2010 NCAA Tournament - The Sweet 16

It's been a long weekend, so I haven't had the opportunity to blog about all the days as much as I'd like. Thoughts in a future post. 

But the first two rounds has been so interesting and wide opened that I wanted to compare this year's tournament to tournaments in the past.

1. The average seed of remaining Sweet 16 teams

If all top 4 seeds in all 4 regions make it to the Sweet 16, the average remaining seed would be 2.5 (1+2+3+4) x 4 / 16. 

This year's average seed of the Sweet 16 is 5.0, the highest its been this decade! The lowest average seed was last year's tournament (3.0625) , when all 1, 2, and 3 seeds made the Sweet 16. The previous high was back in 2002, when the average seed was 4.6875. 

2. The upset of the #1 seed

In the past 5 years, every single #1 seed has made at least the Sweet 16. After Kansas was upset last night, this is the first time since 2004, that not all 4 #1 seeds will make it. 

This has been one of the most wide-open tournaments in recent memory, and I believe any of the 16 teams remaining has the ability to winning it all. If the first two rounds was any indicator, the next 3 rounds before the national title game will be extremely entertaining.

Champions League: Quarterfinal Finals draw

The Champions League Quarterfinals draw was released today, with the draw all the way to the Finals. (My predictions in bold)

Q1: Lyon vs Bordeaux
Q2: Bayern Munich vs Manchester United
Q3: Arsenal vs Barcelona
Q4: Internazionale vs CSKA Moscow

Semifinals
S1: Winner of Q1 (Bordeaux) vs Winner of Q2 (Manchester United)
S2: Winner of Q3 (Barcelona) vs Winner of Q4 (Internazionale)

Finals
Winner of S1 (Manchester United) vs Winner of S2 (Barcelona).

2010 Champions League Winner: Barcelona.

Thoughts...

1. Manchester United vs Bayern Munich!!! The first (?) time they've played since the 1999 Champions League Finals!

There have been very few instances in sports that give me chills when I watch replays of the game. My favorite clip to watch is Al Michael's "Do you believe in miracles" call at the 1980 Olympics.

The 1999 Champions League Finals is another game that I love watching over and over again. That year, Manchester United had won the FA Cup and the English Premier League already, and they needed to win the Champions League to win the "treble". The "treble" consists of winning your country's top league title and major domestic cup competition as well as the continental championship. It's very rare in Europe...only 5 times in history.

In the Champions League Finals, Manchester was down 1-0 to Bayern Munich at the end of the game. 3 minutes were added in stoppage time. Manchester United miraculously scores 2 goals in the final 3 minutes to win the title and win the treble. LOVE IT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyIyHmG77mU 

2. Manchester United got the easiest draw imaginable. There are three teams I dread playing: Barcelona, Arsenal, and Internazionale. The way the draw the set is up, we wouldn't have to play any of these teams until the final. Such good "luck" for the Red Devils!

3. Every team, with the exception of CSKA Moscow, is also in their respective league's title race as well.

French Ligue 1: #1 Bordeaux (53), #2 Montpellier (53), #3 AJ Auxerre (52), #4 Lyon (51)
Spain La Liga: #1 Real Madrid (65), #1 Barcelona (65)
Italy Series A: #1 Internazionale (59), #2 AC Milan (58)
Germany Bundesliga: #1 Bayern Munich (56), #2 Schalke 04 (54), #3 Bayern Leverkusen (53)
England Premier League: #1 Manchester United (66), #2 Chelsea (64), #3 Arsenal (64)

It'll be very interesting to see how the club managers balance both the European campaign and their domestic campaign. Manchester United and Barcelona have a great starting 11 team, but they also have the benefit of having a very deep roster. Ive always said that a lot of the bench players on Manchester United probably could get first team playing time on a majority of other teams.

I think Manchester United is in great position to make a run for both the Champions League title, as well as the Premier League title. Our defense is starting to stabilize with Vidic and Ferdinand starting to get back to fitness, and all a lot of our players are starting to get back to playing levels. Soon, Sir Alex Ferguson will have Ryan Giggs and Michael Owen available, and reports say that Owen Hargreaves is almost back to full fitness!

Thoughts after day 1: Why Parity is good.

This has been one of the craziest 1st days of the college basketball tournament in recent memory. Here’s a recap of these day’s events.

