Who are the most disappointing teams thus far in college basketball?
1. ACC: North Carolina. They have been pretty unimpressive so far, with a couple of disappointing losses to Iowa and Butler in particular. No shame in losing to UK by double digits, but I thought they really needed that win against ND the other night. The game against UL tomorrow is a near must win to get back on track. I am rooting for the refs myself in that one.
2. Big 12: K-State. They were supposed to be pretty solid this year after making it to the tourney last year as a 9 seed and giving UK a decent (UGLY) game in the first round before our fun run of 4 straight glorious games after that one.
3. Big East: St. John's. What can you say? They are 0-3 in conference, and it will not get much easier coming up, including a home contest OOC against Duke.
4. Big Ten: Tie for Nebraska/Michigan. MSU seems to be turning the corner, so they are off this list for now, but Nebraska was pre-season top 25 and has never looked the part. Michigan lost quite a bit from last year's Elite 8 team, but losing to NJIT and some of their other embarrassing losses have honestly surprised me. They are 2-1 in conference, and could somehow get in, but a long way to go.
5. Pac 12: UCLA. Great win last night over Stanford, but way too little too late. They are 9-7, and lost 5 in a row, before last night's win. UK broke them, I honestly believe that. It has snowballed since then, but to be honest they were not that good before the UK game, just had played and beat a lot of weak teams.
6. SEC: Florida. Like UCLA they had a great conference win over SC the other night on the road, but have a long way to go. They are just 8-6, and appear to have two cupcake games coming up against MSU and Auburn at home, but after that it will be on with a pretty tough SEC schedule with games @UK, @UGA, @LSU, @Bama and @Ole Miss. They also have UK, Arkansas and LSU coming to Gainsville...so some chance to get good to great to season changing home victories (LSU, Ark and UK respectively). They are not dead yet, but still a long way to go.
Others: American conference: Memphis and UCONN. Pastner looks done, but I hear the buyout is tough. Ollie has bought himself 5 years or more after last year, and they play in that cupcake conference so I would not be surprised if they win the regular season and/or the conference tourney.
Any I missed guys? I may also do a list of surprising teams and teams that are pretenders.
1. ACC: North Carolina. They have been pretty unimpressive so far, with a couple of disappointing losses to Iowa and Butler in particular. No shame in losing to UK by double digits, but I thought they really needed that win against ND the other night. The game against UL tomorrow is a near must win to get back on track. I am rooting for the refs myself in that one.
2. Big 12: K-State. They were supposed to be pretty solid this year after making it to the tourney last year as a 9 seed and giving UK a decent (UGLY) game in the first round before our fun run of 4 straight glorious games after that one.
3. Big East: St. John's. What can you say? They are 0-3 in conference, and it will not get much easier coming up, including a home contest OOC against Duke.
4. Big Ten: Tie for Nebraska/Michigan. MSU seems to be turning the corner, so they are off this list for now, but Nebraska was pre-season top 25 and has never looked the part. Michigan lost quite a bit from last year's Elite 8 team, but losing to NJIT and some of their other embarrassing losses have honestly surprised me. They are 2-1 in conference, and could somehow get in, but a long way to go.
5. Pac 12: UCLA. Great win last night over Stanford, but way too little too late. They are 9-7, and lost 5 in a row, before last night's win. UK broke them, I honestly believe that. It has snowballed since then, but to be honest they were not that good before the UK game, just had played and beat a lot of weak teams.
6. SEC: Florida. Like UCLA they had a great conference win over SC the other night on the road, but have a long way to go. They are just 8-6, and appear to have two cupcake games coming up against MSU and Auburn at home, but after that it will be on with a pretty tough SEC schedule with games @UK, @UGA, @LSU, @Bama and @Ole Miss. They also have UK, Arkansas and LSU coming to Gainsville...so some chance to get good to great to season changing home victories (LSU, Ark and UK respectively). They are not dead yet, but still a long way to go.
Others: American conference: Memphis and UCONN. Pastner looks done, but I hear the buyout is tough. Ollie has bought himself 5 years or more after last year, and they play in that cupcake conference so I would not be surprised if they win the regular season and/or the conference tourney.
Any I missed guys? I may also do a list of surprising teams and teams that are pretenders.
