Conference performance in NCAAs

[Vowelguy]

SEC leads, with 5 teams left

SEC ... 6-2 ... 5-1 ... 11-3
ACC ... 6-2 ... 3-3 .... 9-5
AAC ... 2-0 ... 2-0 .... 4-0
B12 ... 4-2 ... 2-2 .... 6-4
B10 ... 5-0 ... 1-4 .... 6-4
PAC ... 4-1 ... 1-3 .... 5-4
BgE ... 2-0 ... 1-1 .... 3-1
Oth ... 3-25 .. 1-2 .... 4-27

 

[LadyVols9]

SEC is brutal this year. those numbers say it all. 5 teams left for sweet 16 is pretty darn good.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Four SEC teams advance from playing at home plus a #1 seed on a neutral court. Three other SEC teams who did not have the home court do not advance. It will be interesting to see what happens in the S16 without any SEC teams having home court advantage.

 

[UcMiami]

I never had a problem with the five that are left (well, OK, LSU ended the season playing terrible) and expected them to get this far. It was the selection of teams like GA and Vandy and FL that I had a problem with.

 

[doggydaddy]

SEC is brutal this year. those numbers say it all. 5 teams left for sweet 16 is pretty darn good.

Home games and Chalk.

Perspective helps..

 

[toadfoot]

SEC is brutal this year. those numbers say it all. 5 teams left for sweet 16 is pretty darn good.

On the whole the performance of the SEC teams has been far from impressive considering the home court advantage many have had and the less than stellar winning margins against some really mediocre teams, which I've detailed here...

http://www.the-boneyard.com/threads/sec-credit-where-its-due.55927/

 

[tennfanatic00]

Favored or not...chalk or not...the teams earned their right to be in the sweet 16.

A majority of fans across the country thought the SEC was overrated and had bloated RPIs. At least 4 teams proved that they are worthy of their rankings, deservedly got good seeds, and won their games as expected. LSU has not been playing well, but has always had potential. Florida proved they deserved to be in the tournament by winning a game. Vandy was quintessential bubble status. They would have been much better had they not lost their top two posts.

My responses stem from the statements that have been propsed in the last couple of weeks across the message boards. Everyone said "the SEC is weak and NO WAY they are the best conference!"

At this point, who is better? The ACC? The Big XII? The Pac XII?

 

[DobbsRover2]

The heavy lifting begins in the Sweet 16 and culminates in the Elite 8 to decide who plays in the FF. Asking which conference is the strongest at this point is kind of like asking who should be the tourney's MOP. Last year at this point we would have had to fess up that the SEC was a better conference than the Big East since they had a 4-3 edge in Sweet 16 teams, but I think the BEast ultimately came out on top for the FF with that 3-0 edge.

Patience grasshopper.

 

[Sonny44]

AAC undefeated, must be the best.

 

[toadfoot]

Favored or not...chalk or not...the teams earned their right to be in the sweet 16.
At least 4 teams proved that they are worthy of their rankings, deservedly got good seeds, and won their games as expected.

Nonsense! Getting overly favorable seeds, then playing on your home court and beating mediocre to really bad teams by relatively close scores does NOT demonstrate they were worthy. And anyone who's fair-minded at all has to concede that Kentucky in particular is extremely fortunate to still be in the tournament. If Syracuse had not lost their best player in the 1st round they almost certainly would have beaten Kentucky even playing in Lexington.

 

[tennfanatic00]

Nonsense! Getting overly favorable seeds, then playing on your home court and beating mediocre to really bad teams by relatively close scores does NOT demonstrate they were worthy. And anyone who's fair-minded at all has to concede that Kentucky in particular is extremely fortunate to still be in the tournament. If Syracuse had not lost their best player in the 1st round they almost certainly would have beaten Kentucky even playing in Lexington.

What did I say that was nonsense? All five favored teams won their games as expected. You're right...teams SHOULD win at home, and most should win handily. Tell that to Duke, Iowa State, and Purdue. Let's add in UNC (they were very close to losing to UT Martin).

My whole point is...all the SEC teams in the sweet 16 earned their way there. They won two games. The majority of fans thought the SEC was overrated. This postseason has shown that each team is deserving of their ranking. Does that mean they will continue to advance? No... But it does mean that they (and the league all-around) have proven themselves.

 

[tennfanatic00]

AAC undefeated, must be the best.

Sonny, I'll grant you that. You've got two elite teams in your league!

 

[DobbsRover2]

What did I say that was nonsense? All five favored teams won their games as expected. You're right...teams SHOULD win at home, and most should win handily. Tell that to Duke, Iowa State, and Purdue. Let's add in UNC (they were very close to losing to UT Martin).

My whole point is...all the SEC teams in the sweet 16 earned their way there. They won two games. The majority of fans thought the SEC was overrated. This postseason has shown that each team is deserving of their ranking. Does that mean they will continue to advance? No... But it does mean that they (and the league all-around) have proven themselves.

