That's the good thing about college basketball. It doesn't matter what the talking heads say. You get to prove it on the court.

Not many football teams get the chance to do what Boise State did in the Fiesta Bowl. March Madness offers an opportunity like that to a LOT of basketball teams.

If college basketball were like like college football we never would have seen...

NC State beat Houston for the championship
Villanova beat Georgetown for the championship
Weber State beat UNC
Santa Clara beat Arizona
Richmond beat Indiana
George Mason make it to the Final Four
and on and on and on

I agree Memphis has a good team, but the thing they don't have to worry about is playing a brutal conference slate. Many of the elite teams rack up losses in conference because of competition. You can probably pick 10-15 teams who could go undefeated in CUSA. Duke is bad this year(by duke standards) but I bet if they played in CUSA they would coast through. Theres only maybe 3 teams in the Big East who wouldn't win in CUSA(Cincy and Seton Hall). Its tough to have to compete against the Syracuses, UCONN's, Marquettes, and G-towns of the world especially during back to back to back games. UCONN on a down year is still tough at home. Nova actually is a very good team, but they have the toughest conference schedule. Some have tougher schedules than others but you can't take a night off. You really can't play a bad game and expect to win. In CUSA you can play bad and still compete. As a matter of fact you have alot of room for error if you are superior to the other teams. The good thing about playing in a great league is that you get exposed early and you can work on alot of your weaknesses. I guess you have to play the hand you are dealt. I guess in the end talent will win regardless, but it certainly helps playing great competition in jan, feb, and march. To me the OOC schedule is just glorified scrimmages. Half of the teams are still trying to figure out what works. It makes for some good early season games. Teams like Clemson get on a roll early and then fall flat late because they start playing good teams night in night out. The goal is to play your best basketball in February and March not November and December.

Sometimes out of conference is a hit and miss, you might catch a team who is good one year and horrible the next. Plus the Big East is just a different style of ball. CUSA is a pretty finesse league and if you don't have bodies in the Big East you will take a beating. Its a very physical league which we found out quickly last year. The sad part about it is teams like Depaul and Providence are very solid teams who would probably do really well in other conferences. Depaul beat Kansas earlier this year and beat some good teams in the big east this year.

The Big East and ACC are two conference where the teams beat up on each other, but our teams usually play will come March because of the conference schedule. Its no excuse for any big east team not to be ready in the NCAA tourny. You can have a sub par record and still get in the tourny because of the comp.

kardphan Wrote:Teams like Clemson get on a roll early and then fall flat late because they start playing good teams night in night out. The goal is to play your best basketball in February and March not November and December.

A quick off topic, but since you brought them up I'll comment. I find it near amazing that Clemson is quickly trending towards not making the NCAA following a 17-0 start. Talk about an utter collapse if they can't pull out of their current funk. I see them in the NIT because I think their current play is more representative of their true level.

kardphan Wrote:I guess you have to play the hand you are dealt.

It is what it is.