"As Much Fun As Doing Your Taxes..."

[billyjack]

I posted this elsewhere, but wanted to give it its own thread because i once again feel some aggravation coming on.

I just want to watch great Big East competition and fantastic talent, and let the chips fall where they may. I'm here to be entertained with exciting hard-nosed balls-out hoops, which is what the Big East provides. We have the toughest conference top to bottom, each with great fanbases and traditions and competitiveness.

I absolutely do not want to micromanage and manipulate and micro-analyze every freakin win and loss by every freakin team, over the next 3 months, the way Stever loves and wants us to do it. Playing .810 ball in non-conference allows us to just enjoy these f-cking Big East games.

Ok, no f-cking way am i going to once again let this board turn into a f-cking math problem from now til March. Especially since even if we get 7 or 8 bids, Stever will try to dismiss it anyway. So it's a never-ending loop that will never end, run by a guy who will never be satisfied with our results.

Ok, i just want to watch elite basketball, so I'm neutral unless Providence is playing. I'm neutral watching Butler play Georgetown. I'm neutral watching Villanova vs DePaul, etc.

Look, i don't mind discussing this stuff lightly and in general, but i see this once again being turned into 98% of our reason for playing the games, which will drive me freakin nuts. And we all know the answer the bids question right now: the Big East is getting at least 6 bids, probably more, up to 8, let's let it play out. And I'm as guilty as the next guy, getting pulled into Stever's vortex.

To paraphrase what The Simpsons said about Bill James and Sabermetrics:

"Stever makes college hoops as much fun as doing your taxes."

[whiteandblue77]

"Stever makes college hoops as much fun as doing your taxes."

[GoldenWarrior11]

You see, the thing is that no matter how good the Big East or its teams do, it will never be considered a top conference because of the fact that some fans desire other conferences to perform and succeed at similar (or better) levels. The problem isn't the on-court results, the history/tradition of our programs, or even the national perception that our conference continues to have, it's the inner thoughts of these fans that simply don't match up with reality.

You just have to love the folks that believe conference strength has no relation to the number of teams admitted into the tournament. At the end of the day, the "predictions" of certain fans that have not only been consistently wrong (recruiting, postseason success, ability to remain a top-conference), but also the doubling-down on said predictions and continuance of the pursuit to diminish the strengths and successes of the Big East, has just turned into a very humorous aspect of the board.

Good thing that fans complain about this place on other boards. I guess HLOH has now become an officially legitimate board in the eyes of others.

[billyjack]

Lol, great post Warrior...!

[ecasadoSBU]

I posted this elsewhere, but wanted to give it its own thread because i once again feel some aggravation coming on.

I just want to watch great Big East competition and fantastic talent, and let the chips fall where they may. I'm here to be entertained with exciting hard-nosed balls-out hoops, which is what the Big East provides. We have the toughest conference top to bottom, each with great fanbases and traditions and competitiveness.

I absolutely do not want to micromanage and manipulate and micro-analyze every freakin win and loss by every freakin team, over the next 3 months, the way Stever loves and wants us to do it. Playing .810 ball in non-conference allows us to just enjoy these f-cking Big East games.

Ok, no f-cking way am i going to once again let this board turn into a f-cking math problem from now til March. Especially since even if we get 7 or 8 bids, Stever will try to dismiss it anyway. So it's a never-ending loop that will never end, run by a guy who will never be satisfied with our results.

Ok, i just want to watch elite basketball, so I'm neutral unless Providence is playing. I'm neutral watching Butler play Georgetown. I'm neutral watching Villanova vs DePaul, etc.

Look, i don't mind discussing this stuff lightly and in general, but i see this once again being turned into 98% of our reason for playing the games, which will drive me freakin nuts. And we all know the answer the bids question right now: the Big East is getting at least 6 bids, probably more, up to 8, let's let it play out. And I'm as guilty as the next guy, getting pulled into Stever's vortex.

To paraphrase what The Simpsons said about Bill James and Sabermetrics:

"Stever makes college hoops as much fun as doing your taxes."

I totally agree and I also have mentioned it before. We need to stop falling into Stever arguments. Enjoy the basketball for its own sake. We can save the March talk for late February. Honestly, I feel like it's not only stever, its the whole media that focuses so much on March. Look at these ESPN guys doing bracketology from early November. Like wtf!

[MarquetteRustler]

[adoraz]

As I've said, I don't mind Stever that much as long as the conference is doing well. He rallies the board and helps us realize just how well the conference is doing. I enjoy hearing the opposition sometimes*. Let's be honest, the board isn't that active (the SJU board I visit is far more active), so his posts I think overall help drive discussion. We aren't like the AAC with a bunch of teams looking to get out and the desire for an elite conference, so thus we don't have as many posters on the league board (just the individual fan boards). Expansion for example is typically the most discussed topic, but right now nobody cares about that since we're doing so well. Nothing needs to be changed.

