For most of Conference USA's "rebirthed existence" Memphis played big time basketball. The rest of the conference didn't. Why sugarcoat the reality that Conference USA in the blink of an eye transformed from a conference on par with the Big East, Big 12 and maybe even the ACC to a mere one-bid league; a league that was fodder for the Memphis Tigers much the same way that the WCC fed Gonzaga or the old Big West existed seemingly only to fatten the Jerry Tarkanian-bred UNLV calves.
Consider this. Prior to last season Memphis had gone more than three years without dropping a single conference game. The rest of the league were just Idahos to Calipari's Boise State.
A year ago, in a domino of circumstances, Calipari left for the greener pastures of the blue-er grass (Kentucky, not Boise State's smurf turf), the nation's best recruiting class evaporated right before 32-year old rookie head coach Josh Pastner's eyes, four or five schools boasted junior and senior dominated quality rosters. Suddenly Conference USA was living up to the first part of their name, a "conference" once again.
The stars were beginning to align for C-USA. If not "stars", at least 3 and 4-star recruits and programs led by NCAA Tournament experienced coaches. UTEP and Derrick Carachter gave Butler a tough game in the opening round of the NCAA tourney. Houston, buoyed by Aubrey Coleman and their surprising conference tourney run vaulted a second team into the Big Dance. The conference was full of solid ball clubs. While Memphis had their "down year" they still were a bubble team through most of February and headed to the NIT along with solid Tulsa and UAB teams. Even the lower portion of the league was beginning to blossom. UCF looked to be a program on the rise, not just in notoriety with the arrival of both MJ progeny, but also in ability of play. Marshall boasted 7-foot freshman sensation Hassan Whiteside and played eventual Final Four participant WVU to within a bucket in their own gym. Seven or eight teams could be considered legitimate postseason possibilities.
In short, C-USA was making a case (though clearly still behind the A-10) to be the best "non-BCS" league in the country.
Flash forward to the opening weekend of the 2010-2011 season and the shine is already beginning to tarnish. Sadly, for a league that appeared to be on the cusp of a breakthrough, it might be closer to slipping back to "Memphis AND...." territory.
Three of the better non-Memphis teams stumbled mightily out of the gate. Houston needed OT to eek out a 1-point win over Nicholls State. And they were the bright spot.
UTEP, considered to be among the conference's leading contenders for "multiple bid" status lost at home... to Pacific. Tulsa answered the question of "how will they fare losing Jerome Jordan and Ben Uzoh" with a resounding "ouch", dropping a home game to Appalachian State.
In the spirit of fairness, there were a few bright spots. UCF looks like a team that continues to move towards viability with a new arena, a new coach, and two of the best classes in school history with their sophomores and this year's incoming freshman class. Southern Miss and Coach Eustachey (yes, the same guy who took Iowa State to within a game of the Final Four) took his Golden Eagles to Tampa and knocked off BEast also ran South Florida.
Only time will tell if the conference can continue to emerge or if it fades back into the insignificance that has plagued it for most of the latter half of the decade. Fortunatly, unlike it's football counterpart, first impressions are simply that in the world of college hoops. That said, C-USA's first impression in 2010 is one the "13 dwarfs" would sure prefer to do over.
. Tweet
First Quick Picks of the Season
After three straight years at 55%+ against the number, the Maniac will once again wade into the realm of fearless forecasting.
In the early game on ESPN U we get our first peek at the Maryland Terps sans do-everything physical and emotional leader Greivies Vasquez. Vasquez has graduated on to the NBA and leaves Maryland with some legitimate questions as to where their offensive production will come from this season.
They open the season with a tricky game hosting a program with the talent to win the SoCon and make some noise in March in the Charleston Cougars. You might recall the Cougars led by Andrew Goudelock delivered the first "uh oh" in North Carolina's eventual woeful 2010. Granted, none of us knew at the time that the Heels were quite that bad, but the point is Charleston will not be the least bit intimidated heading up to College Park after slaying the Heels in Chapel Hill.
