Well thats all folks

[Bill Marsh]

Bottom line is that the Big East has positioned itself extremely well with its OOC record. Wins against each other will be valued based on the strength of performance that the conference has established against the rest of the country. That is a really big deal.

IMO Villanova still stands head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. If they can run through the conference as they did last year and then cap that with a a tournament championship, they could be looking at a #1 seed. They're clearly the ones with the target on their back going into conference play.

The OOC record is almost exactly what it was last year. Last year OOC we went 94-31 .752 This year we went 92-30 .754

What is different is that spots 3-7 are a bit better than they were last year.... from Ken Pom- ratings before 1st conference games....
1st spot- Nova last year 8 this year 5
2nd spot- Creighton last year 15, this year SJ 18
3rd spot- Geo last year 32, this year 28
4th spot- X last year 39, this year 29
5th spot- Mar last year 44, this year But 35
6th spot- But last year 52, this year SH 39
7th spot- SJ last year 56, this year PC 48
8th spot- PC last year 69, this year Cre 76
9th spot- SH last year 121, this year Mar 98
10th spot- Dep last year 132, this year 211
Especially 4-7 are much stronger. Only problem is Seton Hall with their injuries is 6th and could see them crater similarly to what Butler did last year.

avg rating last year entering conf play 56.8
avg rating this year entering conf play 58.7

my point is things are almost exactly the same as last year but distributed a bit differently- probably a lot better in terms of getting more teams in- or the same number of teams in- but a whole lot more comfortably.

I'm really not sure what your point is, Steve. I'm sure you know as well as I do that when SOS is factored in that the Big East was much better OOC this year than last.

OOC W/L is essentially meaningless at this time of year because most teams from power conferences load up with teams they are capable of beating with a few exceptions. It's those exceptions that matter along with any bad losses that were sustained. You harped on this last year, so why are you trying to pretend that OOC is essentially the same from last season to this when it clearly isn't?

[stever20]

Bottom line is that the Big East has positioned itself extremely well with its OOC record. Wins against each other will be valued based on the strength of performance that the conference has established against the rest of the country. That is a really big deal.

IMO Villanova still stands head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. If they can run through the conference as they did last year and then cap that with a a tournament championship, they could be looking at a #1 seed. They're clearly the ones with the target on their back going into conference play.

The OOC record is almost exactly what it was last year. Last year OOC we went 94-31 .752 This year we went 92-30 .754

What is different is that spots 3-7 are a bit better than they were last year.... from Ken Pom- ratings before 1st conference games....
1st spot- Nova last year 8 this year 5
2nd spot- Creighton last year 15, this year SJ 18
3rd spot- Geo last year 32, this year 28
4th spot- X last year 39, this year 29
5th spot- Mar last year 44, this year But 35
6th spot- But last year 52, this year SH 39
7th spot- SJ last year 56, this year PC 48
8th spot- PC last year 69, this year Cre 76
9th spot- SH last year 121, this year Mar 98
10th spot- Dep last year 132, this year 211
Especially 4-7 are much stronger. Only problem is Seton Hall with their injuries is 6th and could see them crater similarly to what Butler did last year.

avg rating last year entering conf play 56.8
avg rating this year entering conf play 58.7

my point is things are almost exactly the same as last year but distributed a bit differently- probably a lot better in terms of getting more teams in- or the same number of teams in- but a whole lot more comfortably.

I'm really not sure what your point is, Steve. I'm sure you know as well as I do that when SOS is factored in that the Big East was much better OOC this year than last.

OOC W/L is essentially meaningless at this time of year because most teams from power conferences load up with teams they are capable of beating with a few exceptions. It's those exceptions that matter along with any bad losses that were sustained. You harped on this last year, so why are you trying to pretend that OOC is essentially the same from last season to this when it clearly isn't?

If the SOS was MUCH stronger wouldn't our average rating be better? I know part of it is DePaul- but even taking them out- last year 48.4 this year 41.8. And the problem is that teams will be playing DePaul 2x and that's going to be an absolute RPI Bomb that we didn't have last year. Watch what teams RPI's do after they play DePaul this year now.

Also- given that opponents records are 50% of the RPI- the fact that the conference enters the season with pretty much exactly the same record as last year- it's going to impact the RPI a lot more than you would think. So I wouldn't say that OOC W/L is meaningless at all.

Also I would say this. This year we are 9-10 currently against RPI top 50 teams. Got 1 top 50 game left in Duke. Last year we were 8-17 against RPI top 50 teams OOC. So we've been more sucessful, but actually had fewer games against top 50 teams. You say that's not realistic with current RPI's. Went to RPI forecast and looked at all 10 teams with their OOC games and that takes us to 9-11- plus the upcoming game with Duke(Cincy not projected to be top 50 this year). So 4 fewer OOC games against top 50 teams projeted right now. So it's still a big question how much stronger our schedule was this year.

[micgoG'town]

Won't DePaul's rpi get better with every BE game?

