When an impressive season isn't that impressive

coolhandgopher

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The Louisville Cardinals claimed the Big East championship yesterday with their win over West Virginia. They were aided in large part in their quest by not only playing Pitt and UConn only once, but hosting both of those titans at Freedom Hall (their only game against Marquette was also at home, in the first game played with Dominic James). In fact, if you look at the eight teams in the Big East who finished the regular season with a winning record, Louisville only had to visit three of the seven on the road. Every other team with a winning record in the Big East had to travel at least four times on the road to face opponents with records over .500. Louisville's a very talented team, I'm thrilled that the Gophers can claim a win against the Big East champs, but they benefitted greatly from the schedule.

In an extremely weak SEC, LSU blew through the competition, posting a 13-3 conference record. Consider though that they only had to play the SEC East teams once (in a choice between bad and badder, the SEC East was the stronger conference) and their three home games were against Vandy, Florida, and South Carolina, while their road games were against Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. I'll give them credit for sweeping the road games and only losing to Vandy, but I think their record is greatly enhanced by having only played these teams once (save Georgia and maybe Kentucky). My first NCAA prediction will be this-if LSU lands somewhere in the 4-6 seed range, pick their opponent in a first round upset.

Bill Self gets my vote for national Coach of the Year with being able to lead the Jayhawks to the Big 12 title after losing so much from his national championship team, but take a closer look at who they've played in conference. Although the Big 12 North has improved (notably Missouri, with Kansas State and Nebraska taking steps also), they remain significantly behind the Big 12 South in depth of teams. Having only to play those teams once was good fortune for the Jayhawks, even if their one game against Oklahoma was on the road. They also got to travel to Texas Tech and Baylor, two of the conference cellar dwellers (and they got thumped by TT) while they hosted the formidable teams of Texas, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State avoiding some tough road trips to all three of those campuses. An easier path that Oklahoma and Missouri, the two other prime contenders for the title.

My point? For lack of a poetic way of saying this, unbalanced conference schedules suck and are often misrepresentative. Although the Big 10 isn't perfect, kudos to getting back to an 18 game regular season; Michigan State's championship this season was hard earned by traveling to every other Big 10 arena, save Wisconsin. Of course, among major conferences, the Pac 10 can claim true purity in their champions; every team sees every other conference team twice a year.
 



I'd just like to take this time to mention how much the Sunday night ramble has been missed.
 

Caravan...Let the games begin and let's ramble on!!!!! LOL
 


Thanks for the nice sentiments Caravan, I miss doing the Ramble myself. While life in Peru has been great thus far, I am afraid the next few weeks might be the most difficult period of withdrawal for me thus far :eek:
 

The interesting about MSU this year is that they have surpassed their BT road wins of their national championship year. This should be an interesting tourney for the BT...
 

Coolhand, you are a genius!

Bill Self gets my vote for national Coach of the Year with being able to lead the Jayhawks to the Big 12 title after losing so much from his national championship team

You are wise beyond your years, my friend...great to see you posting, you always have a great perspective, and I'm not just saying that because you complimented my bf.
 







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