2020-21 College Basketball thread

Big Ten hasn't won a title in 21 years, also a fading conference.

 

I'm sure I overreacted a bit in the moment by saying I'm not sure Gonzaga will ever win a title. I've also spent the year saying if Gonzaga doesn't do it this year, I don't know when they will. Handicapping in a COVID year was extremely difficult. Everyone completely overrated the Big Ten and completely underrated the Pac 12 all year long and that was borne out in the tournament. Gonzaga steamrolled pretty much everyone in front of them, and Baylor had a post COVID pause blip that probably threw some off the scent. There was nothing fluky about Monday. Baylor beat dat ass convincingly. It was never a game. I remember the cameras panning to Few, and he almost had a glassy-eyed look at times, like he a) couldn't believe it was happening and b) couldn't do anything about it. It was mentioned earlier in this thread that Gonzaga was missing a big, rim protecting type in the middle and it seems they'll be getting at least one next year if Chet Holmgren signs and/or Walker Kessler heads to Spokane. Just looking forward to (hopefully) a normal year with a normal schedule flow in 21-22.

 

The Big West during Tark's UNLV title run was not a slouch, like the current WCC non-gonzaga teams. UCSB and New Mexico State won NCAA tournament games in that era. New Mexico State went to the Sweet 16 in 1992.

 

Big West games were an enjoyable watch especially during the third game of Big Monday.

ESPN shit the bed when it ended that.

 

We could spend a day on ESPN bed shittings.

 

Somewhere in there Pacific made a Sweet 16 under Bob Thomason.

St. Mary's has been decent most years of Gonzaga's run, BYU too since it joined the WCC. Santa Clara beat Arizona in a 15-2, but that was a long, long time ago now.

 

UConn won its most recent title while a member of the AAC, but most of the players were recruited while the school was in the Big East. So that's a tough one for accounting purposes.

 

I covered that game, 1993, at Utah. Santa Clara's best guy (Pete Eisenrich) might have been No. 7 in Arizona's rotation. Arizona was justifiably criticized. The next year, when Arizona reached the Final Four, Lute Olson spent his entire postgame news conference berating the media for the way it treated his precious youngsters the previous year.

I covered the WCC when Gonzaga was coached by Dan Fitzgerald, a bombastic character who stomped the sidelines. It was probably an act. He wanted it to be a sleepy little league where everybody got along and nobody made waves. I think his dream was for everybody to finish 7-7 and all the games were 55-51. He hated it when some better players transferred in from bigger schools and he was highly critical when the guys left USC and UCLA (Corey Gaines, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Tom Lewis, Jeffty Connolly, Zan Mason) and wound up at Pepperdine, LMU and Santa Clara.
Fitzgerald was later implicated in maintaining a secret slush fund tied into recruiting money. Charges were dropped when the NCAA ruled that the amount of money they were dealing with was less than regulations allow. Something like that.

 

attn: @poindexter @BitterYoungMatador2 @Mngwa

 

Wasn't Steve Nash on that Santa Clara team?

 

Nash was an unknown freshman -- 8.1 ppg, 2.2 agp, 24 minutes.
Lots of freshmen got playing time in that league because of no depth. Eric Spoelstra was WCC Freshman of the Year at Portland just because his team was no good and he got to play a lot. He wasn't very good.

 

Randy Winn, who had a decent MLB career, was on that Santa Clara team too, no?