ADVERTISEMENT

"Is the SEC Really the Best Conference This Year?"

I think they probably lack elite teams (as of right now at least). Depth wise they are as good as anyone though.
 
I actually like the parity. I think it's good for the sport, maybe not $ wise, but for fan interest.
 
Hard to say no elite teams yet. Have 2-3 that have shown glimpses of being Final Four teams.

Florida f’d the conference with that 3 game skid in December.
 
Hard to say no elite teams yet. Have 2-3 that have shown glimpses of being Final Four teams.

Florida f’d the conference with that 3 game skid in December.

Final Four runs are crap shoots. Some random team from the CAA could make the Final Four.

Being an elite team is more objectively defined by advanced metrics and consistency on the eye test. There’s not really any SEC team that really meets that criteria, and the one that comes closest—Auburn—didn’t play anything remotely resembling a great team in the OOC.

Auburn and their pathetic OOC is what effed the SEC.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bignish
Hard to say no elite teams yet. Have 2-3 that have shown glimpses of being Final Four teams.

Florida f’d the conference with that 3 game skid in December.

Right, that's why I said as of right now. So I think it is fair to say no elite teams yet. It is certainly not fair to say there can't be some teams that step up though. I think Florida and UK could both potentially be up there with the top teams in other leagues. They aren't yet though. It is just a league that is good throughout.
 
So after the SEC commissioner brought up the importance of basketball, soon later, the SEC is being brought up as the best conference.

Coaching changes, more top 100 recruits than any other, and better OOC schedule has done wonders for the conference.
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.
So FF is the measurement? USC was a final four last year. UK 4 of the past 8.

Anyway, we'll see how this years tournament checks out and if anyone dismisses your criteria at the end of the season.
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.
You can predict the Final Four participants 2 months before it happens? I need to call you before I bet!! SmokinSmile Each of the past 5 seasons there has been a #7 seed or worse in the Final Four. Hell, in 2014 a #7 and #8 played for the national championship.

Look at it this way. How many people said the ACC was far and away the best conference last season? Then 8 of the 9 teams that made the tournament got bounced in the second round or before. The SEC had the same amount of tournament wins with 4 fewer teams. Do you think the ACC was still the best conference? I do, but UNC proved to be the only team worth a shart in the tourney. See my point?

If not, the point is everything is subjective. If you took the time to read the article the author addressed all that. It was actually a pretty good article. Still trying to figure out why he wrote it though... as he is typically the guy that covers football and football recruiting for Cats Illustrated. Laughing
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.
Lol, says the fan of an alleged "final four" team from last season that couldn't even make it out of the first weekend in the tourney due to season ended by an actual final four SEC team.
 
I think it’s clear that the SEC needs, more so than any other program, player or coach, needs Bruce Pearl.
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.

No final 4 teams? Forgot we had a nostradumbass here.
 
You can't be called the "best conference" when you don't have a single Final 4 squad.

The Big 10 and ACC are much better.
But when UK and Florida are elite title contenders, the opposite logic is applied. It's just that people like you with an agenda don' ever want to give credit
 
You can predict the Final Four participants 2 months before it happens? I need to call you before I bet!! SmokinSmile Each of the past 5 seasons there has been a #7 seed or worse in the Final Four. Hell, in 2014 a #7 and #8 played for the national championship.

Look at it this way. How many people said the ACC was far and away the best conference last season? Then 8 of the 9 teams that made the tournament got bounced in the second round or before. The SEC had the same amount of tournament wins with 4 fewer teams. Do you think the ACC was still the best conference? I do, but UNC proved to be the only team worth a shart in the tourney. See my point?

If not, the point is everything is subjective. If you took the time to read the article the author addressed all that. It was actually a pretty good article. Still trying to figure out why he wrote it though... as he is typically the guy that covers football and football recruiting for Cats Illustrated. Laughing
Kevin, given the variance that occurs in a single elimination 64 team tournament based on seedings/matchups, who actually ends up making the Final 4 to me doesn't matter.

