The Holy Land of Hoops

Only one day in and already something has ruffled my feathers. That thread, "Providence is done" or something like that. The whole premise is that Seton Hall has actually hurt the conference by beating Providence and lowing our potential bids for March. Bids are great, but they aren't everything, there should be pride and excitement for trying to win the conference as it is. I think the problem is, the conference tournament basically takes away the incentive to win the conference so:

1) Get rid of the conference tournament (lol)
2) Stop thinking about March, its no fun.

Other Notes
1) Creighton is going to make a lot of rivalries: very skilled, great home court advantage, physical (dirty? nah) and floppers.
2) Why can't this damn forum keep me logged in after I leave? Seriously, its not hard.

We're not floppers though. That ref called like three offensive fouls (and real ones) in like the first five minutes. Then we started flopping in response to that, and it worked.

It was just an adjustment to the way the game was being called, at least I think so. It's not an every day thing with us. Though with our size disadvantage it could become more commonplace I guess.

DudeAnon wrote:Only one day in and already something has ruffled my feathers. That thread, "Providence is done" or something like that. The whole premise is that Seton Hall has actually hurt the conference by beating Providence and lowing our potential bids for March. Bids are great, but they aren't everything, there should be pride and excitement for trying to win the conference as it is. I think the problem is, the conference tournament basically takes away the incentive to win the conference so:

1) Get rid of the conference tournament (lol)
2) Stop thinking about March, its no fun.

Other Notes
1) Creighton is going to make a lot of rivalries: very skilled, great home court advantage, physical (dirty? nah) and floppers.
2) Why can't this damn forum keep me logged in after I leave? Seriously, its not hard.

Great post but on the regular season thing. It's may be viewed less the tourny champion but it's not still critically important. We should know two things the reg season champion & the BET champion will both get bids making it highly important. We aren't some mid-major or the PAC12 where there will have to be a choice between the two..

DudeAnon wrote:Only one day in and already something has ruffled my feathers. That thread, "Providence is done" or something like that. The whole premise is that Seton Hall has actually hurt the conference by beating Providence and lowing our potential bids for March. Bids are great, but they aren't everything, there should be pride and excitement for trying to win the conference as it is. I think the problem is, the conference tournament basically takes away the incentive to win the conference so:

1) Get rid of the conference tournament (lol)
2) Stop thinking about March, its no fun.

Unfortunately bids are the most important thing. In this first few years especially, perception of this (new) league will be based on 1) Number of bids (raw number-- won't matter that we only have ten teams), and 2) How teams perform in the tournament. In the long-term, this will affect recruiting, future bids, TV deals, etc.

That being said, I do agree that it's not fun to dwell on the impact on March after every game, especially this early since we really don't have any idea of how things are going to shake out.

IDK what all the ADs, Coaches and Presidents were thinking when the conference formed... We should have just forced 5 teams to lose like 12 games to allow 5 teams to be really really good and get bids.

Ya know, for the sake of the league... Right?

Hibbs wrote:

DudeAnon wrote:Only one day in and already something has ruffled my feathers. That thread, "Providence is done" or something like that. The whole premise is that Seton Hall has actually hurt the conference by beating Providence and lowing our potential bids for March. Bids are great, but they aren't everything, there should be pride and excitement for trying to win the conference as it is. I think the problem is, the conference tournament basically takes away the incentive to win the conference so:

1) Get rid of the conference tournament (lol)
2) Stop thinking about March, its no fun.

Unfortunately bids are the most important thing. In this first few years especially, perception of this (new) league will be based on 1) Number of bids (raw number-- won't matter that we only have ten teams), and 2) How teams perform in the tournament. In the long-term, this will affect recruiting, future bids, TV deals, etc.

That being said, I do agree that it's not fun to dwell on the impact on March after every game, especially this early since we really don't have any idea of how things are going to shake out.

If this was the case no losing program could ever come up, it would be the classic chicken or the egg problem. SHU, PC have gotten top 10 recruiting classes before getting bids.The A-10 can keep getting more bids than the SEC yet they will always be considered a mid-major conference. Even when it comes to recruiting Butler has gotten a lot of bids yet, they aren't out-recruiting many schools on the trail (except for soon-to-be 5* Kelan Martin). IMO St. John's putting a player in the NBA lottery for example has done more to help their recruiting than the bid they got a couple of years ago. The formula for league perception is way more complex than getting bids although it is a significant.

I don't want my argument that bids are the most important thing for this conference to get combined with the result of the SHU-PC game-- i.e. my post is not meant to lament SHU's win over PC yesterday. If SHU goes on and has a great season and makes the NCAAT, that's fantastic. If PC does the same, that's equally great. It's too early to judge an entire season by one game.

However, the bottom line is that at the end of the year, the league as a whole will be judged on how many bids we get and how those bids do in the tournament. The college basketball world is still looking to see where this league fits.

While this year is especially important because it is a first impression, we will have a few years to figure it out. But if we are a three bid league for several years that puts us firmly in the mid major category. Other leagues can underperform because national perception is set. We are still building our credibility.