Shocking Upsets of the 1st day
- #14 Ohio manhandles #3 Georgetown, 97-83.
- #13 Murray State shocks #4 Vanderbilt at the buzzer, 66-65.
- #11 Old Dominion beats #6 Notre Dame, 51-50.
- #11 Washington beats #6 Marquette, 80-78.
- #10 Saint Mary’s beats #7 Richmond, 80-71.

Interesting story lines/stats
- #2 Villanova narrowly beating #15 Robert Morris in OT, even after RM had a 9 point lead at one point.
- 7 out of 16 games were decided by 3 points or less.
- In 3 games, the contest was won on a shot taken taken with less than 2 seconds left in the game.
- Only 5 games were won by more than 10 points (#1 Kentucky by 29, #2 Kansas State by 20, #1 Kansas by 16, #14 Ohio by 14, #5 Butler by 18).
- There were 3 games (out of 16) that went to Overtime. In the past 9 years, there have never been more than 2 OT games in the 1st round (out of 32 games).

Last week, my friend, Howard Lio, posted a comment on my Pac-10 post regarding my idea of parity.

“And Jon, equality is a terrible idea-for a NCAA Season. Where are your upsets now? Where are the cinderella stories? Who is the Goliath in the David story?

A season without a dominant force, just does not generate buzz. This season has only been driven by individual players like John wall, Evan Turner, or Demarcus Cousins.

All i can say is that when i watch the March madness tourney, I can't say i will be passionately watching, because i cant expect a UNC to be in the Final Four; or cheer for a cinderella story since everyone is on an equal level.

This March madness, the brackets will be very boring to me”

The first day of the 2010 NCAA Tournament just proved that you don’t need a Cinderella story or a dominant team to create an exciting tournament. It also proved that parity across all conferences is very good for the game.

Personally, I would rather see competitive games across the board any day over dominant teams and a handful of Cinderella teams. I had a friend who didn’t follow college basketball at all follow the games intently to see who would etch out the win. Following all these close games down to the wire proved to be extremely exciting for myself and scores of fans across the country.

In a system with parity, every single game will be a good game. Today, 7 out of the 16 games were decided by 3 points or less, and11/16 were decided by 10 points or less. Almost every single game was a competitive game, and caught the attention of fans across the country.

Up until recently, the top 4 seeds would normally always roll over the #13-#16 seeds, winning by double digit margins. Now, even the #13-#16 seeds will fight hard against the top seeds and keep games close. This year we saw a #3 seed and a #4 seed get taken down and saw a #2 seed almost upset. In a couple years, I predict that even #1-#16 match-ups wont be gimme games anymore. I would predict the first #16 upset for a #1 team within the next decade.

Parity is good for the game. We see lower ranked teams play the games of their life, which forces higher ranked teams to answer the challenge. We see closer games won in the last seconds, as opposed to uncompetitive blowouts.


My Official Bracket after Day 1

Round 1: 9/16 Correct

One way to see how you’re doing is to see the maximum possible teams left you have making future rounds. For example, if for some reason you had, Georgetown, Texas, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame all make the Final Four, your max possible score for that round would now by 0/4, since all teams lost today.

Final 4: 4/4
Elite 8: 8/8
Sweet 16: 14/16

I had Georgetown and Vanderbilt making the Sweet 16.

Tiger's return to golf

So today, Tiger Woods announced that his return to golf will be at the Masters, the site of his first Majors win and where he's won 4 times. It will probably shape up to be the most covered golf tournament of all time. The media presence will be unprecedented and will probably be one of the biggest circuses of all time.

Ever since Tiger Wood's took an indefinite leave from golf, the sports world debated how Tiger would perform when he returned to play. Would he still be able to break Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 Major Wins.

In terms of his playing abilities, I dont foresee winning 5 more Majors to be that difficult for Tiger. Last year, Tiger had an 8 month break while he rehabilitated his knee. While he didnt win a major upon his return, the 8 month break didn't affect his playing abilities, and he was always in contention in tournaments.

The biggest unknown is his mental and emotional capacity and strength. The media has always respected his privacy, and he's never before had to answer to the public and address the public at lengths. He's always been able to just concentrate on golf. He won't be able to hide from the public scrutiny anymore. The press and paparazzi will now continue to follow his every move. Who knows how Tiger will handle the invasion of his personal life.

