SC schedule is tough because SEC is best conference?

[Paul1969]

If the SEC is so talented and amazing then why haven't they had a team representing their conference in the Final Four since 2008? ZING

 

[DobbsRover2]

As Kevin Neghandi said on the ESPN booth after the game in his chat with Rebecca while pumping up that conference, "The SEC is something."

The question is, something what? 7 teams that play abominable OOC schedules to get almost perfect records before they dive in conference play. Another 7 that play okay to mediocre OOC slates. Then because of their supposed great tradition, the SEC teams get the praise lavished on them even though in recent times they can't do more than Elite 8 appearances at very best. It may be worth remembering that the conference with the most NC titles is\was the Big East, and only one team in the SEC ever won any, so much of the conference's aura comes from the fact that the teams played the common champ, UTenn. Nowadays all you can say is that the conference no longer has a queen team to knock off any more since a number of teams could win the regular season and tourney conference titles.

But ESPN has to put lipstick on the pork to pump up the viewership, so a little fudging of reality is understandable.

 

[Bayareahusky]

I used to discount this talk...... you know, All Hail the SEC.... but when you look at the conferences..... they stand up pretty well..... but one thing it is not is something to be fawned over....

One can put the ACC against them (UNC, Duke, MD, SYR etc) and what about the PAC 12 (Wash, UCLA, Stan, Oreg St etc) No the SEC is not special..... I see a lot of parity

 

[rvwsleep]

Sagarin has the SEC as the third best conference behind the Big Ten and the ACC.

 

[oneresult]

Just give somebody a flag or trophy and all's well

 

[Plumber Luigi]

If you look at Sagarin the SEC has 5 of his top 25. ACC has 6. PAC-12 has 4.

 

[Vowelguy]

If the SEC is so talented and amazing then why haven't they had a team representing their conference in the Final Four since 2008? ZING

Just because a conference wasn't strong in the past, doesn't mean it couldn't be tough this year.
Is the American a tougher conference because it has more F4s in recent years than the SEC?
If one looks at just top half of the conference, the Sagarin rankings are: ACC, SEC, B12, PAC, B12.

 

[EricLA]

I think part of the problem is that there is a huge drop off after the top team (UCONN) and then after the next 2 or 3 teams. So people go on and on about how tough the SEC is because you have LSU beating Kentucky today, but the reality is Kentucky is just not a very good team.

 

[j66kicker]

I think part of the problem is that there is a huge drop off after the top team (UCONN) and then after the next 2 or 3 teams. So people go on and on about how tough the SEC is because you have LSU beating Kentucky today, but the reality is Kentucky is just not a very good team.

And I get the feeling we're still fumbling around, mid-season, trying to figure it out. By tournament time this team will have played twice as many games together and, hopefully, will be starting to 'get it'.

I'm worried about next year, though:

1- Jefferson
2- Nurse
3/4- Stewart
4/3- Tuck
5- Butler

Backed up by McD AAs who can't be kept on the bench:

Samuelson
Collier
Boykin

Oh yeah:

Williams (@ 100% physically vs 85% now - my favorite player NOW, just wait!)
Ekmark (I'm a believer - there's star power here)
Chong (Don't have to believe - I've SEEN it. Just let it out)

 

[EricLA]

And I get the feeling we're still fumbling around, mid-season, trying to figure it out. By tournament time this team will have played twice as many games together and, hopefully, will be starting to 'get it'.

I'm worried about next year, though:

Yes I share your worries - for the rest of WCBB!!!

 

[DobbsRover2]

It is true that every year is different, but it does get tiresome (but sweet) to hear again and again year after year that the SEC is so great and is going to be a powerhouse come Tourney time just to watch everything fizzle out for it all over again.

Here's a nasty stat. The much despised AAC's top 6 teams all have SOS in Sagarin well below the #100 mark even though the competition is supposedly so weak. Over in the SEC? Well among the top 6 over there, two teams still are #100+ this late in the year and none of the top 6 teams are rated in the top 10 SOS and half of the SEC is worse than #100 SOS at this point, which is just ridiculous for any conference that wants to pump itself up as a power conference. At least the ACC also like the AAC has all its top 6 teams under the #100 SOS mark now that FSU has finally snuck under.

