Tubby Smith has got those guys playing really well up there. I’d be concerned if I were an Illini fan. They aren’t one of the doormats of the conference anymore.
If we win all our home games and beat the bad teams on the road I think we’ll end up with something closer to a 3 or a 4. A 2 Is in play if we win the regular season conference title with a couple key road upsets. The Big Ten is strong this year and a top 3 finish would guarantee a 4 seed at the worst.
Not a doormat but they’ve really fattened up on some monumental cupcakes this year. They lost at home to MSU and Purdue and their only decent win was against a really weary Louisville team in a vacant arena. If they beat the Illini at home it’ll be their first notable performance and they might lose to an awful IU today if they aren’t careful. I never feel good in that arena but if we are hitting any shots at all we’ll blow them out of the gym.
LOL, ok. I guess I spoke too soon. Very, very nice comeback by the Mildcats to win in OT. USC squeaked by Washington State. WSU had two chances this week to upset the SoCal schools, but couldn’t finish the job.
Oregon State got a bit of Obama luck as they upset Stanford.
With the talk on eventual tourney seeding, I thought I’d give my 1-4 predictions.
1 seeds
Duke
Pitt
UConn
UNC
2 seeds
Georgetown
Wake Forest
Mich St.
Oklahoma
3 seeds
Louisville
Syracuse
Texas
Clemson
4 seeds
UCLA
Xavier
Butler
Cal
You forgot Kentucky!
I’d have them as a five seed. They could end up with 24-25 wins, but be hurt with playing in the extremely weak SEC.
ETA: If your wondering why.
I have Cal as the four seed over Washington , because I think they will end up winning the conference tourney.
You know, the SEC is generally one of the top 2-4 bball conferences year in and out. It’s certainly somewhat of a down year for the conference for basketball, but I could definetely see a few of the teams rebound (ha!) and climb into the top 25 by year’s end. UK being chief amongst them.
If you look at how well they have been playing lately, I think you’ll see a pretty special group of players on Kentucky. Literally the only thing (and it’s important) that this team needs to do a much better job of is keeping from turning the ball over so much. They factor into the top national rankings in fgp, shot blocks, individual rebounding (Patterson) and individual scoring (Meeks). They hustle and play great defense. A lot of their turnovers are them trying to create plays with the ball.
I like where Billy G has these guys right now, and they are also a good blend of classes. Their only bad loss of the year was to VMI, which was a fluke game early in the year where both teams scored over 100 points (!!). All their other 3 losses were to ranked teams: North Carolina when they were #1, Miami when they were #15 and #22 Louisville.
I see them in the top 25 next Tuesday and not falling out of it.
:mad::mad::mad:Screw Mizzou:mad::mad::mad:Jumpball my ass:mad::mad::mad:
-OSU Fan
But we bounced back from ugly calls at the end of games to knock off Nebraska yesterday - face OU for Bedlam tomorrow. Ice storms predicted. Should be intense.
(Yes, sucking the first 35 minutes is a good reason to lose to Missouri, but that call was atrocious.)
No love for Arizona State?
I’m watching Florida beat up on Vandy. Florida plays UK on Feb 10 in Lexington and then UK comes to Gainesville on March 7 for the last regular season game. These should be two of the best games in the SEC this year. A good performance by either the Gator or Wildcats could have a huge impact on the NCAA seeding.
UK and UF are locks for the tournament. Outside of that, I guess Tennessee, Mississippi State, and LSU have a shot. Probably only 4 teams from the SEC this year.
This statement is absurd fanboyism. The SEC is one of the worst major conferences and has been pretty much for as long as I’ve been alive. Florida was very good for a few years under Turner and Donovan, but before that they were rarely notable. Kentucky was always the class of the league (and usually alone) but hasn’t done much since Tubby left. Tennessee’s success as of late is a completely new thing. LSU was decent for a couple short stretches with Shaq and Big Baby but they never really established themselves. Back when Arkansas was breaking all the rules they were solid, but of all these teams mentioned rarely were they any good at the same time to give the conference as a whole any real broad credibility.
The SEC has never been better than the ACC, Big East or Big Ten. It’s been few sparse years where they have been considered better than the Big 12, Pac10, C-USA and even the A-10, especially prior to the organization of the Big East and ACC conferences when C-USA was stronger.
