I’m not here to argue so I won’t say any more than this but from top to bottom, the Big12 had a net ranking of 1 last year. Uno. Same with 2023. This is even after everything played out in the tournament. It was murderers row last year. It’s ranked 3rd this year…just shy of the B1G. Still very tough when you have to play Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas, AZ, and BYU twice. All of those teams, save BYU, can beat anyone in the country on any given day. Ok, off my soap box.
Big 10 is always overrated and is the true flop conference in the NCAA playoffs. Purdue was the only team last year that was capable to win in the tournament, the rest were overrated pretenders. Michigan State is the only 1 this year. Don't get fooled.
This year the SEC is going to have a ton of overrated teams going in. As I have said earlier, all you have to do is look at non conference games and the quality of their opponents. It is very telling.
The Big 12 outside Houston and Iowa St, crapped out in the NCAA playoffs last year. BYU in the first round, Iowa State was respectable losing to a 3, Baylor in the second round, TCU in the first, Kansas in the second, and Texas in the Second. This all leads to my argument that Quad wins within the conference are not a measure of success. As you said, the conference had such a great NET ranking, and yet the conference with multiple bids utterly failed.
As for Houston; Alabama, Auburn and possibly SDSU are their only strong non conference opponents. Taking Quad 1 wins from teams in your own conference is not a good indicator of how they will do in the playoffs. In saying that, I do believe defensively that they can matchup with almost anyone.
And I know it was said that Houston had a terrible game against SDSU, which I do not believe. SDSU forced them to look that way. This is the same way you beat Houston, you slow them down and make them earn every basket. Alabama and Auburn are 2 teams that defensively and offensively are the real deal. SDSU is great defensively but not offensively. Houston has trouble against great defensive teams, but again Houston offensively can make up the difference against most.
There are few teams that can beat Houston. Duke, Auburn, Alabama and possibly a couple of others, which makes me think that Houston will make a deep run but fall short. In saying that, they are still capable of having the right matchups and winning the whole thing. I just would not bet on it.
And again, I would not quote NET rankings as an indicator of success in the tournament. BIG 10 is notorious for early exits with a huge amount of entrants because of a bloated NET rankings built on wins within the conference not outside of it. SEC is going to be that conference this year. There are 3 possibly 4 real teams in the SEC, not 12 as they are making you believe