Tiger has in the past shown flashes of annoyance as well. He's been known to lash out at fans who flash cameras when he's about to hit the ball. What happens now if fans start heckling him about his personal life on the golf course? Will he be able to deal with this?

Tiger is one of the greatest competitors of our lifetime. How he responds and handles the increased public pressure and scrutiny will go a long way into determining if he'll pass Jack Nicklaus's record.

quick thoughts on the past week in sports

my quick thoughts on the past week in sports: David Beckham, Hockey Suspensions, and Ben Roethlisberger.

David Beckham

This past weekend, David Beckham tore his Achilles while paying for AC Milan. This injury will keep him out of the World Cup in South Africa this coming summer.

I really feel badly for Beckham. At this stage of his career, he knows that his place on the English team isnt a guarantee anymore. After coming to the USA to play, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to impress Fabio Capello, the English manager, by playing in the MLS. He then requested to get loaned to AC Milan, where he could play at the top level and impress Capello. Beckham’s had a couple amazing loan periods at AC Milan, and I really felt that he was going to be able to get a spot on the roster. Even though he wouldn’t be a starter for England, he would be a powerful and important weapon coming off the bench at the end of the game. While he doesnt have the same pace that he used to have in his younger years, he makes up for this “deficiency” with leadership and an experienced knowledge of the game. The guidance he would have given to the younger English players would have been invaluable. With all the drama going on within the English squad between John Terry and Wayne Bridge, Beckham could have been that experienced voice in the locker room.

Plus, his free kicks are still deadly as ever.

It’s a shame that he can’t play for England. Here’s top hoping that he’ll be fit to play in the 2010 European Championships.

Embarrasment in Hockey

Two incidents happened in hockey this past week that got the entire hockey world in a big debate.

A week ago, Matt Cooke violently, and deliberately, elbowed Marc Savard in the head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvlw_WSf1xI

This past Sunday, Alexander Ovechkin boarded Brian Campbell into the boards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MozYKCapvWs

Both Marc Savard and Brian Campbell are gone for the season. Savard has a concussion that isn’t improving, and Campbell has a broken clavicle and bruised ribs.

Alexander Ovechkin was suspended for two games, while Matt Cooke wasn’t.

The disciplinary system in the NHL needs to be looked at immediately. It baffles me how Cooke didn’t get a suspension. I’m ok with Ovechkin getting a suspension. While his hit wasn’t dirty and he didn’t want to cause Campbell bodily harm, it was still a careless hit, and it caused a player to miss the rest of the season. Cooke on the other hand purposefully and violently elbowed Savard head. Im pretty sure he knew what he was doing, and that it wasnt a “heat of the moment” hit.

In my eyes, the NHL lost a lot of credibility this past week in the way they discipline their players. They really need to look at their rule book this offseason, and come up with a system that fairly punishes players for their infractions.

The Embarrassment that is Ben Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger is my favorite football player. He was the reason why I first started following the Pittsburgh Steelers. His rookie season was during my junior at Carnegie Mellon, and in his rookie season, he started his career 15-1 and only lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. In his 2nd season, he won the Superbowl, and again won it only two years ago. I love his style of style of play and his toughness. When he’s healthy, he is so much fun to watch on the field.

However, off the field, he’s a completely different story. After he won the Superbowl in Jan 2006, he proceeded to get into a motorcycle accident. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and was almost near death. His reasoning for not wearing a helmet, “ You’re just more free when you’re out there and there’s no helmet on.” Really...no comment there.

Last year in the summer of 2009, he was accused of sexual assault of a hotel worked in Lake Tahoe. This wasn’t a criminal complaint, but rather a civil complaint. Through the unfolding of events in this case, I came to believe that while Ben was being a guy, no criminal activity took place, and that the woman was trying to extort him for his fame and money.

This past month, Ben was again accused of sexual assault in Georgia. He was out partying with a group of friends, and happened to visit a college bar. A woman again accused Ben of sexually assaulting in her in a bathroom.

Now all the details haven’t been released in this latest case, but all I can say is that Ben Roethlisberger is a fricking idiot. Unlike Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisberger is not married, so he doesn’t have to deal with any infidelity accusations. Im not going to even comment on his personal life actions with woman on a moral grounds either.

