My conclusions?

 

Clearly, the ACC has been the best conference in basketball over the last two decades. North Carolina & Duke have been absolutely dominant. Everybody else (not counting a two or three year Maryland run), not so much. But you can't discount how both of those programs have been consistently good for 20+ years. I think hands down the two best programs.

 

I still say the Big East is next. UCONN has been the flagship program of the conference. Curious to see what happens to them with all this realignment. Hit a dry spell in the 90's, but have come back pretty strong thanks mostly to Calhoun & company, but also to Syracuse being consistently solid.

 

I firmly believe the SEC is #3. Jim is right, in that the teams do tend to go on runs. Arkansas had a stretch in the 90's, as did UK. Interestingly, I forgot how good Alabama was during that same time span. Florida has been the best team in the 2000's. But the conference puts up its best numbers when Kentucky is good.

 

The Big 10 would go next, and you have Michigan State to thank for that. Their 90's numbers get a lift from Michigan's two-year run. The numbers that most astound me belong to the Big 10...15 Final Fours during this time span & only one national championship. That's crazy.

 

The Big 12 is coming on of late, and they hang their hat solely on Kansas. They're not a lot different from the SEC, except that no one other than KU can win a title. And even then it takes a John Calipari coached team's choke job from the free throw line.

 

The Pac-10 is what it is. Pretty bad. Although, in the years when a Pac-10 team wins the championship, the entire conference is good. With the exception of 1995, Arizona is the Pac-10.

I agree, if Petrino, Rich Rod, and Kelly never left their teams, the Big East would have been very competitive. If not for a fluke loss to Pitt a few seasons back, I believe that West Virginia could have won the national title.

 

What year was that? And what SEC team do you think they would have beat that year?

What year was that? And what SEC team do you think they would have beat that year?

That would have been the year LSU won the title over tOSU.

Not debating conferences.

 

 

If he wants to get Louisville and UNC as 1 home and 1 away, that is ok with me. He clearly doesn't though, he doesn't want to play one of those....and I'm guessing its UL deep down inside.

Roy Williams On the Kentucky-North Carolina series continuing…

“I’ve been asked this question a lot and I’m sure Cal has been asked it a thousand times more than I have, I love these kind of series but everyone has to understand the landscape of college basketball is changing. We’re sitting here at 16 conference games and maybe the next year we’ll be at 19, who knows. I love games like this but North Carolina and Kentucky didn’t play for about eight or nine of ten years, I wasn’t at North Carolina at that time but both schools survived. Am I interested in continuing to play Kentucky? Yes. Am I interested in making a concrete statement up here? No. John and I should have an opportunity to talk about that and see what else we have on the schedule and I think that’s what John has been eluding to this week, I think he has more questions about it then I do. Regardless of what the Kentucky fans say about who they’d like to get rid of we have to save this thing too, it’s a two-way street kind of thing.”

 

Someone fell asleep at the editing wheel. If Calipari had in fact been "eluding to", he'd have been avoiding the topic. :lol: Plus, "eluding" is a verb. I suspect that Calipari was actually "alluding" to.

Someone fell asleep at the editing wheel. If Calipari had in fact been "eluding to", he'd have been avoiding the topic. :lol: Plus, "eluding" is a verb. I suspect that Calipari was actually "alluding" to.

 

My biggest pet peeve is word misuse and grammatical incoherence in publications. It happens most often in forum/facebook/twitter sightings. Anyway, "alluding" is also a verb, if you were implying it's not. All must be held accountable! :lol:

Not debating conferences.

 

 

If he wants to get Louisville and UNC as 1 home and 1 away, that is ok with me. He clearly doesn't though, he doesn't want to play one of those....and I'm guessing its UL deep down inside.

 

Why would he not want to play UofL? That makes no sense.

 

He's said that he doesn't like that they have both either at home or on the road in the same season.

Not debating conferences.

 

 

If he wants to get Louisville and UNC as 1 home and 1 away, that is ok with me. He clearly doesn't though, he doesn't want to play one of those....and I'm guessing its UL deep down inside.

 

They're going to do away with UNC in my opinion...at least for a year or two. With the conference expansion next year, UK is going to lose a home game b/c both UL & UNC are on the road. UNC will be done away with & UK will start a new home & home with an upper-tier program (my guess is Texas...for recruiting purposes). They'll play the first one in Lexington so the program doesn't lose any revenue. That's what this whole thing is about: revenue. UK needs another home game next year, but will have to sacrifice UNC to get it.

 

No way UL gets taken off the schedule.

Someone fell asleep at the editing wheel. If Calipari had in fact been "eluding to", he'd have been avoiding the topic. :lol: Plus, "eluding" is a verb. I suspect that Calipari was actually "alluding" to.

 

My struggle has always been with effect and affect. I'm somewhat of a stickler with grammar and spelling & I hate it when I make mistakes.

 

Biggest pet peeve is when people will say, "I should of known better." Or, "I could of gone to the game but had other obligations." Drives me crazy.

If not for a fluke loss to Pitt a few seasons back, I believe that West Virginia could have won the national title.

 

What year was that? And what SEC team do you think they would have beat that year?

 

That would have been the year LSU won the title over tOSU.

 

If West Virginia had defeated Pittsburgh, they wouldn't have played an SEC team in the BCS Championship Game. The Mountaineers would have played Ohio State. If I'm not mistaken, LSU went from somewhere around #7 to #2 over the last weekend of the season. The Tigers don't make that jump if West Virginia takes care of business.

 

And I agree, that West Virginia team probably would have beat Ohio State.

My struggle has always been with effect and affect. I'm somewhat of a stickler with grammar and spelling & I hate it when I make mistakes.

 

Biggest pet peeve is when people will say, "I should of known better." Or, "I could of gone to the game but had other obligations." Drives me crazy.

 

Another fave of mine: "imput."

Another fave of mine: "imput."

 

People really say that?

 

Wow.

Why would he not want to play UofL? That makes no sense.

 

He's said that he doesn't like that they have both either at home or on the road in the same season.

 

Probably alluding to the fact that Coach Cal doesn't care for Pitino. But I think him wanting to get rid of Louisville is further from the truth. He knows how much that rivalry means to UK fans, and college bball fans in the Commonwealth, both red and blue. I think that would be the last one he would want to get rid of, putting his personal feelings aside.

As some have mentioned, I too thought it had more to do with money. If they have to add conference games, that's going to cut into the "cupcake" games that are guaranteed to be at home year in and year out. With Rupp sold out nearly every game though, it's hard to believe losing a home game or two every year or every other year would be too difficult to swallow. Budgets are tight, I guess, even in college athletics.

Link

 

Really? Calipari's team plays in the sinfully awful SEC, and he is worried about the schedule being too tough? If anything, UK should do what UofL used to do in the Metro and C-USA days and play whoever, whenever, wherever.

 

Doesn't look like Ricky P's buying into the old Denny Crum philosophy?? This year looks more like the Huggins/Cronin UC pre-conference schedules (ie: Let's make sure we get a quick 10 wins which hopefully insures 20 on the season)?