USA Predicts . . .

[stever20]

ok and what about Georgetown...

had OOC wins vs 51 Kansas St, 13 VCU, and 18 Michigan St....

But because of the double round robin, cost them a NCAA bid.

And, for the one saying why would we want to mimic the A10? Well, maybe because they got in 6/13 teams- with none in the PIG last year. Acting like the A10 is bad is a joke.

I'd rather have a team squeaking into the PIG due to not having a round robin schedule(likely the 6th team), rather than having our 4th team squeaking in due to the double round robin. We were 2 games away from us having 2 teams in the NCAA tournament last year. If Marquette beats Xavier and Creighton beats Providence, we have 2 teams in. Just think about that.

[Xudash]

So addressing your main point, in other words, if I've understood you correctly, rather than have a league where anyone can beat anyone on any given night, it's better to add a couple suspect teams for the sake of creating a paper tiger like 2012 USF to squeak into the play-in game?

The team I support just came from the A-10 a year ago. Why would we want to create a situation that mimics what we just left?

Thank you for making the point that needs made, assuming we're talking about options that only include A10 teams for expansion.

As I've opined before, I believe the BE is standing pat for a while, because it knows it has the luxury of being able to see how things develop over the next few years - at least- on the college football front.

Again, do I believe that may ultimately lead to the BE picking up a UCONN at some point? No. I believe the odds of that happening are very low. Nonetheless, they seem low now and for good reasons, but who knows what all this will look like even within 5 years.

It is beyond obvious that the BE should and will only add teams that appear to have sustainable program advantages coupled with respectable success. If we're talking about private schools at this point, there isn't a program out there that jumps off the page with such a profile at this time.

We are at 10. If we continue to get no less than 4 into the NCAA Tournament every year, then job done. If we get stronger moving forward and move that number to 5, then we have a pretty unique and good thing going on with this deal.

[hoyahooligan]

ok and what about Georgetown...

had OOC wins vs 51 Kansas St, 13 VCU, and 18 Michigan St....

But because of the double round robin, cost them a NCAA bid.

And, for the one saying why would we want to mimic the A10? Well, maybe because they got in 6/13 teams- with none in the PIG last year. Acting like the A10 is bad is a joke.

I'd rather have a team squeaking into the PIG due to not having a round robin schedule(likely the 6th team), rather than having our 4th team squeaking in due to the double round robin. We were 2 games away from us having 2 teams in the NCAA tournament last year. If Marquette beats Xavier and Creighton beats Providence, we have 2 teams in. Just think about that.

Why is it the Round Robin that cost us the NCAA bid? We just didn't win enough games. It doesn't matter that we had to play everyone twice. It's that we didn't beat enough of them. We played plenty of bad teams to get the necessary wins, we just didn't get them. Playing a round robin has nothing to do with it.

[Noonzy]

In response to Xudash-Please excuse me if another PC fan has posted this already.

About 2 weeks ago, PC held an event for season ticket holders of all sports. Stu Jackson was the featured speaker. The subject of expansion was asked of Stu and he said the league will wait on the fallout from the P5 to see what schools will eliminate football because they can't afford it. He mentioned UConn. I doubt UConn will eliminate FB since the state has deep pockets. It will be very interestesing to see who actually drops FB. Then the debate of large public schools being in the conference with small private schools will begin again.

[Bluejay]

ok and what about Georgetown...

had OOC wins vs 51 Kansas St, 13 VCU, and 18 Michigan St....

But because of the double round robin, cost them a NCAA bid.

And, for the one saying why would we want to mimic the A10? Well, maybe because they got in 6/13 teams- with none in the PIG last year. Acting like the A10 is bad is a joke.

I'd rather have a team squeaking into the PIG due to not having a round robin schedule(likely the 6th team), rather than having our 4th team squeaking in due to the double round robin. We were 2 games away from us having 2 teams in the NCAA tournament last year. If Marquette beats Xavier and Creighton beats Providence, we have 2 teams in. Just think about that.

Why is it the Round Robin that cost us the NCAA bid? We just didn't win enough games. It doesn't matter that we had to play everyone twice. It's that we didn't beat enough of them. We played plenty of bad teams to get the necessary wins, we just didn't get them. Playing a round robin has nothing to do with it.

I'm with ya Hooligan. Unless one is talking about reducing the number of league games from 18 to 16 or something similar, the round robin argument doesn't make a lick of sense. Are we to blame the round robin setup for causing Georgetown to lose five games in a row in January? How about getting beaten by DePaul in one of the conference tourney play-in-games? What about losing to both Seton Hall and Marquette at home?

[SJHooper]

St. John's needs to learn to close out games. We had Nova, Creighton (the one we didn't win), and Cuse on their heels. We played Wisconsin tough who ended up being a top 5 team at one point. But the days of maybe's and almost's are over. Either put up or shut up. The opportunities are there for us…we just need to get over the hump and seal the deal. Last year we had perfect opportunities to beat top 10's in Nova, Cuse, and Wisconsin. This year we have more perfect opportunities to beat top 10's in Gonzaga, Duke, and Cuse (they will be top 10 by the time we play them). We played Duke close in 2012 with all rookies losing by 7. Time to actually win some of these games. Winning a game against Cuse or Duke will excuse 2 or 3 bad losses in some cases. Look at G'Town…they were the LAST team out with only 17 wins. The reason they were so close is because they beat good ranked teams. Without any real national juggernaut wins you need 21+.

