College Basketball Conference-By-Conference Look-In: Thanksgiving Weekend Edition

Who-dat; The Nation’s Best Conferences

This season has picked up right where we left off last season. The Big East is dominant and people are noticing. I have read multiple pieces about the Big East’s fast start. A number of these articles have stated the Big East’s won-loss record. As of this morning, that record is at 58-5. It is undeniable that the Big East is one of, if not the top conference again.

We know about some of the key wins including ‘Cuse over UNC and Cal, Cincy over Vandy and Maryland, and ‘Nove over Dayton to name several. But what about the overall body of work? Who have these 58 wins come against? And who have those 5 losses come against?

The five loses are as follows:

Tennessee over Depaul, 57-53
Texas over Pitt, 78-62
South Carolina over South Florida, 69-66
‘Bama over Providence, 84-75
Vermont over Rutgers, 77-71

The worst loss, and really the only potentially inexcusable loss, is Vermont over Rutgers at home. Things are looking good in the east.

However, the ACC and Big 12 are off to comparable starts and thus far are flying a bit under the radar in comparison to the Big East. The Big 12 is 44-5 as a conference. The losses looks just as “acceptable” as the ACC losses listed above and came against; St. Louis, Ole Miss, VCU, Gonzaga and Arizona. The ACC is 50-8 in total. Virginia and Boston College hold 2 losses a piece. The other losses are on the same level as those listed for the Big East and big 12.

To this point it is really these three conferences and everybody else looking up.

C’mon man; The Nation’s Most Disappointing Conference

I’m looking at you Pac-10. The Pac-10 is 10th among the usual top ten conferences. Not a great start. Their total record as a conference is 27-12. Some of the bad losses are Oregon against both Portand and Montana, UCLA to Cal State-Fulerton, Standford to San Diego and Oral Roberts, USC to Loyola Marymount and Oregon State to Texas A&M Corpus Chris and Sacramento St.

Even at the very top of this conference it is looking to be a disappointing season. None of the perennial powerhouses look to be up to par.

Small Potatoes; Mid-Major Conference Look-in

The non BCS conferences that have had some strong showings are Conference USA, Mountain West, Missouri Valley and Atlantic 10.

Conference USA

Like any mid-major conference; CUSA has some bad teams at the bottom but with Memphis and Tulsa leading the way, they have  some mid-major juggernauts waiting to make some noise. Tulsa plays two bad BCS schools with games against Nebraska and Colorado; those have become essentially must wins. They also have a home game against Oklahoma St. which would be their big non-conference win of the season.

Memphis has non-conference games scheduled against UMass, Tennessee, Syracuse and Gonzaga. More than any other years those last 3 are looking brutally tough. However, only the ‘Cuse game is on the road. It is also important to note that Memphis and Tulsa do play twice.

Mountain West Conference

The Mountain West is 28-9 as of today. UNLV has had a couple of solid wins against Nevada and Southern Illinois. Unfortunately that is about as exciting as the wins get for the Mountain West. Of the four conferences I mention as being mid-majors to watch (Conference USA, Mountain West, Missouri Valley and Atlantic 10), this might be the weakest of the bunch.

Missouri Valley Conference

e Mountain West, the conference is solid but might not have the marquee team(s) to hold the conference up near the top. Wichita St. beat Iowa and hung in there against Pitt. Northern Iowa has a win of Boston College.

This conference may suffer a similar fate to that of the Mountain West. No big name teams and few big wins. Creighton is about to take on Michigan, Nebraska and George Mason. We will learn alot about Creighton and the conference as a whole over the next 2 weeks.

Atlantic 10 Conference

The A10 is currently 42-12. At the top is, once again, Xavier and Dayton. Even though Dayton is 2-2, they have played a tough schedule and should be fine. These two teams hope to be locks for the field of 64. After the top 2 there is a lot more uncertainty. Duquesne, Temple and La Salle want to make their presence known.

Duquesne beat a mediocre Iowa team in Iowa on national television. Out of conference they have games against Pitt and WVU. Temple lost to Georgetown by a single point. The team still has plenty of time to prove themselves in games with Virginia Tech, St. Johns, Penn St., ‘Nova, Seton Hall and Kansas. La Salle will see ‘Nova this weekend and later has Kansas, Oklahoma St., and Cornell.

The future of the A10 looks brighter than the MVC and MWC but maybe not to the level of Conference USA this season.

Note: Conference records are as of games prior to November 25th.