Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Way back when the Jays, Bulldogs, and Muskies joined the C-7 and the "new" BE came to be, I think we were all a bit anxious about being able to compete over the long haul with the football five. At the time, I posted that being able to tell potential recruits that bball does not compete with football for attention, that football does not drive the athletic bus among BE schools, and that bballers are the athletic heros on BE campuses, would be a pretty powerful attractor for kids wanting recognition for their athletic abilities.

Since those days, the BE really has not missed a beat, competing successfully with everyone (except Kentucky, Duke, UNC, Kansas and maybe just a couple of others) for talent, achieving an overall winning record every year against the football five, getting half the league in the NCAA tourney every year (almost every year?, Stever would know!), winning two national championships - Nova), etc. etc.

In the current era, we should be even more attractive to potential transfers. I think the kids who want to transfer today are mostly those who feel that they have not gotten the attention they deserve, either because their coach doesn't give them enough minutes, or because their team or league is virtually invisible on the national scene. Fearless prediction: If anything, the BEAST will do even better against the football 5 over the next several years than it has to date. GO BEAST!

xusandy wrote:Way back when the Jays, Bulldogs, and Muskies joined the C-7 and the "new" BE came to be, I think we were all a bit anxious about being able to compete over the long haul with the football five. At the time, I posted that being able to tell potential recruits that bball does not compete with football for attention, that football does not drive the athletic bus among BE schools, and that bballers are the athletic heros on BE campuses, would be a pretty powerful attractor for kids wanting recognition for their athletic abilities.

Since those days, the BE really has not missed a beat, competing successfully with everyone (except Kentucky, Duke, UNC, Kansas and maybe just a couple of others) for talent, achieving an overall winning record every year against the football five, getting half the league in the NCAA tourney every year (almost every year?, Stever would know!), winning two national championships - Nova), etc. etc.

In the current era, we should be even more attractive to potential transfers. I think the kids who want to transfer today are mostly those who feel that they have not gotten the attention they deserve, either because their coach doesn't give them enough minutes, or because their team or league is virtually invisible on the national scene. Fearless prediction: If anything, the BEAST will do even better against the football 5 over the next several years than it has to date. GO BEAST!

looks like got fewer than half the teams in 3 of the 8 years, with 1 being the * season of 2021...
2014 only got in 4 teams
2019 only got in 4 teams
2021 only got in 4 teams

I think the transfer rule part will be very interesting. I think it helps most all of the Big East. The one program that will be interesting to see how it handles the new transfer rules- Villanova.

I think that if you are a good HS player, there is something very attractive to playing in a league where basketball is THE priority, you are on national television for almost every game, you play in a league where everyone is essentially a rival that you play at least twice a year, you get to play in big Cities in major arenas where professional teams play, and at the end of the season you meet in New York City in Madison Square Garden in front of a full house for the conference championship. Not to mention the league itself is one of the top leagues every year. It's great for the players, schools and coaches and especially the fans.