AAC lack of Top 25 worthy programs

[Charliebball]

In the four years of the AAC, South Florida has made three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, reaching the second round (Round of 32) in two of those three years.

This year, South Florida currently (as of February 6, 2018) ranks 27th in RPI.

What this says, to me, is that USF is basically on the cusp, but just outside the Top 25 in recent years. Jose Fernandez has done a great job of not just building, but making the program a consistent NCAA Tournament participant and a team that consistently competes to be in the Top 25.

In takes time to build or rebuild programs. But Fernandez, KAH, and Hughey are all on the right paths. While the AAC may not have any Top 25 team this year outside of UConn, the conference comprises 8 percent (four schools) of the RPI Top 50. And this will only continue to improve.

if Jose continues to exclusively import immobile three point shooters he's always going to be on the cusp

 

[shizam]

As i said nd lost 2 games in the acc due to injuries in the last 4 yrs while uconn is unbeaten in the aac. They have both won the regular season and conference tournaments every year since they left the bigeast. So yes uconn would go unbeaten in the acc just like they did many times in the bigeast!

No question about it. UConn would thrash the ACC. Wait till Monday . UConn by 18 over the best team L’ville has had in years. I’m not happy about it but it is going to happen.

 

[PJCLaw]

What teams did UConn play in the Big East that were regularly ranked in the top 5 or even top 10?

I recall schools named Notre Dame and Louisville being two schools that come to mind! In fact, if you go look at the last two-three years of the old BE, ND was ALWAYS ranked in the top 3-10, while Louisville was around 8-15 range. You're more than welcome to check the old AP/ Coaches rankings from 6-7 years ago.

 

[oldude]

I recall schools named Notre Dame and Louisville being two schools that come to mind! In fact, if you go look at the last two-three years of the old BE, ND was ALWAYS ranked in the top 3-10, while Louisville was around 8-15 range. You're more than welcome to check the old AP/ Coaches rankings from 6-7 years ago.

Neither ND or Lou were part of the original BE, and their respective decisions to leave the conference for the greener pastures of the ACC is one of the major reasons why the BE folded and then morphed into a mid-major Catholic school basketball conference in WBB.

 

[DefenseBB]

Neither ND or Lou were part of the original BE, and their respective decisions to leave the conference for the greener pastures of the ACC is one of the major reasons why the BE folded and then morphed into a mid-major Catholic school basketball conference in WBB.

If I may interject here: The BigEast "folded" and is why ND, Louisville had to find greener pastures. Due to the Catholic 7 (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall and Villanova) who didn't have D1 football, didn't want D1 football, they split away from the Big East, bought the name and the Big East became the AAC with Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, South Florida, Southern Methodist and Temple. Former members Louisville (after one year in AAC), Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse headed to the ACC, and Rutgers headed to the Big Ten. Boston College was 9th original member, who did leave the Big East for the ACC before the breakup and probably was the catalyst in making the breakup inevitable. The irony here is BC, rarely competes well in any of the sports in the ACC and even with getting money from the Conference, their sports programs are poor by every stretch of a barometer when compared to the rest of the schools in the ACC.

 

[DefenseBB]

In the four years of the AAC, South Florida has made three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, reaching the second round (Round of 32) in two of those three years.

This year, South Florida currently (as of February 6, 2018) ranks 27th in RPI.

This year, both Houston (#44) and UCF (#47) currently rank among the Top 50 schools in RPI (as of February 6, 2018). To me, this shows development and growth of other programs.

Cam, thanks for your very logical and diligent reply. I edited your response address the remaining pieces I left.
1. I think Massey does a significantly better job evaluating so here are the numbers
USF- 29, UCF 69, Houston-71, Tulane-125, Cincinatti-138, Wichita St-143, Temple-183 and it goes down hill fast from there.
2. USF is absolutely the next best program. That said, their record against other top 25 is brutal. Add in the fact Jose's only success in consistent recruiting has been Euro's and I am not impressed. He's given and spent a ton of money with mediocre, at best, results. Why can't he find more Courtney Williams' and give more American Girls opportunities for an education and be competitive.
2. KAH is awesome and will build that program up until she leaves for P5 school in the very near future. Her style will be brutal as she can't compete with the higher talent pool so she will focus on defense and musclizing the opponent. Think of it as a poor man's Mizzou. That said, they are still not good this year in OOC. NIT is probably their destination due to the low Massey score
3. Houston at 71 started out strong and had his moments and looks somewhat promising. Still can't win against any of the 4th, 5th or 6th place teams in other P5 conferences.
4. The great thing about ESPN is when you go to the standings, select a school and see their current wins/losses on the left, to the right you see the standings in conference and below that the recruiting. You can see the evaluation score of the committed players 0-100. The higher the score the better as Top 20 players are usually >96 and the studs at 98/99. The numbers are not good for up and coming players of the top 275 players signed on Hoopgurlz- USF 1 player 89 (at least she's from Virginia!); UCF 1 player 92; Hou 1 player 90; Tulane 2 players 89/90; Wichita St 0; Cincinatti 0; SMU 3 players 2-89/90; none of the other schools have anyone signed.

If you were to ask me to be positive on this view, I like UCF but she will be gone shortly, I like SMU actually quite a bit with Travis Mays in year 2 and the aforementioned Hughey is looking promising.
The rest of the lot have been at their schools a while and we know what they are-Stockton 488-249 at Tulane 24 years;
Jamelle 94-149;
Tanya 188-109;
Heather Macy at East Caro 8 years 118-102;
Memphis' Melissa McFerrin 161-146 in year 10;
Tulsa's Matilda Mossan 89-116 in year 7;
Ronald Hughey 36-49 in year 3;
Mays 27-30 year 2;

The real issue is will a school commit to the program and allow a coach to evolve and STAY. If so, I like Houston, SMU and UCF and maybe even Jose...nah, no chance on that happening....

 

[PJCLaw]

Neither ND or Lou were part of the original BE, and their respective decisions to leave the conference for the greener pastures of the ACC is one of the major reasons why the BE folded and then morphed into a mid-major Catholic school basketball conference in WBB.

The reference wasn't to the "Original" BE, but the "old BE" which was the last version before the Catholic 7 created the "New BE"! Immediately before the old BE folded both ND and Louisville were perennial top 5-10 contenders who UCONN played yearly.

The previous poster commented about what teams UCONN played that were ranked in the top 5 or top 10 but he was not talking about the "Original" BE, but merely the old BE that just folded after Stewie's freshman year! I hope this explanation helps!

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

The only reasonable answer is to get in a P5 conference. The gap between P5 and other D1 conferences, overall, will continue to widen except for a string basketball league that doesn't have FBS Football, like the Big East. Would you guys sacrifice football back to FCS to get back into the Big East?