Here are Thursday’s Check-Ins. A definite west coast flava today…
Big East – Rob Dauster of Ballin is a Habit (READ MORE)
So, as any reasonable blogger would do, I’ll compare. Last year on December 16th, the Big East was 116-28 as a league. This year? 119-29. That’s a one game difference in the loss column. Crazy, right? Now take into account the disastrous weekend the league just had, and it is pretty obvious that as of last Friday, the Big East was well beyond where they were at this same point last season, and last season the conference was considered one of the best ever. (…)
Mountain West – Andrew Murawa (READ MORE)
There will be an uptick in the number of games played over the next week, as finals wrap up and schools get a chance to stretch out a bit, and a couple more early-season tournaments will play out, as BYU takes part in the Vegas Classic and UNLV plays in the Diamond Head Classic. But the subtext over the next couple of weeks will be preparation for conference play which looms on the not-too-distant horizon. (…)
Pac-10 – Ryan ZumMallen of LBPostSports.com (READ MORE)
[The Pac-10 is] a conference of classes, with Washington and California clearly the best teams (despite recent trouble), then a clear three-team middle class and a dreadful five-team bottom class. Most teams have scheduled cake opponents to build some confidence before heading into the Pac-10 schedule, but that may not be enough to fool voters into handing out at-large bids come March. […]
WCC – Michael Vernetti (READ MORE)
Although the overall conference landscape didn’t change much within the week, a mystery team has emerged in the form of Loyola Marymount. After stumbling through some early-season highs and lows, including a 67-59 win over cross-town rival USC on Nov. 21 that followed a deflating 84-78 home loss to UC Irvine, the Lions pulled off a stunning 87-85 upset over Notre Dame on Dec. 12 behind a Jared DuBois 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining. To say the Fighting Irish don’t often lose at home to non-Big East teams is a bit of an understatement – the last time it happened was four years and 41 victories ago. (…)