Look for Maryland to be pushed until late in the game, which is actually a great thing for a team projected as no better than a bubble team to begin to mold their 2010-2011 identity.
Gimme Charleston and the 14.5.
The late game features Texas hosting another sneaky team, Louisiana Tech. Tech raced out to a 14-1 start last year and got sime votes un the polls before fading down the stretch Texas lost a bevy of talent from last years colossal umderachieving club...but that might actually be a good thing. They do still have Jordan Hamilton who has the potential to emerge as a Big 12 POY candidate. Also returning is finally-healthy PG Dogus Balbay. Balbay has significant limitations offensively, but us a steady ballhandler, good distributor and one of the top on-the-ball defenders in the nation. Mist importantly the Longhorns and Rick Barnes a chance to get last year's sour taste out of their mouths and begin to play up to their considerable talent level.
Look for Texas to apply smothering defense and pull away from a game Tech squad in the second half. However, 22 points is a lot to lay against a solid mid/low major with some veteran ballplayers this early in the season, particularly with Texas still finding their offensive identity.
Texas wins, but I'll take LA Tech and the 22 points.
Lastly, Pitt takes the court for the second time this season tonight against Horizon league foe Illinois Chicago. Pitt was pushed until the final minutes against Rhode Island Monday night in a game that was highlighted by an uncharacteristically high number of missed layups by the Panthers. Add in the fact that the Rams plays a uniquely quick tempo predicated on full court trapping defense and an efficient 3-point bomb squad, and it makes for a really tough season opener. I walked away less concerned about Pitt and more convinced the A-10 is once again legitimately five or six teams deep. I haven't seen Xavier it Temple yet, but at first blush the Rams have the size and shooting to finish higher than their projected sixth place in the A-10. Alas, that is another column for another day...
Pitt will settle in a little bit tonight with Wannamaker and Gibbs controlling the pace and flow of the ballgame against an undersized and outmanned Flames squad.
Gimme Pitt in a much better second performance, laying the 21 points.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
In the early game on ESPN U we get our first peek at the Maryland Terps sans do-everything physical and emotional leader Greivies Vasquez. Vasquez has graduated on to the NBA and leaves Maryland with some legitimate questions as to where their offensive production will come from this season.
They open the season with a tricky game hosting a program with the talent to win the SoCon and make some noise in March in the Charleston Cougars. You might recall the Cougars led by Andrew Goudelock delivered the first "uh oh" in North Carolina's eventual woeful 2010. Granted, none of us knew at the time that the Heels were quite that bad, but the point is Charleston will not be the least bit intimidated heading up to College Park after slaying the Heels in Chapel Hill.
Look for Maryland to be pushed until late in the game, which is actually a great thing for a team projected as no better than a bubble team to begin to mold their 2010-2011 identity.
Gimme Charleston and the 14.5.
The late game features Texas hosting another sneaky team, Louisiana Tech. Tech raced out to a 14-1 start last year and got sime votes un the polls before fading down the stretch Texas lost a bevy of talent from last years colossal umderachieving club...but that might actually be a good thing. They do still have Jordan Hamilton who has the potential to emerge as a Big 12 POY candidate. Also returning is finally-healthy PG Dogus Balbay. Balbay has significant limitations offensively, but us a steady ballhandler, good distributor and one of the top on-the-ball defenders in the nation. Mist importantly the Longhorns and Rick Barnes a chance to get last year's sour taste out of their mouths and begin to play up to their considerable talent level.
Look for Texas to apply smothering defense and pull away from a game Tech squad in the second half. However, 22 points is a lot to lay against a solid mid/low major with some veteran ballplayers this early in the season, particularly with Texas still finding their offensive identity.
Texas wins, but I'll take LA Tech and the 22 points.
Lastly, Pitt takes the court for the second time this season tonight against Horizon league foe Illinois Chicago. Pitt was pushed until the final minutes against Rhode Island Monday night in a game that was highlighted by an uncharacteristically high number of missed layups by the Panthers. Add in the fact that the Rams plays a uniquely quick tempo predicated on full court trapping defense and an efficient 3-point bomb squad, and it makes for a really tough season opener. I walked away less concerned about Pitt and more convinced the A-10 is once again legitimately five or six teams deep. I haven't seen Xavier it Temple yet, but at first blush the Rams have the size and shooting to finish higher than their projected sixth place in the A-10. Alas, that is another column for another day...