But I’m really surprised that Roethislerger hasn’t learned his lessons after the Lake Tahoe incident. Why does he keep on putting himself into these situations? Why doesnt his entourage protect him from incidents like these. Supposedly, two friends who accompanied him are off duty cops from Pittsburgh, and another one is the agent of another player on the Steelers. How did these three people not keep Ben accountable and keep him wary of the environment he was in?!

This can only spell trouble for the entire Steeler’s season. Every single where Ben’s had some offseason drama, the Steelers have failed to make the playoffs.

The Rooney family signed him to a 8-year, $102 million contract back in 2004, essentially making him the face and the future of the franchise. Ben has even stated that he wants to retire a Steeler. Its time for Roethlisberger to grow up and act like the future of the franchise. He needs to stop bringing distractions to the team every single offseason.

Landon Donovan and what he means for US Soccer

It's a well-known fact that I love sports. I love following and cheering on my favorite local teams. I love watching good games, when I dont have a rooting interest in either team. Often though, I follow certain games because of certain players. You can often find me reading up on high school recruiting sites to find the next star athlete. I would follow these players from high school to college to the pro leagues. I love to see how a player's career develops and how they mature as an athlete.

One player I follow extremely closely is Landon Donovan. He's just entering his prime playing years, yet he's already arguably the greatest soccer player the US has ever produced. He started out his professional playing career with the San Jose Earthquakes in 2001 (technically Bayer Leverkusen in Germany...but that's a whole different story). As a 19 year old player, he led the Earthquakes to MLS Cup Championships in 2001 and 2003 and soon became the face of US soccer. He eventually found his way to the LA Galaxy (via Bayer Leverkusen in Germany again) where he's blossomed as the best player in the country.

His career with the national team is equally as impressive, as he's the top scorer of all time with the national team. He's current 4th with 121 appearances, and will surely pass Cobi Joni's by the end of his career as the most capped player ever for the national team.

Recently, Landon Donovan was loaned out to Everton in the English Premier League for 10 weeks. It started after the end of the MLS season in January until March. Club soccer at the international level is different than what we're accustomed to in the United States. At the club level, the team owns the "rights" to players. There are very few trades in soccer, like we're accustomed in the US. If a team wants a player, they have the opportunity to buy the rights of the player. This is called a transfer fee. This past summer, Real Madrid paid a record breaking fee of $132 million to Manchester United for the rights of Cristiano Ronaldo. This is only for the rights, and doesnt include the player's salary (which came out to be over $100k/week for Ronaldo).

Another concept that's different is "loans". For a very stacked team, a player might not be able to crack the starting roster and might be left on the bench. A manager might want to give this player more playing time, so he will loan this player to another team for a set amount of time, ranging from a couple months to a whole season. A lot of times, the player will come back to his home team at the end of his loan spell, but if the player performs really well, his new team might arrange to buy his contract out and keep the player.

For the case of Landon Donovan, the LA Galaxy loaned his services to Everton in the offseason. The idea was for Landon to get playing time against top quality opponents during the MLs offseason and come back to LA at the beginning of the season. David Beckham had a similar deal with AC Milan. Beckham's purpose was for him to impress Fabio Capello, coach of the English team, against better opponents to win a spot on the English Team for the World Cup.

Everton has always been traditionally one of the stronger teams in England, but have been hit hard with injuries this season. David Moyes, their coach, brought in Landon Donovan hoping that he'd be able to minimize the damage. Little did he know the impact that Landon Donovan would have on the team.

After his very first home game, Landon Donovan received a standing ovation from the Everton faithful, who are a very very knowledgeable and appreciative fan base. In his time at Everton, Donovan played extremely well and led the team to upsets over Chelsea (#1 in the standings), Manchester United (#2), and Manchester City (#5). He also led Everton to a tie against Arsenal (#3) in an away game.

I knew Landon would perform well in his short 10 week loan at Everton, but I was shocked to see him perform this well. In what might have been his last home game against Hull City last week, he scored a goal and assisted on another. The Everton fans went crazy, started chanting USA, and was so vocal in their appreciation for Donovan for what he's given the team. After the game, he did a "victory lap" around the stadium, and soaked in the love that he received from the fans. Watching clips of it on youtube, one couldnt feel prouder for him.

