The Holy Land of Hoops

Hey guys, this week marks the 3rd anniversary of many of us joining the Holy Land of Hoops. Outstanding job by the admin the whole time. I tried to reserve some tables to celebrate at Twin Oaks off Reservoir Ave in Cranston*, but everything is booked.

If you guys want to have a neat look back at December of 2012, etc, click on the "Page 98" hyperlink on the top right of the main thread page.

The 10 of us have come a really long way, and have far exceeded even my lofty optimistic expectations. Keep up the great work and Go Big East...!!!

* joking about Twin Oaks.

I'd rather you didn't read my early posts...eh, gotta own your mistakes I guess. It's been a great 3 years all! Thanks admin for putting this together.

I joined Jan 6, 2013. That was two months before Creighton was invited to join the Big East but seems like 30 years ago.

billyjack wrote:Hey guys, this week marks the 3rd anniversary of many of us joining the Holy Land of Hoops. Outstanding job by the admin the whole time. I tried to reserve some tables to celebrate at Twin Oaks off Reservoir Ave in Cranston*, but everything is booked.

If you guys want to have a neat look back at December of 2012, etc, click on the "Page 98" hyperlink on the top right of the main thread page.

The 10 of us have come a really long way, and have far exceeded even my lofty optimistic expectations. Keep up the great work and Go Big East...!!!

* joking about Twin Oaks.

what about Louies instead? so sad

Thanks admin for creating this site!

Three years later, I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for this site - a safe haven from another board where the C7 were mocked, ridiculed, criticized and diminished - and its posters who help make the Big East a special conference to be a part of. I am thankful for the new members in Creighton, Butler and Xavier - all of whom have mightily surpassed all expectations and continue to help elevate the conference towards being the best in the country. I am also thankful for, going off of that, the fact that the C7 is not in a conference with Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, Houston, SMU and Tulsa. The draining anchor those schools would have provided would have absolutely destroyed the basketball prestige that the schools earned to create under the Big East moniker - a brand that those mentioned schools felt they had "earned" by fighting the C7 for the Big East name, the rights and the MSG tournament site - despite never playing a game in either football or basketball under the Big East brand. Most of all, I am thankful for Fox Sports, the coverage they provide, the marketing they give our conference and the amount they value use in terms of dollars and exposure. We ended up getting paid more for our basketball than the entire AAC sports package with ESPN - and with our production over the past few seasons, we will surely continue being paid as an elite basketball conference.

In summary, I am just very thankful this holiday season.

Congrats to all for setting up this site. It has been entertaining to hear the thoughts of other team's perspective of the history, the conference, and the future of the Big East. Creighton is absolutely excited to be with the Big East. We expect to represent the conference well. The amazing thing about this forum and conference is the solidarity in wanting success for ALL Big East members. I love to watch Big East bball games to watch our conf members.

I for one know that Kris Dunn is the National Player of the Year. i wouldn't have seen that many of his games w/o Fox Sports. As a CU fan, I also knew that D Mac was the National Player of the Year, and perhaps, w/o the Big East schedule to show his talents nationwide, he might not have won it.

Go Big East.

Billyjack- you beat me to it. I recall waking up one Saturday morning three years ago thinking it would be nice to have a site for (then C7) fans to discuss the many rumors of conference realignment and get input from fans of those schools who might be invited should this new league be created. The name was born from that notion - that we were heading toward creation of the Holy Land of college hoops - a league where basketball was of primary importance. I didn't imagine it would morph into this, however, and I am thankful for everyone who has contributed to the site.

I hope you all have a blessed holiday season.

