Write On Sports LLC - "Breaking Down Conference Performances" by Troy Somero

Breaking Down Conference Performances

2007-03-19 15:44:37 | By: Troy Somero

After four days of play, the 2007 Men's NCAA Tournament has been surprisingly average. The largest seed differential in any upset has been five, and this five-seed upset has only occurred three times: VCU (11) over Duke (6) and Winthrop (11) over Notre Dame (6) in the first round, and UNLV (7) over Wisconsin (2) in the second round. Only a few mid-major teams have made any great noise in the Tournament as of Sunday night, and the teams that have made this great noise are the teams that were expected to do so: Butler, out of the Horizon Conference, Southern Illinois, our of the Missouri Valley Conference, and Memphis, out of Conference USA. The only Cinderella left in the Tournament appears to be UNLV out of the Mountain West Conference, but UNLV's Cinderella status pales in comparison to the Cinderella that emerge in late March on year ago: eleventh-seeded George Mason out of the relatively unknown Colonial Athletic Association.

With all of these point stated, perhaps the biggest surprise in the Tournament after the first two rounds is the success of the two most enigmatic power conferences from the regular season (the SEC and Pacific Ten). At the same time, the disappointing performances of the ACC and the Big Ten have also stood out to the educated college basketball fan.

Thus, the few hours on Sunday night after the first two rounds of the Tournament are the best time of the weekend to take a deeper look into the degree of success that each power and mid-major conference has had to this point in the Big Dance.

Atlantic Coast Conference (6-6)

The ACC has been the most disappointing power conference in the Tournament to this point. While announcers and writers wax poetic about the talent and coaching in the ACC week-in and week-out, the true grit and skill of the conference came to fruition this past weekend. Were it not for top-seeded North Carolina, the ACC would be 4-6 in the Tournament at this moment with no teams in the Sweet Sixteen. Maryland struggled at times against a solid yet undersized Davidson team, only to lose in the second round to a Butler team that showed that it deserved Maryland's four seed instead of a five seed. Georgia Tech and Duke exhibited horrible decision-making down the stretch of their games, losing in the first round to mid-majors in UNLV and VCU. Boston College, Virginia and Virginia Tech all were victorious in very tight first-round games to lower-seeded teams but all three teams fell in the second round. For all of the hype that the ACC received this season, the list of teams that were victorious over ACC losers - Butler, UNLV, VCU, Georgetown, Tennessee, and Southern Illinois - is much less flattering than Billy Packer and Dick Vitale would like because it includes four mid-majors.

Atlantic 10 (1-2)

The A-10 performed slightly above expectations this past weekend despite the 1-2 record. George Washington, the eleventh seed which qualified via automatic bid, was completely blown out by Vanderbilt on Thursday by a 77-44 margin. The saving grace for the conference, however, was Xavier. Had Muskateers forward Justin Cage made his second free throw attempt at the end of regulation on Saturday, Xavier would have entered the Sweet Sixteen with wins over BYU and Ohio State. Even though Xavier lost in overtime to the Buckeyes, the mid-major squad put the words of its critics to rest with a great performance against the Tournament's second highest seed.

Big East (5-4)

Perhaps no conference fit its stereotype (major conference with a mediocre year) better this weekend than the Big East. The conference obtained six bids in the Tournament, with the conference's representatives' performances ranging from the very impressive (Georgetown and Pittsburgh) to the solid ( Louisville, Villanova) to the horrendous (Marquette, Notre Dame). Many experts have tabbed Georgetown as a Final Four favorite and the Hoyas proved that they deserved this acclaim with two solid games against Belmont and BC. On the other hand, Marquette was absolutely destroyed by Michigan State, as the game was much more of a mismatch than the 61-49 final score indicates. The conference held its own this weekend, but one of the two remaining conference representatives will need to advance to the Final Four for the Tournament to be deemed a success for the NCAA's largest conference.

