(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.
I agree to a certain extent but UC has already been there and done that. This program has 27 conference titles. I would trade a few of those during the C-USA years for a couple more sweet 16 and elite 8 finishes.
Regular season conference titles used to really mater in the Big Ten and Pac XII. To a certain extend they still do in those conferences and Big XII. The Big East and ACC have always been about the conference tournament and NCAA tournament. The teams in the original C-USA placed some emphasis on wining the regular season and tournament title because it meant knocking off UC and Bog Huggins. I never have felt that way with the American. There isn't longtime conference rival that UC is fighting for conference championships against. UConn and SMU are new rivals to UC and while those are big games I don't know if those schools are fighting for the regular season title the same UC, Louisville, Memphis, Marquette, Charlotte, UAB, DePaul, and company did years ago.
Bottom line, the American isn't what C-USA used to be. It can be if UConn, Memphis, and Temple go back to being tournament level teams. Adding a combination of Wichita State, Dayton, and VCU would provide the league the same thing Marquette, Charlotte, St. Louis, and DePaul brought to C-USA.
Give me a sweet 16 or better over a conference tournament title, give me a conference tournament title over the regular season title. Give me all three if you can but this program needs postseason success. Heck that would even include the old standard of conference tournament title and a round of 32 finish which would be hopefully get UC to 31 wins.