(4) Wednesday, Dec. 2nd. 2020

[Jet915]

Hate to say it but Big East looks down this year. Nova and Creighton and then a bunch of bubble teams/NIT teams. Im guessing 4 bids. Probably 4th best conference in front of Pac-12 and SEC.

[ecasadoSBU]

Damn. This is going to be a rough year.

Its a shame because last year was such a great year for the league, and thanks to covid-19, we got nothing to show for it. I know its early, but this is looking like the weakest year post-realignment right now

[DudeAnon]

Those who follow this conference closely knew it was likely to be a down year, shit happens.

[Omaha1]

Geezus H we look like dog crap right now.

[Django]

Geezus H we look like dog crap right now.

Settle down already, the conference lost a few games the past two days, it's not like there is a global pandemic or anything. Sheesh!

And if it makes you feel better the Big East is number 1 in the latest NET conference rankings and CU is tops at 11, so chin up sport! Brighter days ahead!

http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2021/conferencenet

[Wizard of Westroads]

Those who follow this conference closely knew it was likely to be a down year, shit happens.

Really. Nova and CU returned full rosters, everybody else is replacing starting PGs/leading scorers, etc. Plus, COVID's effects on practices and games hurts teams that are rebuilding more than the ones that are set. Last year, most BE teams had their best players back, so we did great.
And I salute the schools that are playing tough noncons, even if it hurts the league's W/L record.

[MullinMayhem]

Bad start for conference. Only teams that look like well-oiled machines are Nova and Creighton. Everyone else has had their moments looking great and terrible.

2 big talking points early on:

1. Should G'Town just fire Ewing and get it over with? I see the exact same thing we saw with Mullin. Great NBA players almost never make great coaches. When I first started following SJ closely in 2011 or so, it was special when we beat G'Town. It had national relevance. Now if we beat them it just seems like it doesn't really matter. They have fallen...a lot. We have too obviously but I'm not discussing SJ.

2. What is PC's problem? Always getting stud recruits but never getting over the hump it seems. PC seems to always lose these OOC games against F5 teams. Eventually they need to put it all together with a great OOC performance and a good conference performance to get a good seed in tourney and go deep. SJ does well beating those teams OOC but craps bed in conference. We are opposites. Cooley has been getting lots of regular season wins, but starting to think they already hit their ceiling unfortunately.

[Hall2012]

SHU just looks brutal right now. Mamu looks great but everyone else looks lost. They were always going to need some time to gel and even the most bullish SHU supporters expected the teams success to ride on Aiken's health (a very dangerous game to play) but it's tough to be patient after the last 5 years. I love how tough Willard schedules but maybe this would've been the year to ease the team into it a bit?

[redmen9194]

I think this is a very hard season to gauge where everyone is and where they will be. No teams have had their usual preseason practices. Some teams then had to shut down for a period of time. Scheduling has been brutal and we have seen teams play far more games within a shorter period of time. SJU had it's first four games in an 8 day span. So, it's a very tough thing to say who is up and who is down. In terms of what we have seen so far...

1.) Villanova and Creighton appear to be what we all thought they would be so far. Nova dropped the Va Tech game but if they played tomorrow Nova likely wins that one fairly easy.
2.) UConn also appears to be in the top part of the conference - but has not really been tested so far. Will be interesting to se where they are in the next few games.
3.) Xavier is undefeated but has really struggled against not so great competition. But at the end of the day it's the "W" that counts and in the non-con they have more than the rest of us.
4.) Seton Hall and Marquette are going to struggle a bit without Powell and Howard. I thought Hall was ranked a little high in the pre-season coaches poll as well. You do not lose a player like those two and maintain the high quality of play unless you are recruiting five star one and done players every year. Mamu is a geat player for Hall, but he doesn't have the end game killer vibe that Powell developed.
5.) I don't think SJU finishes 9th. They will be a few spots higher. They have struggled a bit but it was a good win against BC and they are young but they will get better the more they play in the system. Although Heron and LJ are gone, the SJU bench was a far bigger factor last season. BYU was a nightmare match up. They were big, shooters, experienced and liked to run. Johnnies still stayed close. They will finish somewhere 5-7...maybe...
6.) Providence has not been good in the non-con over the last couple of seasons but they turn it on in conference. Might just take them a while to rev up. We'll see.
7.) DePaul needs to play a game before we say anything other than they will finish in 10 or 11.
8.) Butler is a question mark for me as well. Just one game and their next game is against St. John's in a few weeks. Going to be tough for the Bulldogs.
9.) The Hoyas are going to be a mess this season. I don't think firing Ewing now does anything except give the school the opportunity to place a coach that might recruit better starting now. Can't see them winning many conference games.

Of course, I could be way off the mark on all of this. Its a pandemic world....

[adoraz]

Yep the league isn't good this year, but at least it's one without fans. Ratings for pro sports have been down and the atmosphere for college basketball isn't that enjoyable. Hopefully we can still make it a respectable enough year and prepare for next year with fans and a monster recruiting class.