Day 9 Reactionary Look: Southern, Southland, SWAC

Southern
A team goes undefeated in their conference, 20-0, plays three top 10 teams, goes 29-7 overall, and has a 25 game winning streak, longest in the nation through the NCAA Tournament and makes the Elite 8. Now if you had no idea who this team was, it would be assumed it might be a team like Gonzaga, North Carolina, UCLA, etc. That would be mistaken. Tiny Davidson has traveled from insignificant to national power all based on the talent of Stephen Curry. Curry captivated the nation in March, scoring 40, 30, 33, and 25 in each round of the tournament as the Wildcats were seconds away from becoming Mason II. After a one point loss to NC State on December 21, Davidson did not lose again until March, having the nation's longest winning streak all year long. If its the ACC or CYO, going undefeated in your own conference is a mighty acheivement and Davidson did just that, barely even being tested during the SoCon docket. The real scary thing for conference foes must be that they will see more of Curry next season, and that is reason enough for Davidson to believe they can return right back to the Sweet 16. Elon at 14-19 almost made the greatest coup of all Championship Week when they met Davidson in the SoCon final. The Phoenix had been unsuccessful much of the year, but managed to fit the pieces of the puzzle together at just the right time to make a very respectable run in the tourney. Appalachian State and Chattanooga tied atop the conference's North division at 13-7. App State had looked for an at-large bid last season, but they were a very young team, losing much of their scoring from the '06-'07 squad that finished second to Davidson. Chattanooga was figured to be the second best team in the SoCon in the preseason, and had a decent season at 18-13, but in their meeting in Davidson they were beaten by 27. Go figure.

2007-2008 Southern Conference Grade: A
The story of the NCAAs was Davidson, and they probably should have been the story of the regular season. Such a small school with undersized big men, undersized guards, an unathletic point guard and a suspect coaching staff absolutely overachieved, managing to break every school record in the book. Even though they had by far the greatest talent in their league, Bob McKillop pulled all the right strings managing to keep the heads cool and attitudes positive. I believe it can be sometimes more difficult for a team to be managed when they are undefeated rather than, say, a .500 ballclub. That does not mean that I would rather have a .500 team, it is just harder adjusting to attitudes when players know they are better than everyone else. Regardless, Curry was amazing, McKillop was impressive and all added up to a great season for the SoCon solely because they made noise in March and on a national scene.

Southland
Texas-Arlington started out the season 8-0. There was reason for excitement and hubabaloo because the Mavs had their best start of the decade, and maybe they could unexpectedly make some noise in the SLC. They were a .500 team the rest of the way going 10-11 entering the SLC tournament and simply showed no signs of life until a victory at Stephen F Austin on March 1. The Mavs ended up knocking off three of the top four seeds in the league tournament and traveled to the big bracket before getting blasted by Memphis in the first round. The real impressive team out of this league was Stephen Effin Austin. Led by Josh Alexander with 16 PPG and 6 APG, the Lumberjacks went 26-6 showing their best talent and overall athleticism all year, losing only three league games. Stephen F Austin made the NIT, but were defeated by Massachusetts in the first round in a thwarted 80-60 loss; they showed no energy after hoping and praying for an NCAA at-large bid. Lamar also had an impressive year out of the SLC; going 13-3 in the league after a 1-5 start and snagging the top spot in the East division and a 19-11 overall mark.

2007-2008 Southland Grade: B
Maybe a little bit of an overrate here with a B, but I really believe it was a fairly successful year for this league. Did they make noise in March, no; did they make any noise in the non con, no to that one either. They did have four pretty solid teams though in SFA, Lamar, Tx-Arlington and Sam Houston State. SFA, Lamar and Sam Houston all had 20 wins, in the west division which shows that there is some depth. I am not here saying that the SLC had an amazing powerhouse season, but I do think that of the bottom five or six "low-majors" this league had the most success.

