Just thought I'd post what I thought was a decent article from the Times-Pic yesterday on how the SEC is "down" this year. http://www.nola.com/lsu/t-p/basketball/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1138432820243320.xml I'd say generally the SEC IS probably down, although I agree that there are some positives. Overall, we're actually rated as the 4th toughest conference behind the Big East (which is absolutely crazy), Big 10 and ACC... not a surprise, but AHEAD of the Big 12 and Pac 10. We'll see also how the #s come out in a week or two. Hopefully LSU cracks the top 25, to give the SEC 3 ranked teams, and we see if Tubby can get the 'Cats together, and we hopefully see a run by Vandy (were playing FL tough until they got steam rolled in the end) or some other SEC "bubble" team, and the SEC might be able to get 6 in. Right now it's a solid 5.
Well, the thing is there is really one stark, overriding reality in college hoops: do well in the NCAA, and you get respect. The SEC has not done well for a few years, thus the national perception is what it is. With LSU and Tennessee on the rise, if UK gets its act together it is certainly possible for the SEC to field 4 tough teams and maybe another one in the NCAA. It would be nice to see a bounce back. So that article is nice, but all the words and numbers mean diddly without performance in the Big Dance.
Yeah, it is definitly down. Right now, we are probably the best team in the league. We have lost to all the teams from the other big conferences. It is obviosuly common for a couple of deserving teams to get left out of the top 25. Even if we have a 'couple' of those, we still only have 5 ranked teams. However, most of the good teams in the league are young; so i expect a vast improvement in the very near future.
Just like in football, when a team like LSU starts to move up and one of the teams like kentucky (or bama, florida, etc. in football) appears human, the league is down... I doubt anyone would have questioned the 2003 national championship if it had been bama or florida winning the bcs..
sec is better than big 12 and pac10 like you said, but also better than big10. depends how you look at it i guess, but using rpi (helluva lot better than polls) big 10 has 3 teams lower than the sec lowest (both miss teams at 114 & 115). i agree with locoguano that the sec is "down" because several "name" teams are down---uk, bama, ark. lsu, ole miss, tenn and uga are up. leagues that are top heavy look good and are talked about alot but when rpi is applied things get normalized. too bad football isnt done the same way.
doesnt mean much. they were close games. i'd bet lsu has improved more than most of those teams. i'd bet a fair amount of money on LSU if they played the 5 teams theyve lost to again.
I was just saying, assuming we are the SEC's best team, it is not good that we have lost all of our premier OOC games. Forgot about WVU...still doesnt change my mind.
sure it isnt good that lsu lost against the good ooc teams, but good showings against them (especially on the road) looks better than creaming directional schools. also, dont forget how much the committee values improvement and the last 10 games.
