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.
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