rec.sport.basketball.college

On Feb 16, 10:29 am, "Edward M. Kennedy" wrote:
> wrote
>
>
>
> >> >> Non-Memphis teams against Sagarin top 50 competition: 0-36. The highest rated
> >> >> conference to go oh-fer against the top 50 is the #22 (of 32) Big Sky. The funny
> >> >> part is that a lot of conferences that do have wins against top 50 teams did it
> >> >> with far less tries than 36.
>
> >> > Point well made, but it would be better made if you looked at only non-
> >> > conference games against the top 50. 17 of those 36 losses are to
> >> > other CUSA teams. 0-19 isn't great either, but that's the statistic
> >> > that you should use to compare with other conferences. Just curious..
> >> > how is the ACC (minus Duke and UNC) doing against the top 50 in non-
> >> > conference games?
>
> >> 15-40 for non-Duke/UNC, but it is somewhat telling we have to remove
> >> two teams to warrant a comparison.
>
> > I think it's telling that there is such a large chasm between the top
> > 2 ACC teams and the rest. One expects CUSA to have a large chasm
> > between the top one and the rest.
>
> Actually it's pretty common. Top 50 teams are pretty good.
>
> >> Oddly, for all the talk of every major conference being down this year,
> >> the Sagarin ratings look about what I remember to be typical for the
> >> Big 6.
>
> > I don't think that *every* major conference is down. The Pac 10 is
> > doing nicely. I believe that the Bigs 12 and East are holding form.
>
> Agreed on the PAC 10.
>
> The *entire* Big East is 35-79 against the top 50, or 31% vs. the bottom
> 10 ACC at 27%. Take out the two best Big East teams top 50-wise, and
> they drop below the ACC at 25%.
>
> > The Big 10 is nothing to write home about, but who wants to write
> > about Big 10 basketball anyway?
>
> Since around 1980, traditionally there has been a basketball triumvirate
> of the ACC/SEC/B10.

That still doesn't make me want to write about Big 10 basketball.

> The B12, PAC 10, and Big East occaisionally displace
> one of the other three, more or less in that order of frequency.

That's why I think the those conferences are at least holding form.
The Big East certainly isn't at its best, but they're not always at
their best. A one or two elite or psudo-elite teams and a bunch of
early-round exit-ers is usually what you get. Maybe a team or two
with a nice NIT run in them.

> This
> year is a bit of an anomoly, but March could shake things up.

The anomoly is that a non-BCS team is ranked #1. That most likely
pushes at least one team a notch lower on the eliteness scale than
where they would be without the CUSA team messing with perception.
Overall, not individually, the BCS conferences are about as good as
ever, just not ranked in a normal order.