Big Ten (6-5)

Many people were surprised when the Big Ten garnered six bid to the Big Dance this month. It is highly likely that these same people were not surprised with the relatively disappointing performance of the conference as a whole. No team in the Tournament personified the Big Ten's bigger-bark-than-bite season better than Wisconsin. The Badgers were ranked at the top of the AP Poll in early March, only to see their season end with a sub-par performance against fifteenth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and a loss on Sunday to a UNLV team that led almost the entire game. Other than Purdue - which impressively controlled the tempo in both its first-round victory over Arizona and its second-round loss to Florida - and Ohio State, the other Big Ten teams in the Tournament were for the most part unexciting and disappointing. Unless Ohio State can march to Atlanta, most college basketball experts will have an uninspiring impression of the conference throughout the off-season.

Big 12 (5-2)

The Big 12's collective postseason performance has been extremely emblematic of the entire conference season. The conference had three elite teams (Kansas, Texas A&M, Texas), several also-rans (highlighted by the questionable at-large profile of Texas Tech), and a number of bottom-dwellers who made relatively little impact inside or outside of the conference during the regular season. Only two teams from the Big 12 remain in the Tournament as of Sunday, and it is no surprise that they were the two truly dominant teams in the conference during the 2006-07 campaign: Kansasand Texas A&M. Texas was in control for most of the game in the first round against New Mexico State, but youth and inexperience shined through in the Longhorns' loss to USC on Sunday. The only other Big 12 representative to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament - Texas Tech - fell apart late in its game against BC. The public opinion of the Big 12 will only be as positive as the performances by Kansas and A&M in the next couple rounds: a solid performance will overshadow the weak bottom half of the league as a whole, while a weak performance will bring the latter half's plight to the light of the public eye.

Colonial Athletic Association (1-2)

Despite the collective under .500 record by its participants in the Tournament, the Colonial maintained its position as one of the strongest mid-majors thanks to the efforts of VCU and Old Dominion. As anyone who turned on a television this weekend knows, VCU played David to Duke's Goliath, sling-shooting its way to a second-round appearance after exciting guard Eric Maynor hit a buzzer-beater to knock off the Blue Devils 79-77 on Thursday night. Then, two days later, VCU came back late against Pittsburgh and extended the game to overtime before ultimately falling to the Big East power. At the same time, Old Dominion put up a valiant effort over a much more experienced and seasoned Butler squad, keeping the game much closer than the 57-46 score indicates. Although neither Colonial team was able to recreate the magic that George Mason produced one year ago, the efforts of VCU and Old Dominion ensured that the conference's Tournament success was not a one-year wonder.

Horizon League (2-1)

When Butler received a fifth seed last Sunday there were two common reactions. On one hand, those people with a pro-major conference bias stated that Butler did not deserve such a high seed because it had not beaten anyone of note since the end of 2006 and because it did not even win its own conference (that distinction went to Wright State, which won the Horizon regular season and tournament crowns before losing in the first round of the NCAAs to Pittsburgh). On the other hand, those people who are sympathetic towards mid-major conferences believed that Butler deserved a higher seed than the fifth seed that the Bulldogs garnered. The latter thinkers were proven correct this weekend as Butler knocked off Maryland, one of the hottest teams coming into the Tournament, in the second round to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Butler may not be flashy but the team is well-coached and will certainly cause fits for Florida on Friday night. The public opinion of the Horizon is only as positive as the public opinion of Butler, and right now it appears as if the Horizon is having an awfully good postseason.

