How similar is BYU to the 2007-2008 Davidson Wildcats?

Jimmer Fredette and Stephen Curry are similar, but are their teams similar?

     Ask any college basketball fan what the best game of the week is and you most likely will not get "BYU vs. San Diego State" as a common answer. Even though it is a matchup of two Top 10 teams, the college basketball world's focus has not necessarily been on the Cougars or the Aztecs so far this season. BYU's star guard Jimmer Fredette has gotten a lot of attention, however his team has not gotten the credit it deserves. San Diego State, one of only two undefeated teams in college basketball, also has flown under the radar. They do get press, but tell me the last time the 4th ranked team in the country has flown under the radar as much as San Diego State has. That being said, I have already dissected San Diego State in a post I wrote back in early December. Now we turn to the 19-1, Jimmer Fredette led and 9th ranked team in the country BYU.

     The best team to compare BYU to may in-fact be the 2003-2004 St. Joe's squad led by Jameer Nelson that lost in the Elite Eight to Oklahoma State. That team lost only one game (a week before the NCAA Tournament) and became just the third team since the expansion of the NCAA Tournament to clinch a 1-seed from the Atlantic 10 conference. St. Joe's may be the better comparison overall, but the 2007-2008 Davidson Wildcats are a more relevant comparison due to the stars players that are pictured above together. Jameer Nelson was good for St. Joe's, but he was not on the level that Stephen Curry was when he nearly took Davidson to the 2008 Final Four. Curry and BYU star Jimmer Fredette are just one of many similarities that this year's BYU team, and the 2007-2008 Davidson team have in common.

TALE OF THE TAPE

     Before we begin to break down the key elements in comparing these two teams, we need to take a look at the big picture. Below is a chart that compares the two teams as of January 23rd of their respected years.

    
The only part that may seem like a stretch is the area of comparing schedules. Davidson played one of the hardest non-conference schedules in the history of college basketball back in the 2007-2008 season. Even though they lost all of the games, Davidson had chances to knock off all four of their non-conference juggernaut opponents. Due to their strong out-of-conference schedule, it makes both teams schedules easier to compare. Some of the categories, including schedules, are similar and easy to compare between the two, but three areas of the chart above contain the biggest similarities between BYU and the 2007-2008 Davidson Wildcats. The three things to look at when comparing these two teams are their past NCAA Tournament experiences, their star players, and their important yet unheralded supporting casts.

Read the rest of the story after the jump

JeffDBracket's Bracketology - Version 5.0 - 1/24/11

Two teams, UCLA and Central Florida, had very intense weeks. After being on the outside looking in, UCLA vastly improved their NCAA Tournament resume with wins over California and Stanford to launch themselves into the bracket. Central Florida meanwhile continues to fall flat in Conference USA play. They have lost four straight and have a must win against Memphis on Wednesday. Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael, needs to step up and play like his father as he tries to battle the Knights back into the NCAA Tournament picture. San Diego State debuts as a 1-seed for the first time after Kansas blew a gigantic lead to Texas. I have said all year that Texas has been a more impressive team than Kansas. Yeah Texas did lose to USC on the road, but Kansas needed a strong surge in the final minutes at home to knock off USC. I give the edge to Texas and have them above Kansas on the overal seed line. In my write-up about last weekend's games, I said Kansas needs to do more to impress and convince me that they are really a Top 5 team. Well, I am still waiting for that to happen. I once again have Pittsburgh winning the National Championship, and if you look closely you will see a few upsets. I won't get into teams like Oakland, Belmont or Coastal Carolina until late February/early March, but keep an eye on those teams for now.

The next post will be in the next 24 hours or so when I finish up a story on BYU.