SWAC
To the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils, I congratulate your dedication. 2-11 against their non SWAC foes, and 0-11 against their division 1 opponents. That did not mean that the Delta Devil magic had ended for the season. AS they proceeded to work their way up the standings, they managed to finally get over .500 in the SWAC semis. 17-16 for the year, victories over the 4, 5, and 7 seeds in the SWAC tourney and they earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament and get shabammed by UCLA. Alabama State was a team that actually deserved a spot in the significant bracket rather than the NIT. The Hornets had a great point guard in Brandon Brooks, who really led the Bama State team to a 15-3 conference record and their first 20 win season of the decade. He had 6 APG, good enough for all-SWAC honors, but they were shocked by defending champion Jackson State in the SWAC tournament. The great thing about Bama State was they played ONE non conference home game against a division I opponent. That was against SEC power Auburn, and they nearly beat them, dropping it 63-60. THey traveled out on the road and played SMU, UAB, Tulane, Southern Miss and Miami (FL). That may not seem like such an impressive non con docket, but for a conference that is lucky to play ONE MID-major foe, the fact that the Hornets played 2 BCS conference teams and four mid-majors is impressive to me.

2007-2008 SWAC Grade: D
I am not going to waste any more of my readers time discussing this conference. It is awful. Every season, maybe three of these teams even deserve to call themselves NCAA Division I-A programs. This year, Mississippi Valley State was not one of them. Yet, they managed to go to the NCAA Tournament. This is the perfect reason why low-majors need another method of getting to the dance. The Delta Devils were terrible and did not defeat a D-I team until January 14th. That does not sound like a top of the line team to me, but Alabama State at least showed some signs of life. Unfortunately they did not win any decent games. 15-3 is an impressive mark regardless of the league, but when its the SWAC it does not mean a whole lot, especially when you were 5-8 in the non conference. I, for one would not be against giving the NCAA bid to the regular season champion out of this league. That way we know that a 70-29 result like UCLA/MS Valley ST won't happen. Maybe.

Day 8 Reactionary Look: Pac-10, Patriot, SEC

Pacific 10
In all of Division-I college basketball, two teams went winless in their respective conference play, Rice (C-USA) and the Oregon State Beavers from the Pac-10. Oregon State managed to lose their final 21 games, and only came within single digits twice in conference play, giving them the honor of the first ever Pac-10 team to go winless. Do not let that fool you however because the Pac-10 was arguably the best league in the nation this season from top to bottom. UCLA made their third consecutive Final Four trip led by fantastic frosh Kevin Love, Stanford appeared in the top 10 for much of the season after January, Washington State started the year in the top five and USC finished strong giving the Pac-10 another top 25 team. WHen all was said and done, the Pac-10 received six bids to the NCAA Tournament and probably should have received a seventh when Arizona State was snubbed by the committee. The Bruins were the Pacific elite this past season, dropping only two league games, and victorious in 35 of them. They have four players testing the draft waters (Collison, Love, Mbah A Moute, and Westbrook) and look to simply reload every year. Ben Howland has managed to rise the UCLA program from the ashes with three consecutive Final Fours and now three consecutive Pac-10 titles. The surprise of the year was undoubtedly Stanford. The Cardinal started out the season unranked, but that quickly changed when they jumped out to an impressive 20-2 mark to begin the year. Brook Lopez will be earning a paycheck next year, due largely to the dominance that he showed this past season out west. The Cardinal were nearly upset in the second round of the NCAAs, but Lopez's clutch play kept the Stanford season alive. The Cardinal are now left to pick up the pieces from the Trent Johnson era, as Johnson said "Thanks for the Memories" and is headed to LSU. Stanford hired ex-Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins. Washington State was 15-2 in the non con, but could only muster up an 11-7 Pac-10 record, which was partially disappointing considering they had challenged UCLA all season last year and returned almost everyone from a 26-8 tournament team. SOuthern Cal was the hype team in the league this season with star freshman point guard OJ Mayo. Mayo made his prescence felt early and often, averaging 21 points per game for the Trojans and guiding them directly out of the tournament against K-State.

2007-2008 Pac-10 Grade: A-
The only reason this grade is not an A-plus relies solely on the Beavs from Corvallis. Having a winless team in your league is mighty embarrassing, and that very well may have been the only thing to go wrong for the Pac this past year. An amazing season for the teams at the top, and the league sent three Sweet 16 teams nationally. Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State were in all in one big jumble with 9-9 and 8-10 conference marks. They all did gather significant wins and played very difficult schedules, representing the Pac-10 very well on a national stage. California and Washington struggled, but it was difficult for these young teams to compete with these national juggernauts like UCLA and Stanford. The one thing you can look at and know just how good the Pac-1o was this year is that Arizona finished 7th. The Wildcats have a legitimate three NBA prospects on their team, and although they suffered chemistry and injury issues still could not win games against these tough teams. An amazing year for the Pac, they get the vote at Midnight to March for TITL; Tops In The Land.

