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Kansas picked up it's 10th straight Big XII conference championship last night. Amazing streak...
With all the coaching changes & one's and done's in college now I don't think we'll ever see a school win 10 straight conference championships again at the D-1 level. There's a couple in the division 3 ranks, who are going on 5 or 6 straight years, but since they have guys that stick around for all 4 years, and coaches for the most part of lifers, it's actually pretty easy to build mini dynasties. But the Kansas streak is really impressive.
If Duke can't pay 4 games in a week they will have a tough time in the tournament, not sure how they retain their #5 ranking with 5 losses then again it's Duke.
They played 3 high emotion games.
Feb 15th - Last time playing Maryland who is Duke's 2nd biggest rival. It went to the wire.
Feb 18th - GT...easy win, but still had to play
Feb 20th - UNC...perhaps the biggest rivalry game in all of sports
Feb 22nd - SYR...ranked #1 and already a pretty good rivalry considering how the games have played out.
These games are just about on par with NCAA tournament games.
Not to take anything away from Kansas but I believe they somewhat benefit from a lack of consistently elite competition for the conference championship.
Big East - Syracuse, UCONN, Louisville, Georgetown
ACC - Duke/UNC
Big Ten - Michigan, OSU, MSU, Indiana
If I'm not mistaken, in the last 10 or so years, Kansas is the only Big 12 team to make it past the Elite 8.
They may not be facing elite level teams every night(I don't think any team does that) but this years conference championship may be the most impressive. 7 of the 10 teams may be making the tournament. Before Baylor lost last night I think Lunardi had 7 big twelve teams in.
Kansas, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Texas are almost certainly locks for the NCAA tournament, and the Kansas State (19-9, 9-6) is also a fairly safe bet. So if the Bears and Cowboys can squeeze into the field, it would give the 10-member Big 12 seven representatives.
Through Wednesday night, the league had the top average strength of schedule and best average RPI. Fifth-ranked Kansas was No. 1 in both of those individual metrics, owed partly to a brutal non-conference schedule but also to its success in the conference race.
Watching Kansas dismantle a really good Texas team showed they can be the best team in the country...unfortunately they don't always seem to bring that intensity for 40 minutes..hopefully that does not bite them in the tournament.
Not to take anything away from Kansas but I believe they somewhat benefit from a lack of consistently elite competition for the conference championship.
Big East - Syracuse, UCONN, Louisville, Georgetown
ACC - Duke/UNC
Big Ten - Michigan, OSU, MSU, Indiana
If I'm not mistaken, in the last 10 or so years, Kansas is the only Big 12 team to make it past the Elite 8.
Syracuse is in the ACC...
I agree. Kansas hasn't had a real challenge for the Big 12 for quite some time. There is a large group of mediocrity in that conference.
I agree. Kansas hasn't had a real challenge for the Big 12 for quite some time. There is a large group of mediocrity in that conference.
I'm sure eddiehaskell knows Syracuse in the ACC this year. He was referencing a 10-year period where Kansas was dominant in the B12 and pointing out the BE regularly had 4-5 teams every year that were threats to make the FF or at least the EE as opposed to the level of competition in the B12 during the nine years prior to this one before Syracuse defected to the ACC.
I'm sure eddiehaskell knows Syracuse in the ACC this year. He was referencing a 10-year period where Kansas was dominant in the B12 and pointing out the BE regularly had 4-5 teams every year that were threats to make the FF or at least the EE as opposed to the level of competition in the B12 during the nine years prior to this one before Syracuse defected to the ACC.
You ACC guys are awfully sensitive.
What was sensitive about my comment? Just participating in the discussion, if that's okay with you. Or are you mad because I said that the Big12 if full of mediocrity? Hmmmmm...now I wonder who's really the sensitive one...
A bit off topic but within the bounds of the thread....when if ever do we suppose the rankings system will ever change or be abandoned in favor the RPI? One example that really defy logic this year is Villanova's ranking. Creighton not only beat them, they smoked them twice over the course of a month (later in the season) yet are still somehow ranked behind them. We all know the pattern, certain teams in certain conferences always start off the season ranked highly and when a fellow unranked team from the same conference beats them, they drop a couple spots and the other team becomes ranked...and voila, it's not a "bad loss"...besides that it seems to take 7 losses minimum to drop out of the Top 25 for certain teams from certain conferences. Meanwhile other teams can lose one and drop out completely. They say rankings are meaningless, yet we know they're not since NCAA seedings are largely based upon them. I just wonder in the midst of all the conference realignments and emergence of many of the "mid-majors" why it hasn't become more an issue.
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