UL v. UConn

[OhioBrownFan]

Seriously Dickie V.? The American doesn't give you many chances for signature wins? It looks like a probable five-bid league!

I mean, if you take a step back, it doesn't for a team like Louisville. There's 5 quality teams in the league, them being one of them. The rest is dog [deleted] and not going to make any kind of postseason tournament. It's not about just the top teams, it's also about the bottom teams. Losses to any one of those 5 kill your RPI. There's only 2 or 3 teams in the Big Ten or ACC that really kill your RPI. There's a lot of in-between teams that are still good wins and Louisville doesn't have that. Plus no team being in the top 15 really hurts right now. What win is a signature win in the conference?

Not to beat a dead horse, but a win against Syracuse or Duke (they will be up there when it's said and done) is a signature win big time. A win against MSU, Ohio State, Iowa or Wisconsin is a signature win. A win against Florida or Kentucky are signature wins. A win against Kansas, Baylor, Okie State, or Iowa State are all signature wins. And the middle of the pack in those conferences are still good teams that won't kill you with a loss to them.

And on top of everything else, listening to this board, SMU is a bubble tournament team, that's not a signature win. So they really only have 3 teams that they can beat for signature wins in the conference. And I'd argue that Memphis and UConn are too far down the line to count as a signature win. Just a very good win.

Appreciate your inputs, but your bias for certain conferences and osu is coming out here. You mention Syracuse and duke. Great. We counter with Louisville and Connecticut who have won 2 of the Last 3 championships. Osu is overrated as are many teams in the big 10. The big 12 is overrated. At the end of the season, in a neutral site, I like our chances against Baylor and any big 12 team not named Kansas.

Who has OSU beaten? They needed every bit of luck to come back against ND. Their early season victory against Marquette ain't looking so good now. They rank terribly across the board. They are not w signature win except for the fact they are highly overrated.

Alright, throw out OSU. There's still 3 top 15 teams. Overrated or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is perception because perception is reality. The reality is there are 4 teams in the top 15. The reality is that is 3 chances for any one of those teams to have a true statement win. I'm not arguing that I don't think the best of the AAC can match-up. It's no different then the SEC in football.

And on top of that, I was arguing from Louisville's point of view. You're arguing for the conference, I was arguing from the exact standpoint the announcers made. Louisville can look around in the conference and there really isn't another team on their level outside of Cinci who has gotten very little respect in the rankings until recently. They also lost one time against Cinci, meaning they only play them one more time. There's no bias in my statement whatsoever. I just went through every conference except the PAC12 which I should've included as well. Louisville lost all their marquee match-ups OOC and they have very few chances for a signature win the rest of the way. That was the original argument made on the live telecast. Am I being irrational in those statements? I'm not sure where this is being lost in translation.

For the record, the B10 did very well OOC though so I think it's pretty hard to argue it's overrated. I think the AAC is also at an inherent disadvantage because it's smaller than the other major conferences. Two less teams that could be providing a buffer between SMU and the drop-off to the 6th best team.

[OhioBrownFan]

exactly - love that you love the mustangs, but OSU is not very good this year. A signature win they are not. great recruiting on the way - but this year they are not hard to beat apparently. The big 10 is overrated in everything all the time - without exception. Big 12 has a few good teams but is not that big a deal in basketball - i think AAC is as good heads up. We will see come tournament time - but i would [pick Cincinnati over almost any Big 12/Big 10 team. The bottom of all these conferences are dog meat - no difference there at all - in fact i think the bottom of the AAC is not too bad compared t0 big 12 or big 10.

And the B10 had one of the national championship game teams. 2 of the Elite 8, 4 of the Sweet 16. Is that really overrated? The AAC had one team in the Sweet 16 (Louisville). And that is the team the original argument was formed by and also a team that won't be in the conference next year. The announcer said Louisville does not have many chances for signature wins, I simply said I agree.

6) Minnesota vs Houston
7) Purdue vs Temple
8 ) Illinois vs UCF
9) Indiana vs USF
10) Nebraska or Northwestern vs Rutgers

Is there a game in that slate the AAC wins in the 6-10 match-ups which would be the bottom-feeders of the conference?

