I wonder if there is any way to quantify how much...

[She Mate Me]

more depth there is in terms of quality college basketball than there was 30 years ago (pick a time frame). It just appears to me that there are a lot more quality teams than there used to be, but it is hard to quantify it.

Detroit was a quality team to my eyes, but there is a real possibility that they are not among the best 125 teams in the country. The talent level today is amazing to me.

Akron had a lot of pieces, but they have been getting their asses handed to them since beating us.

There are certainly bad teams out there, but to me there are 200+ teams that look like solid basketball teams when you watch them play.

 

[She Mate Me]

over UW in Seattle 92-73. They paid 6 to 1 on a moneyline bet.

 

[patdog]

They won by 19 on the road. That's pretty impressive.

 

[DAWG61]

more depth there is in terms of quality college basketball than there was 30 years ago (pick a time frame). It just appears to me that there are a lot more quality teams than there used to be, but it is hard to quantify it.

Detroit was a quality team to my eyes, but there is a real possibility that they are not among the best 125 teams in the country. The talent level today is amazing to me.

Akron had a lot of pieces, but they have been getting their asses handed to them since beating us.

There are certainly bad teams out there, but to me there are 200+ teams that look like solid basketball teams when you watch them play.

remember when I said it's easier to make the sweet sixteen in baseball than in basketball?

 

[drunkernhelldawg]

I don't think there are 200 quality teams, but I do think that 200 teams have athletes that on a given night can make the plays to beat you. There are no gimmees in contemporary basketball, except for teams that are ridiculously stacked with talent, such as Kentucky's team that had five first round draft picks.
We haven't played that well this week, but we managed to snag two wins. Generally, we have been playing at a high level, and that's the level we'll need to maintain throughout the rest of our schedule, which is about to get tougher.
The SEC actually had a bad day yesterday. I thnk that Bama, Fla, and Vandy all lost. Ole Miss lost to USM. Not sure about the rest of the conference. At least we won.

 

[prairiedawg]

Bama lost to a pretty good KSU team, Vandy loss as has been discussed already was a head scratcher. OM? Who knows what happened there, maybe ms southern is good or OM is just not very.

 

[drunkernhelldawg]

Of course, they were playing one of the top teams in the nation (Ohio State0, but in the early part of the game it looked like they had a chance, so I was hoping . . . I am aware that South Carolina is considered one of the worst teams in the SEC, but after our bad RPI experiences in the past, I'm always hoping the league can kick its status up a notch.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I think that a lot of the "good" teams just play such a ****** brand of basketball these days that they can be beat by other teams playing the same brand of basketball if they have a few athletes and just happen to play less ****** for a night.

It's the AAU-ization of college basketball. Very few teams know how to play good team defense, and very few teams know how to run a real offense.

That leads to a lot of crappy basketball, even from the better teams out there, and crappy basketball, even with the most talent, can level the playing field some.

The teams of 15-20 years ago would whip the crap out of the college teams you see today in my opinion.

 

[rugbdawg]

Is back yet.

 

[ludawg.sixpack]

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">When Stansbury goes someday, Nagy is worth a look.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has charisma, character and positive ties
to Mississippi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">He was notonly a standout athlete at Delta State but also a top notch student and one of the most popular guys on campus more because of his personality than his athletic success. He's one of those guys who just wins in life on all levels. He still has ties to Mississippi basketball; that plus his personality would go far in recruiting.
</span>
Nagyhas transitioned the
Jackrabbits from Division II to Division I which is no mean feat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></font></p>

<p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Calibri">http://www.gojacks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=64547&SPID=7143&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=15000&ATCLID=919366&Q_SEASON=2011

Edited to add that I haven't talked with him in years, but he's always spoken positively aboutState as a schooland itsbasketballhistory.</font></p>

 

[DAWG61]

you think that's because the NBA didn't use to take the 60 best college players away every year?

 

[She Mate Me]

are not what they used to be then I agree completely. That said I still think the 100th best team today is a whole lot better than the 100th best 20 years ago. No way to prove that, but I think it is true. I was talking more of the depth of talented players I guess.

To me the lack of truly great, fundamentally sound teams has more to do with the NBA now taking the talent so early that teams rarely have the chance to develop as they used to. I guess it would be true that the very best teams from 30 years ago, would be much more technically sound than the ones today and might overcome the athleticism of today's teams.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I think that affects some of it, but ultimately I think it's the fact that players are so fundamentally weak. They may be more athletic, but there is much less value placed on the basketball as a whole, which opens the door for sloppy play, and it allows mid-level teams with decent athletes a chance to hang with better teams.

Maybe they're more athletic than they were 20 years ago, but I see even a lot of Top 25 teams now that can't run a solid offense. There is a lot of isolation and not much team defense.