Missouri Valley Conference (2-1)

Fans of the Horizon can sympathize with fans of the MVC, as both conferences contain strong mid-major programs that are often doubted by the college basketball fan base at large. With that said, the MVC spread its wings just as effectively this past weekend as the Horizon did thanks to the efforts of Southern Illinois and Creighton. While Creighton was knocked off in the first round of the Tournament by another mid-major (Nevada) after winning its conference tournament, Southern Illinois had the strongest performance out of any mid-major to this point in the Big Dance. After a double-digit victory over a pesky Holy Cross team Friday night, the Salukis dominated ACC representative Virginia Tech to the tune of a 63-48 victory on Sunday. No team left in the Tournament plays defense better than Southern Illinois, and the fact that the Salukis will be playing this defense against Kansas this coming Thursday indicates just how strong of a tournament the MVC is having thanks to its top dogs.

Mountain West Conference (2-1)

Playing the role of Butler and Southern Illinois in the MVC is UNLV, a team that last made the Sweet Sixteen in 1991 when Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony were still in college playing for the Runnin' Rebels. While MWC Regular Season Champion BYU fell in the first round to Xavier, the most popular story of the Tournament as of Sunday night is the story of UNLV. The team, which finished the conference season with an RPI in the teens, was peeved last weekend to receive an unexpected seven seed. UNLV came into the Tournament with a chip on its shoulder the size of the MWC and took this anger out on the ACC (Georgia Tech) and the Big Ten (Wisconsin). With the way the Rebels are playing (and the way Lon Kruger is coaching), it is not a stretch to state that the Pac 10 (Oregon) could be the next head on the mantle of the Mountain West's best team.

Pacific 10 (7-3)

If the SEC has been the most surprising conference in this year's Tournament, then the Pac 10 has been the most impressive conference in terms of its preparedness and execution. Between Oregon executing a nearly perfect second half against Winthrop on Sunday, UCLA breezing through both of the weekend's games with relative ease, and USC beating Arkansas and Texas by a combined 36 points, the entire idea of "East Coast bias" has been torn to shreds over the last four days. In fact, the only Pac 10 team that was played worse than most experts thought that it would perform was a Stanford squad that was buzz-sawed by Texas A&M on Thursday. The talent is impressive (see UCLA), the coaching has been phenomenal (see USC) and the tenacity is very apparent (see Oregon). Once the casual fan looks past perennial Pac 10 power (yet constant tournament underperformer) Arizona, the three remaining Pac 10 teams appear willing and able to make an even deeper run in the coming weeks.

Southeastern Conference (7-2)

Read that again: the SEC is 7-2 in this year's NCAA Tournament as of Sunday night. 7-2! The only losses that the conference has sustained are a first-round loss by twelfth-seeded Arkansas (much to the pleasure of Bruiser Flint and Jim Beoheim) and Kentucky's loss to a top-seeded Kansas team that is playing the best basketball in the Tournament right now. The other three SEC teams look nothing short of amazing, as Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have eliminated teams from the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac 10. That list does not even include Kentucky's first-round victory over Villanova out of the Big East. Thus, the regular season's most-maligned major conference has turned into the postseason's most impressive major conference. While Florida looks every bit as good as the Florida squad that won the National Championship last year, Tennessee and Vanderbilt might be playing better basketball right now than the Gators. This is not good news for North Carolina or Georgetown, their respective opponents in the Sweet Sixteen.

Western Athletic Conference (1-2)

While most of the mid-major conferences have exceeded expectations in 2007's postseason, the WAC is the exception to this theme. The WAC's only win in the Tournament was seventh-seeded Nevada's overtime victory over Creighton in the first-round, which in hindsight is not that impressive considering most people believe Nevada was a top ten team in the regular season that should have been seeded much higher than seventh. This Selection Committee criticism was put to rest on Sunday when Nevada lost to an underrated yet not overly impressive Memphis team. This disappointing second-round dismissal, when coupled by the fact that WAC member and first-round loser New Mexico State was widely believed to be the best thirteen seed in the Tournament, has left a sour taste in the mouths of WAC enthusiasts. Other than Reggie Theus and Nick Fazekas, there are no lasting memories of the WAC in the mind of the average fan, and this fact does not bode well for people who might want the WAC to be included in the same class as the MVC and MWC.