stanford game

[alexrgct]

and who's fault is that? We scheduled Texas, Gonzaga, Xaiver when they were better. It's not our fault they dropped off. And we have no control over all injuries in the Pac 12 (including our team). And, it's not like UConn beat us so badly the 3rd game of the season at UConn, when Nneka only played 23 min. Instead of looking at the negatives, how about giving Stanford and Tara some credit for their winning streaks, after losing 2 point guards and a wing.

To answer your initial question- the rest of the Pac-12's. Doesn't mean it's to Stanford's benefit.

No one's blaming Stanford. Doesn't mean their schedule hasn't been poor this season.

CFB-wise, I'd actually compare it to the ACC in the 1990s. Florida State was great, and the rest of the league couldn't wait for basketball season. Didn't keep FSU from winning two nattys that decade and playing for two more. With this relatively young Stanford team, however, I'm sure Tara would have preferred a tougher opponent or two later in the season.

BTW, in fairness, it's not like it was a shock that the OOC wasn't that strong. Texas hasn't been good in a while, Gonzaga was losing its best player by a country mile, and Xavier was losing its two best players. Neither Gonzaga nor Xavier has a talent pipeline that makes it likely to replace the kids they were losing. I'm sure Tara will push to schedule the best OOC opponents possible if the PAC stays down.

 

[speedoo]

The Pac-12 is going to be really good in the next few years. It will be an exciting time for west coast basketball as Stanford, UCLA, Cal, Oregon State, USC and maybe Washington should all be dancing soon and I would not be surprised to see all six ranked in the top 25 at one time.

It will be interesting to see how the upswing of the Pac-12 will influence recruiting and if coaches are going to be able to lure players off the west coast.

Would be good if this happens, but what makes you believe it actually will?

 

[easttexastrash]

18 games plus 3 for conf. tourney games (for all Pac 12 teams) = 21 and is the most of any conference. Again, not Stanford's fault. Tara was against conf. tourney because it disallowed us more non conf games.

Baylor also played 18 + 3 this year.

 

[cardfan]

No, it's a very good analogy. Big East teams win head-to-head matchups against other BCS conferences and often kick the you-know-what out of highly regarded teams in top conferences in the BCS bowls yet because of the perception that the BEast is weak, people are screaming for the conference to lose its BCS bid. WVU beat Clemson 70-33 in the Orange Bowl but everyone pooh-poohs the win because WVU is [now, was] in the Big East. Why should WVU be judged by how bad Syracuse is?

It's not a good analogy at all given the Big East football has never played for the national championship.

 

[Icebear]

I would love to see a chart of teams making at least the Elite 8 or better yet round by round over the last 20 years identified/gathered by time zone. It might be interesting in demonstrating relative strength of regional basketball.