Respect For And Strength Of The Big East...

[billyjack]

Figured i'd start a thread if you'd like to continue the discussion from the "Disappointed" thread, which starts from a place that i don't agree with. I think Armyvet, Gumby, Bill Marsh and BEwannabe, among others, have it right.

As many have correctly said, the NCAA's are designed for upsets. Yeah, frustrating that Xavier got screwed and stumbled (which i described at length in a post the other night) in a season which could have ended in a National Championship for them. But hey, "screws go missing all the time, the world's an imperfect place".

Some thoughts:

- the Big East remains an elite power conference. A top-3 conference. And that will continue into the future. This isn't a concern at all. Last 4 years we've averaged 6 bids. National Championship with Big East recruits.

- the 10-team Big East is in the process of hitting milestones and checking boxes. The 2018 version checked a box when we finished with two #1 seeds. How often has that happened in the past for any conference? I know of course that one year in the 16-team BE we had 3 teams with a #1 seeds.

- Xavier's loss won't affect anything. They're one of many 1-seeds that has stumbled over the years. 10 years from now everyone will remember that Virginia lost to a 16-seed. 10 years from now, sports fans will remember the winner of the tourney and maybe the runner up cuz they'll have visuals of the final game. That's all.

- while i understand the "strength is measured in March" cliche or whatever TF people say, that's only a piece of the entire package, and it's just a lazy catch-all answer. It's possibly my most disliked phrase in sports actually. At this point, all sports fans understand that upsets happen... Virginia is an outstanding team and program even without a recent Final Four. Also at this point, there's enough cross-pollination in scheduling where we have a pretty good idea of the pecking order of teams and conferences.

- so far, the Big East has 5 losses... by 3, 3, 4, 4, and 10. Even in losses, each game was 1 possession (except CU which most of the game was 2 possessions). Each loss came against a power conference team (the Big East also has 4 of our 6 wins vs power conferences). Each was very winnable. Shows we have tough excellent teams top to bottom.

Anyway, those are few quick thoughts. i got a lot of others but i got to get back to work.

[billyjack]

these are repear comments but important to remember nonetheless:

- also, there is a portion of the sports world that will always dislike the Big East, no matter how much success we have. It's always been this way for some reason. In the past i've mentioned Billy Tubbs being like that. There is no way you can change their minds, so any conference decisions shouldn't be made with them in mind. Eff em.

- but as a follow up to that, in the last year or so, i've noticed that we've been getting a lot of good press. So that's a good development. i think a lot had to do of course with Villanova title, but also their 44 pt win over Oklahoma, etc., but also cuz of great results in non-conference... Johnnies over Duke, etc...

[ArmyVet]

Well stated. As I noted many moons ago, I don't have a true allegiance to any league team but have always enjoyed Big East hoops. I have a special affinity for non-land grant institutions and I respect the additional efforts required by private institutions to compete with them.

Big East has nothing to be ashamed of. Continued best of luck to all of you.

[stever20]

I think my point is pretty simple...

Big East is 5-12 in 2nd round games.

If the Big East was 12-5 in those 2nd round games, don't you think the perception of the conference would be different? I mean, folks here complain all the time about how little respect the conference gets in the AP polls thru the season. March is 100% the reason for that.

Like this year- if the Big East went 3-1 in those 4 2nd round games, what would the country be saying right now? Great season- one of the best conferences. But this is what someone from NBC Sports posted:
The 2018 NCAA tournament has been brutal for the six-bid Big East. The Wildcats have shot the ball at an extremely high level for two games. The rest of the conference was a disaster. Xavier, the league’s second No. 1 seed, was upset by No. 9 seed Florida State. No. 8 seed Seton Hall and No. 10 seed Butler were both bounced in the second round as well by No. 1 seed Kansas and No. 2 seed Purdue, respectively. Creighton and Providence couldn’t even make it out of the first round after losses to No. 9 seed Kansas State and No. 7 seed Texas A&M. This was a year to forget for the Big East.
http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/ ... -sweet-16/

And yes, like billyjack said, most of why the press has changed towards the Big East is the Nova title in '16. That is by far and not even remotely close the biggest thing that's happened with the Big East in all 5 years. If that doesn't happen, the press wouldn't be anywhere near as favorable to the Big East right now. So that change is a direct result of March/April.

