Chris Mack on Xavier's NCAA chances and BE vs A10

[senditinjerome]

Plus Xavier's win vs Cincinnati by 20 pts on a neutral court is better than any win the A-10 has.

This is debatable, considering VCU beat Virginia @ Virginia.

While Mack's comments are correct, it's was a very amateur move to come out and say this publically...I haven't heard a peep from any other coaches in BCS conferences about the quality of their team/the quality of their league relative to the A-10.

[senditinjerome]

Plus Xavier's win vs Cincinnati by 20 pts on a neutral court is better than any win the A-10 has.

This is debatable, considering VCU beat Virginia @ Virginia.

While Mack's comments are correct, it's was a very amateur move to come out and say this publically...I haven't heard a peep from any BCS coaches about the quality of their team/the quality of their league relative to the A-10.

[Flyer75]

[/quote]
Top being those teams under NCAA consideration. Take your rose colored glasses off. The A-10 is looking at 6 teams and the BE is looking at 4 max. So yes, the top of the A-10 is stronger THIS YEAR. I have no clue what's going to happen next year.[/quote]

I have a good idea what will happen. Teams like St. Joes and UMass will fall down back to reality. Just like Lasalle did this year and just like the countless other examples over the past 20 years in the A-10 where a team will come out of nowhere for 1 or 2 years and then fade away. I watched it year after year with frustration when a team would have a great year and I would get excited that it would continue to build and it would disappear. As billyjack noted, look at the recruits coming into each league, look at the TV money (4million to 400k) and it's going to be harder for the teams in the A-10 to sustain the success year after year then a team in the Big East. I'm not trying to be overly negative about the A-10, it's just close to 20 years of observation from watching those teams closely. They'll probably get more teams into the tournament this year, but I'll put my money on Villanova and Creighton to make a bigger impact.[/quote]

You're probably right. Obviously the A10 won't get 5-6 teams in year in and year out...but I still don't think the BE year in and year out is going to get 6-7 either. The A10 will fall back to a solid 4 bid league, no shame in that while the BE will fight for 4-5 every year. Not much difference.

[BillikensWin]

Top being those teams under NCAA consideration. Take your rose colored glasses off. The A-10 is looking at 6 teams and the BE is looking at 4 max. So yes, the top of the A-10 is stronger THIS YEAR. I have no clue what's going to happen next year.[/quote] We get it; you are a dayton fan and want to defend dayton and the a-10 against Xavier fans and the Big East on a Big East board; but, at the end of the day, this is still a Big East board and its posters will overwhelmingly disagree with you. You are not going to change our hearts and minds.

I know it pains you, and its probably the reason why you hate the Big East and are so bothered by Coack Mack's words, but the reality is Big East teams are not leaving for the a-10 but there is a great chance that a-10 teams will happily leave the a-10 for the BEast.[/quote]

No, there's not a great chance. The Big East isn't expanding.

Chris Mack did coach in both leagues, so his opinion is informed. It's just unnecessary to compare the two.

[dmac80]

Guys I think the big lesson here is that parity, while great for the fans is actually bad for the league in some ways. Look at the AAC (and old BE) for an example. The top half are studs the bottom half bums and it results in a bunch of teams ranked and getting invites. What we have in this incarnation of the BE is 2 studs at the top, and bunch of quality teams in the middle that are beating each other in home and away series resulting in a bunch of 10-8 and 9-9 conference records and bubble teams. Am I wrong?

[BillikensWin]

Guys I think the big lesson here is that parity, while great for the fans is actually bad for the league in some ways. Look at the AAC (and old BE) for an example. The top half are studs the bottom half bums and it results in a bunch of teams ranked and getting invites. What we have in this incarnation of the BE is 2 studs at the top, and bunch of quality teams in the middle that are beating each other in home and away series resulting in a bunch of 10-8 and 9-9 conference records and bubble teams. Am I wrong?

When a whole lot of good teams get together, someone has to lose. Your analysis is spot-on.

[Flyer75]

Guys I think the big lesson here is that parity, while great for the fans is actually bad for the league in some ways. Look at the AAC (and old BE) for an example. The top half are studs the bottom half bums and it results in a bunch of teams ranked and getting invites. What we have in this incarnation of the BE is 2 studs at the top, and bunch of quality teams in the middle that are beating each other in home and away series resulting in a bunch of 10-8 and 9-9 conference records and bubble teams. Am I wrong?

No, you are exactly right and this is the nature of modern day basketball in just about every conference. Do I think the A10 is 3 bids better then the BE??? No...but that's how it's working out this year. It's the perfect storm where everything went right for the A10. UMass and SLU took care of business in OOC and then lost just enough to allow UD the chance to squeak in. In the era of one and done ball....you now have 40 teams fighting for a few spots and pick them out of a hat, there's not much difference.

Xavier fans can attest to what normally happens in the A10...teams shit themselves in OOC and then win in A10, ruining team's chances for an NCAA bid. The exact opposite happened this year. The A10 had a fabulous OOC and those teams continued to perform, but lost just enough (i.e. UMass and SLU losing to UD) to get teams like UD and St. Joe in. Rarely does it happen that way.

[xu2002]

You're probably right. Obviously the A10 won't get 5-6 teams in year in and year out...but I still don't think the BE year in and year out is going to get 6-7 either. The A10 will fall back to a solid 4 bid league, no shame in that while the BE will fight for 4-5 every year. Not much difference.

I agree. It's impossible for the BE to get 6-7 teams in a 10 team league. With a round robin format, there aren't enough wins in conference to get over 1/2 the league in. If/when they expand then it makes it easier to get more then 4-5. To have a chance to get 4 this year with Georgetown and Marquette both having down years is already an achievement.

[WaitingPatiently]

Guys I think the big lesson here is that parity, while great for the fans is actually bad for the league in some ways. Look at the AAC (and old BE) for an example. The top half are studs the bottom half bums and it results in a bunch of teams ranked and getting invites. What we have in this incarnation of the BE is 2 studs at the top, and bunch of quality teams in the middle that are beating each other in home and away series resulting in a bunch of 10-8 and 9-9 conference records and bubble teams. Am I wrong?

Another thing that hurts is the top team running away. Nova is 15-2. If they finished 13-5 instead, there would be 3 bubble teams with what would likely be a difference making win. (Assuming they didn't lose those others to the bottom teams.) Creighton at the end here has become a quality win to help a couple resumes. Their 4 loses are all to the bubble teams, which is a positive for the conf. To get max bids the conf needs 2-3 teams at the bottom that really only beat each other and the top 1-2 teams to be 13-5 types. That makes for the strongest group of resumes.

[stever20]

I think it's comical that folks look at Ken Pom's ratings like they are absolute. They aren't. They aren't even a predictor of making the tourney vs the RPI- last year I think 1 top 50 team in RPI didn't make tourney, while 4 from ken pom didn't.

Villanova 4
Creighton 7
Xavier 45
Providence 54
Georgetown 57
St John's 65
Marquette 73
Seton Hall 136
Butler 141
DePaul 160

UMass 13
VCU 14
SLU 23
GW 30
St Joe's 35
Dayton 43
Richmond 71
St Bonnies 103
La Salle 104
George Mason 133
Rhode Island 149
Duquesne 190
Fordham 221

A10 only has 2 teams worse than DePaul now.

If Dayton and St Joe's gets 1-2 more wins- they will have 6 teams in. Teams get bids, not conferences. Also, it's not like they are way below us in conference ranks, they are only seperated with us by the ACC(and they are real close to them).