Grading the Conferences through the first two rounds

[Skinsfan]

I would like to preface this by stating that these are simply my opinions... I'm not trying to start any heated arguments here.... everyone's opinions are welcome.

ACC
7 teams made the tourny, with only 1 team making it to the sweet 16. 4 Teams were eliminated by mid majors.
Grade: D

Big East
6 Teams made the tourny, with 2 of them making it to the Sweet 16. Notre Dame was a bit of an embarrassment, losing badly to a mid major. The other 3 teams were elminated by quality teams (Kentucky, Michigan St, Texas A&M). Pitt drags the grade down a little because they blew a big lead to VCU and had to win in overtime.
Grade: C+

Big 10
6 Teams made the tourny, with 5 of them advancing to the second round. The middle tier teams had to advance by beating decent competition (Marquette, Arizona, Gonzaga). Only 1 team made it to the Sweet 16... but 3 of the other 4 lost to top notch teams (UNC, UCLA, FLA). Illinois could have easily beaten VaTech. Wisconsin really the only dissapointment, struggling against a community college and losing to UNLV. Giving the big 10 a high grade, despite only 1 team advancing, because of the level of competition they had to play.
Grade: B+ (probably would be an A had Wisconsin won)

Big 12
4 Teams made the big dance, with two advancing to the sweet 16. Texas Tech played decent against BC. Texas loss seems dissapointing, but USC certainly was underrated. Kansas advances as expected. Props to Texas A&M for beating Louisville in what amounted to a road game for A&M.
Grade: B

Pac 10
6 Teams made the tourny, with 3 making to the sweet 16. Props to USC for big win against Texas. Washington St exited 1 round early, but that game became a toss up with a very game Vandy squad. Arizona didn't look that good, and Stanford was down right embarassing. I really want to give this conference an A, but Stanford and Zona drag it down a bit...
Grade: B+

SEC
5 teams made the tourny. 3 of them advance to the sweet 16. Arkansas was the only black mark on the conference. Kentucky beat Nova and then lost to a #1 seed. Nothing wrong with that. Florida advances as expected. The big winners were Vandy and Tennessee. Very good showing for the SEC.
Grade: A

Moutain West
BYU played well against a good Xavier team, and UNLV became the lowest seed to advance to the sweet 16.
Grade: A

Colonial
Old Dominion really dropped the ball in the 2nd half.... they had a great chance to beat butler. VCU was great. They beat Duke and came back from a big deficit to challenge Pitt.
Grade: B+

Atlantic 10
GW was a joke. They never made it to the game. Props to Xavier. They beat BYU and should/could have beat Ohio State.
Grade: B-

Horizon
Butler rebounds from a disspointing finish to their season by beating ODU and Maryland. Wright state bows out as expected.
Grade: A-

MVC
Creighton had Nevada on the ropes for awhile. Southern Illinois makes the sweet 16.
Grade: B+

[joepa66]

Hey Skins....you forgot the MAC....LMAO

I agree with your assessments of the big dance....the MVC was highly underrated.....:beerbang:

[JohnnyMapleLeaf]

I'm not trying to start any heated arguments here....

GL with that. LOL.

[BUNK MORELAND]

BIG 10 gets the old

"moral Victory". Lmao

[CuseFan10]

I agree with most of those grades. What would the Big 10 grade be had Xavier won?

Notre Dame killed the Big East. Marquette and Villanova were not fully healthy, especially Marquette.

The Big winners are the Pac 10 and SEC, IMO. Vandy and Tennessee have played great, and USC overcame everyone's blind love of Texas and Kevin Durant to move on.

All in all, I would have to say the ACC took the biggest hit losing to so many Mid Majors. The Big East nor Big 10 were overly impressive either, but the Big 10 managed to win a lot of game and the Big East still has 2 teams alive so they failed for opposite reasons. The Big 12 gets props for A&M winning that "road" game, but loses points for the embarrassment that was Texas yesterday, and the fact that if you watched Texas Tech play, there was never a doubt in your mind they weren't winning. Their defense was a sieve for 40 minutes.

[GamblinMan03]

First off I agree with your assessment on the ACC. They were horrible but why give them a D because they lost to 4 mid majors. Lets face it, they lost to 4 better teams. I dont think we can sit here and call teams like Butler, UNLV, VCU and Southern Illinois mid majors anymore. We have seen what CAA teams have done in the tournament, UNLV is a damn good team and So. Illinois is here every year and has been one of the best 16 teams all season long.

I dont understand how you can give the Big 10 a B+. They have one Sweet 16 team and even they were a free throw away from losing to Xavier. You shouldnt get a B+ as a moral grade because they went 1-5 in the round of 32, where the competition is much stronger.

Pac 10 and the SEC were the best. Both conferences really looked like top quality teams. I think we all knew Arizona and Stanford sucked, I dont think anyone is surprised by their early exits.

Good assessment though.

[Mr. Pink]

Watch out for the Pac-10 to make some more noise in this Tourny, I can see Oregon and UCLA dominating.