Pitt will settle in a little bit tonight with Wannamaker and Gibbs controlling the pace and flow of the ballgame against an undersized and outmanned Flames squad.
Gimme Pitt in a much better second performance, laying the 21 points.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The Biggest Winners
I sat down next to her, and watched as two teams of morbidly obese people competed in a marine-style training relay race. The winner of the contest was to receive phone calls to home. Not a cash prize, but one infinitely more valuable to a group of people who had been separated from their homes for nearly two months. As a sports fan, it would have been pretty easy to chuckle at 400 pound men and 250 pound women "running" thought an obstacle course.
But I didn't laugh. It was actually pretty spell-binding. At the end of the "race" as the exhausted victors stumbled to the edge of the water on the beach-bound victory tape, they mobbed each other with a teary eyed enthusiasm and unbridled jubilation that made me think instantly of one thing; a buzzer beater in March.
I looked over to my wife and said, "That." She looked at me. "That. Is why I love sports. THAT moment. You don't get those moments many other places in life. Not in the way that sports provides." She nodded pensively.
More specifically, no other sport provides more of those raw, jubilant and heartbreaking moments than college basketball. No other sport is so perfectly wired to deliver magical brief glimpses, slivers of snapshots when an ordinary kid can become immortal. No other sport is built in a way that caters to the split-second that feels like hours while a ball hangs in the air; perilously dancing the fine line between jubilation and despair. Nothing quite delivers life like college basketball.
 |
I'm a happy guy by and large, no major complaints. Hopefully you, whomever and wherever you are, can say the same. My life's pretty good. So let's admit together that we aren't disparaging our largely pleasant experiences as humans when we say "my life doesn't give me that very often." The dramatic, gasp-out-loud unbridled, racing for someone to hug ebullience that can often only be safely found in the world of sports. That's why we watch. Not just for the excitement, not just for the diversion, but for the chance; the chance with far greater odds than holding a lotto ticket, that today, maybe, just maybe we will experience something we can truly call a memory. That magical moment.
I played an interesting game with my mother a few months ago. I challenged her to pick any year from 1984 forward and bet her I could name exactly WHERE I was during every Final Four. In the blink of an eye, no matter how old I am I can always be fourteen years old, sitting in the roof of the Louisiana Superdome next to my father chattering feverishly that Michigan is out of timeouts, Michigan is OUT of TIMEOUTS long before the crowd around us has figured out what just transpired. (Sorry Chris Webber but the law of instant jubilation and immortality must, by law, also carry the equal and opposite effect as well.) Impressively or perhaps sadly, depending upon whether you harbor my or my wife perspective on the feat, I nailed every single year without hesitation. When my Mom asked me how many of my college professors I could name, I couldn't quickly recall a single one. No offense to my beloved UCF (ranked in the top 25 in football for the first time EVER today!), but the mind is an amazing device. It anchors to what we love and only very reluctantly and under the intense pressure of age does it ever let go. It is passion that forges in iron what otherwise is merely written on paper. It is emotion that moves us once and never lets go.
It was then watching The Biggest Loser with my wife that I realized who the biggest winners are; those of us who through blessing, persistence or some combination of the two find something that evokes a passion and zeal inside of us. Whether it's our job, an activity, our family or simply a hobby or diversion - something that delivers life. For many of you reading, for many of "us", that passion surges back to the surface a little bit tonight on ESPN at 7pm.
I sat next to my wife and watched the rest of the show with her. As it finished, she turned to me and said "THAT'S why I love this show. The exact same reasons." I smiled at her and nodded, knowing we had each to grown to know the other a little deeper that day. I gave her a kiss on the cheek as the closing credits rolled, and she looked at me and smiled. She grabbed the remote and quickly flipped over to ESPN... after all, it is college basketball season.
Tweet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)