For some reason it's common for middle of the pack teams trying to validate themselves by the accomplishments of other teams in their conference.
Why, who could you be talking about, sir, go on.
For some reason it's common for middle of the pack teams trying to validate themselves by the accomplishments of other teams in their conference.
The B1G's top 3 teams were probably stronger than the Big 12's top 3 teams IMO. But overall, the Big 12 was better due to it's MUCH better depth.
There were a lot more cupcake games in the B1G than there were in the Big 12. Plus, in the Big 12, you have to play everyone twice. That is huge. Nebraska got into the dance ONLY because they played an awful schedule. They only had to play Michigan St and Wisky once.
It turns out, the B1G is going to look really strong because of 3 teams, but that doesn't tell the whole story. And all 3 of them are extremely lucky to have gotten this far too. That's what the NCAA Tourney is though. One and done. If you get a few good breaks here and there, you advance.
Michigan State could have easily lost to Virginia. Won by 2. Michigan could have easily gone down against Tennessee if not for the flop-charge call they got at the end. If that call would have been a block instead of a charging call, Michigan could be at home right now. And Wisky was down by 16 pts or something like that against Oregon in their 2nd game. Luckily for Wisky, they were virtually playing at home in Milwaukee and got all the calls in the 2nd half to win that game.
It truly is a tournament of inches here or there.
I'm amazed people are still trying to defend the Big 12.
Nothing to defend. Do you honestly think ISU wouldn't be in the Elite 8 with Niang playing? Kansas with Embid?
Last year, and the years before that have nothing to do with this year. And this year will have nothing to do with 2015.
The Big 10 has three really good/healthy teams at the top. The rest of the conference is bad. Did you watch Nebraska and Ohio State? Not impressed. Iowa didn't even make the tournament..
Oh, and making the sweet 16 isn't nothing either.
Six different Big Ten schools have reached the Final Four since the turn of the century. Three Big 12 teams have accomplished that. The Big Ten also holds an 11-7 FF edge in that time, with Kansas and MSU both having 5 appearances.
KU was still seriously flawed with Embiid. It's not like he would've taken minutes from that backcourt.
Okie State played most of the year without their starting PF and lost one a bench player midway thru the year. They maybe had 6 big 12 caliber players most of the conference schedule. If you had to rate the 22 teams in the big12/b1g I think the b1G has the top 3 teams, then the big 12 has the next 6 teams for sure, maybe 7. Then the b1g would pry have the next 5 or 6 teams. Probably not enough of a difference though to say one conference is better than the other.
The irony of some posters on here always cracks me up.
When the Big 12 is the better conference in football (even if we only won 3 games that season), those same posters in this thread would be beating their chest in every thread saying how the Big 12 was better than the Big 10, even if Iowa pounded us by 30 that year.
When the Big 10 is better in basketball, none of it matters since the only thing that matters is how the individual team did, and anyone who cares to mention how good the conference is doing is an idiot.
At the end of the day, I hate KU all year long so I'm not going to all of the sudden cheer for them when the tournament comes around. My brother (an Iowa fan) hates MSU all year long, so he's not going to all of a sudden cheer for them to make the final four. Strength of conference obviously matters, but the argument isn't really valid either way unless every team in each conference faces every member of another conference a couple of times during the year, in a game like basketball where anything can happen on a given night.
Obviously a ton of people feel differently, and have a great sense of pride in their respective conferences, but no matter what the situation, my personal feelings toward a school matter more than what conference they're in.