Just having a quick look this morning at the sweet 16.

A&M: 4th in SEC regular season
K State: 4th in B12 regular season
Kentucky: 4th in SEC regular season
and....Syracuse: NINTH in ACC regular season

Tulsa: bupkes....perhaps an NIT bid would have been merited but that's not my point here.

Hopefully the AAC new coaching hires help move this conference forward and enough AAC teams administer enough OOC beatings to get us more bids. And hopefully we get to the point where we have 2 or more in the sweet 16.

I see next year as a bit of a down year at the top. Unlike this year where Cincy and WSU appeared (pre-season) to be a notch above the rest of the conference I think we have more of a logjam and more competitive games in next year's conference season. But longer term....2,3,4 years out I think this can happen.

The coaching changes are happening and they are positive. Perhaps those help bring us better TV exposure and more press coverage.....hype helps recruiting. Many of our teams seem to be on an upward trajectory.

This year's NCAA was simply a big bag of dissapointment.

Back to work!

We should have had SMU and UCF battling for bids. It's not normal for multiple top players to go down on teams like they did. That would have been a solid 5. Now with UConn hiring a good coach, I really don't see why 5-6 bids isn't achievable.

(03-22-2018 08:31 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  We should have had SMU and UCF battling for bids. It's not normal for multiple top players to go down on teams like they did. That would have been a solid 5. Now with UConn hiring a good coach, I really don't see why 5-6 bids isn't achievable.

There are about 6-8 of the 12 teams in this league that should consistently be in the tournament/bubble talk in/year out, with the others busting into the conversation every few years. This SHOULD be a 4-5 bid league each year minimum, and I think will be in the near future.

The AAC was a couple of baskets away from having 2 Sweet 16 teams,,,and that was with both Memphis and UConn having off years. The AAC is potentially a league that can land 5-6 bids in its better years,

(03-22-2018 08:31 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  We should have had SMU and UCF battling for bids. It's not normal for multiple top players to go down on teams like they did. That would have been a solid 5. Now with UConn hiring a good coach, I really don't see why 5-6 bids isn't achievable.

If Tulsa doesn't lose Magnay a couple of weeks before the season openers they would've likely been in the NCAA's.

Hopefully injuries and players leaving don't handicap as many teams next year and the new coaches can elevate some teams play.

(03-22-2018 10:16 AM)Weatherdemon Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 08:31 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  We should have had SMU and UCF battling for bids. It's not normal for multiple top players to go down on teams like they did. That would have been a solid 5. Now with UConn hiring a good coach, I really don't see why 5-6 bids isn't achievable.

If Tulsa doesn't lose Magnay a couple of weeks before the season openers they would've likely been in the NCAA's.

Hopefully injuries and players leaving don't handicap as many teams next year and the new coaches can elevate some teams play.

Injuries, transfers and leaving early all factor in. But there shouldn't be any reason going forward to not put 4-6 in every year. You get that many in and your chances at sweet 16 and better increase dramatically.

SMU's injuries killed them but the lack of depth might have anyway by seasons end.
This is the last year of forfeiting scholarships....only two left to give.

Hopefully all these great coaches can keep it clean. I won't mention any names but I have Haith....err...faith that Penny can run a clean program and Kelvin keeps it real.

(03-22-2018 10:50 AM)SadderBudweiser Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 10:16 AM)Weatherdemon Wrote:  

(03-22-2018 08:31 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  We should have had SMU and UCF battling for bids. It's not normal for multiple top players to go down on teams like they did. That would have been a solid 5. Now with UConn hiring a good coach, I really don't see why 5-6 bids isn't achievable.

If Tulsa doesn't lose Magnay a couple of weeks before the season openers they would've likely been in the NCAA's.

Hopefully injuries and players leaving don't handicap as many teams next year and the new coaches can elevate some teams play.

Injuries, transfers and leaving early all factor in. But there shouldn't be any reason going forward to not put 4-6 in every year. You get that many in and your chances at sweet 16 and better increase dramatically.

SMU's injuries killed them but the lack of depth might have anyway by seasons end.
This is the last year of forfeiting scholarships....only two left to give.

Hopefully all these great coaches can keep it clean. I won't mention any names but I have Haith....err...faith that Penny can run a clean program and Kelvin keeps it real.

It shows how razor thin our margin of error is though. A league that "should" have 5-6 tournament level teams, may only get 2-3 bids in a bad luck season.

What about the champions?

Arizona bounced.
Virginia blown out by UMBC.
Auburn shamed by Clemson.
Xavier is out.
Michigan State gone.

Only Kansas remains.