NCAAbbs

"Andrew Skwara
Rivals.com College Basketball Staff Writer

A.J. Price and Connecticut are part of a loaded Big East Conference.
The Big East is fully expected to run away with that title. The 16-team league, which had only two players (Syracuse's Donte Greene and West Virginia's Joe Alexander) make early departures to the NBA, has four teams in Rivals.com's preseason top 10 (Connecticut at No. 2, Pittsburgh at No. 3, Notre Dame at No. 5 and Louisville at No. 8); it has four more in the top 25 (Georgetown at No. 11, Villanova at No. 17, Marquette at No. 20 and West Virginia at No. 24). No other conference has half as many teams in the top 25.

But there should be a good battle for the second-best conference. The ACC, Big 12 and Pac-10 are tied for second with three top 25 teams apiece.

There will be plenty of competition to be the top mid-major conference, as well. No league outside the "Big Six" had more than one team in the top 25.

We sort through the top conferences and rank the 10 best in this week's mailbag. We also address questions on the best left-handed player in the country, the top coaches on the rise in small conferences, whether North Carolina's Wayne Ellington or Duke's Gerald Henderson is the better player and much more.


Pecking order

Dave from Minneapolis : Can you rank the conferences?

The Big East has to be No. 1. No other league will be on its level. It could send a record nine teams to the NCAA Tournament

I'd give the ACC a slight edge for second, ahead of the Big 12. Both leagues will send four to six teams to the NCAA Tournament, but the ACC has the heavy title favorite in North Carolina.

The Pac-10 and SEC, which I would rank fourth and fifth, aren't nearly as strong as last season, but they're still far better than the Big Ten, which is a distant sixth. The top half of the Big Ten remains solid; Purdue and Michigan State are legitimate Final Four contenders. But the bottom half is full of teams that would be fortunate to reach the NIT.

I think you'll see Conference USA emerge as the next-best league outside the Big Six. The league is deeper than it has been since the Big East raided five of its programs in 2005.

I have the West Coast slotted at eighth. All three of the WCC teams (Gonzaga, San Diego and St. Mary's) that reached the 2008 NCAA Tournament could make it back.

I've got the Atlantic 10 at ninth, followed by the Mountain West. The A-10 lost a large chunk of its top players after a banner season, but it still has more depth than the top-heavy MWC, which could be dominated by UNLV. "

I told you so. It is only a matter of time - same goes for all sports.

Mooooovin' on up!

To the Big East side?

The SEC is going to be worse this year?

Ouch.

This is only a preseason projection . . . lets see if CUSA teams can actually perform on the court. I think this perception has occured since Memphis made the NC game and the close games that Memphis had with some competition from CUSA this past year (UTEP, @UAB). But still, it is nice for CUSA to be noted in an article.

Until one of the other 11 teams can man up and make the big dance (or break the Tigers streak of conference wins), it's still Memphis and the eleven dwarfs.

Running down the other teams in our league doesn't help Memphis. How about Memphis and 11 other pretty good teams?

Shouldn't they be pretty good first?

Agreed. I do wonder about that sometimes. How did we go on that dominate tournament run but yet struggle with some of our inter-league stuff? I know Rose was peaking, but still, how did our "big guards" and defensive power dominate Mich State, Texas, UCLA and we gave Kansas one of the hardest-won championships ever but we barely got out of UAB alive.

Besides Memphis, Tulsa is going to be solid next year I bet. UAB has some pieces missing, but we'll see. UTEP? USM? I think Houston is going to have a rebuilding year. It will be interesting to see if CUSA is as good as advertised next year.

+1

Like a coach.

I was thinking along the lines of "anyone taller than 6'5"" but that works too, haha.