW to be back in the near future. Karl Hobbs is a good young coach - and his recruiting shows potential.
If you're a college basketball fan, you'll know to not count your chickens... Who's to say that someone is "final four material"? Was Indiana last year? And despite the loss of Jeffries, they're better this year. Can they go all the way this season - absolutely. Was Kent supposed to make it to the Elite 8? No, but they did. There is so much talent out there these days - you just have to watch and see what happens. I'd say there are probably 30 teams in the country that have some shot at winning 4 in a row and getting to the Final Four. And zero teams that can mail it in and show up in New Orleans. Not Kansas, not Arizona, not Duke, no one.
I agree with everything you say about the Big East except the part about UConn being a good bubble team. UConn was arguably the second best team at the end of last year. They were the only team that took Maryland down to the final seconds. They have everybody back from last years team except for Butler and Selvie. But they have some really good newcomers on the team and they have two bonafide future NBA players in Okafor and Gordon. And Taliek Brown and Tony Robertson aren't bad either. I wouldn't want to play this team in March, they are going to be really good. So I would say the Big East has three potential Final Four teams in ND, Pitt, and UConn. Plus the sky is the limit for the 'Cuse and once they get Billy Edelin back from suspension they could be challenging Pitt for the Big East West title. One down part about the Big East is that Villanova has been really disappointing this year. I expected alot more from this group. Ranking the conferances I would rate then like this: 1. Big XII 2. Big East 3. SEC 4. ACC 5. Pac 10 6. Big Ten 7. Conferance USA
Totally agree. A lot of freshman that could have gone to the NBA in the last two seasons stayed on and this seasons College BBAll is awsome. I had forgotten about Miss St and Mario Austin, plus LSU just beat Arizona. I guess the SEC is better than I originally thought. But to add to the Final Four discussion... My rules of thumb about Final 4 teams are this: Not dependant upon multiple freshman, great college PG , a goto-scorer, solid defending and rebounding, and balance (ie-inside outside game). The exceptions to this rule are the teams who do one thing excedingly well or go on insane hot streaks. But if your to assume no exceptions (foolish)... Florida,UNC, Duke, Cuse = Too Many Freshman UConn = I'm not so sure about Taliek Brown as a PG. He can play defense, but can't shoot well enough to keep defenders honest. Indiana=Lack of true goto Scorer. Bracey Wright is only a frosh, let's see how handles conference play where teams scout him Texas=NO GOTO SCOCERER!!!!! TJ is a pure point and shouldn't be expected to score 20+ a game. He himself says he would rather assist than score. Yet he is the one that Texas looks to make the cluth shot. Oregon, Kansas=these teams don't play D That leaves Pitt and Arizona and Bama as the true contenders. Personally, I think Pitt will win everything. Everybody they play plays great defense, Brandin Knight is an amazing College PG, Julius Page avg's about 20 for a team that only needs 70 to blow teams out. And they got size and muscle inside to rebound. another team that seems to fit all the categories is Chris Thomas and Notre Dame. They played one of the most entertaing games all year vs Duke in the 2nd round. I just don't know how long freshman Torin Francis can keep averaging a Double-Double, and if Matt Carroll can keep scoring lights out. If both can then your looking at another Final Four Team. I have no idea about Miss St other than they won the SEC tournament last season (in what turned out to be a weak field), and have Mario Austin back this season.
I can't put it and more directly - they blew out an Ohio State team that very nearly beat Bama and gave a much deeper Duke team fits for sections of the game. That was the biggest ass-whooping I've seen Ohio State get since O'Brien's first year as coach, when we won just 8 games. Dominated in every aspect of the game.