[teebee34]

I would agree with most of your assessments here. Think you are a little generous with the Big 10 rating, I don't believe they deserve a B+. I think the Big 10 and Big East were fairly even here although you scoer one a B+ and one a C+. You bring the Big East down a bit cause of an OT win by Pitt to VCU. Well it took OT for the Buckeyes as well and the Big East has 2 teams in the sweet 16 versus the Big 10 having a lone survivor.

Definitely thought SEC and PAC 10 were the best

[Skinsfan]

I can see your points on the Big 10... I guess my rationale was that 3 of their teams were eliminated by a 1 or 2 seed, and they all played much better than expect against them (especially michigan state).... just my opinion though...

[HiPockets]

WTF... ACC graded a D? Other than UNC, which ACC team did you have making the 16? I look over my bracket picks and find none. ACC got seven cause they were deserved. Skins, are your ratings based on realized expectations or just shifty logic based on seed pairs? "Illinois could have easily beaten VT?" Freak that. Pigs could easily fly if they had wings. All your teams graded A/B except East and ACC ; nice patronizing generosity in a simple ACC bash post. UNC has a tough game vs USC but I hope they get a crack at the mighty Hoyas.

[ncsucharlie]

warning: HOMER COMMENT TO FOLLOW

NCSU gonna bring that ACC grade up next year!

:sm:

[Skinsfan]

WTF... ACC graded a D? Other than UNC, which ACC team did you have making the 16? I look over my bracket picks and find none. ACC got seven cause they were deserved. Skins, are your ratings based on realized expectations or just shifty logic based on seed pairs? "Illinois could have easily beaten VT?" Freak that. Pigs could easily fly if they had wings. All your teams graded A/B except East and ACC ; nice patronizing generosity in a simple ACC bash post. UNC has a tough game vs USC but I hope they get a crack at the mighty Hoyas.

Give me a freaking break dude.... I was being honest and objective. Did you actually WATCH the illinois/vatech game? Perhaps I'm losing my memory.... but I could have sworn Illinois controlled almost the whole game and gave it away at the end. Not really sure where the flying pigs comment comes in.... but they were certainly flapping their wings until the last minute of the game.... nice try revising history....

Not once in my post did I say the ACC didn't deserve 7. Where did I say that? As far as advancing to the sweet 16.... dude, Maryland, Virginia, and Virginia Tech had a "relatively" easy path to the sweet sixteen... and they blew it. I had all 3 of those in my sweet sixteen bracket. I was being very honest about the big east as well. If you honestly think the acc or big east did as well in the tournament as the pac 10 or sec.... well, then you're ******* dilusional. If you don't believe me, maybe you should just tune in to ESPN.... they're saying the same damn things....

Have a good night.

[HiPockets]

Skins, I respect your passion and "sweet sixteen" picks but you had me at "Marylad, Virginia, and Va Tech had 'relatively' (sic) easy paths to the Sweet Sixteen". Sorry you lost on your ACC picks. Join my 0-6 Saturday losers club. All good hoops fun friend.

[GamblinMan03]

Maryland, VTech and Virginia had easy paths to the sweet 16? I did not have one of those teams in the sweet 16 mainly because they had a tough path. Maryland was to inconsistent this year to win back-to-back games. UVA wasnt going to keep up with Tennessee as they faded down the stretch and VTech was a horrible matchup with So. Illinois.

Im in ACC guy but an easy path? Not even close

[FlyersFan]

My 2 cents on a couple things.....

(A) all i heard this year from a few people was how the ACC was the best conference in basketball. It was like that horror movie with mel brooks where he is locked in the car and the radio is blasting and he can't get out or turn the radio down.......meeeeeeep, meeeeeeep, meeeeeep, meeeeeeep....that is the sound of all the backpeddling that goes on at this site. Example.... Now all of a sudden the ACC didn't have anyone worthy of the sweet 16?...huh......this is what kills me.....if your conference is so great from top to bottom, wouldn't you think a couple teams might make the sweet 16? So i guess what you are really saying is you just argued for the ACC all year for the sake of running it. Maryland vs. Butler, UVA vs. Tennessee, VTech vs. SIU, Duke vs. VCU......all of a sudden the ACC isn't the better teams in those matchups? I don't want to hear ANYTHING next year about the ACC deserving 8 teams or so if you are going to show up and tell me that they aren't the better teams in those matchups. The ACC performed miserably this year. You didn't win a single TOSS UP game except for the VTech miracle. I agree with Skins, i think a D was generous.

Big10.......Wisky lost a very key player....lets not forget that. But, they are a typical big10 team who tries to win 40-38 in the tourney and that won't cut it. On the whole, i think the big10 showed right about what it should have. They went 5-1 in the first round and were the lower seed in 3 of the 6 matchups and were only a 7 seed in the other, so it's not like they got a bunch of free wins from 2 and 3 seeds. Wisky was a disappointment, but Purdue played FLA VERY tough, MSU played UNC VERY tough and IU/UCLA was just unwatchable. OSU probably should have lost, but so should UCLA the year Tyus edney went 94 feet in 4 seconds to win it at the buzzer in the 2nd round of the tourney the year they won it all in '95. Good teams find a way to win somehow. We'll see how OSU does from here on out.