Who made the bracket:

American East - Maine

Atlantic Coast - Boston College, Duke*, Florida State, North Carolina, Virginia Tech

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

Atlantic 10 - Temple*, Xavier, Richmond

Big East - Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh*, St. John's, Syracuse, West Virginia, Villanova

Big Sky - Northern Colorado

Big South - Coastal Carolina

Big Ten - Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State*, Purdue, Wisconsin

Big XII - Kansas State, Kansas*, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

Big West - Long Beach State

Colonial - Old Dominion

Conference USA - Memphis*

Horizon - Butler, Cleveland State*

Ivy - Harvard

Metro Atlantic - Fairfield

Mid-American - Ball State

Mid-Eastern - Hampton

Missouri Valley - Missouri State*, Wichita State

Mountain West - Brigham Young, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Diego State* 

Northeast - Long Island

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pacific-10 - Arizona, Washington*, UCLA

Patriot - Bucknell

Southeastern - Florida, Georgia, Kentucky*, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Southern - Charleston

Southland - McNeese State

Summit - Oakland

Sun Belt - Florida Atlantic

Souhtwestern - Jackson State

Western (WAC) - Utah State

West Coast - Gonzaga, St. Mary's*

* - Automatic Bid

Italic - New Addition

The rest of the bracket is after the jump

JeffDBracket's Bracketology - Version 4.0 - 1/18/11

Wow. It has been quite a long time since I posted a Bracketology. Sort of funny since this was the initial purpose of the website. I already broke down the events of this past week, so I will keep this short and sweet. This season is as unpredictable as it gets. Last season we saw many upsets in the NCAA Tournament, and if this season is any indication of what will happen come March then we may see those same wild results yet again. Enjoy the bracket, the breakdown and all the bubble tidbits. There will be no arrivals and departures, because there has been no bracket since early December. This is also the first time I have not selected Duke to win the National Championship. Pittsburgh just seems like such a dominant team so far this season that it is hard to pick against them. If I could pick, they would be ranked as the #1 team in the country. I struggled to put Ohio State in over Brigham Young. I really think the Cougars compare greatly to the 2007-2008 Davidson team that almost made the Final Four. I won't go into many details, because I plan on writing an article comparing the two in the coming weeks.

The next post will be later in the week about bubble teams and their resumes. The catch? I won't reveal the teams names on each resume until the end of the post.

Who made the bracket:

American East - Vermont

Atlantic Coast - Boston College, Duke*, Florida State, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Virginia Tech

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

Atlantic 10 - Temple*, Xavier

Big East - Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh*, St. John's, Syracuse, West Virginia, Villanova

Big Sky - Montana

Big South - Coastal Carolina

Big Ten - , Illinois, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State*, Purdue, Wisconsin

Big XII - Colorado, Kansas State, Kansas*, Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M

Big West - Long Beach State

Colonial - James Madison*, Old Dominion

Conference USA - Central Florida, Southern Miss*

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Harvard

Metro Atlantic - Fairfield

Mid-American - Kent State

Mid-Eastern - Bethune-Cookman

Missouri Valley - Missouri State*, Wichita State

Mountain West - Brigham Young, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Diego State* 

Northeast - Long Island

Ohio Valley - Morehead State

Pacific-10 - Arizona, Washington*

Patriot - Bucknell

Southeastern - Florida, Georgia, Kentucky*, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Southern - Chattanooga