[stever20]

St. John's needs to learn to close out games. We had Nova, Creighton (the one we didn't win), and Cuse on their heels. We played Wisconsin tough who ended up being a top 5 team at one point. But the days of maybe's and almost's are over. Either put up or shut up. The opportunities are there for us…we just need to get over the hump and seal the deal. Last year we had perfect opportunities to beat top 10's in Nova, Cuse, and Wisconsin. This year we have more perfect opportunities to beat top 10's in Gonzaga, Duke, and Cuse (they will be top 10 by the time we play them). We played Duke close in 2012 with all rookies losing by 7. Time to actually win some of these games. Winning a game against Cuse or Duke will excuse 2 or 3 bad losses in some cases. Look at G'Town…they were the LAST team out with only 17 wins. The reason they were so close is because they beat good ranked teams. Without any real national juggernaut wins you need 21+.

Georgetown was not the last team out. The committee doesn't put that out- just that Georgetown was one of the last 4 out- with SMU, St John's, and Southern MIss. I think odds are pretty good that SMU was actually the last team out.

[robinreed]

The history of BE teams does not indicate that more than 3 are ever likely to be in the top 25 in the nation at the end of the season. However getting 3 or occasionally 4 or more teams in the dance should be very easy to achieve in a 10 team conference. Increasing the conference membership to 12, 14 or 16 is very unlikely to increase our presence in the tournament in any significant way. If that were the case then the SEC would have 5 to 7 teams every year. After all they have a 14 school conference with many state flagship schools all of which have much more money and many more students and alumnus than we have. Obviously they have the resources and yet they do not achieve the success which many suggest the larger conferences should possess. There is something to be said for quality rather than quantity.

Although I am a Xavier fan first I do believe that being in a strong conference is essential for our common good. Should we eventually add additional schools? Perhaps, but finding quality schools with quality basketball is not as easy as some might think. Also there is an apparent prejudice against adding state or other public schools which one sometimes sees on this board and which may reflect amongst alumni and students of our schools or may not.

Who can we add besides Gonzaga (who is ten million miles from everyone except Creighton?) St. Louis, Dayton and a few others are possible however in the short run do they really make us a better conference? Clearly it is questionable.

Getting quality schools with quality basketball is not easy. Of the 10 teams in the BE now only 3 rate in the top quality basketball programs since the beginning of college basketball.

7. St. Johns 106 seasons 1754 wins .653%
30. Georgetown 105 seasons 1569 wins .620%
43. Marquette 96 seasons 1520 wins .622%
CORRECTION: 28. Villanova. 93 seasons 1584 wins .637% per Wiki
Thanks to the posters who pointed out that I missed nova's long and accomplished record. No slight intended. Note my source differs very slightly from another source which other posters used. I do not know which is correct however the nova record is impressive no matter which you go by.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_te ... basketball

I believe that all except perhaps DePaul and Seton Hall are amongst the top 100 in the last 10 years however.

[GumbyDamnit!]

The history of BE teams does not indicate that more than 3 are ever likely to be in the top 25 in the nation at the end of the season. However getting 3 or occasionally 4 or more teams in the dance should be very easy to achieve in a 10 team conference. Increasing the conference membership to 12, 14 or 16 is very unlikely to increase our presence in the tournament in any significant way. If that were the case then the SEC would have 5 to 7 teams every year. After all they have a 14 school conference with many state flagship schools all of which have much more money and many more students and alumnus than we have. Obviously they have the resources and yet they do not achieve the success which many suggest the larger conferences should possess. There is something to be said for quality rather than quantity.

Although I am a Xavier fan first I do believe that being in a strong conference is essential for our common good. Should we eventually add additional schools? Perhaps, but finding quality schools with quality basketball is not as easy as some might think. Also there is an apparent prejudice against adding state or other public schools which one sometimes sees on this board and which may reflect amongst alumni and students of our schools or may not.

Who can we add besides Gonzaga (who is ten million miles from everyone except Creighton?) St. Louis, Dayton and a few others are possible however in the short run do they really make us a better conference? Clearly it is questionable.

Getting quality schools with quality basketball is not easy. Of the 10 teams in the BE now only 3 rate in the top quality basketball programs since the beginning of college basketball.

7. St. Johns 106 seasons 1754 wins .653%
30. Georgetown 105 seasons 1569 wins .620%
43. Marquette 96 seasons 1520 wins .622%

I believe that all except perhaps DePaul and Seton Hall are amongst the top 100 in the last 10 years however.

Nova all time:
94 seasons
1617-909 .640%
27th all time in wins
9th All time in NCAA tourney appearances.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/

Interestingly Nova has had only 5 different coaches since 1936. That's a little crazy.

[marquette]

Nova all time:
94 seasons
1617-909 .640%
27th all time in wins
9th All time in NCAA tourney appearances.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/

Interestingly Nova has had only 5 different coaches since 1936. That's a little crazy.

Lol, just one of the three teams in the conference to win the national championship. No big deal

*I know that's not what robin meant by the post, just messing.