ESPN was devastated when WCC opted out of Big Monday to go to the Thurs/Sat model
Frank Anselem
- Thread starter jdavispirates
- Start date
I'm not comparing NOW. Go back 20 years ago to when Few took over. They were not Household name and were not a destination school. He's built that. This year was an anomaly. WCC is usually no more than a 2 bid league. Pitino gets some players the next couple years, starts making some NCAA noise and he'll get TV exposure. This whole conversation started by pointing out that we can't use the practice facility as an excuse. Pitino will get high level recruits despite Iona's facility, conference and school because of his recruiting ability. You can talk about strippers, payments etc.but you can't deny he's a great coach and recruiter. Talk to me in 2 years.
WCC just had their best median season in 20 years or so...programs 4-6 are really on the rise and would smoke MAAC easily
The Gonzaga example is a very interesting one. My cousins have lived in Spokane for 30+ years and all went to Gonzaga Prep with a couple of them going to Gonzaga U. I can say I’ve seen a couple games out there over the holidays back in 2000-2002 when they were just earning their brand name. They packed the house during the week between Christmas. Packed. And my cousins used to travel to see them all the time during the NCAA’s. They have absolutely huge fan dedication and the alumni and city all follow closely. Of course, basketball and skiing/snowing are everything out there.
Made me think of UConn’s fans after the team established itself in the early 90’s.
Made me think of UConn’s fans after the team established itself in the early 90’s.
Monson is a great example of a coach leaving for the big name and making a huge mistake.
Probably true, but he got sold a bill of good in Minnesota and they were not transparent with him after the Clem Haskins fisasco. Little Rick has been treated much better there.
I wish I could make multi million dollar mistakes like they do. I wonder how many coaches leave for the big bucks and aren't so unhappy that they got millions but only had to endure the grind for another 5 years before they were fired and are now financially secure forever.
This is the first year in a long time that they had any other teams besides St Mary and zags. Other than BYU this year who else is any good?
Pacific and San Francisco probably the next best rosters and profiles, san fran was a top 90 NET team...wcc had 6 teams win at least 20 games, MAAC had 1...my point that I have been advocating is that WCC top to bottom getting better, showed it this season and they are a far superior league vs MAAC
MAAC quality has gone down hill last five years... you don’t even need an array of metrics. If you follow northeast college hoops, you just know.
Kenpom
Gonzaga 31-2 15-1 +26.95
BYU 24-8 13-3 +20.68
Saint Mary's 26-8 11-5 +15.19
Pacific 23-10 11-5 +4.70
San Francisco 22-12 9-7 +10.13
Pepperdine 16-16 8-8 +2.87
Santa Clara 20-13 6-10 +1.22
Loyola Marymount 11-21 4-12 -3.42
San Diego 9-23 2-14 -5.38
Portland 9-23 1-15 -9.93
The MAAC is a bottom tier league at this point. Comparing it to the WCC, even if you excluded Gonzaga, is laughable. In 2018-19 four teams shared the best overall record (two at 17-16 and two at 16-15). This past year at least Siena made it to 20 wins.
In 2015-16 and 2016-17 Monmouth had 27 wins on Selection Sunday and didn't get an at-large bid. The 2015-16 team had wins at UCLA, Georgetown and Rutgers and neutral site wins over Notre Dame and USC.
And just to think that could easily have been SH in the MAAC if it weren’t for Bill Eyres and Richie Regan.
There were St Peter’s fans back then who thought they deserved the spot. And at that point in time, it wasn’t far-fetched.
I wish we still played SPU every year. I liked playing them all the time and when they had players like Kee Kee Clark it was fun.
Thanks indeed! no doubt when you think back our real rivals when I arrived in 78-79 were Manhattan, SPC, Fairfield, Fordham. All MAAC originals and we had much in common with all of them. Right place, right time and thanks to those who said no as well- they changed SHU history.