[DudeAnon]

Man, this is the exact kind of bitching I hope doesn't happen for the rest of the season. The OOC is done, we should just accept it for what it is and enjoy the rest of conference play.

I am an underdog addict so I will be rooting for the underdog every night during conference play (especially DePaul.) I couldn't care less how many bids we get, if you don't get a bid you didn't deserve to get in.

[stever20]

Man, this is the exact kind of bitching I hope doesn't happen for the rest of the season. The OOC is done, we should just accept it for what it is and enjoy the rest of conference play.

I am an underdog addict so I will be rooting for the underdog every night during conference play (especially DePaul.) I couldn't care less how many bids we get, if you don't get a bid you didn't deserve to get in.

Except for the fact that bids are the most important thing. Most fans and more importantly the media views the tournament as pretty much the season. If you think we could survive long term if we constantly do like we did last year barely getting 4 teams in- I think you are wrong. Parity is not our friend at all. The more games DePaul wins this year, the worse it is for the conference. DePaul wins 5 games, it's frankly a disastor. DePaul's RPI is still over 200, and the other teams they beat have a putrid loss. Only Brown, Omaha, and North Texas would be worse losses than DePaul(and Omaha quite frankly would be close to DePaul).

[dmac80]

Man, this is the exact kind of bitching I hope doesn't happen for the rest of the season. The OOC is done, we should just accept it for what it is and enjoy the rest of conference play.

I am an underdog addict so I will be rooting for the underdog every night during conference play (especially DePaul.) I couldn't care less how many bids we get, if you don't get a bid you didn't deserve to get in.

DePaul needs to be a doormat, or those awful OOC losses they had will haunt the entire rest of the conference.

I'm still of the mindset the league needs to be bigger and benefits from having several doormats to bolster the top half. Other than Depaul I see no obvious doormats. I predict once again we'll have 1 front runner (nova) and a bunch of good teams in the middle fighting for perceived mediocrity. Fair or not the press and fans like top heavy leagues and teams with gaudy records, not 10-8 in conference play.

[DudeAnon]

Man, this is the exact kind of bitching I hope doesn't happen for the rest of the season. The OOC is done, we should just accept it for what it is and enjoy the rest of conference play.

I am an underdog addict so I will be rooting for the underdog every night during conference play (especially DePaul.) I couldn't care less how many bids we get, if you don't get a bid you didn't deserve to get in.

DePaul needs to be a doormat, or those awful OOC losses they had will haunt the entire rest of the conference.

I'm still of the mindset the league needs to be bigger and benefits from having several doormats to bolster the top half. Other than Depaul I see no obvious doormats. I predict once again we'll have 1 front runner (nova) and a bunch of good teams in the middle fighting for perceived mediocrity. Fair or not the press and fans like top heavy leagues and teams with gaudy records, not 10-8 in conference play.

Ask DePaul fans how much fun it is being the doormat. Better to have a strong conference top to bottom which eventually leads to great rivalries.

[dmac80]

Man, this is the exact kind of bitching I hope doesn't happen for the rest of the season. The OOC is done, we should just accept it for what it is and enjoy the rest of conference play.

I am an underdog addict so I will be rooting for the underdog every night during conference play (especially DePaul.) I couldn't care less how many bids we get, if you don't get a bid you didn't deserve to get in.

DePaul needs to be a doormat, or those awful OOC losses they had will haunt the entire rest of the conference.

I'm still of the mindset the league needs to be bigger and benefits from having several doormats to bolster the top half. Other than Depaul I see no obvious doormats. I predict once again we'll have 1 front runner (nova) and a bunch of good teams in the middle fighting for perceived mediocrity. Fair or not the press and fans like top heavy leagues and teams with gaudy records, not 10-8 in conference play.

Ask DePaul fans how much fun it is being the doormat. Better to have a strong conference top to bottom which eventually leads to great rivalries.

We definitely have 1 of the strongest top to bottom leagues, but in an ironic way that hurts us. The ACC has a bottom half of dregs. Guess who feeds off of those hosts and gets great seeds because of it? The A10 last year was like that, a large league with terrible teams at the bottom and the top half all benefitted with invites. The only thing most fans, the general sports conscious public and watchers of the college game outside of diehards will care about or remember is what happens in March. If the BE sends less than 5 teams again and no on gets to the sweet 16 or later its a major fail and will have implications eventually (if this becomes the norm) on the league's status, perception, finances, marketability, etc and thus all our programs suffer.

I want to see an improved DePaul, but not this year, since they aren't going anywhere with their OOC record.

[TheBasketballOpinion]

uhhh we as a conference shouldn't want DePaul to beat ANYBODY. That is the most asinine statement I have heard in quite some time. In today's CBB landscape a conference is judged on how many teams are sent to the tournament. A loss to DePaul would be considered horrible and could prevent a team from reaching the tourney.

DePaul is a non factor until the new arena is opened and that bum Oliver is fired...

[MUPanther]

Six Big East teams are in the RPI top 35! Should be fun conference play, lots of quality wins to go around this year.

Icing on the cake would be St. John's beating Duke and Xavier beating Cincinnati.