[Mustangs_Maroons]

The definition of being rationale is to not have feelings or emotions involved. To say perception is reality is the complete opposite of being rationale. Rankings change all the time. And I took Your whole post as being biased. How convenient to mention 2-4 names in very conference as signature wins and not think the AAC has as many equal teams. You mention Syracuse and duke. Well that's two. How convenient that we should take it as a given that duke will come back. Maybe they will but that is hardly empirical. Virginia is fourth in that conference and they needed every bit of the refs help to beat us.

Your pov on Louisville's ability to get signature wins is based on your perception of the conference. While we're not the best conference by any stretch, we hold our own and have as many marquee Names as most. I don't think your argument holds much merit. In the preseason rankings we had 3 teams ranked in the top 18.

I understand rankings are subjective and by that very nature biased. That is why there are so many changes. My point is to tell us to take a stake back, maybe the big 10 fans should do the same. I see msu as the class of that conference. After that the next 4/5 teams can all beat each other in any given night, IMO.
There me be as much dog [deleted] there as we have.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

exactly - love that you love the mustangs, but OSU is not very good this year. A signature win they are not. great recruiting on the way - but this year they are not hard to beat apparently. The big 10 is overrated in everything all the time - without exception. Big 12 has a few good teams but is not that big a deal in basketball - i think AAC is as good heads up. We will see come tournament time - but i would [pick Cincinnati over almost any Big 12/Big 10 team. The bottom of all these conferences are dog meat - no difference there at all - in fact i think the bottom of the AAC is not too bad compared t0 big 12 or big 10.

And the B10 had one of the national championship game teams. 2 of the Elite 8, 4 of the Sweet 16. Is that really overrated? The AAC had one team in the Sweet 16 (Louisville). And that is the team the original argument was formed by and also a team that won't be in the conference next year. The announcer said Louisville does not have many chances for signature wins, I simply said I agree.

6) Minnesota vs Houston
7) Purdue vs Temple
8 ) Illinois vs UCF
9) Indiana vs USF
10) Nebraska or Northwestern vs Rutgers

Is there a game in that slate the AAC wins in the 6-10 match-ups which would be the bottom-feeders of the conference?

I think temple would beat penn state, or at least a toss up. Rutgers beats both nw and Nebraska. Indiana beats usf. Ill vs UFC is a toss up. Houston vs Minnesota is a toss up. Number 7 match up makes no sense, and it's nice how penn state doesn't even get grouped as an option to take into account that there are two more teams, like it was done in no. 10.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Temple also lost to Texas by one in OT, that same Texas team that got that signature win against Iowa State. That loss is a real shame as it would stop all this take a step back bs about how every other conference has multiple signature win candidates except the poor AAC.

[OhioBrownFan]

The definition of being rationale is to not have feelings or emotions involved. To say perception is reality is the complete opposite of being rationale. Rankings change all the time. And I took Your whole post as being biased. How convenient to mention 2-4 names in very conference as signature wins and not think the AAC has as many equal teams. You mention Syracuse and duke. Well that's two. How convenient that we should take it as a given that duke will come back. Maybe they will but that is hardly empirical. Virginia is fourth in that conference and they needed every bit of the refs help to beat us.

Your pov on Louisville's ability to get signature wins is based on your perception of the conference. While we're not the best conference by any stretch, we hold our own and have as many marquee Names as most. I don't think your argument holds much merit. In the preseason rankings we had 3 teams ranked in the top 18.

I understand rankings are subjective and by that very nature biased. That is why there are so many changes. My point is to tell us to take a stake back, maybe the big 10 fans should do the same. I see msu as the class of that conference. After that the next 4/5 teams can all beat each other in any given night, IMO.
There me be as much dog [deleted] there as we have.

Fair enough. For the sake of argument, the AAC is right there with any conference in America. Now, what team or teams can Louisville get signature wins on at this point? UConn was projected at an 8-line in the tourney heading into tonight, they just lost again at home. They're not going to be in the top 25 anytime soon. So their remaining schedule has #19 Cinci at home and away, and at #17 Memphis. The announcer said they don't have many chances for signature wins in the conference. I count 3 basically left. The lost to UNC and UK OOC which were their only chances for OOC signature wins.

