{"id":475,"date":"2010-03-03T19:08:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T00:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2010-03-03T19:08:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T00:08:23","slug":"picking-a-pretty-good-year-to-have-a-pretty-good-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"Picking a Pretty Good Year to Have a Pretty Good Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, as the resident die-hard Temple fan among my friends, I always have to answer questions for Temple and the A-10, in general.\u00a0 Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to two of my friends (fans of St. John’s and Rutgers) about the state of college hoops.\u00a0 One of them looked at me and said, “So, is Temple a Sweet Sixteen team?”\u00a0 My immediate reaction was “no way.”\u00a0 I guess the ten years since the second-round Seton Hall debacle has jaded me a bit.\u00a0 I no longer think that a semi-decent Temple team is a national contender.\u00a0 And, my knee-jerk reaction was that this is a semi-decent Temple team.\u00a0 So, my first reaction was “Sweet Sixteen?\u00a0 No, I don’t think so.”<\/p>\n

But, then I thought about it.\u00a0 They are ranked in the top 20, and have been since mid-December.\u00a0 They are in first place in a conference that has as many as seven teams with NCAA tournament aspirations.\u00a0 They have swept the Big 5, which includes a Villanova team that has an outside shot at a 1-seed.\u00a0 Their worst loss is to a St. John’s team with 6 Big East wins.\u00a0 They are well on their way to a 4- or 5-seed.\u00a0 In fact, if they win out and then win the A-10 tourney next week, they would probably be in the discussion for…gasp…a 2-seed!\u00a0 So, how is this team not a legitimate Sweet Sixteen candidate?\u00a0 The answer is:\u00a0 they most definitely are.\u00a0 But, it’s not because they jump off the page, talent-wise.\u00a0 It’s a combination of great team defense, a great coach, a multi-faceted offense that makes up for its lack of a pure scorer with decent, streaky scorers at the perfect positions, and, most importantly, a very weak college hoops landscape.<\/p>\n

After I answered, “No way,” the question that followed was, “Okay, well name me 16 clearly better teams.”\u00a0 (Obviously, because we were drinking and like to throw out random college hoops questions.)\u00a0 And, I absolutely could not.\u00a0 Think about the major conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ACC, Pac-10, and SEC, combined, have only two–maybe three–teams clearly better than Temple.\u00a0 I’ll give you Duke and Kentucky.\u00a0 I will probably give you Vanderbilt (though it’s arguable).\u00a0 After that, can you really say that the Floridas, Tennessees, Marylands, or Cals are clearly better than the Owls.\u00a0 I don’t think so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, the Big East is dominant this year, but after Syracuse and Villanova, are these teams really that much better than Temple?\u00a0 West Virginia?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Pitt?\u00a0 Maybe, but it’s definitely an argument.\u00a0 G’town?\u00a0 Marquette?\u00a0 Louisville?\u00a0 It’s really hard to say that they are definitely better than the best team in the A-10.\u00a0 UConn?\u00a0 Notre Dame?\u00a0 Cincinnati?\u00a0 No way.<\/p>\n

The Big XII is having a terrific year.\u00a0 But, who in that conference is clearly better than Temple?\u00a0 Kansas and Kansas St.?\u00a0 Definitely, but that’s probably it.\u00a0 Texas A&M, Oklahoma St., Texas, and Baylor have all been really good at times this year, but I wouldn’t say that they’re clearly better than the Owls.<\/p>\n

The Big Ten was supposed have a great year.\u00a0 I would give you Ohio St., Michigan St. and even a Hummel-less Purdue, but I would probably take the Owls over Wisconsin and definitely over Illinois.<\/p>\n

What about the so-called mid-majors?\u00a0 Gonzaga and Butler are outstanding, but would they win the A-10?\u00a0 Probably, but\u00a0not definitely.\u00a0 The Mountain West four good teams, but only BYU and New Mexico are even in the conversation, and it’s an interesting argument.<\/p>\n

So, in recap, though the Owls do not really appear to be an “elite” team this year, we may have to consider the field against which they will be pit in two weeks.\u00a0 If Syracuse, Kansas, and Kentucky are clear #1-seeds.\u00a0 Barring any disasters down the stretch, Duke, Ohio St., Villanova, and Kansas St. will all be ahead of Temple on the ole S-curve.\u00a0 But, after that, it’s hard to imagine that, with all the conference cannibalism that is bound to happen in the next two weeks, do you really think that there are 9 more teams out of a jumble of Tennessee, Michigan St., New Mexico, Gonzaga, etc., will be seeded above the Owls?\u00a0 Maybe, but maybe not.\u00a0 Which means, that if our boys take care of business in AC next week, we could be watching the Owls wear white for not only the first round, but possibly for the entire first weekend.<\/p>\n

They have definitely picked a pretty good year to have a pretty good year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, as the resident die-hard Temple fan among my friends, I always have to answer questions for Temple and the A-10, in general.\u00a0 Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to two of my friends (fans of St. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-hoops","tag-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}