[2006alum]

Semi-related question: when did the SEC get good at basketball? Last I remember, it was the ACC football of college basketball: one excellent team (Kentucky) and a bunch of meh-to-pretty-good teams.

Well Florida did win back to back NCs in 2006 and 2007. But more recently some schools have hired some very successful coaches who have raised the level of the conference - Rick Barnes at Tennessee, Ben Howland at Mississippi State, Bruce Pearl at Auburn. Those guys have been winners everywhere they have coached. Frank Martin took South Carolina to the Final Four two years ago. It's a tough conference. Perhaps this is a result of the SEC schools investing their football profits in the basketball program.

Good points.  The SEC has always been decent.  Yes, not on the same level as their football prowess, but Florida and Kentucky have had quite a lot of success over the years.  Some other teams have shown flashes of brilliance.  And yes, there was that #8 seed team from Alabama that eliminated a #1 seed Stanford team (30-1) in the second round and went on to the regional finals back in 2004, only to lose to eventual champion Connecticut.  That loss really hurt.  Stanford's only other loss of the season had been to Washington in the final regular season game; and the Cardinal would get revenge on the Dawgs in the Pac-12 tournament championship game.  Fifteen years ago: we were a national power.

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If you want to relive the pain of the game, here it is.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOVTsikxvEk

Thanks for the PTSD, Austrosturf... It felt like we literally tossed that game away in the second half. That game, the Jayne Appel broken ankle national championship loss vs. UConn in 2010, and the WBB Final Four buzzer-beater layup loss vs. Texas A&M in 2011, are my three most painful Stanford losses in the past 15 years. Each brutal in its own unique way. Ugh...

[2006alum]

Semi-related question: when did the SEC get good at basketball? Last I remember, it was the ACC football of college basketball: one excellent team (Kentucky) and a bunch of meh-to-pretty-good teams.

Well Florida did win back to back NCs in 2006 and 2007. But more recently some schools have hired some very successful coaches who have raised the level of the conference - Rick Barnes at Tennessee, Ben Howland at Mississippi State, Bruce Pearl at Auburn. Those guys have been winners everywhere they have coached. Frank Martin took South Carolina to the Final Four two years ago. It's a tough conference. Perhaps this is a result of the SEC schools investing their football profits in the basketball program.

Good points.  The SEC has always been decent.  Yes, not on the same level as their football prowess, but Florida and Kentucky have had quite a lot of success over the years.  Some other teams have shown flashes of brilliance.  And yes, there was that #8 seed team from Alabama that eliminated a #1 seed Stanford team (30-1) in the second round and went on to the regional finals back in 2004, only to lose to eventual champion Connecticut.  That loss really hurt.  Stanford's only other loss of the season had been to Washington in the final regular season game; and the Cardinal would get revenge on the Dawgs in the Pac-12 tournament championship game.  Fifteen years ago: we were a national power.

---

If you want to relive the pain of the game, here it is.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOVTsikxvEk

Thanks for the PTSD, Austrosturf... It felt like we literally tossed that game away in the second half. That game, the Jayne Appel broken ankle national championship loss vs. UConn in 2010, and the WBB Final Four buzzer-beater layup loss vs. Texas A&M in 2011, are my three most painful Stanford losses in the past 15 years. Each brutal in its own unique way. Ugh...