North Florida

State of '08: Florida

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:48:10 -0700

HTML clipboard

Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

Up today: Florida For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

FLORIDA

FLORIDA - Obvious choice at the top of the Sunshine state. Before last year, Billy Donovan's Gators had made 9 NCAA Tournaments in a row.. including back to back national titles. Hart to top that.

MIAMI - Since Frank Haith took over four years ago, Miami has made two NIT trips and one NCAA Tournament. But in the five years before last, Miami hadn't reached the Top 60 in RPI, and they've still never finished above .500 in the ACC. Fans are certainly expecting a big ACC finish this time around.

FLORIDA STATE - The 'Noles perpetually seem to be on the verge of something big, but they can't seem to get over the hump. This is basically the story of Leonard Hamilton's career. In the last six years, FSU has hovered between 41 and 81 in the RPI five times.. but have yet to reach the Big Dance.

CENTRAL FLORIDA - Despite lacking the profile of a Miami or FSU, UCF is a consistently solid team that deserves more attention. Long time coach Kirk Speraw has led the Knights to four NCAA Tournaments, and helped them make the transition to the more competitive Conference USA. Since joining the CUSA before 2006, the Knights have finished .500 or better in league play each season.

SOUTH FLORIDA - The Bulls haven't had much success since joining the Big East, but the program does seem to be gaining momentum. Last year, USF beat three Top 60 teams including FSU, UAB, and Syracuse.

6. FLORIDA A&M - The Rattlers are always one of the better teams in the MEAC. In fact, 2001 was the last time FAMU finished below .500 in league play. Although the MEAC is the 2nd worst league in the country, the Rattlers have taken advantage of the weak competition by making the Tournament in 2004 & 2007.

7. FLORIDA ATLANTIC - After a shocking Tourney run in 2002, the Owls haven't sniffed postseason play. In fact, FAU has only won two SB tournament games in the past six seasons, though they've been competitive in the last three seasons. It will be interesting to see if new head coach Mike Jarvis can regain some his former glory, after his tenure at St. John's came to an embarrassing end.

8. JACKSONVILLE - The Dolphins are coming off one of their best campaigns in recent memory, finishing 2nd in the A-Sun, making it to the conference title game, and finishin with an RPI of 164. That's pretty heady stuff for a program that was 1-26 in 2006 (only managing to knock of UNF). This is the 2nd season in a row that JU led its Florida rivals (Stetson, FGCU, and UNF) in the A-Sun.

9. STETSON - The Mad Hatters have hovered around 250 in the RPI for the past couple years, but are coming off a decent campaign that included an 11-5 Atlantic Sun record. This is the second time Stetson has won 11 league games in the past three seasons.

10. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL - FIU is consistently overmatched by its Sun Belt competition. The Panthers haven't finished above .500 in league play since 2000.. and really haven't come close since. At least things have improved since 03 & 04 when FIU was one of the worst teams in the country, winning just 10 D1 games those years.

11. BETHUNE-COOKMAN - The Wildcats continue to struggle, finishing 3rd to last in the lowly MEAC in back to back seasons. 2000 was probably the last time there was any legitimate hope of making a run in the conference tournament.

12. FLORIDA GULF COAST - In their first full D1 season, FGCU had decent success, winning 10 games, including 6 in the Atlantic Sun. At the very least, this already puts them ahead of North Florida.

13. NORTH FLORIDA - Despite a decent nickname (the Ospreys), UNF hasn't had even the slightest success since joining D1 in 05-06. UNF has won an amazingly small 7 D1 games in the past three seasons, and only beat winless NJIT in the RPI last year.

