Help me out here ... I don't have time to watch a lot of college basketball during the season, so I haven't seen the SEC much recently. My impression has always been that the league (excluding South Carolina) is primarily composed of very athletic teams that follow the Pat Summitt guidebook: Be physical, overwhelm opponents with athleticism and don't worry too much about shooting or ballhandling. Offensive rebounding and defense will generate enough scoring.
Is that a fair assessment at all? In a larger sense, are the conferences much the same in style of play now? The Pac-12 was always considered a finesse league (in part because of the way it was officiated), but given its recent success, is that a reasonable thing to say?
In my opinion both of your assessments are fair. But it varies as much from team to team within each conference as it does between conferences which makes generalizations difficult.
If I had to generalize I'd say: Finesse conferences: Big 10, Pac 12, ACC, Big East. Physical conferences: SEC, Big 12.
But there are notable exceptions within each conference. For example:
Big 10: Iowa, Maryland, and Ohio State very finesse/shooting oriented. Rutgers, Indiana, and Michigan emphasize physicality and rebounding.
SEC: South Carolina and Tennessee are the most physical and athletic teams there are nationally. Arkansas and Mizzou are kinda the odd ones out in this conference in that they've had good shooting and offense recently but not enough size.
Pac 12: Oregon finesse, Arizona physical. Stanford can play both ways but has a much more organized and efficient offense that doesn't rely on second chance points to the extent that South Carolina and Tennessee do.
Big 12: Texas under Vic Schaeffer and Baylor under Mulkey were very physical. Baylor might be in a period of transition now with a new coach, and Texas is leaving for the SEC next year. Iowa State and Oklahoma are very much rely on ball movement, shooting, and playing in transition, but aren't physical teams at all. I'm intrigued by how that's going to work out for Oklahoma in the SEC next season.
Curious to hear other's thoughts or opinions on my generalizations.
IMO it all depends on what the styles of the top teams in each conference are, and how best to approach beating them. If a top team plays physical and opposing scouts collectively notice they don’t like it when other teams play them physical, then perhaps that’s the style that the conference will end up taking on. If a top team plays physical and opposing scouts collectively notice they don’t like playing these finesse west-coast/flowy teams, then that’s the style the rest of the conference will take on. At least theoretically. Yes, you want to be able to play “your game” in order to win, but I think as an underdog, sometimes you have to adjust your game plan. Underdogs who are still good teams with chemistry & good pieces at their core can do that.