Okay, so the SEC is neither over- nor underrated. It's just rated.

Still think the AAC will have a better winning percentage than any of the P5 conferences when all is done.

 

[toadfoot]

What did I say that was nonsense? All five favored teams won their games as expected. You're right...teams SHOULD win at home, and most should win handily. Tell that to Duke, Iowa State, and Purdue. Let's add in UNC (they were very close to losing to UT Martin).

My whole point is...all the SEC teams in the sweet 16 earned their way there. They won two games. The majority of fans thought the SEC was overrated. This postseason has shown that each team is deserving of their ranking. Does that mean they will continue to advance? No... But it does mean that they (and the league all-around) have proven themselves.

The nonsense part was that these teams had PROVEN they were worthy of their rankings. When all is said and done they may be the 5 best teams in the country for all I know, but they've PROVEN very little so far other than they can win relatively close games against weak opposition playing mostly at home. If you think that's proof, your definition of proof is far less rigorous than mine.

 

[tennfanatic00]

The nonsense part was that these teams had PROVEN they were worthy of their rankings. When all is said and done they may be the 5 best teams in the country for all I know, but they've PROVEN very little so far other than they can win relatively close games against weak opposition playing mostly at home. If you think that's proof, your definition of proof is far less rigorous than mine.

I think the barometer for proving your ranking or seeding is to win the games you are supposed to win. All the SEC still in the tournament have done that. There were others in the tournament that did not. What they have proven is that they are better than those seeded below them. Are they amungst the best in the country? Not hardly...but all you can do is win who you are slated to play against.

It goes back to my main point. the SEC is the best conference in the country this year, top to bottom. The SEC representatives in the tournament have shown that to be the case so far.

 

[LadyVols9]

i've never seen so much parsing in my whole life. S-E-C!

 

[Icebear]

Favored or not...chalk or not...the teams earned their right to be in the sweet 16.

A majority of fans across the country thought the SEC was overrated and had bloated RPIs. At least 4 teams proved that they are worthy of their rankings, deservedly got good seeds, and won their games as expected. LSU has not been playing well, but has always had potential. Florida proved they deserved to be in the tournament by winning a game. Vandy was quintessential bubble status. They would have been much better had they not lost their top two posts.

My responses stem from the statements that have been propsed in the last couple of weeks across the message boards. Everyone said "the SEC is weak and NO WAY they are the best conference!"

At this point, who is better? The ACC? The Big XII? The Pac XII?

Still do. It has all been according to chalk, little more.

 

[toadfoot]

I think the barometer for proving your ranking or seeding is to win the games you are supposed to win. All the SEC still in the tournament have done that. There were others in the tournament that did not. What they have proven is that they are better than those seeded below them. Are they amungst the best in the country? Not hardly...but all you can do is win who you are slated to play against.

It goes back to my main point. the SEC is the best conference in the country this year, top to bottom. The SEC representatives in the tournament have shown that to be the case so far.

The SEC may be the most evenly balanced conference in the country top to bottom, but that doesn't make it the best. And so far the SEC representatives have shown themselves to be only slightly better than mediocre. You can't seriously believe that Kentucky's escape against Syracuse, SC's fairly close wins over CS Northridge & Oregon St., A&M's 15 point win over North Dakota are suggestive that they're from the best conference in the country. Every one of those games should have been a 30-40 point blowout. Syracuse got run out the building against ND, Maryland & Duke during the season, even when Brittany Sykes was available. North Dakota lost by 29 & 26 to the only ranked teams it played all year other than A&M. St. John's lost almost as badly to Marquette(13) and Xavier(15) as they did to Tennessee(16). Do you not see a pattern here?

 

[hussybulldog]

SEC leads, with 5 teams left

SEC ... 6-2 ... 5-1 ... 11-3
ACC ... 6-2 ... 3-3 .... 9-5
AAC ... 2-0 ... 2-0 .... 4-0
B12 ... 4-2 ... 2-2 .... 6-4
B10 ... 5-0 ... 1-4 .... 6-4
PAC ... 4-1 ... 1-3 .... 5-4
BgE ... 2-0 ... 1-1 .... 3-1
Oth ... 3-25 .. 1-2 .... 4-2


Anybody predicts the win/loss for the next round? From the record so far, one can tell B10/PAC are definitely overly represented while AAC is not represented enough... And all the other schools outside these 7 conferences should just join any of these seven or participate in NIT/WBI only....Just have a 32 team tournament instead of 64 team one. Let's be honest, the women's tournament is more predictable than the men's. Wild horses are rarer and further in between.

 

[DobbsRover2]

The SEC may be the most evenly balanced conference in the country top to bottom, but that doesn't make it the best. And so far the SEC representatives have shown themselves to be only slightly better than mediocre. You can't seriously believe that Kentucky's escape against Syracuse, SC's fairly close wins over CS Northridge & Oregon St., A&M's 15 point win over North Dakota are suggestive that they're from the best conference in the country. Every one of those games should have been a 30-40 point blowout. Syracuse got run out the building against ND, Maryland & Duke during the season, even when Brittany Sykes was available. North Dakota lost by 29 & 26 to the only ranked teams it played all year other than A&M. St. John's lost almost as badly to Marquette(13) and Xavier(15) as they did to Tennessee(16). Do you not see a pattern here?

