Originally Posted by
JasonEvans
I agree, but I wonder which are the strong leagues this year? The nation's consensus #1 team (Memphis) does not come from a major conference. The ACC is not as strong as in years past, no question about it, but many other leagues are down too.
The Pac-10 is almost certainly the best conference in the land, in my opinion (UCLA, Wash State, Arizona, Stanford, and Oregon are all top-20 teams and USC with Mayo is very intriguing). The Big East (led by Louisvile, GTown, Marquette, Pitt, and Syracuse) will have more tournament teams than the ACC, I think, but they have more really mediocre teams too. The SEC is down (Tennessee and then who? Miss State?). The Big Ten is godawful (Indiana, Michigan State and then a bunch of so-so teams). The Big 12 is just Kansas and a bunch of bad teams (Texas and Texas A&M may be next, even though each were just wiped out by departures to the NBA and to Kentucky).
In any event, I see the ACC as down, but most of the other conferences are also down quite a bit. I still see the conference getting 5 or 6 teams into the dance (UNC, Duke, Clemson, NC State, and one or two of Maryland, Ga Tech, Virginia, and maybe BC). I still think we will see the ACC as one of the top 2 or 3 conferences in the Sagarin and RPI rankings when we reach March.
-Jason "I forgot to mention Washington in the Pac 10... that conference is loaded this year!" Evans