Doggydaddy's Den: DoggyDaddy's Dailies 12/13/14

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A Daily look at scores from yesterday, a list of top performers in those games and of course a little opinion.

Either better in the morning or until UConn joins another conference depending on how you feel about it.

The AAC has been trashed by women's basketball fans all over the country, including by many fans of teams actually in the conference with the UConn fans among them. And for the most part it's all justified.

It's a hodgepodge of teams with no history with each other. It's dominated by the best team in the country. And the rest? There's a few good teams, a few bad teams, and a few in the middle - yet none of them have been successful in the tournament.

Other than having the best team in the country in the conference, the ACC sounds a lot like most of the other conferences in the power 5, conferences that everyone says are so much better.

But are they? Especially when you ask the question of how UConn would do in those other conferences. Would the games be more competitive and attractive to recruits? (not that I buy this reason for a recruit to pick a school)

I guess it depends on the conference.

Clearly the ACC is better than the AAC. They have 5 teams in the top twenty five in (4) Notre Dame, (6) North Carolina, (10) Louisville, (12) Duke and (22) Syracuse. They also have Florida State in the others receiving votes area (top 41). Other than that they have 10 teams that most like will not make the tourney.

Next is the SEC. Also better than the AAC. They have 6 teams in the top twenty five in (1) South Carolina, (5) Texas A&M, (8) Kentucky, (13) Tennessee, (18) Georgia and (22) Mississippi State. They also have University of Florida in the "others receiving votes" area.

Following them is the BIG 12. Also better than the AAC. They have 4 teams in the top twenty five in (3) Texas, (9) Baylor, (16) Oklahoma State and (20) West Virginia. Oklahoma is in the "others receiving votes" area.

After them is the Big Ten. Better than the AAC? Probably. They do have 5 teams in the top twenty five in (11) Maryland, (15) Nebraska, (19) Rutgers, (21) Michigan State and (24) Iowa. Northwestern and Michigan are in the "others receiving votes" area.

The last power conference is the PAC12. Three teams in the top twenty five. (7) Stanford, (14) Oregon State and (21)California. They also have Washington, Arizona State and Washington State in the "others receiving votes" area.

The AAC? They have UConn in the top 25 with South Florida and Tulane in the "others receiving votes" area.

Clearly the ACC, SEC and Big 12 are better than the AAC. I'm not convinced that the Big Ten and the Pac 12 are much better. Using Massey (great prediction site), South Florida, Tulane and Eastern Carolina are within 2-10 points against California, Oregon State, Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska ,Michigan State, Iowa. The gap is small and only a couple of good recruits away.

But the question is how would UConn do if they were in one of the other conferences?

Would they dominate as they did in the Big East? (I know, ND was right there with them the last few years) Would they dominate as they have so far in the AAC?

The very top of the conferences could give UConn a battle. Heck, Stanford just beat them. But the reality is even the top teams, at this point in time, would struggle to stay within 20 points. We just saw that with a weakened ND team.

As you know, I follow all of Division I basketball, looking at the scores and box scores of mostly the major conference teams for stories to link and outstanding performances by individuals in order to bring you all this information. On the way I see some interesting game results that show me that the AAC is not so far away from some of these conferences. Here are a few of those results.

AAC shows some promise

Tulane beat LSU and NCST. Yes, LSU is having a down year. But two great wins for the AAC.
East Carolina played ranked Syracuse tough before losing by 12.

South Florida only lost to #7 Kentucky by 4 points and an undefeated St. John's by 3.

SMU scared the crap out of #4 Texas A&M, losing by only 8.

SMU is led by freshman twins from Australia, 6'2" Keely and 6'3" Alicia Froling. In the #4 A&M game they both had double doubles. It's players like this that will allow the AAC to continue to grow.

Power Conference Teams Ain't All That

Kansas 62 #18 Cal 39
Boston College lost to Maine and Holy Cross
Penn State lost to Hartford
NCST lost to Tulane and George Washington
Wake Forest lost to Princeton......by 17

There are many, many other games played by the lower end of the Power 5 that show that the bad teams are just as bad in those conferences as they are in the AAC. And with a few more decent recruiting years? Tulsa, ECU and USF will find themselves in the tourney. Maybe sooner.

The conference I really want to focus on is the Big Ten. That is the most rumored destination for UConn if they leave the AAC. Would UConn have more of a challenge and therefore be more attractive to future recruits?

Here are the Massey predictions for point spread against UConn versus the Big Ten teams.

Rutgers - 26

Maryland - 20

Northwestern - 32

Nebraska - 26

Indiana - 39

Minnesota - 34

Michigan - 36

Michigan State - 30

Illinois - 39

Iowa - 27

Purdue - 31

Ohio State - 39

Wisconsin - 46

Penn State - 43

Wow...it's worse than I thought. And that is just Massey's average score after running a bunch of simulations.

Playing against the AAC teams would give you even worse spreads. But the argument that folks use for the problems in being in the AAC is that there are no competitive games, and recruits will see that and go elsewhere. I guess I would ask if there is really a difference in getting beaten by 30 or being beaten by 50? Enough of a difference to impact a recruiting decision by an Elite player? Doubtful.

Massey is a lot of fun to run simulations with.

Top Ten

South Carolina - 19

Texas - 21

ND - 9

Texas A&M - 24

North Carolina - 20

Stanford -

Kentucky - 21

Baylor - 14

Louisville - 17

Stanford - 18

Best of the Rest

Maryland - 19

Duke - 19

Tennessee - 21

I haven't forgotten Stanford (cough fluke, fluke) but there are only a few teams that can give UConn a game and UConn schedules most of them OOC. So, in my opinion, UConn will be fine as long as Geno is there, and I expect him to do this for a long time. And if UConn remains in the AAC, at least for WCBB, the other conference teams will improve as the Big East teams did from the late 90's until the conferences were realigned.

Now the football team? That is another story.........

So, without further ado!!!

Ladies and Gents, DD looks at the news........