Big West This mid-major league featured four 20 win teams, an impressive accomplishment for teams that do not have many opportunities to play big time schools other than the Pac-10. UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton and Pacific all recorded twenty wins, and the three Cal State teams were locked in at 12-4 atop of the league. Cal State Fullerton got the best of everyone in Anaheim for the conference tournament, and played with Wisconsin for a half before getting exposed inside later in the game. 
Fullerton reached their first NCAA tournament, and it was well deserved after an overall 24-9 and 4-1 on neutral courts. Pacific who year in and year out has managed to record top-two finishes in the Big West, could only muster up 11 conference wins, but accomplished a successful 10-5 non conference. Defending champion Long Beach State had to replace nearly three-quarters of their scoring, and as a result went 6-25, with a hideous 1-15 on the road. Fullerton’s Scott Cutley and Santa Barbara’s Alex Harris were named co-Big West players of the year; Cutley averaged 14.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game for the champions. Harris led Santa Barbara in a school record 23 victories, and scored in double figures in all 29 games, averaging 20.3 for the year. UC Irvine had a mini-cinderella run in the Big West tourney, reaching the finals as the 5-seed. This no doubt helped Fullerton to capture the automatic bid, because Fullerton had underachieved against the top-tier teams of the league during the regular season.
2007-2008 Big West Grade: C-
I think that the Big West did not really have that exceptional of a season, but it was not that terrible either. Any time a mid-major league has a three-way tie at the top and the home teams in the league manage to win their games, it makes for excitement. The only issue with the league was the lack of power games for the top teams. Many of these teams cannot get games with the Stanfords and UCLA’s of the world and must settle for games against low-majors or non D-I opponents which is never a good sign for RPI. UC Santa Barbara had a great season, and really deserved the auto bid, but Fullerton got it done when it counted and represented the league strongly in the Dance.
Colonial
2006: George Mason goes to the Final Four, the league receives two bids to the tournament; 2007: VCU defeats Duke in the biggest upset of the tournament, nearly reaches the Sweet 16, the league receives two bids to the tournament; 2008: The sound of crickets whistle as discussion of the CAA transpires this season. Preseason favorite George Mason may have been the most underachieving team in the mid-majors this year after Thanksgiving. Mason went 23-11 and reached the NCAAs anyway after utilizing their talent and athleticism which was tops in the league. Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell were on the ’06 Final Four team and undoubtedly led this team when it mattered, but showed absolutely no heart or energy in the tournament when they faced Notre Dame. The conference underachieved mightily with VCU capturing its second consecutive regular-season title. 
The Rams went 24-8 and 15-3 in the league, winning it by three full games. The Rams had player of the year Eric Maynor who proved he was the best player in the league and one of the elite guards in the nation with the talent he led this team with throughout the season. The surprise of the year was William & Mary. Led by coach of the year Tony Shaver, the Tribe had their best season of the decade, being over .500 for the first time under Shaver in five seasons. W&M had a great run in the CAA tournament with three buzzer beaters in as many days to defeat Georgia State, Old Dominion and VCU before bowing out to Mason in the title game. The league saw elite player Antoine Agudio, from Hofstra, end his career after an incredibly successful four years. He tallied 2,256 points and elevated Hofstra to relevancy in the Colonial landscape. The disappointment of the CAA has to be the lack of nonconference heft because this is and should be a two-bid league, but because of no impression made on the committee the CAA was left to be embarrassed come March, going 1-3 in the three postseason tournaments. The lone win was by Old Dominion in the CBI.
2007-2008 Colonial Grade: D
All in all an embarrassing year for the CAA; VCU was not head and shoulders above everyone, but because they simply did what they were supposed to and won the games they were favored in, they won the league. Mason did not deserve to even play in the CAA tournament the way they did not even show up for half of their regular season games. When the Patriots did come to play, they could play with anyone in the nation; the same could not have been said for UNC-Wilmington or VCU. It cannot get much worse for the Colonial, but things really are looking up. Mason and UNCW lose a lot, but VCU gets Maynor back, ODU gets nearly everyone back, Northeastern promises to be better and Delaware and Northeastern showed signs of brilliance this past season. The CAA as a whole completely underachieved this season, and as a fan of the CAA I am tremendously disappointed.
Conference USA
98-8. The last three seasons the Memphis Tigers have gone 98-8 against all opponents, and have not lost a game to a C-USA foe in two full seasons. They nearly were eclipsed this past season at UAB, but the Tigers dug in as they have done so many times and prevailed. They featured two All-Americans, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose. They featured leadership inside with Joey Dozier, and athleticism up front in Robert Dozier and Shawn Taggart. The Tigers were complete and as will be told to John Calipari for years, shoulda, coulda, woulda won a national title. They dominated the conference, winning ten of their 18 games by more than 20. 
This conference has nothing beyond the Tigers on a national stage, but there are some home courts which can be difficult for big-time teams, including the Tigers to play. Houston, UAB and UTEP all have historically decent programs, and these are the teams that gave Memphis the most trouble. UAB reached the NIT quarters under Mike Davis and were in position for an NCAA bid before getting beat in the C-USA quarters. Houston started out 15-1, and stared right down at Memphis each time they met. Tom Penders’ club featured stud Robert McKiver who could shoot with anyone in the nation. McKiver dropped 52 against Southern Miss at the end of February, a national tops for the ’07-’08 campaign. Larry Eustachy has risen Southern Miss back to respectability with a 19-14 season, and Tulsa put things together with a 25-14 year and a CBI championship. C-USA is a very underrated, offensively oriented league filled with superstars. The first team of the league featured Rose, McKiver, Douglas-Roberts, UAB’s Robert Vaden and UTEP’s Stefon Jackson. Those five players are absolute stars, and could play on any team in the country.
2007-2008 Conference USA Grade: B+
A solid year for C-USA. Memphis finally broke through to the Final Four, and continued to dominate. The frustrating thing about this league is that nobody looks to be able to make a run at Memphis for the top spot anytime soon. At the same time, programs continue to flourish and improve rather than last season when Memphis was the only decent team worthy of any postseason discussion. The fact that six other teams (Houston, UAB, So. Miss, UTEP, UCF and Tulsa) were able to at some point or another show that they compete is important. Nobody believed John Calipari when he said this is the most underrated league around; well now I believe him. After watching this conference, I really think that it is in the process of getting closer to how it used to be when Louisville, Marquette and DePaul were all prominent forces in the league. Last season, this conference was nothing more than the Atlantic Sun…and Memphis. Now its more like a solid mid-major…and Memphis. Look for the Tigers to go undefeated again next season, but it will be much more of a battle.
Tomorrow: Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic
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