The Mid Major Thread

[ericd7633]

It seems as though we have threads dedicated to the Power 6 conferences and nothing for the Mid Major leagues. For the sake of this thread, I'd like to exclude leagues that historically receive more than 1 bid per year to the NCAA Tournament, because of that the AAC, A-10, Mtn. West and WCC should have their own thread if anyone is interesting in starting one.

I really wanted to do this, because I noticed there were a number of mid major teams, from historically 1 bid leagues that have gotten off to great starts. I know OOC play is halfway over, so the chance for some of these teams to pull upsets will lessen, but I still think these teams are worth following into their respective conference play.

Just some things I've noticed thus far:

Out of the A-Sun, Lipscomb is off to a 5-1 start(against D1 teams). Three true road wins @TCU, @SMU, and @Morehead St. Still have road games @Clemson, @UL, and @Belmont. Not only have they played well thus far, this is a really fun team to watch. They get up and down(avg. 83 ppg), and have one of the best mid major players in the country in guard Garrison Mathews, who could eclipse 2,500 career points this season.

Out of the Big South, Radford, fresh off a tournament appearance last year is off to a 3-1 start(against D1 teams). Including a true road win @Notre Dame. Carlik Jones, who you may remember sent the Highlanders to the tournament with his buzzer beater against Liberty as a Freshman, is off to a fantastic start to his sophomore season avg. almost 20 ppg. Certainly is a name to look out for in the Big South this season.

C-USA is off to a promising start. And not from the teams you'd expect. I'm sure most of us expected Western Kentucky(based on talent), MTSU(based on program) and Marshall(based on winning the C-USA CG, and beating Wichita State in the tournament) to battle it out for the top spot in the league this year. And while that still may be the case. Some other teams have gotten off to good starts. North Texas is 5-0(against D1 teams) Florida Atlantic is 5-1(against D1 teams) and La. Tech is 3-2(against D1 teams) with a win over Wichita State and close losses to LSU and UNC-Greensboro.

Out of the MAC, Buffalo has picked up right where they left off last year, and even then some. Buffalo is 5-0 with a win @WVU and has a couple big games later in the OOC with games against Syracuse and Marquette. There is a real shot to pick up an at-large, should someone else win the conference tournament. Who might be able to knock off Buffalo. Kent State is off to a good start 4-1(against D1 teams) with a road win @Vandy. Toledo is 4-1(against D1 teams), and don't sleep on Ball State despite the 3-3 record. They've lost to Purdue, Virginia Tech and Alabama, but my guess is they are the biggest challenger to Buffalo.

Out of the Ohio Valley, it appears it's another two team race between Belmont and Murray State. This has turned into a really good rivalry ever since Belmont joined the league a couple years back. Belmont already has wins against solid mid major programs in Illinois St, MTSU and Lipscomb and they still have to play @Samford, @UCLA, vs. WKU and @Purdue. If they can manage an upset(most notably against UCLA/Purdue) entering the at-large discussion is a real possibility.

And finally, one other noticeable thing I wanted to touch base on was how good the So Con has been this year. Just a tremendous start for the top half of the league thus far. Furman is 4-0(against D1 teams) with road wins @Nova and @Loyola(Ch). Samford is off to a 6-1 start(against D1 teams) with it's lone loss coming @Ohio State, a game in which they lead at half. And UNC-Greensboro is 5-1(against D1 teams) for a team coming off a tournament appearance last year, that gave Gonzaga all it could in the 1st round.

There's obviously a ton more of great things happening at the mid major level, but I wanted to get this up and running to really keep track, and see if it's viable for one or even a couple of these historic one bid leagues to have a chance at getting two in the bracket.

Feel free to post anything relevant to the topic in this thread. I know I will. I'll also post some important upcoming games when necessary, and instead of starting up the tournament threads, I'll post them into this thread, once conference tournament season rolls around, so the main board doesn't get cluttered with them.