Now, his loan is ending this week and he might play his last game for Everton this coming Saturday. He wants to stay at Everton, the owners and managers want him to stay, and the fans want him to stay. However, Bruce Arenas, the manager of the LA Galaxy, wants him back at the beginning of the MLS season. Negotiations are going on right now to see if Landon can get his loan renewed.

For the sake of US Soccer, Bruce Arenas needs to suck it up, and let Landon stay. First off, while Landon will be hard to replace, Arenas can go without him for a bit...his squad is strong enough that they'd be able to compete without Landon's services in the short run.

American goalies, Tim Howard, Brad Friedel, and Kasey Keller, have all made their marks in Europe before, and the world soccer community recognizes that the US produces some amazing goalies. However, a field player (defender, midfielder, striker) has NEVER performed this well in Europe before at a consistent basis. The closest has been Clint Dempsey at Fulham in England, but his career hasn't been consistent and has been marred by injuries.

Freddie Adu, Demarcus Beasley, Claudio Reyna, Jeff Agoos, and Eric Wynalda have all tried to make it in Europe, but none of them have ever succeeded.

Landon Donovan is the first American to make an impact at the highest level of soccer, and the soccer community is starting to notice. For the first time, American soccer is starting to gain credibility, and more and more teams are starting to look at players. Numerous American born players are getting chances to play in Europe. This wont directly correlate to improved visibility of soccer in America. However, this gives American soccer players the chance to play against the best competition in the world. Sorry, but the MLS is still a cut below the rest of the European leagues. By having American players improve against playing against the best, this can only translate to improved play at the international level, specifically the World Cup.

Soccer will never be big in the US until the US wins the World Cup, or even makes it far. By having Americans play in Europe, this can only improve the national teams chances at the World Cup.

Back to Landon Donovan. If he continues to play at this high level at the highest level of soccer, he will be amazing at the World Cup in South Africa in June. The game experience of playing against quality opponent in pressure packed and hostile situations will be invaluable to the national team. If he comes back to the MLS, he will play against 2nd tier talent, and I feel the level of his game will drop to his opponents. By also playing at a high level, he will continue to give credibility to the abilities of American soccer players.

Bruce Arenas needs to suck it up. He used to be the coach of the American team for two world cups, including the 2006 World Cup debacle. Out of everyone, he should know the workings of the national team at the international level. I believe by allowing Landon to continue to play in England, he will be ultimately be improving the state of US soccer in the long run.

The Crazy Pac-10 Season and looking forward.

This year's college basketball season has been the most interesting season in recent memory. I think its the first time since high school that I've really lost interest in what's going on throughout the country. I think there's been numerous factors contributing to this, but the biggest has to be the unexpected (or even expected) dismal season in the Pac-10. For the first time in 20+ years, a Pac-10 wasn't ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. In recent polls, a Pac-10 team didnt even get a single vote in the weekly rankings. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

I mean, the California Golden Bears won the Pac-10 title for the first time since 1958. When Cal wins the Pac-10 regular season title, you know something is definitely screwed up in sports. This season was definitely an anomaly, so fans in Berkeley shouldn't be expecting titles in the near future. But what contributed to this anomaly, and can we as Pac-10 fans expect things to turn around in the following seasons?

There were numerous factors contributing to this weird season. I think the biggest factor was the quality of talent that simply left for the NBA. In 2009, 6 Pac-10 players were drafted in the 1st round: #3 Harden (ASU), #9 Hill (Arizona), #10 Derozan (USC), #19 Holliday (UCLA), #21 Collison (UCLA), and #26 Gibson (USC). In 2008, 7 Pac-10 players were drafted in the 1st round, including 3 of the top 5 picks: #3 Mayo (USC), #4 Westbrook (UCLA), #5 Love (UCLA), #10 B. Lopez (Stanford), #11 Bayless (Arizona), #15 R. Lopez (Stanford), and #21 Anderson (Cal). On top of that, an additional 5 players were drafted in the 2nd round.

That's 13 players from the Pac-10 that were drafted in the 1st round over two consecutive years. This is not to say that teams didnt have talent in the past, but the concentration of talent on teams in back-to-back years is unheard of. With so many players leaving in a year, teams/coaches are forced to field teams with inexperienced players the following years.

