I'm sure, deep down, this makes you happy.
Georgia Southern only lost to Georgia State by 6 yesterday in the Sun Belt semifinals. Georgia State won the SB tournament today by 13 over UT-Arlington.
I'm assuming Tya was a bit tongue in cheek with talking about the A-10, which is a vastly superior conference than the SoCon. Two at-large bids speaks volumes. I think we can all agree though that the CAA, Sun Belt and SoCon are all in the same neighborhood with I think the Sun Belt being the worst of the three. The fact their conference champion had well over 20 wins and is a 15 seed is probably pretty disheartening to the league as a whole.
Based on last SoCon notes, the league went 8-1 vs. CAA, 3-3 vs. Sun Belt, 1-2 against Conference USA and 1-5 against the Atlantic 10 if we are looking at Davidson's, Georgia Southern's, Charleston's and Marshall's conferences.
That is the scenario that I thought might have gotten us in the NIT. It is obvious the SoCon is not respected as a good basketball conference. Our teams have to get a quality win or two to have a chance as post season play.fufanatic wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:21 amWhat I would love to know is if ETSU and Furman were even mentioned in the NIT bracket selection room. I know the SoCon missed its chance at an auto bid to the NIT when UNCG won both the regular season and tourney titles, but that would be a big step for the league if our 2nd or 3rd teams could get an at-large bid in the NIT. If Furman beats Tennessee, doesn't lose to The Citadel and loses in the SoCon finals, I wonder if it would have had a shot?
The SoCon was 8-1 versus the CAA this season, but the success can be attributed to an unintentional scheduling quirk. Seven of the 8 wins were against CAA teams that finished 6th through 10th. The best win was Furman's 78-67 win over Northeastern (RPI 55) on 11/25. The lone CAA win was Charleston over WCU on 11/30. Furman and UNCG own 6 of the 8 SoCon wins against the CAA, so it was sort of a top versus bottom schedule. I hope we continue to play teams from the CAA, particularly Charleston, Elon, William & Mary and UNCW. I believe the CAA is an excellent benchmark for the SoCon.
The SoCon is similar to the MAAC at the top of the conference at least - Furman's drubbing by St. Peter's last year notwithstanding. There have been a few years where the leaguge champion did not win the league tournament and therefore did not get the automatic bid and both teams got into the Big Dance , much less the NIT. But the non autogman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:32 amThat is the scenario that I thought might have gotten us in the NIT. It is obvious the SoCon is not respected as a good basketball conference. Our teams have to get a quality win or two to have a chance as post season play.fufanatic wrote: ↑Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:21 amWhat I would love to know is if ETSU and Furman were even mentioned in the NIT bracket selection room. I know the SoCon missed its chance at an auto bid to the NIT when UNCG won both the regular season and tourney titles, but that would be a big step for the league if our 2nd or 3rd teams could get an at-large bid in the NIT. If Furman beats Tennessee, doesn't lose to The Citadel and loses in the SoCon finals, I wonder if it would have had a shot?
Nope, I've carefully examined my first post and still don't see where I made a reference to Davidson or the A10. Maybe somebody else has a better microscope. Or perhaps they held a seance.tya1 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 11, 2018 5:44 pm
Georgia Southern only lost to Georgia State by 6 yesterday in the Sun Belt semifinals. Georgia State won the SB tournament today by 13 over UT-Arlington.
UNCG, ETSU, and Furman all have higher Pomeroy ratings than Charleston, Marshall, or Georgia Southern. Georgia State too for that matter.
Looks like our ex-SoCon buddies were successful in their search for weaker conferences they could win.