-Admin

GoldenWarrior11 wrote:Three years later, I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for this site - a safe haven from another board where the C7 were mocked, ridiculed, criticized and diminished - and its posters who help make the Big East a special conference to be a part of. I am thankful for the new members in Creighton, Butler and Xavier - all of whom have mightily surpassed all expectations and continue to help elevate the conference towards being the best in the country. I am also thankful for, going off of that, the fact that the C7 is not in a conference with Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, Houston, SMU and Tulsa. The draining anchor those schools would have provided would have absolutely destroyed the basketball prestige that the schools earned to create under the Big East moniker - a brand that those mentioned schools felt they had "earned" by fighting the C7 for the Big East name, the rights and the MSG tournament site - despite never playing a game in either football or basketball under the Big East brand. Most of all, I am thankful for Fox Sports, the coverage they provide, the marketing they give our conference and the amount they value use in terms of dollars and exposure. We ended up getting paid more for our basketball than the entire AAC sports package with ESPN - and with our production over the past few seasons, we will surely continue being paid as an elite basketball conference.

In summary, I am just very thankful this holiday season.

Well said.

Although I don't know where the mockery was on the other board. I must have missed that (as in I don't even know what board you are talking about).

NovaBall wrote:

GoldenWarrior11 wrote:Three years later, I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for this site - a safe haven from another board where the C7 were mocked, ridiculed, criticized and diminished - and its posters who help make the Big East a special conference to be a part of. I am thankful for the new members in Creighton, Butler and Xavier - all of whom have mightily surpassed all expectations and continue to help elevate the conference towards being the best in the country. I am also thankful for, going off of that, the fact that the C7 is not in a conference with Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, Houston, SMU and Tulsa. The draining anchor those schools would have provided would have absolutely destroyed the basketball prestige that the schools earned to create under the Big East moniker - a brand that those mentioned schools felt they had "earned" by fighting the C7 for the Big East name, the rights and the MSG tournament site - despite never playing a game in either football or basketball under the Big East brand. Most of all, I am thankful for Fox Sports, the coverage they provide, the marketing they give our conference and the amount they value use in terms of dollars and exposure. We ended up getting paid more for our basketball than the entire AAC sports package with ESPN - and with our production over the past few seasons, we will surely continue being paid as an elite basketball conference.

In summary, I am just very thankful this holiday season.

Well said.

Although I don't know where the mockery was on the other board. I must have missed that (as in I don't even know what board you are talking about).

The other board was a thing of gold. The amount of conspiracy theories/rationale/reasoning behind the Big East imploding (and the resulting fall-out) was highly entertaining. Fans from the Tulane/ECU/UH/SMU/UCF/Memphis crowd believed that the C7 intentionally invited Tulane, only to use their acceptance as reasoning to bolt the conference and start a new league. The amount of entitlement from their fans was unreal - they believed, being a member for 5 minutes, they earned the right to not just keep the Big East name, the tournament credits, the MSG location, etc, but, believing the C7 "leaches" were gone, they would "finally" be able to build a new/better Big East for football/basketball. Whenever someone pointed out that the Big East was founded upon elite basketball, the slogan "football drives the bus" argument would come out.

When the ESPN-AAC and Fox-Big East TV deals were released, there was a plethora of tin-foil hats out in full force. The Big East schools, being just a basketball conference, would be earning about $5 million per year. The American schools, being a football/basketball deal, would be earning just $1.5 million per school. They (AAC fans) just couldn't comprehend why no network wanted to pony-up and see Tulane/UConn, SMU/ECU, Tulsa/Temple, etc.

The best part was that, due to the lingering animosity, there are still posters that blame the Big East/C7 for "keeping them from their rightful place in a power conference and holding them down" - absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the AAC is composed of a bunch of former C-USA schools with UConn thrown in. Heck, the AAC's hottest football team (USF) just lost to the the C-USA champion (WKU) - and there was a mass freak out on their board. "WE ARE BETTER THAN C-USA!", "WKU would finish in last place in the AAC over the course of the season", "The refs hosed USF", etc.

Reason #864 the Big East is better off without Tulane, East Carolina, Houston, SMU, Memphis, Tulsa, UCF.