(03-01-2017 10:05 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Conference titles matter. How you perform over the full year matters. I'd rather win a conference than win one or two extra tournament games. It's why what Huggins accomplished throughout his time at UC is criminally underrated by some. UC kept winning conference titles even as guys like Crean, Pitino and Calipari got involved. One game and out, anything can happen, but the consistency it takes to keep winning conference titles is a big deal. I'd love to see the program get back to dominating a conference like it did for so long. Hell this conference isn't even at the level old CUSA was. We got closer this year, but a great SMU team seems like it is going to do a little more (a Conference tournament title will make up for it some). We need to make this league UC's, like CUSA used to be.

Winning conference titles only matter as much if the conference is worth winning. As in a P5 conference. Winning a weak 1-2 bid conference will result a collective yawn by most anyone who isn't a UC fan. I believe THAT is why Huggins didn't get the notoriety. Because the C-USA's and GMC were looked down upon. It didn't look like much of a feat to consistently win those conferences. Right wrong or indifferent he was measured by his tournament achievements, because he didn't win P5 titles, only second tier conference titles.

Does it matter more to win a conference title than to make it to the round of 32? Probably. But I'm not so sure it is worth more than making it to the Sweet 16. If you take 2 coaches side by side and one has won a mediocre conference say 8 out of 10 years, but the other has made it to say 5 Sweet 16's in the past 10 years, the second coach will be viewed as more successful. I would imagine if you polled the fans they would prefer the 5 Sweet 16's.

Look no further than our (ahem) friends from across town (XU). In a 10 year span from 2001 -2011 they won 7 conference titles. Do you think anyone (other than their fans) remember or cares about that? No, because it was the A-10. (Even as UC fans we used to laugh at them seemingly getting an automatic bid every year for winning a rinky dink conference). They made their name on a national scale and people took notice because during that same time they went to 4 Sweet 16's and 2 Elite Eights.

Unfortunately, now UC is in that position. Now they just need to make some noise in the tournament.