NCAA tournament 2011 — running thread

The list of the past 20 ACC players of the year also includes a lot of non-NBA All-Stars. Being a great college player doesn't mean you are going to be a great pro. Most of the guys on that Big Ten list were damn good college players.

 

I'm guessing he didn't see him play either:

 

When you play a 30-35 game season with a 16-plus game conference schedule, and post season conference tournament, pre season rankings are meaningless. This isn't the BCS we're talking about. Tell me one team that got to the sweet 16 this year, or even the tournament because of their ranking.

 

They don't. You must not follow the NCAA, or you are trying to throw some bait out there.

 

Thanks. I always mix up Cleveland State's conference. Always link them with the Mid-Continent, which of course is the Summit. Were they ever in the Mid-Con?

 

Yes, CSU was there when it went to the Sweet 16 in the 80s. The Mid-Con was a great mid-major in its heyday .. Cleveland State, Spoonhauer's Southwest Missouri State (Missouri State) teams, Northern Iowa, Dick Bennett's UW-Green Bay teams, Northern Illinois. Valpo was the doormat of the league until most left for the MCC/Horizon in 1994.

 

What I liked about the Mid-Continent was the logo that was dated even when it was new in the '80s:



Sure, let's use a rainbow of Cubs colors that looks as if it was designed by a third-grader. What's the worst that could happen?!

 

CAA teams are who we thought they were. It's that 99 percent of the teams in the major conferences are only slightly better than (and I'm not so sure they actually are) the Mid Major squads. It's not that the CAA teams are underestimated. It's that the major conferences are overrated.

In the round of 32, Mid Majors were 3-3 and the big schools were 13-13. I think I got that right.

 

Your last line is almost meaningless. Most majors played each other, so the win-loss outcome of those games would, of course, be 1-1.

Head-to-head, VCU beat Purdue. I assume (although I don't care because this argument is pointless) you have BYU and Gonzaga as mid-majors, so that one would be 1-1. Same with Richmond and Morehead St. So the mid-majors can't be 3-3 if you have Butler and San Diego St. in that group.

 

My point wasn't that CAA teams were or or were not who we/you thought they were, but that there is at least one great player in the CAA (Charles Jenkins of Hofstra) who could play with absolutely anybody in the country and who will probably become the CAAs third straight first-round pick in June. Gutter pointed out Norris Cole, the great player in the Horizon. There are great players in every league. Just tougher for those guys in the mid-major leagues to carry a team full of spare parts to the promised land.

 

But before the NBA picked players out of college before their coffee was cold, the Big East, Pac 10, ACC and all the others were loaded with future pros. That is not the case now for some of those major conferences.

And Martin, if you still think the big conferences are that superior, Butler literally came about this close l--------------------------------------------l to winning it all last year.

 

Continuing the tradition of mid-majors playing in the title game.