[BEwannabe]

much better sentiment! When I opened the other thread up I was really in jaw dropped surprise with some of the sentiment so harsh. If you go 5 straight years with a #1 or #2 getting upset and only 1 of 6 making a S16 then line up for cliff diving but in short fashion the Big East captured 2 #1 seeds. If anyone would've made such a prognostication peeps would've snickered. As to what the P5 think of the Big East, well when the Flyers beat Ohio St 1 of my buddies who happens to also be 1 of Ohio St top boosters would not speak to me for weeks. There is a certain element of the top P5 schools that simply don't believe or maybe better said are overly agitated by basketball schools successes. Their position is they put forth all of these resources toward winning National Championships and then the basketball only schools come in and upset the apple cart with in the realm of things scant resources. Problem is they know they can't have a 64 team P5 everyone is invited tournament because no one would be interested in watching.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Nice post BJack. Agree.

Just a thought about how cruel and how potentially awesome March can be for a program.

In 2014, UConn with a new coach and in a new conference enters the tourney as 7 seed. In their first round game St. Joe's has a 3 point lead with under a minute to play. Uconn misses a shot with about 30 seconds to go, and the St. Joe's rebounder lets the ball slip through his hands right to the UConn big. Brimah (I believe) grabs the ball puts it back in and is fouled. Tie game. Overtime. UConn wins that game and the next 5 for their 4th NC.

If the St. Joe's kid holds onto the ball, their chances of winning go up astronomically. It was just a simple mistake and it propels Ollie and Napier to a NC. Do we know what might have been that year for St. Joe's had they won, or for Nova the #2 seed who UConn knocked out in the 2nd round that year? We'll never know.

My point... March is tough, and a simple play here or there can drastically change the entire tournament for one team or multiple teams. Regardless of what the resident AAC troll says, you can only put yourself in position to win and hope for the best. It took Mark Few and Gonzaga 18 tries to get to the FF. X has a slew of SW16's and E8's and all you can do is keep knocking on the door before it opens. (Trust me, I know as a Phila Eagles fan ).

[kayako]

the Big East remains an elite power conference. A top-3 conference. And that will continue into the future.

My concern? A Big East school other than Georgetown will lose its coach before it can become an elite program. I'd love to say Nova's at that level now, but it's hard to tell with a coach that didn't find Lexington or the NBA attractive enough to leave.

[aughnanure]

the Big East remains an elite power conference. A top-3 conference. And that will continue into the future.

My concern? A Big East school other than Georgetown will lose its coach before it can become an elite program. I'd love to say Nova's at that level now, but it's hard to tell with a coach that didn't find Lexington or the NBA attractive enough to leave.

As a Marquette fan who hasn’t seen a coach stay once into the double digit years, I really think you can be confident in Wright. He’s been there so long, has it rolling, is a legend already...I really don’t buy there is a program that could steal him or he would want to go to the NBA (because he already would have made that move).

But Ewing is not a for sure-fire Georgetown lifer (assuming he has the success to justify it). He actually has real NBA experience and it was well known he wanted an NBA head coaching job for years...one of the reasons he took the head coaching opportunity at Georgetown in the first place.

[billyjack]

I think my point is pretty simple... etc...

Oooh, some guy from NBC who no one's ever heard of has a dimwit hot take. I couldn't give 2 sh-ts.

[billyjack]

I'm going to predict what you'll write on the CSNBBS Big East board. I can't get there right now in my office.

"Stever20: Gotta love those clueless kool-aid drinkers at that other site that think that March doesn't matter. It just does! They believe in censorship! Sad!!!"