Nyatawa: ‘Brutal’ Big East battles leave league fatigued
Column by Jon Nyatawa / World-Herald staff writer Mar 3, 2017 Updated 7 hrs ago
Not too long after Providence’s coach had watched his team snatch a thrilling victory on Creighton’s home floor last week, he finished up his press conference, stepped off a podium and asked for a rundown of the night’s Big East scores.
Ed Cooley learned that Butler had snapped Villanova’s 48-game home winning streak. DePaul had stunned Georgetown and recorded its second conference win. And Seton Hall had pulled away late to hand Xavier its fourth straight loss (the Musketeers, a preseason top-10 team, have dropped two more games since).
The sixth-year Friar coach could only shake his head, exhale and briskly migrate back to the visiting locker room. He felt lucky.
“It’s hard winning, man,” Cooley said. “You get a win? You run out of that gym the fastest you can and be the happiest you can be. Seriously. It’s a brutal league.”
That’s coming from a coach whose team was on a three-game winning streak.
The perilous path through league play is now nearly complete for the squads in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. Ten weeks of competitive delirium — when the grateful victors wonder how they’ll ever sustain their extraordinary performance level and the losers poignantly ponder the small sampling of costly mistakes that spoiled their night.
Just over half of the 85 Big East games played so far have been decided by 10 points or less. About one-quarter of them ended as one-possession games.
Said Cooley: “It’s not like you can just show up and lollygag to a W. If you get a win, you’ve been in a heavyweight bout for 15 rounds.”
So here’s the question: How much do these Big East teams have left?
They still have one more day of regular season action, plus next week’s league tournament — and four of those participants (Providence, Marquette, Seton Hall and Xavier) won’t land in New York feeling any sort of certainty about their NCAA postseason standing.
As unpredictable (and entertaining) as the conference battle royale has been, one has to wonder if the Big East teams will be able to recharge in time for their most important test yet: the NCAA tournament.
Last year provided examples from both sides of the spectrum.
Villanova won all six of its NCAA tourney games to earn a national title, knocking off top-tier opponents with an exquisite display of precision and teamwork. That’s always a possibility, certainly.
But then there was Seton Hall, one of the nation’s hottest squads at the end of the season. It entered the NCAA tournament winning eight of its last nine games, including the Big East tournament. But the Pirates promptly got upset by Gonzaga. The league’s three other top teams (Xavier, Providence and Butler) followed a similar script last year.
Since its reconstruction, Big East teams have produced a winning percentage of .533 in the NCAA tournament, which is second-worst among the six major conferences (behind the Big 12’s .487 mark).
This league is stocked with talent, high-quality coaches and programs hungry to ascend within the sport’s hierarchy. But the teams spend January and February doing all they can just to keep their heads above water. At least lately, most have been spent by March.
Can they recover in time?
Villanova coach Jay Wright would prefer not to even consider that as a possible excuse.
“Are (my players) tired? Yeah. Are they worn down some? Yeah. It doesn’t matter. It can’t be the reason you lose,” Wright said after his team defeated Creighton on Saturday to win its fourth consecutive outright league championship. “Maybe you were tired and you didn’t concentrate, or we didn’t rebound — that’s what happened. That’s the way we look at it. Whether you’re tired or not doesn’t matter. You still have to get it done.”
We’ll see if the Wildcats and their Big East counterparts can summon enough inner-willpower to successfully propel themselves along for a few more weeks.
Since its reconstruction, Big East teams have produced a winning percentage of .533 in the NCAA tournament, which is second-worst among the six major conferences (behind the Big 12’s .487 mark).
PC_Friars wrote:Of particular note:Since its reconstruction, Big East teams have produced a winning percentage of .533 in the NCAA tournament, which is second-worst among the six major conferences (behind the Big 12’s .487 mark).
And that includes Nova running the table last year. Bottom line is the other programs need to step up and make the sweet 16. I believe only Xavier has done this once. Not good enough. Also the article kind of suggests that the teams are tired from beating up on one another all year, which is true...But no one cares. And every year most of the other Power leagues can be just as brutal of a grind in the middle.
PC_Friars wrote:Of particular note:Since its reconstruction, Big East teams have produced a winning percentage of .533 in the NCAA tournament, which is second-worst among the six major conferences (behind the Big 12’s .487 mark).
And that includes Nova running the table last year. Bottom line is the other programs need to step up and make the sweet 16. I believe only Xavier has done this once. Not good enough. Also the article kind of suggests that the teams are tired from beating up on one another all year, which is true...But no one cares. And every year most of the other Power leagues can be just as brutal of a grind in the middle.
GumbyDamnit! wrote:PC_Friars wrote:Of particular note:Since its reconstruction, Big East teams have produced a winning percentage of .533 in the NCAA tournament, which is second-worst among the six major conferences (behind the Big 12’s .487 mark).
And that includes Nova running the table last year. Bottom line is the other programs need to step up and make the sweet 16. I believe only Xavier has done this once. Not good enough. Also the article kind of suggests that the teams are tired from beating up on one another all year, which is true...But no one cares. And every year most of the other Power leagues can be just as brutal of a grind in the middle.
Here you go. Tournament records the last 3 years by conference:
1). ACC: 42-18 .700 (ridiculous)
2). SEC: 21-11 .656 (impressive but mostly UK)
3). B1G: 30-20 .600
4). BE: 16-14 .533
5). PAC: 14-14 .500 (someone missed these guys I guess)
6). B12: 20-21 .488
*). AAC: 11-9 .550 (8 of 11 wins came by UConn & L'ville in 2014, AAC is 3-8 outside of those two teams)
*). A10: 7-8 .467
Observations:
- There is ZERO doubt that the ACC is the top conference. So for all the "BE is a grind" comments, imagine going through that meat grinder schedule.
- UK has 10 of the SEC's 21 wins; Nova has 8 of the BE's 16. Both the SEC and BE have to show success from the other teams IMO.
- If we went back a decade and looked at collective success, the current BE teams have put up a .566 tournament winning %. 64-49
- Not sure we should hang our heads low based on the #s. We're not on the ACC's level--everyone already knows that. But we've outperformed both the B12 and the PAC. Let's all try to take care of business in March and we'll be more than fine.
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