Last: D.C. - Next: Georgia

State of '08: The Introduction

Daily Dribble: Wild Saturday Recap

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:33:37 -0800

Wow.. simply wow. College basketball is fun. You can take your Super Bowls and endless weeks of repetitive buildup.. I'll take college basketball any day of the week. Just so happens Saturday is the best day of the week though.. and yesterday was about as wild as it gets. Lets begin our journey.. Florida is crazy good. The Gators have been blowing away the SEC, East or West, home or away, with ease. The Gators are 8-0 in league play, 2 full games ahead of 2nd place Kentucky. These two teams meet next week in Lexington.. but I just don't see the Wildcats winning. The Gators are one of four teams around the country that are still perfect in conference play. Holy Cross is 9-0 in the Patriot, Winthrop is 9-0 in the Big South, and Memphis is 9-0 in the CUSA. Wisconsin has just 1 conference loss.. and is now tied with Ohio State for the Big Ten lead. The Buckeyes picked up a big road win at Michigan State today.. and because they host the Badgers later in the season, have to be considered the conference favorite at this point. UNC is now a 2-conference loss team.. after losing to.. NC State? If you were to have told me Tyler Hansbrough would have 24 and 8, and that Ty Lawson would have a money 21 point, 7 assist, 1 turnover game (his best game ever).. I would have said UNC would have won by 20 points.. But the Wolfpack got solid production from their dependable starting five and won a well-fought game. State is probably the thinnest team in the country, with 5 guys who basically play all their minutes (think Arizona but worse).. yet depth wasn't a factor. The Heels got nothing out of Thompson or Stepheson, and Reyshawn Terry had a miserable game (fouling out in 15 minutes). What's really odd about this game is that NC State won despite turning it over 21 times to just 12 for UNC. Still, as big a deal as the #3 team losing is.. its not nearly as big a deal as Texas A&M's huge win at Kansas. The #8 team beating the #6 might not seem so special.. but this is monstrous. Not only has A&M never beaten Kansas in the decade-long history of the Big 12.. but no Big 12 South team had ever won a game in Allen Fieldhouse. 0 for 31 heading into today. That's nuts. After a back and forth first half, Kansas actually led most of the 2nd half, up by as many as 62-52 with 6 minutes to go. Acie Law capped a big 23 point, 7 assist game by leading the Aggies back to the win, including hitting the go-ahead three. Though A&M was 8th in the Coaches Poll, they were just 10th in the AP. They could however jump to as high as 4th this Monday.. maybe 3rd. Florida's obviously still #1. But after Wisconsin lost earlier in the week and then UNC fell today, 2 and 3 are up for grabs. UCLA will almost certainly jump up to #2.. but then 3rd will be between Ohio State, Wisconsin, or A&M. Of course its conceivable both of those teams will go 3-4 and then UNC will be 5th.. but I think the new Big 12 overall leader deserves better than the spot Kansas held before today. Besides UNC and Kansas, #9 Oregon is the other Top 10 team that lost on Saturday. The Ducks are in a slump, having lost two-straight and 3 of 4, and could fall all the way to the 18-20 range. The Ducks fell at USC, who is now 18-6 overall and seriously deserving of a look in the Top 25. The Trojans were 31st by votes last week, but there's not many new opening this week. The upset bug also hit the 11-25 range as well.. as #14 Oklahoma State, #18 Virginia Tech, #19 Notre Dame, #21 Clemson, #23 Texas, and #25 Indiana all lost. The most surprising of these games was Notre Dame losing to South Florida. Before Saturday, the Bulls were just 3-21 in Big East games since joining the league last season. But they do have McHugh Mattis.. and that was enough to knock off a Top-25 team yesterday. Mattis had 23 points and 16 rebounds, though oddly the small forward known for his defensive presence (4 bpg) had only 1 block. The Irish were just 21st in the AP Poll.. and are obviously in serious danger of falling out now. If that happens, and the team that replaces them isnt Georgetown, it would leave the Big East with just two teams in the Top 25. Like Georgetown, Southern Illinois deserves a serious look by the voters. The Salukis were 29th in the AP last and won another impressive MVC game.. at Wichita State. As usual, the Salukis won behind a suffocating defense, holding the shockers to 28% shooting.. and this game was in Wichita. None of these games though, teams in the Top 25 or fighting for the Big Dance, really mattered. What did matter yesterday was Iona finally getting their first win of the season. The 1-22 Gaels picked up a 12-point victory over Rider. With Siena coming to town next Friday, its possible Iona could be looking at a two-game winning streak. The Gaels lost by just a point (61-60) at Siena on Thursday.. and with their new found confidence, could be in line line for another win. Iona's win now puts the onus on North Florida. The Ospreys have avoided the bad press of Iona (if there's really such a thing as bad press) by beating 2 non-D1 teams earlier in the year. But UNF still hasn't beaten a Division 1 team yet! As far as I'm concerned, UNF was tied with Iona going into today, but is now alone as college basketball's lone winless team. - Dribble me softly -