*However, just using his recent "This Year So Far" thread an an example here... I feel some of his points are valid (such as the league is better at the top/bottom and that may cost middle of the pack teams, or X team needs to win Y OOC game). However, now that OOC play is 99% over and it's clear how strong the BE is, he has started making RIDICULOUS arguments to discredit the league. I had to stop reading when he started talking about changes by the selection committee regarding Tier 3 75-100 wins or whatever. The type of stat that would affect EVERYONE and not just the BE. That is just pure clutter nonsense. I'm a stat person so I enjoy talking about them and I use RPI forecast/wizard a lot. That said, there's a point where it makes the board unreadable and that thread has reached that point.

[stever20]

As I've said, I don't mind Stever that much as long as the conference is doing well. He rallies the board and helps us realize just how well the conference is doing. I enjoy hearing the opposition sometimes*. Let's be honest, the board isn't that active (the SJU board I visit is far more active), so his posts I think overall help drive discussion. We aren't like the AAC with a bunch of teams looking to get out and the desire for an elite conference, so thus we don't have as many posters on the league board (just the individual fan boards). Expansion for example is typically the most discussed topic, but right now nobody cares about that since we're doing so well. Nothing needs to be changed.

*However, just using his recent "This Year So Far" thread an an example here... I feel some of his points are valid (such as the league is better at the top/bottom and that may cost middle of the pack teams, or X team needs to win Y OOC game). However, now that OOC play is 99% over and it's clear how strong the BE is, he has started making RIDICULOUS arguments to discredit the league. I had to stop reading when he started talking about changes by the selection committee regarding Tier 3 75-100 wins or whatever. The type of stat that would affect EVERYONE and not just the BE. That is just pure clutter nonsense. I'm a stat person so I enjoy talking about them and I use RPI forecast/wizard a lot. That said, there's a point where it makes the board unreadable and that thread has reached that point.

My point was that top 50 or top 100 wins don't mean as much as they used to. It's a different calculus for everyone. You can't just say that team x has 5 top 50 and 8 top 100 wins any longer. It is very different for everyone(not just the Big East obviously).
teams in top 30- no change for anything.
Teams 31-50- now tier 2 for home games. reduction
Teams 51-75- now tier 1 for road games. addition
Teams 76-100- now tier 3 for home games. reduction
Teams 101-135- now tier tier 2 for road games. addition
Teams 161-200- now tier 4 for home games. reduction
teams 201-240- now tier 3 for road games. addition

last year Big East had for final RPI
1 Villanova
15 Butler
26 Creighton
37 Xavier
44 Seton Hall
56 Providence
61 Marquette
107 Georgetown
140 St John's
236 DePaul

So top 3 no change at all. Home games with Xavier and Seton Hall for teams would be lower now. Road games with Providence, Marquette now up to tier 1 games. Georgetown now a tier 2 road game. DePaul up to a tier 3 road game....

Really the changes are team to team as far as some of their OOC opponents. Just take Xavier for instance. Their home win vs Baylor this year right now is projected to finish with a 38 RPI. Last year, that's a tier 1 win. Now this year, it's a tier 2 win. And it goes for all the conferences. I mean right now, it would be devastating for the ACC quite frankly- as they have projected in RPI forecast a whopping 5 teams in that 31-50 range.

You can't just say any longer top 50 or top 100 wins. It's a lot more nuanced than that. Even seeing that on Warren Nolan now, instead of top 50 records in the standings, it's tier 1 records. It's just a different way of calculating things.

[DudeAnon]

The Big East had a good enough non-conference that if you are in the top half of the league you are almost guaranteed a bid. Combine that with the double round-robin and you really have no one to blame but yourself if you don't get in.

[Xudash]

I put the guy on IGNORE a long time ago.

IF this board is like an electronic version of one of the clubs you frequent, and you come here to virtually sink into a nice leather chair to sip some Woodford Reserve (Double Oaked) while enjoying a Cohiba - or in the case of a Butler fan, you put a straw into a bottle of MD 20/20 while lighting up a plastic tip as you pull into the drive-in movie theatre - then you may have found it time to truly ignore the guy.

For the life of me, if he has been reduced to the notion of "he creates posting traffic here" then why continue to put up with his drivel. Some choose to continue to banter with this clown. It's a free country, but time is too precious to spend debating with someone who has a locked-in agenda, and who truly doesn't seem to care about how stupid he appears on a message board.

He's become a punching bag to many here, I guess. The scary part is that I doubt he sees it that way.