Patriot League
Somewhere writer John Feinstein is smiling. Writer of The Last Amateurs, Feinstein analyzed in his book that the Patriot League is the best representation of true intercollegiate athletics. These players are student-athletes; no full scholarships and amazing educations. Well the question could be posed, "What about the Ivy League?" The Ivy League does not exist to me; I do not want to cover any Ivy league basketball ever again. Those "players" are students, not student-athletes. Regardless, the Patriot League has made its mustard off of overachieving, not-so-athletic teams jumping up and shocking the big boys. Holy Cross and Bucknell have provided some teams fits in the NCAAs over the last several years with their frustrating play and consummate fundamentals. Just ask those folks in Lawrence, eh? This year, our nation's capital received much attention for the play of Georgetown, but another team, American, was just as exciting and nearly capped of the tournament's biggest upset. Granted AU lost to Georgetown by 27 in December, but ex-UVA coach Jeff Jones had a vision when he went to American five seasons ago, and he finally reached it. The Eagles led the league all season long, going 10-4, 21-12; the first twenty win season for AU this decade. Garrison Carr led the Eagles in scoring at 18 per game, and dropped a cool 26 that oowed and awed the nation against Tennessee in the dance. American won 10 of their last 11 to end the season. With the exception of American, there was not too much excitement in the Patriot this year. Navy finished the season and rebounded nicely after jumping out to a putred 3-9 start. The Midshipmen were led by Greg Sprink who averaged 21.8 PPG, good enough for tops in the conference. Colgate finished third and went on a brief run at the end of the year, winning their final six games to get into a championship meeting with American, but the Eagles grinded out a six point win just as they had done in their two previous meetings during the regular season.

2007-2008 Patriot League Grade: B-
I thought that the American story was incredibly fascinating. Maybe it was because I watched the program play at the turn of the decade, and they were an absolute laugher. Since Jeff Jones was treated terribly at Virginia, he has bounced back and built a house in the nation's capital that will be heard from in March for years to come. Jones took the team from worst to first in five seasons, and it appears that a new dynasty is here to stay in the Patriot. Gone are the days of Bucknell and Holy Cross fighting it out every season for non-scholarship supremacy, say hello to the Eagles

Southeastern
The more college coaches we have that are like Bruce Pearl, the happier I am with the state of college basketball. Orange blazers, groping beautiful sideline reporters, constantly looking like he is on uppers, Bruce Pearl makes watching and listening to coaches fun. For Once. Not only is he fun, but he can coach a little bit too. The flamboyant Pearl led UW-Milwaukee to the Sweet 16 before taking the reins at Tennessee, and take the reins he has. Pearl has instituted his fun and gun style which makes the Vols very exciting, and it did not hurt that he had the second most athletic team in the country (state, too). Senior Chris Lofton seems like he has been at UT for 27 years, but he is finally gone taking with him the mark for most three pointers made in a career in the SEC with 346. Tennessee ran the league all season, reaching the top spot in the polls after defeating Memphis in the best game of the regular season. The Volse were plummeted in the Sweet 16, a disappointment after this season was believed to be the last go round for a Final Four run. 31-5 aint too bad of a season though. The rest of the SEC was really a head scratcher all year. Kentucky was under .500 in the non con but managed to go 12-4 in league play and capture second place in the east division. Vanderbilt, third in the east division, was knocked out in the first round of the NCAAs and could not win on the road all year, but at home they looked like a top 10 team, going 26-8 and 16-2 in the non con. Florida's young Gators struggled all year with severe growing pains, and missed the tournament after being back-to-back national champs. Do not look for the Gators to be chumps next year, an early elite 8 pick at Midnight to March. The best story of the SEC was Georgia's March Run. After a tornado hit the Georgia Dome, the Bulldogs were unphased and simply went on to win TWO games in ONE day, and win the SEC title the next day. Georgia finished the regular season 4-12 in the league. As far as the western division, Mississippi State won it by three games, but was never a national factor and did not have any true excitement to speak of. The Bulldogs went 23-11 and gave Memphis a scare in the second round of the tournament. Arkansas was a disappointment, only managing a 9-7 record in league play for the preseason top 20. The Razorbacks were a serious SEC threat at home, but could not remain consistent for all their talent, dropping 5 of their last 7 in the regular season. Mississippi believed they were snubbed by the NCAA Tournament, but oh were they mistaken. THE most overrated team in the nation this year, the Rebels went 7-9 in the league and 24-11 overall, which may sound impressive, but their only top 100 GAME, not win, GAME was against Clemson, which they won. No way did the Rebs deserve to be in the field, but still a decent rebuilding job going on in Oxford.

