WED - BIG EAST TOURNEY - DePAUL vs GEORGETOWN, 9:30pm.

[LeMoyne00]

I don't think any of the bubble teams are a lock! The Big East isn't fighting for these spots within their own bubble. The PAC for example is a teeter totter out west, their schools could earns as low as 3 bids or as high as 7, depending on how things shake out with the tourney and who wins and loses when - the whole idea of the bubble is comparing our schools records to others on the bubble. So you give them reasons to include you -- win win win! Loses by our bubble teams hurt them and perception of the conference, which hurts our other bubble programs.

[SJHooper]

Xavier is absolutely not a lock if they lose to Marquette tomorrow night. If they beat Marquette, sure. But if they lose, they will be directly on the bubble. St. John's-Providence could be a play-in game, but maybe not. There are many, many scenarios in which St. John's beats Providence, loses in the semifinals, and misses the Tournament. Lunardi saying that the winner of the SJU-Prov game will "likely squeak in" gives you confidence that this thing is a play-in game?

SJHooper, your posts contradict each other. You say that Xavier is a lock, and to try to prove your point, you say that they're in the "Should Be In" category. They would not be in that category if they were considered a lock. You say that St. John's-Prov is a play-in game, and to drive that point home, you say that Lunardi says that the winner will "likely squeak in". You say that Xavier has 21 wins, and they really have 20 (and 19 against D-1).

Look, I want what's best for the conference, but you need to think things through more clearly before posting.

Lunardi is well-known to be the most trusted guy when it comes to bracketology. He's almost always right. If he says it's a virtual play-in game I believe him. Is there a chance 2 wins will still be needed? Sure. But it seems to be more in favor of a play-in. Like I said if the 2nd round was against Marquette then yes we'd definitely need 2, but Nova is a top 5 if not top 3 at the moment. You really think a team with a 50-55 RPI losing to the 4 RPI team would say to them "they aren't ready"? I think as long as it's not a blowout and PC/SJ shows they can hang (both have this season already), then losing a squeaker won't kill them. That's not a bad loss or an expected win. It would be icing on the cake but you don't always need icing to get in.

Lunardi has the 34th best ranking among bracketologists in the past few years. He's good, not great. He usually gets inside information and updates his bracket right before the selection show. If you think a 50-55 RPI team with 20 D1 wins, losing to a top 5 team should make them a lock than I suggest you read more on past selections. The best thing for Xavier to do, is to remove all doubt and beat Nova. The bubble is soft this year (like most years it seems) no team has an excuse.

No one is saying SJ would be a lock, or PC if they win. But Lunardi said it's LIKELY that the winner would SQUEEZE in the field of 68. His words, not mine. Go argue with him. I tend to believe a respected ESPN bracketologist over some random Joe's at the keyboard. By the way, 4 of the 7 top 50 losses were lost by a margin of 7, 3,3, and 5. So stop acting like they are on some lower level entirely. They will see the margins too. Being blown out by them and I agree it looks terrible. It still doesn't look good obviously a loss is a loss, but this SJ team's worst loss was vs. DePaul who suddenly doesn't look so bad at the moment. Other than that our other bad loss was PSU who beat Ohio State. Our 2 worst losses are still vs. major conference opponents. Not all bubble teams can say that.

Reynolds, that was implied, obviously. Do you want me to post every possible scenario, or am I more likely to care about the one SJ can benefit from? Duh. What if Nova gets upset? Haven't seen you discussing that scenario! I'm not a homer…I understand there's just as good a chance we don't get in if not a slightly better chance of missing it. Lots of other SJ fans hate me because I'm raw about them. If you want to see real homers go to redmen.com where they were still making excuses when we were 0-5. Lavin could kidnap their children and they'd still praise him. That's how homerish. Obviously I want SJ to make it…is that ok with you? Can I root for them?