I still think the ACC was the better conference last year. We just had a rough go of it in the Big Dance but the advanced statistics show that the ACC was superior than the SEC last year. We had 5 top 5 seeds while the SEC only had 2: UK and Florida.

You can't be results oriented in this stuff. Predictive analysis would have suggested that if we ran a thousand simulations of last year's tournament, the ACC would have done better than the SEC more times than not.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GE Nole
Final Four runs are crap shoots. Some random team from the CAA could make the Final Four.

Being an elite team is more objectively defined by advanced metrics and consistency on the eye test. There’s not really any SEC team that really meets that criteria, and the one that comes closest—Auburn—didn’t play anything remotely resembling a great team in the OOC.

Auburn and their pathetic OOC is what effed the SEC.

Auburn was playing a schedule that would be good enough to get us IN the NCAAT. We weren't planning on competing for the league title or being a top 4 seed. This is a program that would've absolutely taken a First Four invite before the season started. That's how desperate we've been just to get into the tournament. So Bruce scheduled some solid mid-major teams and got a few neutral site and road games against mediocre competition because that would've made our RPI good enough to get in on the bubble. Plus, if we had scheduled a really tough OOC slate, Auburn likely isn't in this position. A lot of this run was built on the confidence this team got from beating some decent but not great competition.

No one should be counting on Auburn's OOC strength to lift this conference up. Maybe next year, if Bruce is still here and the team stays in tact, the SEC can count on Auburn.
 
Wait, didn't you just say;



o_O
I meant being a Final 4 caliber team based on Sagarin, KenPom, RPI and BPI. Obviously Final 4 caliber teams can get upset early in the Big Dance but that's just the nature of the beast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GE Nole
Auburn was playing a schedule that would be good enough to get us IN the NCAAT. We weren't planning on competing for the league title or being a top 4 seed. This is a program that would've absolutely taken a First Four invite before the season started. That's how desperate we've been just to get into the tournament. So Bruce scheduled some solid mid-major teams and got a few neutral site and road games against mediocre competition because that would've made our RPI good enough to get in on the bubble. Plus, if we had scheduled a really tough OOC slate, Auburn likely isn't in this position. A lot of this run was built on the confidence this team got from beating some decent but not great competition.

No one should be counting on Auburn's OOC strength to lift this conference up. Maybe next year, if Bruce is still here and the team stays in tact, the SEC can count on Auburn.

I'm not hating on Auburn. Heck, FSU has an awful OOC SOS too. It's my biggest complaint about Hamilton. It's knocking us down at least 1 or 2 seed lines right now.

But FSU isn't in first place of the ACC. Auburn's success, while a pleasant surprise, makes it hard to evaluate the SEC because Auburn didn't beat anyone of note OOC. So when you look at the top OOC wins by the league, they simply don't add to the list. And when another team in the league beats Auburn, we really don't have a comparison for it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DufnerFanBoy
I meant being a Final 4 caliber team based on Sagarin, KenPom, RPI and BPI. Obviously Final 4 caliber teams can get upset early in the Big Dance but that's just the nature of the beast.

Yeah, that's how I took your comment. The SEC has no teams that are displaying the kind of metrics or consistent eye test to be an "elite team," the kind of team that would be favored to make a deep tourney run.

As you said, the ACTUAL tourney results are a total crap shoot due to one and done nature.
 
There is no best. The shade of difference can change day to day. On any given night one team can beat another. There is no dominate conference.
8deG89Q.gif
 
I'm not hating on Auburn. Heck, FSU has an awful OOC SOS too. It's my biggest complaint about Hamilton. It's knocking us down at least 1 or 2 seed lines right now.

But FSU isn't in first place of the ACC. Auburn's success, while a pleasant surprise, makes it hard to evaluate the SEC because Auburn didn't beat anyone of note OOC. So when you look at the top OOC wins by the league, they simply don't add to the list. And when another team in the league beats Auburn, we really don't have a comparison for it.
The SEC has an 8-6 record vs the B12, won the conference meet and Auburn is steamrolling through conference play so far. Our weak OOC has done nothing to the conference.
 
ADVERTISEMENT