2007-2008 SEC Grade: B-
One really good team, about five decent teams and a heck of a disaster was what the SEC can be summed up with this past year. Tennessee rolled through proving they will be a force for years to come even without Lofton and the Smiths. Vanderbilt, UK, Florida, Mississippi State and Arkansas were all decent, respectable teams that could cause some damage when they faced opponents on their home court in the league. None of these teams were consistent enough to be serious contenders come March, and that is why Tennessee was the only SEC team playing in the second weekend. The bottom of this league has some serious work to do. Trent Johnson at LSU, good luck; maybe Dennis Felton can keep up the momentum in Georgia, but I doubt it; Darrin Horn at South Carolina, good luck as well, you will need it with the young teams in that division around the bend. The SEC was not much to speak of this season, but next year? You are looking at one of the top three leagues in the land, headed by Florida and Kentucky.

Day 7 Reactionary Look: Mountain West, Northeast, Ohio Valley

Mountain West
The branch-off of the WAC in 1999 has quickly become one of the top tier mid major conferences, and easily surpassed the WAC as the best conference other than the Pac-10 west of Texas. The Mountain can always be reliable for three quality teams with NCAA resumes, and normally one will get the "snub," but two will be featured in the field of 65. Such an occurance has happened the last two seasons, and did this year as well. BYU and UNLV led the Mountain all season, with the Cougars from Provo winning the league by two full games at 14-2. BYU nearly clipped UNC in November out in Las Vegas after Ty Lawson was injured in the second half. The Cougars managed to appear in the Top-25 briefly, and earned another trip to the NCAA Tournament where they were defeated by a team that managed to match their great size and physicality insinde, in Texas A&M. UNLV made it to the second round after trouncing Kent State. The Runnin Rebs captured their second straight MWC conference tournament championship, beating BYU in the final by 19 points in their most impressive game of the season. Lon Kruger has tremendously turned the UNLV program around after the departure of Charlie Spoonhour. Kruger led this team to the Sweet 16 in '07, and back to the dance in '08. Look for UNLV to remain atop the Mountain West in the future if Kruger continues at the helm. New Mexico finished exactly where they were predicted this season. Journeyman JR Giddens led the Lobos to third in the M-West, a 24-9 record and a first round NIT appearance. Giddens led the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 16.3 and 8.8 respectively. San Diego State also appeared in the NIT after finishing fourth in the league, but they were thinking greater goals after they began the season at 11-3. Air Force ended the season with a very disappointing .500 (8-8) record in conference; they finished fifth and only two games above the even mark at 16-14 this season. The Falcons' huge problem is that they continue to be unable to score, averaging only 63 points per game and scoring under 55 twelve times. A team to watch out for next year has to be the improving Utah Utes. Junior Luke Nevill was everything for this team, leading them in scoring, rebounding and assists. The 7-1 center from Australia helped the Utes return to the postseason in the CBI, and will have the inside track at MWC player of the year next year. Look for the Utes to be right with UNLV atop the MWC next season.

2007-2008 Mountain West Grade: B
I think that the Mwest did a solid job this season in sending five teams to the postseason, and really having an interesting race all year. Teams like BYU and UNLV were very impressive, and showed that they could perform on a national landscape. New Mexico, San Diego State and Utah all showed flashes of brilliance, especially inside the league which aided in the overall RPI for this conference. I would like to see the return of powerhouse Mountain West teams that gain spots in the top 10 however which has not happened since the Andrew Bogut era in Salt Lake. Until then the Mountain will continue to send two teams into the tournament and probably not feature anybody in the second weekend, as UNLV last season backed into it facing the weakest 2-seed of the draw in Wisconsin. I think that the Mountain West will be a force next year nationally, and I think that BYU, UNLV and Utah could all see time in the top 25.