[PMThor]

This was a horrible, horrible loss for the conference. Just based on the BS ESPN led "eye test" this loss hurts the league. We need EVERY team projected to even sniff the tourney to win over inferior competition. I don't care about this stuff about strengthening other BE teams chances, that's crap. No team in consideration for the tournament should lose to the LAST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. EVER. Never, ever, ever.

When people look back at this season for the Big East, the naysayers will say a bubble team lost to the worst team in the league. That is never good.

G'Town lost a lot of talent. They will be fine…let them reload. They have a great player in Smith-Rivera…G'Town is too good a program to be held down too long. They will be ranked again within the next season or two. Upsets happen in tournaments. No conference is immune. Look at UConn…they finished the year .500 in conference and won the national championship a few years back.

I agree we need G'Town to be good for the conference to be seen as healthy, but teams are going to have to reload every once in a while. Creighton will be in a similar position after this year.

We are talking this season alone! They just lost to the worst team in the league, and this isn't a new occurrence for this program, to lose to inferior programs in tournaments. Reload, restart, refix, whatever. They had a serious chance to make the tournament, and pooped the bed. This was a terrible outcome for the conference.

[SJHooper]

This was a horrible, horrible loss for the conference. Just based on the BS ESPN led "eye test" this loss hurts the league. We need EVERY team projected to even sniff the tourney to win over inferior competition. I don't care about this stuff about strengthening other BE teams chances, that's crap. No team in consideration for the tournament should lose to the LAST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. EVER. Never, ever, ever.

When people look back at this season for the Big East, the naysayers will say a bubble team lost to the worst team in the league. That is never good.

G'Town lost a lot of talent. They will be fine…let them reload. They have a great player in Smith-Rivera…G'Town is too good a program to be held down too long. They will be ranked again within the next season or two. Upsets happen in tournaments. No conference is immune. Look at UConn…they finished the year .500 in conference and won the national championship a few years back.

I agree we need G'Town to be good for the conference to be seen as healthy, but teams are going to have to reload every once in a while. Creighton will be in a similar position after this year.

We are talking this season alone! They just lost to the worst team in the league, and this isn't a new occurrence for this program, to lose to inferior programs in tournaments. Reload, restart, refix, whatever. They had a serious chance to make the tournament, and pooped the bed. This was a terrible outcome for the conference.

Honestly, they probably had to win it all to make it. Just a bad record. That's what ultimately did them in.

[NJRedman]

I'm sorry but how was this some terrible blow to the conference? Wasn't Gtown the 7th best team in the league? Didn't they have a losing record in conference play? Now if DePaul upsets Creighton tomorrow night then that will be a disaster. The 7th seed losing during the play in game is not really all that disappointing.

[Bill Marsh]

Is this the start of DePaul's run through the tournament to gain the auto bid?

I guess it is.

[billyjack]

A 7/10 result can't be a disaster. Maybe a missed opportunity.
This actually gives Creighton a little easier path this week, and allows the conference to showcase McDermott probably on Friday night too. Either way, MSG should be packed and raucous tonight.
First time I've used the word "raucous" in a while.

[cu blujs]

Maybe a disaster for Georgetown and its fans, but a disaster for the league? Come on. The conference is going to get credibility by winning its nonconference games against good competition and having teams make deep runs into the NCAA. We aren't going to get credibility by GTown winning our league tournament this year - in fact quite the opposite, in my opinion. Georgetown wasn't getting in without winning the tournament. They weren't good OOC (outside of the win over a depleted Mich St.), and they were 7th seed in a conference that will be lucky to get 4 in the tourney. They have too many bad losses and in particular down the stretch after they beat Mich. State - who probbaly won't even be a top 25 RPI after the Big 10 tournament. The win over CU isn't enough to overcome all the losses either. What would have been a disaster for the league would be a 17 win team, 7th place team, making a run through the tournament - dropping CU to probably a 5 seed and Nova to a 2 or 3 seed costing both better opportunities to make a deep run in the tournament - and having Georgetown lose first round to someone like Nebraska in the play-in game.