Let me ask this, how is Louisville going to get a top 3 seed which is probably where they belong? Right now they're probably sitting on the 6-line. And for the others, this IS NOT a freakin AAC argument. It's a Louisville argument and their ability to get signature wins. Announcer says, "Louisville does not have many chances to get the signature win that it needs in the new conference." I then said I agree, they have very few chances in comparison to other teams.

MSU is definitely the class of the B10, but they've already got lucky to win 2 conference games in OT at home.

[OhioBrownFan]

Temple also lost to Texas by one in OT, that same Texas team that got that signature win against Iowa State. That loss is a real shame as it would stop all this take a step back bs about how every other conference has multiple signature win candidates except the poor AAC.

Anyone can play that game if you want to go down that road...Indiana lost by 1 to UConn on a neutral floor and led in the last minute and a half with two freshmen starters they were breaking in. They're 9th in the conference, UConn was thought to be top 3 in the AAC. See how easy that is?

[OhioBrownFan]

NM

[Zman89]

When I hear that a certain conference is top dog in football/basketball I assumed that would translate into national champions. Living in Indiana I hear it all the time the Big Ten is the best basketball conference. Where's the titles? The SEC is the best football conference 7 out of the last 8 champions. IJS.

[CoxMustangFan]

SMU just needs to continue getting better, and build its brand. We need to be the big fat kid picked first during the next round of kickball (you know the kid that could kick the ball a mile?). All fans see more value in his/her conference than what America sees. Fair or not, the AAC is seen as a small handful of good teams en route to better opportunities and a big pile of nothing after that. Let's just get and keep SMU in the former.

[hoopmanx]

It's also easy to cherry pick the top few teams from any conference and then say they have no more marquee games vs big time opponents, cause they are the class of the league. Of course da ville doesn't have many opportunities left. Got news, dook and msu don't have that many great wins left either, just good conference match ups. The problem w rpi and SOS weighting is that it turns good basketball people into fantasy dorks who pay more attention to the transitive rule of wins, than they do to actual possessions in a game.

[OhioBrownFan]

SMU just needs to continue getting better, and build its brand. We need to be the big fat kid picked first during the next round of kickball (you know the kid that could kick the ball a mile?). All fans see more value in his/her conference than what America sees. Fair or not, the AAC is seen as a small handful of good teams en route to better opportunities and a big pile of nothing after that. Let's just get and keep SMU in the former.

I agree. I hope SMU gets picked up by the Big 12 personally. I think a strong bball program makes it very attractive to a number of conferences. And obviously the football team could be good again someday. I think you're right about everyone thinking their conference is better than what it actually is. Personally I think the B10 is 3rd best conference in America. And the conference will never have lots of national titles because they don't have any true basketball programs in the conference. Football comes first at every single school unlike Duke, Carolina, Syracuse, Kansas, Kentucky, ect. Nobody in the B10 lands 3 top 5 recruiting classes in a row. Classes are just solid for the upper tier teams, MSU, UM, Illinois, Indiana, OSU all bring in their 5* players, but a program like Duke has nearly exclusive 5* talent.

If you really want proof that basketball schools only win it, go through the last 20 years and tell me what school has a football program that comes first. Florida is the only one I see on that list and they had a ridiculous class that won them back-to-back championships.

[SMU89]

SMU just needs to continue getting better, and build its brand. We need to be the big fat kid picked first during the next round of kickball (you know the kid that could kick the ball a mile?).

Vs big fat kid in dodge ball.

[mustang1992]

We've shown we can play with anyone in the league. We play awful in Louisville and were in that game, we get hosed in Cincinnati and were in that game. We beat UConn at home. I think this team can win all their games at home and most on the road. We've struggled on the road some, but have been in every game.

They are getting more and more confident with each win. Keep it up Stangs!

[EastStang]

The problem for the AAC isn't this year, its next year. Louisville leaves and we add Tulane. That's why the BE teams bailed. The AAC added SMU, Memphis, UH which clearly turned out okay. Added UCF no better or worse than Seton Hall. I'd submit that Tulane is a push against St. Johns. Rutgers is gone. USF was already here. Tulsa will be no worse than Providence. The BE teams saw a chance to take the money and run and they did. Long term, I like our conference, with four solid teams historically in Memphis,Temple, Cincy, and UConn and with SMU investing in the program, UH, Tulsa, UCF able to make some noise occasionally, it will be a fun hoops conference. I see it as a 3-5 bid league, year in and year out.