The Holy Land of Hoops

Nova today guaranteed the BE will have at least one ranked team when conference play starts up in two weeks... Phenomenal season. They'll be a top 5 or 6 team tomorrow, and even if they lose vs. Syracuse and NJIT they'll remain ranked.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... a-wildcats

Of course, SJU and Butler are ranked but still have work to do to stay in the rankings the next two weeks.

While this may not seem like a huge deal, keep in mind that some conferences like the AAC and A10 currently have zero ranked teams and likely won't have any when conference play starts up. That has to be be awful for those conferences not getting opportunities to pull off big upsets.

Also, last year Nova was the only ranked team for some time (after Marquette dropped out) and it wasn't until a couple weeks into Big East play that Creighton became ranked.

Nova is truly the real thing. I believe Butler will stay in the top 25 as well although I did not expect that when their coach took his leave of absence (or whatever they called it.) I have begun to see us as a 5 bid league with 6 bids not impossible.

Five should be the goal... 50% of a league making the tournament is unreal. Nova, Gtown, Xavier, St Johns, Butler... with Creighton, Seton Hall and Providence not out of the picture either.

Creighton and PC going to need to get a lot in confernece play. Both are 8-3 right now. They'd need to win both their final OOC games, and then probably get 10 wins between conference play and the BET. Given that PC has Miami- if they lose there, may need 11 wins between conference play and the BET.

Give credit where credit is due.

Nova is becoming one of the key reasons for why this conference will be well positioned for the long-term.