Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

it's funny, I think this year so far the Big East has put themselves in a bind where only 4 bids is possible- and 5 would be really likely....

BUT, I think this year is positioned to be by far the best year of the conference since realignment......

I think the top 3 teams are so good that they're going to all 3 get sweet 16 seeds. Could easily see like a 1,2,4 seed come tourney time.

Top 3 teams can go best case 48-6 vs the other 7 teams. I don't think they're going to do that, but I think it'll be better than even 2 years ago, when the top 3 went 42-12. Way better than last years 37-17.

I think in large part depth is way overrated. Give me 3 great teams and odds are good that you're going to get at least 1 worst case, but more than likely at least 2 sweet 16 spots. I'd take that over those top teams losing extra games and hurting their seeds and getting an extra team in at the bottom.

In case the rest of you didn’t - miraculously - notice after a mere two seconds of reading his post, this thread is Stever’s thinly-veiled attempt to argue that the AAC is in a better position than the Big East right now.

I usually ignore Stever's posts. but this one is impossible to ignore! It's our best non-conference record ever, but "the Big East has put themselves in a bind where only 4 bids is possible?" Just sloppy and asinine... Your better than this thinly veiled juvenile slight!

stever20 wrote:...in a bind where only 4 bids is possible- and 5 would be really likely....

What does this even mean?

paulxu wrote:

stever20 wrote:...in a bind where only 4 bids is possible- and 5 would be really likely....

What does this even mean?

It that what they call addition by subtraction? Or less is more? Five will get you 10?

To recap Stever's Thoughts:

2017: The thing is, despite seven bids in the NCAA Tournament, the Big East is overrated because the seeds are not favorable and it creates bad tournament matchups.
2018: The problem is that teams 5-8 are not set up for strong tournament possibilities. Only the top five teams can feel relatively safe about getting into the tourney.

So it's bad to get seven teams into the tournament AND it is also bad to only have five teams get in. In this case, two opposing and competing arguments are being used to support one conclusion. To quote Sherlock Holmes, "Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

kmacker69 wrote::oops: I usually ignore Stever's posts. but this one is impossible to ignore! It's our best non-conference record ever, but "the Big East has put themselves in a bind where only 4 bids is possible?" Just sloppy and asinine... Your better than this thinly veiled juvenile slight!

current Ken Pom projection....
Villanova 15-3
Xavier 12-6
Seton Hall 11-7
Creighton 10-8

Butler 8-10. Combine that with loss to Purdue and 18-13. NIT
St John's 8-10. Combine that with loss to Duke and 17-13. NIT
Marquette 8-10 Final record 17-13. NIT
Providence 8-10. Combine that with even win vs Houston(they're a projected dog) and 18-13. NIT.

If the final standings are like that, or even if Marquette in particular has 9 wins(or Providence if they lose to Houston)- 4 bids is very possible. If anything, I think it may be underselling Xavier and Seton Hall which would take away more wins from those 4 teams.

What folks keep on forgetting is that conferences don't get bids. teams get bids. Butler, St John's, Marquette, and Providence haven't done much OOC to help themselves out. 2 of the 4 have 3 losses already, and then Butler and St John's are pretty big underdogs in a 3rd game. If they lose a good bit in conference play, they're going to be really needing some help to get in the tourney.

SJ projected to go 8-10 in conference? This is a very tough conference, but I think SJ can be as good as 11-7 if we avoid the injury bug which already cost us the game against ASU. I think we can steal some from SHU, X, Nova. We are due for a few of these.

MullinMayhem wrote:SJ projected to go 8-10 in conference? This is a very tough conference, but I think SJ can be as good as 11-7 if we avoid the injury bug which already cost us the game against ASU. I think we can steal some from SHU, X, Nova. We are due for a few of these.

St John's isn't winning 11 conference games.

ThrowDownDBrown wrote:

MullinMayhem wrote:SJ projected to go 8-10 in conference? This is a very tough conference, but I think SJ can be as good as 11-7 if we avoid the injury bug which already cost us the game against ASU. I think we can steal some from SHU, X, Nova. We are due for a few of these.

St John's isn't winning 11 conference games.

Yeah I agree. I think if SJ goes even 2-4 vs those top 3 teams it'll be close to a mircale. There's just that much seperation.