The AAC currently has 5 teams in the top 25

[cm5yz6]

S Florida, RPI 151
Temple, RPI 178
Houston, RPI 180
Rutgers, RPI 195
UCF, RPI 218

Wow, just wow, these teams would certainly be top half in the SWAC but probably have a tough time winning it.

Edit:

Tulsa, RPI 135
E Carolina, RPI 198
Tulane, RPI 219

The thing is that I would bet most AAC fans are quite ok with a bad bottom half when it results in 5 top 25 and 5 NCAA tourney teams. Thats one way to set up a basketball conference that gets teams in the tournament. No reason to look down on something that works. Notedly, the AAC will probably not get 5 in every year, looking like a 3-4 team league most years, with a flashpan 5 team league every now and then, but its definitely not a bad league.

Temples going to be just fine, tourney team 3-5 times a decade would be my guess.

[HoosierPal]

What the hell happened to Temple?

Temple got caught in the class imbalance issue, where they graduated most of their important players last year. Temple has only one Senior, their leading scorer Peppers, but everyone else will be back. I look for Temple to be in the upper half of the AAC next year, fighting for a tourney bid.

[stever20]

I think also kind of the bottom line, you ask most media folks who is having a better year right now, AAC or Big East, a majority of them if not almost all of them would say the AAC is having the better year. I think some people on here view seperation as a bad thing. It's not. It's also fairly normal. Of the 9 other 10 team conferences, 3 of the 9 have at least 1.5 conference games seperating 5 to 6.

[Bill Marsh]

What the hell happened to Temple?

Temple got caught in the class imbalance issue, where they graduated most of their important players last year. Temple has only one Senior, their leading scorer Peppers, but everyone else will be back. I look for Temple to be in the upper half of the AAC next year, fighting for a tourney bid.

What you're ignoring is that Temple has never recruited nationally. They've built their success historically with Philly kids and supplemented with nearby NJ, NY, MD recruits. Bringing in 2-3 star recruits was fine at the level of competition in the A10 but it won't be sufficient vs the talent level they'll meet vs UConn, Cincy, Memphis. So far, nothing has changed with their recruiting. Even with their run of 6 straight tournaments, they weren't getting out of the first weekend. They simply haven't had that level of talent.

[senditinjerome]

What you're ignoring is that Temple has never recruited nationally. They've built their success historically with Philly kids and supplemented with nearby NJ, NY, MD recruits. Bringing in 2-3 star recruits was fine at the level of competition in the A10 but it won't be sufficient vs the talent level they'll meet vs UConn, Cincy, Memphis. So far, nothing has changed with their recruiting. Even with their run of 6 straight tournaments, they weren't getting out of the first weekend. They simply haven't had that level of talent.

This is total B.S.

I know for a fact that Cheney pulled in a few McDonalds all-Americans during his tenure...Mark Macon (who was from Michigan) comes to mind. Rick Brunson, another McDonalds all-American was from Massachusetts.

[stever20]

What the hell happened to Temple?

Temple got caught in the class imbalance issue, where they graduated most of their important players last year. Temple has only one Senior, their leading scorer Peppers, but everyone else will be back. I look for Temple to be in the upper half of the AAC next year, fighting for a tourney bid.

What you're ignoring is that Temple has never recruited nationally. They've built their success historically with Philly kids and supplemented with nearby NJ, NY, MD recruits. Bringing in 2-3 star recruits was fine at the level of competition in the A10 but it won't be sufficient vs the talent level they'll meet vs UConn, Cincy, Memphis. So far, nothing has changed with their recruiting. Even with their run of 6 straight tournaments, they weren't getting out of the first weekend. They simply haven't had that level of talent.

Other teams haven't gotten out of the 1st weekend either. Unforutantely for me, one is Georgetown- last 6 tournaments, we've never gotten out.
Notre Dame hasn't gotten out of 1st weekend since 2003.

Temple had enough talent to make the elite 8 4 times in 14 years from 1988-2001.

[marquette]

These are expected RPI finishes. You can spin it however you want, but we will likely have a similar number of teams in the tourney. I tend to think that our top two will go further than any of their teams. Which league looks stronger when we have two in the sweet 16, one in the elite 8, and they all flamed out in the round of 32/64?


5 Villanova
11 Creighton
18 Cincinnati
27 Louisville
30 Memphis
31 UCONN
40 SMU
45 Xavier
54 Georgetown
62 Providence
69 St. John's
82 Marquette
126 Butler
128 Seton Hall
145 DePaul
174 South Florida
183 Temple
189 Houston
193 Rutgers
214 UCF

[Bill Marsh]

What you're ignoring is that Temple has never recruited nationally. They've built their success historically with Philly kids and supplemented with nearby NJ, NY, MD recruits. Bringing in 2-3 star recruits was fine at the level of competition in the A10 but it won't be sufficient vs the talent level they'll meet vs UConn, Cincy, Memphis. So far, nothing has changed with their recruiting. Even with their run of 6 straight tournaments, they weren't getting out of the first weekend. They simply haven't had that level of talent.

This is total B.S.

I know for a fact that Cheney pulled in a few McDonalds all-Americans during his tenure...Mark Macon (who was from Michigan) comes to mind. Rick Brunson, another McDonalds all-American was from Massachusetts.

I agree that things were different under Cheney. That's why he made it to 5 Elite 8's. But that run is the only time they've had that level of success in the last 50 years. It's been nothing like that for the last 13 years, so those days are long gone.

[stever20]

These are expected RPI finishes. You can spin it however you want, but we will likely have a similar number of teams in the tourney. I tend to think that our top two will go further than any of their teams. Which league looks stronger when we have two in the sweet 16, one in the elite 8, and they all flamed out in the round of 32/64?


5 Villanova
11 Creighton
18 Cincinnati
27 Louisville
30 Memphis
31 UCONN
40 SMU
45 Xavier
54 Georgetown
62 Providence
69 St. John's
82 Marquette
126 Butler
128 Seton Hall
145 DePaul
174 South Florida
183 Temple
189 Houston
193 Rutgers
214 UCF

If it winds up those RPI's- it'd be 5 to 3 as far as teams in the tourney(that's not similar at all). Also, that's not taking into account the conference tournament, which would elevate the top 5 AAC teams a lot. Cincy would if they won have beaten 31 UConn and 27 Louisville. That jacks them up a lot from #18. Louisville/Memphis winner would go up, and even UConn/SMU winner would go up. It would be a lot of hope that they all flame out. It's far from a guarantee. A lot of the tourney is just pure matchups.

[stever20]

What you're ignoring is that Temple has never recruited nationally. They've built their success historically with Philly kids and supplemented with nearby NJ, NY, MD recruits. Bringing in 2-3 star recruits was fine at the level of competition in the A10 but it won't be sufficient vs the talent level they'll meet vs UConn, Cincy, Memphis. So far, nothing has changed with their recruiting. Even with their run of 6 straight tournaments, they weren't getting out of the first weekend. They simply haven't had that level of talent.

This is total B.S.

I know for a fact that Cheney pulled in a few McDonalds all-Americans during his tenure...Mark Macon (who was from Michigan) comes to mind. Rick Brunson, another McDonalds all-American was from Massachusetts.

I agree that things were different under Cheney. That's why he made it to 5 Elite 8's. But that run is the only time they've had that level of success in the last 50 years. It's been nothing like that for the last 13 years, so those days are long gone.

As Larry Brown has shown at SMU- the right coach can get a program rolling pretty quickly. And I'd argue that Temple has a better base to build from than SMU by far.