Northeast
A great season helped by intelligence, blood, sweat and tears can be ripped away in literally an hour. The Robert Morris Colonials went 16-2 in the NEC regular season, capturing their first ever conference title, one seed in the tournament, home court throughout and had finally showed they arrived in Division-I basketball after struggling for their first three seasons out of NAIA. Booom. Mount St. Mary's defeats the Colonials, big; 83-65 the final, on the RMU home court, as The Mount celebrates their triumph and later their trip to the field of 65 and Dayton, Ohio for the opening round game. The Colonials were led by point guard Tony Lee who maneuvered this team in and out of jams all season long. He led the team in assists and rebounding and earned the NEC player of the year award. Unfortunately, Robert Morris settled for the NIT, still an astounding accomplishment for a team that had only three wins three seasons ago. The Mount on the otherh and waited until March to get going. Recording only a 19-15 regular season mark, the Mountaineers won four games in the NEC tourney, including beating the top two seeds and won a game in the NCAAs before getting balasted by North Carolina. If there was a theme in the NEC this season, it had to have been that anything could happen on any given night. Robert Morris dropped a game at home to cellar-dweller St. Francis PA which set the tone for a quirky, topsy turvy year for the league. The disappointment of the year was Quinnipiac. The Bobcats featured league top scorer Demario Anderson at 21.7 PPG, but they never managed to get things together and never won more than four games in a row on their way to a 15-15, fifth place finish in the conference.

2007-2008 NEC Grade: C-
Another middy conference with nothing to speak of in the non con really is not a shocker. This league has always been a whipping boy from the MAAC, which certainly has not showed any sort of intense leadership nationwide. The NEC has earned consecutive 16 seeds, and has not won a tournament game in years other than the play-in game. The Mount had an incredible run this season, but Robert Morris ruled their territory all season long, and deserved a shot with the big boys for that domination. Unfortunately for them and the league, it was not meant to be. Featuring only two 20-win teams in Robert Morris and Wagner, multiple teams with coaching changes, and four 4-14 campaigns at the bottom of the standings, a subpar year for the NEC with no real superstars to speak of.


Ohio Valley
Second straight conference title. School record 24 wins. 32 0f 36 wins in OVC play. The Austin Peay Governors have turned into the neo-Murray State of the Ohio Valley. The Govs made their 24th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and led the league from start to finish as they won their eighth OVC tournament title. The Govs featured five players in double figures, a balanced attack which helped them drop only two games after January 31st. Second in the league was Murray State, who finished four games back of the Govs, at just 18-13, but managed their 21st straight winning season, the fourth longest streak nationally. The Racers were eliminated by upstart Tennessee State in the semifinals of the OVC in Nashville. Tenn State finished 10-10 in the conference, 15-17 overall, but knew they were ready come March because they went out and played big boys, Indiana, Illinois, a victory by two, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt. The Tigers prepared themselves for difficult contests in league play although starting out 5-12 is not always the best recipe for a successful season. Tennessee-Martin captured third in the league with a 17-16 overall record, and an 11-9 mark in league. The Skyhawks featured junior Lester Hudson who averaged 25.7 PPG and earned OVC Player of the Year in the process. Also, freshman Marques Weedle earned Freshman of the Year honors while averaging 17.1 for the Skyhawks. That 1-2 punch returns next year and figures to help the Skyhawks have the inside track to the OVC championship

2007-2008 OVC Grade: C+
The "Other" Valley Conference only managed three teams over .500 for the season, and just four over .500 in league play. Although those numbers are certainly not very gaudy, the league was difficult, especially to win on the road. Just ask Austin Peay who lost four league games all on the road to Samford, SE Missouri, Murray State and Tennessee State. When home teams manage to win games regardless of their record, I believe this proves that a conference may be on its way to having success. The Valley has a few young teams like Murray, Tenn State and Tenn Martin that can all make some noise next season; the most difficult task for these coaches is to stress to their young players how important winning in November and December is on the road against low majors to gain confidence. If these top teams learn to win on the road, and continue to improve, look out; the OVC will have at least three 20-win teams next season.