You really need to use a lot of lipstick to make the SEC look good.

 

[Outside Shot]

Fair to say that there are no easy roads in any of the Power 5 conferences. It's a fun debate to rank them, but all those teams get challenged.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Fair to say that there are no easy roads in any of the Power 5 conferences. It's a fun debate to rank them, but all those teams get challenged.

The AAC teams outside of UConn also get challenged. The road isn't exactly easy for Memphis, Houston, SMU, East Carolina, and Tulsa either. In fact being in a league with UConn makes it harder than being in the SEC where parity means all the teams suck equally. It's annoying seeing big SEC match ups end with scores like 60-48 or 54-42 and having to hear how these great SEC teams are doing battle with each other and blah blah, whereas if AAC games had those same scores it's evidence of how bad the conference is.

 

[Vowelguy]

Outside of USF and Tulane (and UConn of course), the American teams are wretched.

 

[triaddukefan]

Outside of USF and Tulane (and UConn of course), the American teams are wretched.

Too bad there is not a SEC-AAC Challenge in WCBB

 

[DobbsRover2]

Outside of USF and Tulane (and UConn of course), the American teams are wretched.

Well maybe, but then so is much of the SEC, which you noted above as the second best conference. As you well know, even the poor wretched AAC's fourth team East Carolina is rated at #50 (yes a top 50 team then), which is ahead of the bottom half of the SEC. So then the second best conference is half-wretched, I guess.

And I know that the standards among some members of the BY can get very high, but calling top 50 teams "wretched" can probably irk the fans of other teams. Maybe better to be a little less insulting toward fellow AAC members. After all, a week or two ago it was everybody except UConn and USF in the AAC that was "wretched," but now that Charlie Creme suddenly grabbed Tulane from nowhere and added them to his list, suddenly some of the pundits here know that there's 3 teams in the conference.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Too bad there is not a SEC-AAC Challenge in WCBB

It would certainly settle these arguments.

 

[Vowelguy]

It would certainly settle these arguments.

There is no argument. The AAC is a terrible conference.
Case closed.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

There is no argument. The AAC is a terrible conference.
Case closed.

I agree, but many people on here disagree. UCONN just doesn't fit with the AAC; they should be in the ACC or the B1G.

 

[DobbsRover2]

There is no argument. The AAC is a terrible conference.
Case closed.

But as usual you were proclaiming the same thing back when you said the AAC only had one team that wasn't pathetic. Now there's four teams in the top 50 with three teams projected in the Tourney, so peddling the pathetic stuff is just pathetic. But I should stop here, because the banned can't play on.

 

[triaddukefan]

It would certainly settle these arguments.

The AAC would finish 1-10 in such a challenge. An AAC vs A-10 challenge could be competitive....... maybe

 

[DobbsRover2]

So we have the P5 and SEC worshipers lining up to first say how pathetic the AAC is and then advocate that maybe the two conferences could actually meet at this point? You mean we've gone from a conference that was so pathetic that it didn't need to be noticed to one that could have a few teams in the Tourney and would be worth thinking of a conference to conference challenge? Progress is being made.

And sounds like the same commentary we used to get on the BY back in the early 2000s about the poor pathetic Big East and how the SEC was better than it at every place from top to bottom. But then suddenly the BEast teams started being the ones to run to the NCs and put three teams in the FF while the SEC and ACC began to struggle to the point where the SEC has a seven-year FF void and the ACC would have matched it except for last year's final hurrah by glad-to-be-gone MD and BEast import ND. Ah if only we could match the old Summiteers comments to the current crew. USF goes to Chattanooga and wins while SEC co-leader UTenn goes there and loses, but obviously it's the AAC that always puts up the pathetic performance.

Cock and CLE, back in 2002 your team got to the Elite 8 for the only time and bombed last year as a #1 seed. Much impressed. Triadduke, the Devils' dynasty is still going strong I know, but hell hath no fury like a team stuck with Coach P and still no NCs. VG? Whatever, as always. And the banned plays on.