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.