I think they have a pretty strong remaining schedule, and the non-conference schedule was weak (they lost to Baylor their only ranked opponent) .
ASU will be the team to beat in the Pac-10 next year, as they are still really young. This year, I just don’t think they have been tested enough to put much faith in them.
Omni, the SEC since the early-mid 1990’s usually places 6-8 teams into the tournament every year. That’s out of 12 teams, I’d say that’s a pretty good measure of being considered a “good” conference. Florida has won the national championship twice very recently. UK went three times in 1996-1998 and won it twice. There are teams like Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Miss State, Tennessee, Georgia and LSU that have had either recent or sporadic success, but that’s true of most conferences not called the Pac 10, ACC, Big East or Big Ten (historically speaking).
The fact that you just compared the SEC to the A-10 or Conference USA is pretty funny though. UC was the only good team in CUSA for a long time until the rise of Louisville under Pitino and Memphis under Calipari, and now they aren’t in that conference anymore. The A-10 only Temple, UMASS and Xavier, and now they only seem to have Xavier.
I know, the old adage of “Kentucky is a basketball school in a football conference” used to be true, but it is much less so than before.
Even less true now that UK is actually fielding a watchable football team!
Missed the edit: UC and Louisville in the Big East, Memphis still in C USA…
:smack:
I was at Platteville at the same time as Bo Ryan (though some of the National Championships / undeafeated years were after I graduated) so I sort of follow Madison. But they aren’t doing so hot this year.
Brian
But so does every other BCS conference. I’m not saying the SEC is a backwater, just that it’s never reached parity with the ACC, Big East and Big Ten.
In the late 90s C-USA was essentially the same as the SEC. Cincy and Kentucky were analogous as top dogs and the rotating second tier of DePaul, Marquette, Memphis, Louisville were every bit the match to the SEC teams you mention. You are really discrediting the pre-Pitino years in Louisville. They were really good under Crum.
Well, I did say “top 2-4” conferences…maybe it’s “3-5”?
Also, Crum was a great coach in his heyday, which ended in 1990 for the most part. Louisville basketball (and football) were terrible throughout most of the 1990’s.
And I don’t think that DePaul, Marquette, Louisville and Memphis were ever “top dogs” as much as Kentucky historically, and Florida recently.
I know, I’m delving into the “what have you done lately” side of history to support my argument, but there have been teams in the SEC besides UK that have had some runs and were very good…just like the so-called “big boys”.
I’d say 4-6 is right. There’s a pretty clear 2 tier system with the conferences. ACC, Big East and Big Ten alternating in the 1-2-3 slots and the SEC, Pac 10 and Big 12 rotating in the 4-5-6 spots, with the recently depleted C-USA occasionally bubbling up.
Meh? They made the NCAA Tourney in 8 of 10 years in the 90s and had 28 and 26 wins in two of those seasons. They disappointed in the tourney a bit, but his “struggles” are only that by comparison to his previous seasons. He had almost the exact same fortunes as Tubby Smith where he was hamstrung by insane expectations. Louisville’s numbers in the 90s surpass every SEC team except UK and Arkansas.
Never claimed they were top dogs, I’m claiming that they were the at least the equal of the SEC teams not named Kentucky. Cincinnati is the C-USA answer to UK though they come up a bit short.
Yeah, I know the SEC has fielded some very good teams. They have as many Titles as anyone with Arkansas and Florida in the last couple decades, but the SEC has typically been a 1 team league. It’s always been UK dominating and then UF once UK floundered. It’s depth and consistency that it lacks.
I would say that the Big 12 deserves to be put into the top tier.* I think that if you include the former Big 8 conference into the discussion, they pair up nicely to the Big 10. The Big 12 conference as a whole is head and shoulders above either the SEC or Pac-10.
*Using your designation, if doing it myself:
I would probably put the ACC, and the Big East in tier 1. The Big Ten and Big 12 in tier 2 with the SEC/ Pac-10 occasionally popping up.
Nah. There were some Louisville teams amidst that occasional 29-6 splendor that finished 12-11 a few times too, which means they cannot be compared to Tubby’s record, in which he went to the tourney every year and I don’t think ever finished with less than 20 wins.