LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Only 216 days until the start of the 2023-24 college basketball season.
Before you search for the too-early rankings and stare at the transfer portal, it's time to put an exclamation point (or question mark) on what just happened with 10 takeaways from the 2022-23 season.
1. Big Work For Big 3
In the last three seasons, Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Princeton, Saint Peter's, Providence, Iowa State, Oregon State, Loyola (Chicago), Oral Roberts and others have advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the men's NCAA Tournament at least once.
Louisville, Kentucky and Indiana have not.
As I wrote two weeks ago, since the tournament expanded to 16 teams or more in 1951, this is the first three-year stretch when U of L, UK and IU have all failed to crack the Sweet Sixteen.
If it happens once, you shrug. If it happens twice, you double-check the results. When it happens three times, it's time for leaders of the Cardinals, Wildcats and Hoosiers to report to the lab and figure it out.
So figure it out, guys.
2. Walz Wizardry
There remains one program in the area that has figured it out: Jeff Walz and the University of Louisville women.
The Cardinals lost a dozen games, including head-scratchers to South Dakota State and Wake Forest. They finished tied for fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were unable to continue their tradition as host site for their first two NCAA Tournament games.
Didn't matter. When the games that mattered were played, the Cardinals outplayed their seed and advanced to the Elite Eight. They routed Texas at Texas and dispatched Ole Miss in Seattle. Only Iowa and the Caitlin Clark show stopped the Cardinals.
3. Heavenly Huskies
By defeating San Diego State on Monday night in Houston, Connecticut won its fifth NCAA title since 1999. No other program has won more than three rings during that period. U of L, UK and IU have combined to win two.
The Huskies have done it with three different coaches (Jim Calhoun, Kevin Ollie and Danny Hurley) with teams led by five different stars (Rip Hamilton; Ben Gordon; Kemba Walker; Shabazz Napier and Adama Sanogo).
I've been to Storrs, Connecticut, multiple times. Nothing about it screams Basketball Mecca. But the Huskies have figured something out.
Salute.
4. 4-28
Nothing more needs to be said.
5. Parity (Women's Division)
Remember when women's college basketball was all Tennessee, all the time? Then it was all Connecticut, all the time?
That's not the way the game is played any more.
The women's game is booming, especially in the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big Ten conferences. The TV ratings set records during the regular and postseason.
The game has stars who do not leave the stage after one season. It has rivalries. It has controversy. It has it all.
If this was Wall Street, the recommendation would be BUY!
6. Grace Berger Scales to IU's Mt. Rushmore
Losing at home in the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed was not the holiday card farewell that Berger and her Indiana University women's teammates scripted.
But that won't be how Berger, the Sacred Heart Academy grad, will be remembered in Bloomington.
It was the Hoosiers, not Iowa, that won the Big Ten regular-season title. Berger will depart for the WNBA ranked second all-time in assists, sixth in points and 10th in rebounding at Indiana.
Here is the number to remember: Attendance at IU women's games jumped nearly 98% from 2018 (the year before Berger arrived) through last season. The Hoosiers averaged 8,104 fans, which ranked eighth in the nation. Berger will move directly into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame as soon as she is eligible.
7. Parity (Men's Division)
UConn blasted through the men's tournament, even though the Huskies finished fourth in the Big East, behind Marquette, Xavier and Creighton. They lost seven league games and then they barely trailed for more than seven seconds in six tournament games.
Florida Atlantic was picked to finish fifth in Conference USA and made the Final Four. The regular-season champions of the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Big East and Pac-12 all failed to make the Elite Eight.
Only one team ranked in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 made the Final Four. That was San Diego State, No. 19.
8. Big Ten's Big Whiff
Over the last 25 NCAA Tournaments (starting with 1998 and remembering that COVID-19 canceled the fun in 2020), here is the conference scoreboard on winning national titles:
- 8: Big East and Atlantic Coast
- 4: Southeastern
- 3: Big 12
- 1: American
- 1: Big Ten
The Big Ten dropped eight teams in the tournament this season and finished 6-8, putting only Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen.
The Big Ten put nine teams in the tournament last season and finished 9-9, getting two teams to the Sweet Sixteen but none to the Elite Eight.
With Kevin Warren departing for a job with the Chicago Bears, the league is shopping for a new commissioner. Somebody who understands basketball would help.
9. Alabama Rules
The road to the top of the Southeastern Conference in men's basketball goes through ... Alabama.
Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide won the SEC men's title this season, finishing four games ahead of Kentucky. Bama replaced Auburn as the league champion after Bruce Pearl and the Tigers finished 15-3 last season. And in 2021, the winner was Alabama, which finished 16-2.
Alabama, Auburn, Alabama ... what is this the Iron Bowl?
Mark it down as the first time Kentucky has failed to win the SEC regular-season title for three-straight seasons since 2006-09, which led to the end of Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie.
Say it ain't so, Bear Bryant.
10. Rick Pitino Resets
If you thought the Big East was a show this season, wait 'til next year.
After earning his second NCAA Tournament invitation in three years at Iona, Pitino parlayed his success into the job at St. John's, where he'll be going nose to nose with Danny Hurley (UConn), Shaka Smart (Marquette), Sean Miller (Xavier), Greg McDermott (Creighton) and others next winter.
It's only 216 days away.
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