College basketball is a unique sport in that there is a gigantic universe of 362 teams (and growing) but within that massive landscape is a bunch of distinct ecosystems–the different conferences.
In the midst of overall trends and a sport where hundreds of teams compete at the same level, a focus for programs isn’t competing with the 361 other teams as much as it is focusing on competing within your league. While non-conference play is still an important part of the college basketball calendar, the more important part remains league play. We saw a perfect example of this last year with the Gators as they didn’t get much accomplished in the non-conference portion of the season and weren’t…
