jimotis4heisman
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http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9001822
picked to win the b10, how about the future folks. how about now.
Ten for Tuesday: Both Big, but 12 is better
Oct. 24, 2005
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
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The Big East already was a great conference, and then it added Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul and Marquette.
And then?
Taj Gray's Sooners are legit Final Four contenders this season. (Getty Images) And then when it walked down the street, people looked and said, "There goes the Big East Conference, the best there ever was in this game."
But people were wrong.
Ten for Tuesday ranks the country's best basketball leagues for the approaching season. Big East fans, skip to No. 2. SEC fans ... skip to 2006-07. Pass the time by memorizing The Natural.
1. Big 12: From Final Four contenders at the top (Texas, Oklahoma) to Top 25 teams in the middle (Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas) to potential NCAA Tournament sleepers down the ladder (Iowa State, Nebraska, Texas A&M), the Big 12 is the strongest league this year. Next year? Probably not, what with Texas and Oklahoma anticipating huge NBA hits. But next year is next year. Live in the moment, people.
2. Big East: Injuries at Villanova and Louisville, and suspensions at Connecticut, have made a mortal of this superhuman league. But still, you say with Syracuse, West Virginia and Georgetown -- not to mention Pittsburgh and Cincinnati -- that the Big East is the best league in the country this year? I say the Big East is closer to No. 3 than No. 1.
3. Big Ten: The Big Ten doesn't have a single sexy team -- if any of its members reach the Final Four, it'll be a shock -- but from top to bottom it'll be brutal. The Big Ten enters the season with eight schools housing legitimate NCAA Tournament aspirations: Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota. Yes, that's the order. Call your bookie. (No, don't.)
.pollQuestion{ font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; } .pollResponce{ font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 11px; } .pollTotal{ font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 10px; } .pollPercent{ font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold; font-size: 14px; } var pollValue; function submitPoll(){ if( pollValue ){ document.getElementById('pollForm').submit(); }else{ alert('You forgot to vote...'); } } function selectPoll( value ){ pollValue = value; } 4. ACC: It has the best team in the country; Duke can just barely see the rest of the league from way up there. Boston College, Wake Forest and North Carolina State are NCAA Tournament teams, but after that it'll be a scramble. Expect one of the following -- but only one -- to earn the ACC's fifth and final NCAA bid: Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina. No, that's not the order. If you're so smart, you do it.
5. Pac-10: Arizona and Washington could be Top 10 teams. Stanford is a Top 25 team, and UCLA would be there with them if its players would stop getting hurt. Plus, any of the following three schools -- Oregon, Oregon State, California -- could get into the NCAA Tournament.
6. SEC: A crazy summer will take its toll on the SEC, which lost some of its best underclassmen to the pros (Alabama's Kennedy Winston, LSU's Brandon Bass, Florida's Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh, Arkansas' Olu Famutimi) and saw freshman scoring leader Toney Douglas transfer from Auburn. High school recruits Monta Ellis (Mississippi State) and Louis Williams (Georgia) also turned pro. Add it up, and the SEC has just one obvious Top 25 team: Kentucky.
7. Missouri Valley: Three MVC teams reached the 2005 NCAA Tournament, and that was no fluke. The same three -- Northern Iowa, Creighton, Southern Illinois -- could make it again this season, and we here at CBS SportsLine.com are high on Bradley as well.
8. Atlantic 10: The A-10 will get a double boost this season. First, adding Charlotte gives the league another perennial NCAA Tournament team. Second, the A-10 returns more key players than any power league in America. Look it up. The A-10 returns 18 of its top 20 scorers. The 14 teams bring back a combined 50 starters. The 12 A-10 schools of a year ago (everyone but C-USA transfers Charlotte and St. Louis) return 77.1 percent of their scoring. Along with Charlotte and Final Four sleeper pick George Washington, potential NCAA Tournament teams include Xavier, Temple and perhaps Dayton or UMass.
9. WAC: The WAC could be a one-hit wonder this year, with Nevada dominating and everyone else digging for scraps. Or, WAC newcomer Utah State could win its typical 25 games while Hawaii and/or Louisiana Tech are making an NCAA Tournament push.
10. Conference USA: Another potential one-and-done league, Memphis will be the class of C-USA after the departures of Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul and Marquette. Then again, even with those teams still on board, C-USA was just the country's No. 9 league according to last year's RPI. Still, with Memphis bolstered by newcomer UTEP and holdovers UAB and Houston, we've got C-USA just ahead of the MAC and the slumping (for one year, anyway) West Coast and Mountain West conferences.
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picked to win the b10, how about the future folks. how about now.