 

[jontaejones]

It's going to be tough for those schools to secure at-large because there's just so darn many bad teams in their league that their RPI is going to sink like a rock every time they lose in conference.

However, the MAC is a pretty good league and could send 2 this year.

MVC as a whole is playing well and could send 2, but it's not clear who the at-large would be.

 

[douggie]

There are currently eight active NCAA Title holders in Division I Basketball. Coach K, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Tom Izzo, Jay Wright, Bill Self, and John Calipari. The other coach? He coaches a small university in the Big South Conference and he's in his first season there. Tubby Smith! Keep an eye on the Panthers of High Point University. Not so much this season but watch how they do.

 

[ericd7633]

It's going to be tough for those schools to secure at-large because there's just so darn many bad teams in their league that their RPI is going to sink like a rock every time they lose in conference.

However, the MAC is a pretty good league and could send 2 this year.

MVC as a whole is playing well and could send 2, but it's not clear who the at-large would be.

It's probably gonna take one of these teams being a 1/2 loss team in conference. The So Con looks very intriguing to me.

 

[Hitman Hart]

It seems as though we have threads dedicated to the Power 6 conferences and nothing for the Mid Major leagues. For the sake of this thread, I'd like to exclude leagues that historically receive more than 1 bid per year to the NCAA Tournament, because of that the AAC, A-10, Mtn. West and WCC should have their own thread if anyone is interesting in starting one.

I really wanted to do this, because I noticed there were a number of mid major teams, from historically 1 bid leagues that have gotten off to great starts. I know OOC play is halfway over, so the chance for some of these teams to pull upsets will lessen, but I still think these teams are worth following into their respective conference play.

Just some things I've noticed thus far:

Out of the A-Sun, Lipscomb is off to a 5-1 start(against D1 teams). Three true road wins @TCU, @SMU, and @Morehead St. Still have road games @Clemson, @UL, and @Belmont. Not only have they played well thus far, this is a really fun team to watch. They get up and down(avg. 83 ppg), and have one of the best mid major players in the country in guard Garrison Mathews, who could eclipse 2,500 career points this season.

Out of the Big South, Radford, fresh off a tournament appearance last year is off to a 3-1 start(against D1 teams). Including a true road win @Notre Dame. Carlik Jones, who you may remember sent the Highlanders to the tournament with his buzzer beater against Liberty as a Freshman, is off to a fantastic start to his sophomore season avg. almost 20 ppg. Certainly is a name to look out for in the Big South this season.

C-USA is off to a promising start. And not from the teams you'd expect. I'm sure most of us expected Western Kentucky(based on talent), MTSU(based on program) and Marshall(based on winning the C-USA CG, and beating Wichita State in the tournament) to battle it out for the top spot in the league this year. And while that still may be the case. Some other teams have gotten off to good starts. North Texas is 5-0(against D1 teams) Florida Atlantic is 5-1(against D1 teams) and La. Tech is 3-2(against D1 teams) with a win over Wichita State and close losses to LSU and UNC-Greensboro.

Out of the MAC, Buffalo has picked up right where they left off last year, and even then some. Buffalo is 5-0 with a win @WVU and has a couple big games later in the OOC with games against Syracuse and Marquette. There is a real shot to pick up an at-large, should someone else win the conference tournament. Who might be able to knock off Buffalo. Kent State is off to a good start 4-1(against D1 teams) with a road win @Vandy. Toledo is 4-1(against D1 teams), and don't sleep on Ball State despite the 3-3 record. They've lost to Purdue, Virginia Tech and Alabama, but my guess is they are the biggest challenger to Buffalo.

Out of the Ohio Valley, it appears it's another two team race between Belmont and Murray State. This has turned into a really good rivalry ever since Belmont joined the league a couple years back. Belmont already has wins against solid mid major programs in Illinois St, MTSU and Lipscomb and they still have to play @Samford, @UCLA, vs. WKU and @Purdue. If they can manage an upset(most notably against UCLA/Purdue) entering the at-large discussion is a real possibility.

