Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
These numbers surprised me, so I checked on them. I've got SLU at 18 wins/year over the past 15 years, starting with Charlie Spoonhour's last year as head coach in 98-99. 269-213 overall.
I've also got WSU right around 21 wins a year in that time frame. 310-174. So there's a slight difference in record, 3 wins a year, which is significant.
The biggest thing, in my opinion, is that Wichita State has made different runs with different casts of characters. In addition to the Final Four run a year ago, they also made a Sweet 16 run in 2006. They have reloaded several times and made the NCAAs with several different groups of stars.
All of SLU's real significant basketball accomplishments in the past 15 years have been last year and this year, and those are almost all on the backs of two recruiting classes.
And there's still a big gap in tourney success. WSU has two Sweet 16s and and Elite 8/Final Four run in that time frame. SLU hasn't made it out of the opening weekend.
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Ah, that would explain the discrepancy, I was beginning from the 97-98 season. Before WSU's final four run last year, I never saw much difference between the stature of SLU and WSU's programs (Your analysis about the programs successful "casts of characters" is sound, however).