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Message: [QUOTE="AndyCT, post: 2063728, member: 2064"] [FONT=Arial]Yes, I do.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial]We've had this discussion in past years, particularly when fans of the ACC and SEC teams post (in other forums) that Connecticut would lose regularly if they played in their leagues, the rebuttal was, and is, that if Connecticut already beat the top three or four teams in your league, what makes you think that the Vanderbilts of the world are going to knock them off? Granted the margin for error is somewhat narrower, and there's always a chance of a Tulane night, but UConn's chances of success against "the rest of the league" in any other league would be the same.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial][B]ACC[/B] - Connecticut has already beaten Notre Dame and squeaked by Florida State. The third team is Duke, and we all know how they've fared against the Huskies over the last ten years; despite their recent ascendency; nothing makes me think that would've changed this year if they had continued the series. Louisville and Syracuse vs South Florida and Temple, not likely to beat UConn though they'd might be closer games.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial][B]Big[/B] [B]12[/B] - Connecticut has already beaten Baylor, Texas, and Kansas State, but didn't play Oklahoma (third in the current standings). After that the remaining teams all have losing conference records; I suspect the current Connecticut team would fare well.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial][B]Big[/B] [B]Ten[/B] - Connecticut has already beaten Maryland and Ohio State. Third-place Michigan is ranked, but it's unlikely they or any of the other remaining teams would be favored to beat Connecticut.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial][B]SEC[/B] - Connecticut has beaten South Carolina and of course not played Mississippi State - yet. I have to give a little respect to our visitors from the South and acknowledge that the SEC has been, year in and year out, one of the strongest conferences top to bottom. It's still a more "even" conference than most, but not as strong on the whole as in the past. The third and fourth teams in the SEC, Kentucky and Missouri, bracket Temple in the writers' poll and aren't even in the coaches poll.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial][B]PAC[/B] [B]12[/B] - a little more of a mystery since Connecticut hasn't played any teams from this conference this year. The best three teams are ranked at just about the top ten level and there are several other ranked teams in the poll, but based on Connecticut's record against the top ten I don't see any of them as realistic winners over Connecticut...except for Stanford, a team that ended the 70 game streak, that interrupted the current 150 game streak, and that knocked Connecticut out of the 2008 Final Four, which I believe makes Charde, Keitia, and Mel the only four year (or more) players to matriculate since 1996 and not win a National Championship.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial]Stanford is kryptonite.[/FONT] [FONT=Arial]But otherwise the reality is that except for the top two or three teams in each conference, no other teams in any of the Power 5 conferences is any more of a significant threat than the teams in the AAC. Don't forget the closest game that Connecticut played this year other than FSU was in conference. And that otherwise Connecticut has beaten almost all of those top two or three teams, so there's no reason to think the results would be any different regardless of which league they played. [/FONT] [FONT=Arial]Anyway, gotta go - this is already too long, and besides, 8'm watching this game on the 'net, and there's a great halftime feature on ESPN about Phi Slamma Jamma....[/FONT] [/QUOTE]

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