And finally, one other noticeable thing I wanted to touch base on was how good the So Con has been this year. Just a tremendous start for the top half of the league thus far. Furman is 4-0(against D1 teams) with road wins @Nova and @Loyola(Ch). Samford is off to a 6-1 start(against D1 teams) with it's lone loss coming @Ohio State, a game in which they lead at half. And UNC-Greensboro is 5-1(against D1 teams) for a team coming off a tournament appearance last year, that gave Gonzaga all it could in the 1st round.

There's obviously a ton more of great things happening at the mid major level, but I wanted to get this up and running to really keep track, and see if it's viable for one or even a couple of these historic one bid leagues to have a chance at getting two in the bracket.

Feel free to post anything relevant to the topic in this thread. I know I will. I'll also post some important upcoming games when necessary, and instead of starting up the tournament threads, I'll post them into this thread, once conference tournament season rolls around, so the main board doesn't get cluttered with them.

I want Wes Miller and the AD @ Furman to get well acquainted w/ each other

Furman's AD is probably Wake Forest's next AD

 

[BoiseStateFan27]

Conference USA has definitely started off strong and could manage multiple at-large bids...hopefully they pull that off

So-Con looks good too but Furman, UNC-Greensboro and Samford need to keep playing well OOC and in-conference only lose to each other

 

[ericd7633]

This Belmont/Samford game is fantastic.

 

[rmilia1]

Good win for Belmont . Samford looked really good

 

[ericd7633]

Good win for Belmont . Samford looked really good

If they can manage a split with UCLA/Purdue, they have a great chance to get an at-large assuming they only take on a couple losses in OVC play. They average around 3 losses since they moved to the OVC so not out of the question. Would be really great to see a league like this get an at-large should Belmont need it.

 

[rmilia1]

If they can manage a split with UCLA/Purdue, they have a great chance to get an at-large assuming they only take on a couple losses in OVC play. They average around 3 losses since they moved to the OVC so not out of the question. Would be really great to see a league like this get an at-large should Belmont need it.

They've earned the benefit of the doubt imo. Murray State has looked pretty solid so far too. OVC should be interesting this year

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Conference USA has definitely started off strong and could manage multiple at-large bids...hopefully they pull that off

So-Con looks good too but Furman, UNC-Greensboro and Samford need to keep playing well OOC and in-conference only lose to each other

If WKU can get their act together, I think that they'll take the conference. But the last three halves of basketball they've played, they haven't looked good at all. I'm surprised that Stansbury is still there honestly and can lure in 5* recruits (even though one decided not to show up last year) at that type of school. I figure he'll definitely be picked up by a P5 school for next season.

 

[ericd7633]

Radford beats Texas in Austin. WOW. Now has wins over Texas and Notre Dame.

 

[ericd7633]

Sneaky good game tomorrow morning between #21 Buffalo(6-0) vs. San Francisco(6-0)(against D1 teams)

 

[Hitman Hart]

UNCG is easily the best team in the triad

 

[ericd7633]

UNCG is easily the best team in the triad

Up by 3 on UK at the half.

 

[ericd7633]

Furman ranked in the top 25. Can't remember the last time a So Con team was ranked? @Hitman Hart ?

 

[Hitman Hart]

Furman ranked in the top 25. Can't remember the last time a So Con team was ranked? @Hitman Hart ?

first time since Steph Curry's final year @ Davidson

Davidson isn't even in the SoCon anymore

pretty interesting. Furman's AD is a Wake Forest alum and Wellman has to retire sometime. Wake should probably just hire Furman's AD and HC in March as a package deal.

 

[The Q]

Is this where I have to post about UConn now?

FML

 

[rmilia1]

Belmont beats Lipscomb again . First was in OT, last night was by 2

 

[Fitbud]

I'm not expecting UTEP to have a shot at the tournament this year but they did lose by only 7 at Marquette last night.

I'm pretty stoked about that. The nightmare that was Tim Floyd is over.