His Quote.
I know how good Wofford is, and their league, and the top four teams in their league-East Tennessee State, UNC-Greensboro and Furman. And I hate to tell you but all four should have been in the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps a little coach speak here. Nice of him to say, but four teams! You could argue for another team from the SoCon, but that's about it. If the tournament committee didn't have to fill so many spots, I don't think four teams from any conference deserve a shot at the national championship.

Sure... but Calipari strikes me as somebody who doesn't totally buy into the NCAA cartel, and therefore might be more honest about stuff like who is really good or not than other insiders might be. He could have said it's a good league that should have had another team (the G team that gave them a run in December, for example), but he went out of his way to list - by name - the 4 schools he did. I don't know what motivation he'd have to be as specific as he was, other than thinking there's a good bit of truth to the statement.

(03-23-2019 06:48 PM)Buc Island Wrote:  Sure... but Calipari strikes me as somebody who doesn't totally buy into the NCAA cartel, and therefore might be more honest about stuff like who is really good or not than other insiders might be. He could have said it's a good league that should have had another team (the G team that gave them a run in December, for example), but he went out of his way to list - by name - the 4 schools he did. I don't know what motivation he'd have to be as specific as he was, other than thinking there's a good bit of truth to the statement.

I think Calipari did his homework. He knows who Forbes is, and Kentucky has played ETSU before (I recall Ike Brown having a career night in an ooc game, garnering much praise from Calipari for outplaying his SEC bigs). UNCG played tough against UK. Furman made top 25. Compare this to the various 20th place power conference teams and the bottom feeding auto bids perennially in the dance. Moreover, he didn’t want to overlook how tough Wofford would be, and he makes the case for how serious their undefeated conference streak was. Just being serious and showing the signficance of the matchup, which was certainly close. A couple treys from Wretched Magee would have been dangerous.

I appreciate his comment. It reminds me of all those years we wasted in the ASun. Even tho we're not champs in the Southern, it is so nice to have competitive games week after week against good teams.

I do believe three teams were worthy of the NCAA. The Bucs need to up their late-season play. It seems to be becoming a trend for us. But there's hope and the Southern will get more attention next year.

(03-23-2019 10:50 PM)kevster Wrote:  I appreciate his comment. It reminds me of all those years we wasted in the ASun. Even tho we're not champs in the Southern, it is so nice to have competitive games week after week against good teams.

I do believe three teams were worthy of the NCAA. The Bucs need to up their late-season play. It seems to be becoming a trend for us. But there's hope and the Southern will get more attention next year.

The SoCon was top heavy, had 4 good teams, there might have been competitive games this past season but not all were against good teams.

Agree SoCon had 4 teams that were deserving to go dancing somewhere this year. The remaining teams not so much and decrease the leagues national perception. Factor in having 2 mid major military academies and it’s tough to change that perception. Unfortunately having one team make
NCAA each year likely does not change.