Didn't Florida split with SouCar? I can't see why SC deserved to go more than Fla. Florida beat PAC10 champ Washington and ACC member NC State and lost by 6 at Syracuse ( #3 seed and 12 RPI ) and by 2 at FSU ( #5 seed and 14 RPI ) in non-con....neither one a slouch by any means. UF won 23 games overall and was 9-7 in the SEC regular season and 1-1 in the SEC tournament losing the tight game with Auburn by 3. In many NCAA seasons I have watched UF would have been included in the tourney with that resume. If the SEC falls flat then maybe not so much but if the SEC does well with the three that got in then I think the Gators were indeed hosed.
I can agree with that. I went and looked at each team's non-conference schedules and they're both pretty terrible with Florida leaving the state once and So. Car. leaving the state twice. However, South Carolina did have one more reg. season SEC victory than Florida and they did split their season series. I don't think either team was a threat to advance very far in the tourney and I doubt either of the SEC teams that made it will advance very far either.
It's sort of a meaningless debate but I looked at SC's non-con schedule and all they played of any note was at Baylor....who missed the tourney and Clemson at home.....#7 seed and 28 RPI. SC was 10-7 in the SEC after the SEC tourney and UF was 10-8. I posted UF's non-con before and it was noticeably stronger. The selection committee looks at the whole body of work so I'll bet UF was a lot closer to getting in than was SC based on the whole body of work. In any event they didn't think very much of the SEC obviously.
Like you said it is a pointless debate but Florida played only a slightly stronger non-con schedule. Florida St. and Clemson are very similar opponents for Florida and USC. Florida played at Syracuse and USC played at Baylor. I'll give an edge to the Gators on that one but I think the body of work is virtually a wash especially given how the Gators fared down the stretch.
What of it? It was a very nice win at home for the Gators. Sorry for overlooking that one. I think the loss to a terrible Georgia team combined with the fact they went 4-6 in their last 10 hurt the Gators. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks went 5-5. The what have you done for me lately caught up to both teams in the end. I would have liked to have seen them in the tourney but I think Auburn has more beef than anyone in the SEC after the way they closed their season. I would have really liked to have seen what Jodie Meeks could have done on the big stage for Kentucky but they too were plagued with inconsistency.
Wasn't that win over Washington way back during the Bush administration? How the hell did Washington win the Pac10 regular season title anyway? Every time I saw them, I was totally underwhelmed. That being said... prior to the Tourney Announcements.. There were articles calling the Big East the 'Best Conference Ever'... The Big East got 7 teams.. the same number as the Big10.. why is the Big10 not the best conference ever? How is that possible?
By finishing below S. Carolina the Gators got the benefit of playing the team in the SEC with the worst record, Arkansas. S. Carolina didn't play that first round then got beat by the team that won the SEC. I say S. Carolina deserved it more than Florida.
Rec league ball and Pac-10 basketball refs are a deadly combination. :wink: Seriously though... Brockman is the team's heart, a real lunch bucket guy that goes after every board and gives them a solid inside presence. Freshman Isiah Thomas (not related) despite being undersized has an uncanny knack for being able to drive the lane and put the ball in. He's also good from the perimeter. Because of Thomas, Justin Dentmon isn't the sole ball handler anymore and as a result he has been as effective as he was back when he was a freshman playing with Brandon Roy. UW also goes pretty deep, with players like Quincy Pondexter (Q-Pon), Matthew Bryan-Amaning (MBA) and Venoy Overton (the always talking, flopping gangsta punk, but that's just my opinion), so they have the ability to run teams into the ground.
The Prez's bracket is up on ESPN and he doesn't have any SEC team in Sweet 16 and only Tenn winning a game.
Either their heart wasn't in it cause they thought they should be in the NCAA tournament or they weren't an NCAA Tournament team to begin with.
I wouldn't say that. There are 33 teams that will lose in the first round of the NCAA. That doesn't mean they didn't deserve to be there. It also doen't mean that bubble teams didn't belong there either.
In South Carolina's defense, they were playing last season's tournament darlings in Davidson. I like watching Stephen Curry play more than any other player in basketball. He's so clutch and I think he'll be a decent pro.
Tom is of course right and certainly Outlaw hadn't made any big deal out of SoCar not getting in to the NCAA. It was more a general comment related to whether or not the SEC got hosed in only getting 3 teams. If SEC teams are all gone after 1 round in both NIT and NCAA then you'd have to say they weren't hosed. If a SEC team wins the NIT and you get 1 or 2 teams to the Sweet 16 then a case could be made.