Bracketology

[kayako]

Lunardi 12/16:

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

4 Butler
5 Nova
6 Marquette
7 Xavier
8 Seton Hall
11 Georgetown
11 DePaul
Creighton first team out

First 5 looks about right, the next 3 seeded way too low.

[stever20]

Lunardi 12/16:

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

4 Butler
5 Nova
6 Marquette
7 Xavier
8 Seton Hall
11 Georgetown
11 DePaul
Creighton first team out

First 5 looks about right, the next 3 seeded way too low.

after the NET came out think Marquette, Xavier, and Seton Hall maybe a a bit over seeded, but Georgetown and DePaul a bit under seeded.

[kayako]

Bracketville 12/17:

https://bracketville.wordpress.com/bracketology/

3 Butler
6 Nova
7 Marquette
8 Xavier
9 Georgetown
9 DePaul
11 Creighton
12 Seton Hall
*uconn 4th out

This one's more influenced by the NET and more agreeable for me.

[stever20]

Bracketville 12/17:

https://bracketville.wordpress.com/bracketology/

3 Butler
6 Nova
7 Marquette
8 Xavier
9 Georgetown
9 DePaul
11 Creighton
12 Seton Hall
*uconn 4th out

This one's more influenced by the NET and more agreeable for me.

Huge week for Creighton coming up with 2 tough games.... Seton Hall think they might fall out with loss to Maryland. 6-5 tough to keep them in. They're going to be one that end of the year if they finish like 17-14 that will be really tough to predict if they make it or not.

[ChestRockwell85]

Can you imagine if we got 8 teams in? That is 80% of the league! That would be insane. I think at the end of the day it will be closer to 5 or 6, but even if we get in 6 every year, that is pretty friggin' good. Now we just need to get a few more Ws in the dance and we will be sound as a pound.

[eye of the jay]

8 teams is definitely a pipe dream after the non-con we've had. Right now we're solidly the 3rd best conference, but we are still lacking marquee wins and banner-carrying teams. If the Hall could've beaten MSU or Oregon they would be in a ton better shape - bet Willard is still waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares of blowing that double-digit lead. Whiffed on road chances against decent but not great ISU/Rutgers teams. Providence is the biggest disappointment though. They had such an easy early-season tourney and went 1-2, and they had no business losing to Penn or Northwestern.

Providence and Seton Hall underperforming has been counteracted by Depaul and Butler overperforming. Georgetown and SJU have performed admirably despite losing a lot of talent. Butler is definitely a good team, but I don't see them dominating in conference, same goes for Villanova. Since the new Big East formed the champion has had 15 or more wins each year except for last year when Nova won it with 13. This year I see even more parity with the regular season champ having only 12 wins. Right now if the season ended today I would give us 5 bids with Creighton, Xavier and Seton Hall being left out.

By the end of the year, I see it shaking out like this:
Butler 4
Villanova 5
Marquette 6
Xavier 9
Depaul 10
Creighton 10

Georgetown has some nice wins, but I would give Ewing coach of the year if he managed to finish .500 or better in BE play with 7 scholarship players. Seton Hall will get Powell back and Mamu, but I fear they've dug themselves too deep of a hole - they could win vs. Maryland or go 11-7/12-6 in conference, but neither of those feats will be easy. Either way, the end of non-conference will be fun to watch with some big games left( Nova vs. Kansas, Hall vs. Maryland, CU vs. Oklahoma, at ASU, Butler vs. Purdue, SJU vs. Arizona, Xavier at TCU, Prov vs. Florida, vs. Texas). Lots of big matchups there. I'll be thrilled w/ 5 wins out of 9.

Bottom line, keep winning in non-con and 7 is possible, but 6 (or 5 if some teams dominate) is more likely.

[stever20]

I think we're definitely going to learn a ton about Providence this week vs Florida and Texas. They always seem to pull off some shockers in conference play. If they lose both of these games- those are going to hurt even more than normal especially if it's a home loss for the school.....

Amazing there's still so many big games left- I think it's 11/23 d1 games are Ken Pom level a and b games. Those 11 are going to go a long way.....

[Hall2012]

It'll cost us at least a couple games (RU already an likely Maryland) as I said when we thought Powell would miss time earlier, this could turn into a blessing in disguise. Playing without Powell and (Mamu) will force other players to step up and make plays rather than constantly deferring to him. There's no reason to think Powell won't return to 100% and when he does, he'll have a stronger and more confident supporting cast. If the results come when he returns, the committee does have a history of forgiving losses without key players.

[stever20]

It'll cost us at least a couple games (RU already an likely Maryland) as I said when we thought Powell would miss time earlier, this could turn into a blessing in disguise. Playing without Powell and (Mamu) will force other players to step up and make plays rather than constantly deferring to him. There's no reason to think Powell won't return to 100% and when he does, he'll have a stronger and more confident supporting cast. If the results come when he returns, the committee does have a history of forgiving losses without key players.

I see what you're saying but I think to have a realistic shot Seton Hall(assuming loss to Maryland)- would need to go 10-8 in conference play to have any chance at all. And need to win a game in the BET. That would get you to 18-14.

The key stretch is going to be 23 days coming up starting Dec 30. 7 Big East games.... Mamu will be out for all of those. Have to get at least 3 or 4 wins out of that or things start really getting tough..

[kayako]

One of the weakness of having a small conference with double round-robin schedule is that the negative impact of one awful team is pretty big. It'll suck having to play on the road that'll only count as tier 3. Hopefully we don't end up having to dodge tier 4 landmine.