That is so bad according to a few in here wins both their 1st round games in the NIT and wins the 1st round game in the NCAA Dance. Real weak league. LOL!!!
Yeah, those NIT wins are impressive. They will go a long way to garnering respect from the rest of the basketball world… LOL!
Also, a lot of BYU fans will be rooting for Gonzaga to beat Utah. Be careful what you wish for fans, you may not be very happy with the result down the road.
None of these wins matters much nor does it do anything for the wcc. Like I’ve said, you have a hard time seeing the big picture. But that isn’t a surprise, because you don’t understand the terms bias and conspiracy. Your belief that the wcc is a good basketball conference is not only false, it is irrelevant to the ncaa and the perceptions of a majority of basketball fans. I’ll bet 90% of the fans east of the rockies couldn’t even tell you what conference Gonzaga is in… and they are “america’s team”.
You want to know what the majority of fans and decision makers know about Gonzaga and BYU? That the Zags are in the ncaa tournament again and that BYU had some kid on their team that got a bunch of triple doubles. That’s it. Nobody cares about anything else, not the average basketball fan, not the ncaa, not the tournament selection committee.
Nothing but sour grapes 
You are wrong but won’t ever get it.
WCC is better than you think. And the NIT has several teams that are better than at least 17 of them in the NCAA due to the conference tournaments.
Jim I hope you are rooting for Gonzaga to beat Utah because the Utes are part of the big spacious building and they have an obnoxious disagreeable coach. Hats off to Gonzaga because they are one of us, a disrespected private school in a league of private faith based schools. I didn’t get to see their game last night because I was staying somewhere that didn’t have cable and I was forced to watch Indiana and Kentucky. I nearly gagged listening to the announcers fawn all over Kentucky and their bought and paid for freshmen one and done players and I nearly gagged when they praised what a great coach Calipari is. Calipari is the guy who got every school he ever coached at in trouble with the NCAA. I don’t think he is that great a coach. He is OK. I remember when he coached Memphis and their bought and paid for players couldn’t hold a 12 point lead with about 2 minutes left. What a great bit of coaching that was. Of course he was gone the next year to Kentucky and Memphis was in trouble with the NCAA. He is a great recruiter and everybody knows why he is a great recruiter. He finally found a place where he can coach and the NCAA probably won’t touch him because Kentucky is college basketball establishment America’s team.
I don’t like to waste my energy on complaining about Gonzaga because they are least of the problems with college basketball.
You also have to love the fact that Wichita kicked Arizona’s butt dominating nearly 40 minutes.I can enjoy the first few rounds of the tournament knowing a few little guys will knock off some of the mocking inhabitants of the big spacious building. When the final four comes it will be the usual suspects with their big money alumni and that is when I usually lose interest except when somebody like a Butler has the audacity to crash the party.
You don’t think teams like Arizona don’t have boosters with lots of money? Statements like this is where conspiracy theorists always get into trouble. Then they bring in other nonsensical things to prop up the conspiracy. And one and done players are why teams like Kentucky get further into tournaments. Not the unknown nebulous jealous reasons.
I don’t think there is any conspiracy just lots of corrupt money in the Power 5 schools. I love it when they lose. Don’t read any more into the comment than what it stated. I would love to see a final four of teams like Wichita, Butler, Gonzaga, Arkansas Little Rock etc. It won’t happen but if it did it would be wonderful.
I am not a conspiracy theorist but it is a fact the P5 conferences have the money and the influence and have no interest in parity. You yourself said a lot of deserving teams were left out of the NCAA. St. Marys and San Diego St. were probably more deserving of NCAA bids than several power 5 bubble teams.
Sometimes your comments are baffling. Of course I believe Arizona is one of the evil P5 big money, “Large and Spacious Building” members, and that is why I was thrilled they got thrashed by a mid-major. Your comment puzzles me because I think you completely missed the point of my post.
I don’t think there is any conspiracy in college sports because you would have to prove an organized effort by multiple parties to demonstrate it, however, if you don’t believe the big money conferences control the agenda you are blind. The NCAA punishes mid major for not scheduling the big boys but the big boys won’t play a lot of mid majors because there is nothing in it for them. Utah cancelling with BYU is a prime example. So the deck is stacked for the P5 schools. It isn’t a conspiracy but it is corrupt and if you can’t see it then your eyes are closed.
All you have to do is look at how BYU is treated in football scheduling. There is an attitude of you play us twice at our place and we might play you once at yours. Look at how Notre Dame bailed. Then everybody defends this attitude by saying just beat them which is partially true but the P5 schools don’t want you to beat them on a level playing field. They want you to do it at their place. You have to do the 2 for 1 deals. The only way around it is to join their stinking rotten club and become part of the corruption the way Utah did. Yes I hope Gonzaga beats the living crap out of Utah and makes their nasty bully of a coach cry all the way back to Salt Lake.
What do you mean because of the money P5s have influence? That in itself is a conspiracy. This is what Jim does. He says there is no conspiracy but then says referees deliberately make calls to influence games. The reason has no bearing whether it’s a conspiracy. The fact is, it is. So, admit it and prove it. That is the only way it can be changed.
Reed… you have opened up a can of worms with the grasshopper. Let me tell you that there is no point in trying to explain your ideas and opinions to him because not only will he not understand, he won’t TRY to understand. When you say things like “Sometimes your comments are baffling.” I can relate because that is how I feel all the time trying to respond and explain. I am telling you right now he will not acknowledge or understand anything you say that might hint to the fact that everything is not completely legitimate in the world of big money sports.
