EWU

[HelenaHandBasket]

I disagree that it is a weak conference this year. Sure, good players left, they do every year, but good players came in as well. Overall, the league is more balanced and a bit stronger. There are not any gimme games in the BSC this year. If you are not playing well you are going to lose. It's that simple.

I can get behind "more balanced" but the league is definitely down from last season. It is a whole bunch of mediocre at best.

 

[grizzlyjournal]

Despite EWU's status as the clear frontrunner, the Big Sky is ranked (at 21 by Kenpom) just about where it's been over the past 10 years or so, with a bit more internal parity though. I was more surprised at Idaho's clear defensive improvement than Eastern's continued dominance, and I think the Vandals could shake things up over the next few weeks. As oldrunner commented above, there won't be many (or any) gimme games from here on. Enjoy the ride.

 

[GrizBall]

I disagree that it is a weak conference this year. Sure, good players left, they do every year, but good players came in as well. Overall, the league is more balanced and a bit stronger. There are not any gimme games in the BSC this year. If you are not playing well you are going to lose. It's that simple.

I can get behind "more balanced" but the league is definitely down from last season. It is a whole bunch of mediocre at best.

I generally go by KenPom and to a certain extent the eye-test (which I realize is very subjective).

KenPom rankings go back to the 2010-2011 season. The highest conference rank the BSC has ever received is 17, which it did last year, 19-20 and 17-18. This year is it at #21.

The four worst teams last year compared to this year (KenPom Rank):

Sac -228; ISU - 276
PSU – 239; NAU - 296
ISU – 245; UI - 308
UI – 300; Sac -317

Also, I would point out that outside of Dillon Jones, the pre-season all-conference team is not setting the conference on fire:

Moody, Price, Verplancken, Parker and Saterfield.

I don’t think there is any doubt that the conference is noticeably worse this year.

 

[marceagfan5]

I can get behind "more balanced" but the league is definitely down from last season. It is a whole bunch of mediocre at best.

I generally go by KenPom and to a certain extent the eye-test (which I realize is very subjective).

KenPom rankings go back to the 2010-2011 season. The highest conference rank the BSC has ever received is 17, which it did last year, 19-20 and 17-18. This year is it at #21.

The four worst teams last year compared to this year (KenPom Rank):

Sac -228; ISU - 276
PSU – 239; NAU - 296
ISU – 245; UI - 308
UI – 300; Sac -317

Also, I would point out that outside of Dillon Jones, the pre-season all-conference team is not setting the conference on fire:

Moody, Price, Verplancken, Parker and Saterfield.

I don’t think there is any doubt that the conference is noticeably worse this year.

The Big Sky is always going to rank low for the conference. The best thing that can happen to the Big Sky every year is that one of the top 2 or 3 teams wins the tourney and gets a decent seed. One of these years we just need to win a game or 2....

 

[GrizBall]

I generally go by KenPom and to a certain extent the eye-test (which I realize is very subjective).

KenPom rankings go back to the 2010-2011 season. The highest conference rank the BSC has ever received is 17, which it did last year, 19-20 and 17-18. This year is it at #21.

The four worst teams last year compared to this year (KenPom Rank):

Sac -228; ISU - 276
PSU – 239; NAU - 296
ISU – 245; UI - 308
UI – 300; Sac -317

Also, I would point out that outside of Dillon Jones, the pre-season all-conference team is not setting the conference on fire:

Moody, Price, Verplancken, Parker and Saterfield.

I don’t think there is any doubt that the conference is noticeably worse this year.

The Big Sky is always going to rank low for the conference. The best thing that can happen to the Big Sky every year is that one of the top 2 or 3 teams wins the tourney and gets a decent seed. One of these years we just need to win a game or 2....

I disagree. The best thing that can happen is that the Big Sky win non-conference games against good competition. That would have a bigger impact on its ranking than winning a tourney game every so often. Farleigh Dickinson was a 16 that beat a #1 (Purdue) last year and this will do absolutely nothing for that conference.