BS. Duke is the favorite to win the title and the 3rd place team in our league had them beat. If you don't think that helped their program and the conference your crazy. No one believed UCF belonged on the same court as Duke prior to that game. They did certainly athletically.
Houston was playing in an aging empty arena collecting dust just 3 years ago and had 1 NCAA tournament appearance in 25 years. They are in the Sweet 16 with a shot to do damage.
This league has had enough miserable moments that to ignore some actual progress is just being a gluten for punishment. BTW the leagues 3 best historical programs had down years.