Couple this with the coaching carousel going on around the league, and you'll get even more problems. A quick look at the issues plaguing each traditionally strong team.

At Arizona, Lute Olson took a leave of absence the day before the season opener in 2007, and announced that he would miss the entire season. That entire season, the team had to deal with their new interim coach, Kevin O'Neil, who was also told that he would take over the head coaching job when Olson finally retired. Relationships got soured, Olson said O'Neil would never coach at UA, and O'Neil left. Arizona finally hired Xavier's coach, Sean Miller, last season to take control of the team.

At Stanford, Bob Bowlsby moronically didnt renew Trent Johnson's contract, after Trent Johnson led the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 in the 2007-08 season. Trent Johnson left for LSU, and Johnny Dawkins came in from Duke to take over the team. The Lopez twins left for the NBA, and Dawkins was left with a very depleted team. This current season, Dawkins is left with only 7 recruited players on his squad. Despite the shortage of scholarship players, Dawkins has his team playing at a very respectable level.

At UCLA, Ben Howland has to deal with a massive loss of talent. In two seasons, he's lost Holliday, Collison, Westbrook, and Love to the NBA. He simply didnt have experienced players to play. The most experienced player returning this year, Drew Gordon from Mitty, left in the beginning of the season because of his own issues, so Howland really couldnt field a competitive team.

At USC, their entire athletic program is a fraud. Dont even get me started with their football team. With Tim Floyd coaching, the Trojans brought in OJ Mayo and Derozan, who were able to single-handedly carry the team to some national prominence. Throughout his tenure, Tim Floyd had to deal with recruitment allegations regarding Mayo. As the best player coming out of high school, there was absolutely no reason for Mayo to play at USC. USC had never been even decent at basketball. There had to be some type of recruitment violations. Finally, Floyd stepped down, and USC went out and recruited Kevin O'Neil. However, the coaching transition and lack of players has USC really struggling this season.

Now with regards to Washington and Arizona State, they have flashes of brilliance every couple years. At Washington, they will get lucky every so often with Roy, Robinson, and Brockman, but there wont necessarily be consistency year-to-year. Even with Arizona State, they will bring in a star player every so often, but once they leave for the NBA, they have to wait for the next one to come around. In this current season, Washington and ASU dont have that star player and experienced team to be consistent week in and week out.

The problems with all these teams allowed for California to take advantage of the situation and win the Pac-10. They fired Ben Braun, and brought in a great coach in Mike Montgomery, who was lucky to inherit a great class of Randle, Christopher, Robertson, and Boykin. They are all seniors (as well as the top 4 scorers on the team), and Cal was the only team to field 5 players who had talent and experience. But like I said from the very beginning of the season, Cal wouldnt be able to play on the national level, as witnessed by their back-to-back losses to Syracuse and Ohio State early in the season. Cal this season is a shooting team...they live and die by the three, just like the Golden State Warriors in 2005. You need a dominant big man to win, so if you're shots arent falling, you have something else to rely on. Cal didnt have that important big man, so when Syracuse and Ohio State were guarding the perimeter and Cal's shot wasnt falling, Cal had no chance.

Congrats to Cal for capitalizing on the poor performance of the Pac-10 as a whole, and winning. However, the big 4 seniors are gone next year, and although Mike Montgomery is a great recruiter and coach, he'll run into the same problem that Ben Howland is facing now at UCLA...a shortage of experience talent to replace what they have now.

Looking forward to next season, there is hope for improvement. There will finally be stability amongst all the coaches, and all these coaches are great recruiters. Stanford's Johnny Dawkins is bringing in the #16 2010 class, including star player Dwight Powell, Cal's Mike Montgomery is bringing in the #23 class, and Ben Howland is bringing in the #11 class, including star Josh Smith. Sean Miller, Kevin O'Neill, and Herb Sendek are all great coaches as well and will bring in strong classes. Sendek already got the #9 player in the nation, Keala King, to commit to ASU.

One thing that's exciting is that all teams are "rebuilding" together at the same time. Going forward, I dont think there will be one dominant team, but rather a strong conference top to bottom, in the model of the Big East. One can only hope though that it wont be cannibalistic, where all the teams just beat each other up.

Things will turn back to normal soon. Meaning, we wont see Cal bringing the title back to Berkeley for another 50 more years...