The Holy Land of Hoops

You beat me to it by a minute. Good stuff.

Coming into the season, the Big East was one of the biggest question marks in the entire NCAA. Outside of Villanova's strength, no one knew what to expect out of anyone in the league.

Butler was without its coach. Creighton was missing Doug McDermott for the first time in four years. St. John's had no depth after losing two frontcourt pieces. Providence and Xavier lost their do-everything lead guards Bryce Cotton and Semaj Christon. Georgetown was coming off of a losing conference season.

Though we're now only two weeks into the season, the conference has answered those questions in a way that not even the league's biggest optimist could have anticipated.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... h-carolina

Really good article, but I don't like the ending. What if we do win the remainder of our games tonight? People seem to still expect us to come crashing down. I'd love to get through the next week with a few more big wins and no really bad losses. Then there is no arguing. The Big East is the best, or one of the best, leagues in the country.

This level of success enjoyed so far will be difficult to maintain, but there is no doubt that the league is strong, and proving it over the course of the next few years will cement our reputation. Only difficult thing, is that in a 10 team league, there will definitely be a lot of beating up on each other, which will raise doubt for those in the middle... making these kinds of starts vital.

Huh...? Is this an article from The Onion...?

"Eventually, the league will come back down to earth and the ACCs and Big Tens of the world will take their rightful place as the best leagues in college hoops. But for this specific moment in time, the Big East is on top of the college basketball world."

'Rightful place'...? The Big Ten hasn't won a title since 2000...? The ACC is full of death penalty candidates, and the bottom half blows. These writers are dinosaurs. Small brained, dimwitted, can't see past their noses. Agenda driven. Sinking intothe tar pits.

The end of that is nonsense. There is no rule stating the dominance of one conference over the other.

The only way they will knock off that bullcrap is to wind up on top. They have their narrative and they're sticking to it.

handdownmandown wrote:The end of that is nonsense. There is no rule stating the dominance of one conference over the other.

The only way they will knock off that bullcrap is to wind up on top. They have their narrative and they're sticking to it.

I don't think even that would do it. Even if we pull a national championship, it will likely be considered a fluke.

As long as the football conferences drive the NCAA bus financially, we're going to be the underdogs, the little schools that surprise the big guys. I'm ok with that.

handdownmandown wrote:The end of that is nonsense. There is no rule stating the dominance of one conference over the other.

The only way they will knock off that bullcrap is to wind up on top. They have their narrative and they're sticking to it.

Even that will do no good. Look at what happened last year when an AAC team won the national championship. The AAC got little credit. Let's face it the P5 conferences have all the money, tv viewership, and political power. Look at what happened recently when the P5 did not want to share with anyone so they rushed through the cost of attendance and other changes which benefit only the P5 and a very small number of football schools outside the P5. I defy anyone to tell me how the Big East benefited from the recent NCAA changes. They have the power and money and they will not share it.

If we do build a significant power base and challenge them they will simply find a way (perhaps their own post season tourney) to slap us down. We must learn there is no generosity or equity in the world of college sports.

robinreed wrote:

handdownmandown wrote:The end of that is nonsense. There is no rule stating the dominance of one conference over the other.

The only way they will knock off that bullcrap is to wind up on top. They have their narrative and they're sticking to it.

Even that will do no good. Look at what happened last year when an AAC team won the national championship. The AAC got little credit. Let's face it the P5 conferences have all the money, tv viewership, and political power. Look at what happened recently when the P5 did not want to share with anyone so they rushed through the cost of attendance and other changes which benefit only the P5 and a very small number of football schools outside the P5. I defy anyone to tell me how the Big East benefited from the recent NCAA changes. They have the power and money and they will not share it.

If we do build a significant power base and challenge them they will simply find a way (perhaps their own post season tourney) to slap us down. We must learn there is no generosity or equity in the world of college sports.

We do benefit from the fact that they have to pay 85 football players in addition to their basketball players with no increase in revenue. Plus whatever the Title IX rules are. We still have added costs, but far less.

DeltaV wrote:

handdownmandown wrote:The end of that is nonsense. There is no rule stating the dominance of one conference over the other.

The only way they will knock off that bullcrap is to wind up on top. They have their narrative and they're sticking to it.

I don't think even that would do it. Even if we pull a national championship, it will likely be considered a fluke.

As long as the football conferences drive the NCAA bus financially, we're going to be the underdogs, the little schools that surprise the big guys. I'm ok with that.

Then go out and win another championship the next year and keep sending teams back to the championship game. That's what this conference did back in the '80's when it built its reputation the first time. We're back there once again, so it just has to be done all over again.