NCAA College Basketball: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

With the NCAA Men’s Basketball regular season wrapping up this weekend and the madness before March Madness about to begin, I thought it worth taking a glimpse at the best and worst of the 2009-2010 campaign. After all, anything can happen in the Big Dance–the NCAA Tournament is not a great basis for individual team comparison.

Best Conference – Big East

Once again, the best conference title goes to the Big East. Five teams in the Top 25, with the possibility of sending eight or even nine to the NCAA Tournament. No one else comes even close.

Worst BCS Conference – Pac-10

Not a single team in the Top 25? Hard to conceive of for a BCS conference, and yet that has been the case for the Pac-10 for several weeks this season. When you consider how many national championships have been won by this league–admittedly, mostly by UCLA, but Arizona, Cal and Oregon all each have one, too–it really leaves one shaking his head. The Pac-10 may only be a one-bid conference. Wow.

Most Surprising Conference – Mountain West Conference

That pesky Mountain West Conference which has dared to challenge the Big Six on the gridiron is now making a name for itself on the hardcourt. Although currently only two teams are in the Top 25, the league at one point had three ranked teams this year and should land at least that many NCAA Tournament berths… maybe even four.

Most Surprising Teams – Butler, Cornell

Yes, Butler has been ranked all season and, after several successful runs in the Tourney, is no underdog. But kudos do the Bulldogs for not faltering under the weight of raised expectations. Butler could very well end up in the Top Ten in the final regular season poll, which would be a major accomplishment for a Horizon League school.

As for Cornell… when was the last time that you can recall an Ivy League team being ranked? The Big Red accomplished just that, spending two weeks in the Coaches’ Poll earlier this season. As last year’s Ivy League champ, conference success was to be expected, but to be ranked was still quite an honor.

Most Disappointing Teams – Connecticut, North Carolina, Texas, UCLA

Take a look at that list–there’s a lot of national championships among those schools (18, to be exact). Connecticut hit a mini rut that snowballed into a large one once the Huskies’ confidence was shaken. Losing coach Jim Calhoun to health problems for a few games at that critical juncture didn’t help, but is no excuse; that team has too much talent to struggle like it has. North Carolina has been similarly flat, mirroring UConn’s fall from grace. Texas started the year off highly ranked and playing very well, rising all the way up to the #1 ranking… from whence they have plummeted ever since until they are now out of the Top 25. And UCLA… abysmal. All year. Losing multiple games to teams for whom a single loss by the Bruins would be noteworthy news.

Unless one or more of these teams runs the gamut of their respective conference tournaments, the only one likely to make the NCAAs is Texas.

But then, that’s college basketball in a nutshell!

• February 8, 2010 -- Cornell University in Coaches Poll – NCAA College Basketball (0)
• November 2, 2008 -- Bowl Championship Series Big Craziness Shake-up (0)
• April 1, 2010 -- Butler Bulldogs Final Four NCAA Basketball Tournament – Part 2 (0)
• March 29, 2010 -- Butler Bulldogs Final Four NCAA Basketball Tournament (0)
• March 22, 2010 -- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen March Madness (0)

Cornell Ranked for the 1st Time in 59 Years!

Don’t look now, but Cornell is ranked in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. Yes, an Ivy League team. For the second straight week.

Even better, the Mountain West Conference–the most powerful of the non-BCS leagues in college football, the one that actually dares to threaten the supremacy of the Big Six on a conference-wide level–is making a similar surge in college basketball. The MWC has three ranked teams this week, one more than the ACC and three more than the Pac-10 (translation: Pac-10 = 0 ranked teams) in both polls.

Gotta love how college basketball demonstrates the inequities of big-school favoritism.

• March 7, 2010 -- 2009-2010 NCAA College Basketball Regular Season Year-in-Review (1)
• January 9, 2009 -- 2008-2009 College Football Wrap-Up (0)
• November 24, 2008 -- Ranking Rationale (0)
• November 16, 2008 -- BCS Credibility Shattered (Again) (0)
• November 11, 2008 -- NCAA Basketball AP Preseason Poll Breakdown (0)