Southland - McNeese State

Summit - Oakland

Sun Belt - Florida Atlantic

Souhtwestern - Texas Southern

Western (WAC) - Utah State

West Coast - Gonzaga, St. Mary's*

* - Automatic Bid

The rest of the bracket is after the jump

Wild weekend sets up an exciting week of basketball

Duke shakes off sluggish first half to knock off Virginia

• Duke had their first bad shooting night when they fell to Florida State in Tallahassee on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the 31% shooting performance carried over into their contest with Virginia in Cameron Indoor on Saturday afternoon. Duke shot 34% in the first half and was down 31-25 to a mediocre Virginia team at the half. After three consecutive miserable halves, Duke finally woke up in the second half as they scored 51 points and shot around 65% from the floor. Duke pulled away in the end and won convincingly 76-60. Most people expected Duke to romp through Virginia and bounce back well against Virginia, that being said it is no surprise Duke had a bit of a hangover after a tough loss to Florida State. Nolan Smith led the charge for Duke with 29 points, 6 assists and 7 rebounds. Smith's improvement as an all-around point guard is going relatively unmentioned throughout the season. Smith had struggled in the past by being too one dimensional at the point guard position. However, since Kyrie Irving went down with his toe injury, Smith has been outstanding for the Blue Devils. That being said, Duke has shown some issues with creating their own opportunities on offense. When the Blue Devils defense exposes teams and forces turnovers they will score loads of points. If a team limits turnovers and plays an efficient game on offense, like Florida State did, then Duke will struggle with some of the more talented teams throughout the year. Duke threw up over 30 three pointers against Florida State and failed to establish an offensive presence in the paint. Florida State is better than their record indicates and bolsters an outstanding defense, but it shows that top teams in the country will be able to have advantages against Duke if they play an efficient game.

Big East powers Connecticut, Syracuse, Georgetown and Pittsburgh roll

Kemba Walker's supporting cast is slowly becoming more effective

• All four teams had fairly easy days on the court as they rolled to victories by an average margin of 16 points. Connecticut did not get tested throughout the game after they jumped to an early 13-4 lead and never looked by. A 15 to 1 run in the second half that launched Connecticut's lead to 65-41 sealed the deal for the Huskies 14th overall win and 3rd Big East win as they won 82-62. Kemba Walker had 31 points and didn't play in the last 7 minutes of the game. The good news for the Huskies was that the recent help from Walker's supporting cast continued against DePaul. Jeremy Lamb, Alex Oriakhi and Roscoe Smith were all big for Connecticut as they used an up-tempo attack to breakdown DePaul's full-court press and hammer the Blue Demons. Syracuse got tested early by a surprisingly good Cincinnati team, however used a combined effort from Brandon Triche, Rick Jackson and Scoop Jardine who together scored 37 to run away from the Bearcats in the second half to win 67-52. Undefeated Syracuse's next opponent, Pittsburgh, didn't have any issues whatsoever from Seton Hall. Despite shooting below their season average in shooting percentage, the Panthers used a big 15 point advantage at the half to bury the Pirates early. Pittsburgh went on to win big 74-53, and improve their record to 17-1 and 5-0 in the Big East. After dropping three straight games in Big East play, Georgetown got back on track with their 74-65 victory over a scrappy Rutgers squad. Austin Freeman's 25 points helped the Hoyas recover from a poor shooting night against Pittsburgh on Wednesday (38% from the floor) to shoot nearly 50% on the day.

Villanova and Louisville need second half comebacks to grabs impressive wins

• Unlike their Big East foes, Villanova and Louisville struggled with their opponents to end their weeks with strong victories.  Villanova found themselves down by 12 to un-ranked Maryland with 10:40 to go in the second half when they finally were able to end their shooting slump. The Wildcats ended the game on a 22 to 9 run to close out a 74-66 victory in Philadelphia. Villanova, who does not have a very strong out of conference resume, picked up a good win over a bubble team in Maryland as they now finish the year with only Big East games remaining. Maryland on the other hand drops to 11-6 on the season and has now lost to Pittsburgh, Illinois, Temple, Duke and Villanova by an average of 6 points. It appears that the Terps might be sitting on the bubble the rest of the season. Marquette is another team who appears to be stuck on the bubble, and a win over Louisville would've gone a long ways towards their NCAA Tournament hopes. The Golden Eagles found themselves up 65-49 with just over five minutes remaining, however Preston Knowle's four three pointers helped trigger a 22-9 by Louisville that helped complete the comeback. Kyle Kuric's layup with 4 seconds left was the eventual game winning basket that sealed a 71-70 victory for the Cardinals.

The rest of the story is after the jump