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 expected to be an NCAA Tournament team, but when they took care of business in the SEC they were able to make it comfortably.