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Posts tagged Big East
Forces, Frauds, and Fruitcakes: Sorting out the NCAA, Part 2
Jan 25th
(Note: You can also read this article and other NCAA basketball articles at Bleacher Report.)
It is time to look at the next batch of conferences in this series that honors the true forces in NCAA basketball, the fruitcakes who like to play Jekyll and Hyde, and the frauds that have been exposed (or are in the process of being exposed) as overrated.
This edition examines the Big Ten, Big XII, CAA, and Conference USA. The analysis continues to move in alphabetical order to avoid any charges of bias.
For complete definitions and a thorough look at the ACC, Atlantic 10, Big East, and Big South, click here. To quickly wrap up what has already been discussed, I’ve provided the following table, with a couple of sentences for the conferences not already examined in-depth. More >
Forces, Frauds and Fruitcakes: Sorting Out the NCAA Basketball Teams, Part I
Jan 20th
After a little over two months of the college basketball season, there is now enough information, including a few conference matchups, to make some early judgments on where the teams stand vis-a-vis their preseason expectations.
After looking at the major and many of the mid-major conferences, I have concluded that nearly every one of them has at least one “force,” one “fraud,” and one “fruitcake” (a team that would make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde proud).
The definitions are as follows:
The Force: This is a team that much is or was expected of, and they are delivering on those expectations. They are not just winning now; they will continue to win. They must be a legitimate threat to win the regular-season conference title. They need not have been a preseason favorite, but they need to have proven that they are “the real thing.”
The Fruitcake (pictured above): This is a team that you don’t want to place any wagers on. One day, they might take down a top-5 team; the next, they may lose to a mediocre team from the Atlantic 10. They are the Jekylls and Hydes…one can never be sure which team will show up on any given day.
The Fraud: This is a team that either has a gaudy record because they have been beating up on inferior opponents or has been thoroughly underwhelming not because they lack the talent, but because they were overrated to begin with. They may or may not have been exposed yet, but are candidates for a one-and-done in March, if they are playing in the NCAA tournament at all. More >
NCAA Basketball Conference Rankings (Dec. 31)
Jan 4th
Conventional wisdom has it that three conferences (the ACC, Big East and Big Ten) have separated themselves from the rest of the pack.
Bleacher Creatures appear to see it differently, clearly tiering the conferences into just two at the top and three more a significant step behind. Read ahead to find which conferences fall where in the first installment of the Conference Rankings, compiled from lists submitted by fans from coast to coast.
If you would like to read the original version of Conference Rankings (which were my own rankings only), you can read the long version here or the short version here. If you like a good background story, it will get you up to speed on most of what happened in November and December. More >
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