You're asking the SEC #1 seeds to beat an #8/#9 seed by more than 9 points on a neutral court or by more than 16 at home? That sounds pretty demanding, even if they are from apparently the top conference and must have had the toughest schedule. Not every team can be like those American conference teams that munch on cupcakes to fortify themselves for the tourney so that they have the energy to run up 30+ margins on the opponents.

 

[LadyVols9]

from ESPN:

• SEC success: If NCAA success is your measure, then the SEC has proven itself to be the best conference in the country this season, with five SEC teams moving on to the Sweet 16.

South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU, Texas A&M and Kentucky are all still alive in the bracket, preparing to play in the regional semifinals.

"It doesn't surprise me because of what we do to each other in our league," Staley said. "What we've been able to do is draw on our experiences in our league and have some success outside of it. I'm extremely proud. I think our conference is the best in the country and for us to have five of the 16 teams still participating is proof of that."

LSU's Theresa Plaisance also spoke to the training ground provided by the SEC after the Lady Tigers pulled off the upset against second-seeded West Virginia in Baton Rouge on Tuesday night.

"The SEC, really, when you are going against team after team, Top 25 teams, anyone can win on any given night," Plaisance said. "Even the people that are at the bottom of the SEC, they would give you a tough out every night. Every game is a battle, every game is a fight. I'm proud to play in the SEC."


http://espn.go.com/ncw/notebook/_/p...s-remain-displeased-schools-hosting-regionals

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

The SEC may be the most evenly balanced conference in the country top to bottom, but that doesn't make it the best. And so far the SEC representatives have shown themselves to be only slightly better than mediocre. You can't seriously believe that Kentucky's escape against Syracuse, SC's fairly close wins over CS Northridge & Oregon St., A&M's 15 point win over North Dakota are suggestive that they're from the best conference in the country. Every one of those games should have been a 30-40 point blowout. Syracuse got run out the building against ND, Maryland & Duke during the season, even when Brittany Sykes was available. North Dakota lost by 29 & 26 to the only ranked teams it played all year other than A&M. St. John's lost almost as badly to Marquette(13) and Xavier(15) as they did to Tennessee(16). Do you not see a pattern here?

All that matters is if teams win; I've never seen anyone get extra credit for winning by 20 instead of by 2.

 

[toadfoot]

All that matters is if teams win; I've never seen anyone get extra credit for winning by 20 instead of by 2.

True enough, but that's not what the previous discussion was about. The basic point of the earlier posts was to take exception with tennfanatic00's assertion that the SEC had proven itself as the best conference. I maintain that the mere fact of winning against lesser competition proves no such thing. Could the SEC yet prove itself the best conference... possibly, but that hasn't been proven yet.

 

[toadfoot]

You're asking the SEC #1 seeds to beat an #8/#9 seed by more than 9 points on a neutral court or by more than 16 at home? That sounds pretty demanding, even if they are from apparently the top conference and must have had the toughest schedule. Not every team can be like those American conference teams that munch on cupcakes to fortify themselves for the tourney so that they have the energy to run up 30+ margins on the opponents.

All I'm expecting an SEC #1 (or even #2 or #3) to do is what other much lower ranked teams have done during the course of the year. Read the cases I cited. Do you really think it's unfair to judge A&M for being unable to beat North Dakota by more than 15 on their home floor when Iowa & Iowa St. beat ND by much larger margins? You think it's unfair to judge Tennessee when they can only beat St. John's by margins similar to what Marquette and Xavier achieved against St. John's? Really?

And you really think UConn's AAC schedule has allowed them to "fortify themselves for the tourney"? You mean to suggest teams only have so much energy during the season and better to save it up for tournament!

 

[hussybulldog]

SEC leads, with 5 teams left

SEC ... 6-2 ... 5-1 ... 11-3
ACC ... 6-2 ... 3-3 .... 9-5
AAC ... 2-0 ... 2-0 .... 4-0
B12 ... 4-2 ... 2-2 .... 6-4
B10 ... 5-0 ... 1-4 .... 6-4
PAC ... 4-1 ... 1-3 .... 5-4
BgE ... 2-0 ... 1-1 .... 3-1
Oth ... 3-25 .. 1-2 .... 4-27

Anybody predicts the win/loss for the next round? From the record so far, one can tell B10/PAC are definitely overly represented while AAC is not represented enough... And all the other schools outside these 7 conferences should just join any of these seven or participate in NIT/WBI only....Just have a 32 team tournament instead of 64 team one. Let's be honest, the women's tournament is more predictable than the men's. Wild horses are rarer and further in between.