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Message: [QUOTE="jonson, post: 2668677, member: 6034"] This seems to me the essential point. It may very well be the case that, if UCONN were in a stronger conference, their record would not be all that different from what it's been in the AAC. And, as has been pointed out numerous times, the team won 4 straight national titles while playing in their current conference. But . . . as for the latter, those teams were led by a truly transcendent player and--if not for all 4 championships, at least for the final 3--would likely have been just as successful no matter what the context. To me, the strength of conference argument is much more pertinent to a team like this one--that is, a team with a number of very good/excellent players but no Diana, or Maya, or Stewie. This kind of team would, I believe, benefit greatly from having to go through a conference grind in which there are a number of teams that might beat you if you play badly vs. playing in a conference where losing just doesn't seem a possibility. Take the Pac 12, for example, the conference with which I am most familiar. A week after week Friday/Sunday schedule composed of home and away games against a number of teams that are well coached, have some talent, and play different styles (let's say, for example, Stanford, Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA and maybe even Arizona State, Cal, and USC this year) would in my view have gone a long way to exposing this team's weaknesses and so be a wake-up call, if not for the coaches (who probably don't need it), then for the players. That is, a conference schedule in which the team is scouted by coaches who are familiar with the program, are adept at identifying weaknesses and taking away what the team does best, who build and expand on what their peers have discovered earlier in the conference season, and so force a team (if it wishes to continue to be successful) to adapt and get better throughout the season. That's why a team can start the conference schedule looking like world beaters and end up with a string of losses as the conference season comes to a close. A situation like this is, to me, very different from playing a number of very good, even better, teams out of conference during the fall. So--even if the record of wins and losses would look just like the ones UCONN has had in the AAC, getting there would, I think, be a lot more challenging and, more important, provide a lot more information about what needs to be addressed by the time the NCAA Tournament begins. [/QUOTE]

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