xubrew
11-12-2011, 11:18 PM
In case you didn't notice, Belmont lost at Duke 77-76 on Friday night in a heartbreaker. An early season loss usually doesn't mean a whole lot, but in the case of Belmont, it does. Their situation is that they have a top 25 caliber team, but play in a conference filled with sub 200 caliber teams. Since the Atlantic Sun plays an 18 game conference format (last year it was 20), and because of that format does not participate in the Bracket Buster, the November games for Belmont are pretty much it.
Their first two games are at Duke and at Memphis. If they want to looked at by the committee as an at-large team, they pretty much have to win one of them. They do play Marshall twice, who is a dark horse this year, so if they can win one of those maybe that will be looked at as a quality win, but other than that they don't have a chance to make a case for themselves. Even if they win out, they will have done so against predominantly sub 200 (not even 100, but 200) teams. So, the best thing they can really hope for is to win the conference tournament and be seeded #12th or #13th.
I think we're starting to see more teams from low major conferences (I don't think you can even call the A-Sun a mid-major league) field top 30-ish caliber teams. I think we actually saw it with Belmont last year (although they did lose to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament), and with Cornell and Murray State the year before that. Winthrop from a few years back was another example. Yeah, their profile will be garbage, but the team is much better than the profile. Not only does it suck for them, but it sucks for the teams that they're paired against. If a team earns a #4 seed, they shouldn't have to play at top 30 caliber team in the first round, but if you're paired with Belmont, that's essentially what has happened.
Anyway, had they beaten Duke last night, it would have probably made a ton of difference in March, as well as prevented a situation where a big upset in the conference tournament would knock them out altogether. It was a good game. One of the great things about college hoops is that even in early November you get high stakes games. Wish Belmont could have pulled it out. Don't be surprised if they take down Memphis on Tuesday and/or make some noise in march while playing the Cinderella role.
...and Duke is lucky Belmont, who is normally a good shooting team (or was last year with virtually an identical roster) missed so many open looks. Belmont played well, and played tough, but they could have played even better.
Their first two games are at Duke and at Memphis. If they want to looked at by the committee as an at-large team, they pretty much have to win one of them. They do play Marshall twice, who is a dark horse this year, so if they can win one of those maybe that will be looked at as a quality win, but other than that they don't have a chance to make a case for themselves. Even if they win out, they will have done so against predominantly sub 200 (not even 100, but 200) teams. So, the best thing they can really hope for is to win the conference tournament and be seeded #12th or #13th.
I think we're starting to see more teams from low major conferences (I don't think you can even call the A-Sun a mid-major league) field top 30-ish caliber teams. I think we actually saw it with Belmont last year (although they did lose to Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament), and with Cornell and Murray State the year before that. Winthrop from a few years back was another example. Yeah, their profile will be garbage, but the team is much better than the profile. Not only does it suck for them, but it sucks for the teams that they're paired against. If a team earns a #4 seed, they shouldn't have to play at top 30 caliber team in the first round, but if you're paired with Belmont, that's essentially what has happened.
Anyway, had they beaten Duke last night, it would have probably made a ton of difference in March, as well as prevented a situation where a big upset in the conference tournament would knock them out altogether. It was a good game. One of the great things about college hoops is that even in early November you get high stakes games. Wish Belmont could have pulled it out. Don't be surprised if they take down Memphis on Tuesday and/or make some noise in march while playing the Cinderella role.
...and Duke is lucky Belmont, who is normally a good shooting team (or was last year with virtually an identical roster) missed so many open looks. Belmont played well, and played tough, but they could have played even better.