Grasshopper has a problem with the wcc only getting one bid to the ncaa tournament but he refuses to try and figure out why it happens or acknowledge that there might be a motivating reason. I have started down this road so many times it makes my head spin. From the get go he insisted that I was suggesting some huge conspiracy and that I needed to prove it. My beliefs have always been more closely aligned with the things you have presented than with the things grasshopper has claimed I subscribe to. He doesn’t want to believe any of it, even when his own comments suggest the possibility on occasion.
So call it what you want to… conspiracy or corruption, the two terms aren’t very far apart. I went to my wife’s pathways class last night and they were talking about the book of Mormon in the BofM. So he had the destruction of the Nephites unfolding before his very eyes and it was a result of their corruption and wickedness. It caused him to sorrow, yet the Nephites were only sorrowful because they were losing everything, not because of their sin. On the other hand you had the Lamanites and Gadiantons (the very definition of conspiracy) who were intent on completely destroying them. So was it corruption or conspiracy that did them in? or was it both? Isn’t the “corruption” a form of “conspiracy”? Why are you and/or grasshopper so afraid to use the terms in the same sentence? Why is it so hard for so many to see or acknowledge what is right in front of them? These situations are no different, just a different time period and circumstances… the behavior is the same.
You have claimed that the wcc deserved more ncaa bids, yet you refuse to try and understand why they didn’t or don’t get them. The MWC only got one bid, while the P5 conferences all had multiple (meaning more than 3, 4 or 5) bids and you don’t make any effort to understand why? Reed and I have both made strong points for why but you blast me with the conspiracy accusation and I don’t understand why. I tried to explain to you why I thought Duke was benefitting greatly from the calls in their game vs. UNCW and you blasted me for it. I have tried to explain how and why some of the lesser teams win a game or two or even 3 or 4 on occasion and you blast me for it. I’m tired of trying to explain or help you understand the very same things you point out and have no explanation for. It’s a frustrating exercise and now you are trying to draw Reed (ARO) into it as well. I do it because I am your friend. If I was one of these other guys I would do what they do, give up and stop replying to you. I even tried it for a week or so, but I’m too nice so I gave in.
Just so you know, there is NO WAY it can be changed or ever will be. It isn’t a lot different that what took place with the Nephites and Lamanites… the wickedness and corruption won’t allow it to change. We can’t lose hope though, if we do then we become part of the problem and despair sets in. Despair is a product of iniquity… I don’t despair (sour grapes) and I won’t stop talking about it. I know it exists, you choose to call it what you want.
I think to a degree we are of the same mind. I get hung up on the precise definitions of words.
Here is a standard definition of conspiracy - a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.You need to have a group of people secretly conspiring to harm something. I think the P5 is so big and powerful they don’t need to do anything in the dark. They do whatever they want and anybody who doesn’t like it just has take the crumbs they give them.
I don’t think there is anything secret about what the P5 conferences do. The first thing they did is destroy the Mountain West Conference so it would never become a BCS league. After 2010 with the MWC expanding to add a really good Boise program and good Fresno and Nevada programs and with BYU, Utah, and TCU already top football programs the big boys probably decided to raid the league rather than try to keep them out of the club because the MWC was already as good as, or better than, the Big East, and about to get better and the Big East was a BCS football league at the time. There would have been no justification to keep the MWC in their mid major status and the P5 leagues weren’t about to share the pie. First they plucked Utah and then BYU bailed because the MWC was a dead end deal for them and then the big boys plucked TCU and suddenly the MWC was stuck in mid major land with no hope of escape. Then the P5 destroyed the Big East for football by taking all the good football programs and suddenly you have a very exclusive power structure of 5 conferences and nobody else need apply. This was all done in the light of day so I don’t think there was any conspiracy but I think it stinks and is corrupt. Who knows maybe a few of the P5 conference commissioners talked and decided something had to be done to keep their club exclusive and in fact weed out the undesirables like the Big East in football. I guess if that happened then it would have had an element of conspiracy. It is a great irony that institutions chock full of liberal academics who believe in equality for all are all for an exclusive elite club when it comes to athletics.
EXACTLY! I guess I failed when I assigned the term conspiracy to it. That mistake was sort of driven by some who post here that refuse to acknowledge it. I agree 100% with the rest of your post, I just couldn’t copy the quote because I didn’t have room.
The reason there is no conspiracy is because there doesn’t have to be. The ncaa, the power, the money… it’s all out in the open in today’s world. Grasshopper thinks we still live in the Nixon era or something.
Well said.
I agree with Reed, Jim, and Harold here. Sorry Grasshopper; your political beliefs are fabulous, but some of your sports theories are questionable. In fact, sometimes I think you don’t really believe what you spout on Cougarfan…but you do it to rile people up and create controversies.
Reed was spot on when he said, “So the deck is stacked for the P5 schools. It isn’t a conspiracy but it is corrupt and if you can’t see it then your eyes are closed.” If someone doesn’t agree with this, they have a room temperature IQ.
The P5 differs from Football to Basketball. Football still doesn’t have enough participation with the end of the season 4 team tournament. Basketball has 68 teams involved. If there is any conspiracy it’s allowing too many teams from any one conference. The fact that all conferences are involved makes this completely different from Football.
There is one area that still railroads yours and Aros corruption theory. And it’s the difference between the NCAA and Pro Wrestling. It’s the legal system with respect to gambling. The NCAA is not to big still for the FBI. Neither is Hiilary, I hope 
Therefore, it’s not out in the open as you suggest.
Then no one is causing teams to win or lose. Only the teams themselves…
Futile - incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.
You realize Craig that this is the definition of the attempt you are trying to make here to enlighten grasshopper, don’t you? Grasshopper enjoys being in this position as the lone wolf. He isn’t interested in education and understanding, he is trying to rile up the pack and create controversy… room temperature IQ be danged.
It cannot be corrupt without the conspiracy. Not possible.
Okay then, end of discussion.
I win! Now, let’s see BYU win by making layups and FTs 