The sky isn't falling

[Dew]

Well it took less than a month for many national pundits and some of our own to proclaim doom for the Big East after yesterday. Everyone needs to relax and realize this league has multiple good teams but probably not an elite one - this year. Maybe Villanova becomes the darling of the league this season who knows? We will get multiple teams in the NCAA tourney and recruiting had shown kids want to play in the Big East. Everything gonna be all right.

Repeat after me - The sky isn't falling.

[stever20]

Well it took less than a month for many national pundits and some of our own to proclaim doom for the Big East after yesterday. Everyone needs to relax and realize this league has multiple good teams but probably not an elite one - this year. Maybe Villanova becomes the darling of the league this season who knows? We will get multiple teams in the NCAA tourney and recruiting had shown kids want to play in the Big East. Everything gonna be all right.

Repeat after me - The sky isn't falling.

I have no problem saying that- but what I do have a problem with is folks that are still saying we're getting 5-6 tourney teams. For us to have gotten 5-6 it would have taken everything going just perfect this year for us. Well as last week will tell you- it's not gone perfectly at all. It's very possible, if not probable, that we will never get more than 4 teams in the tourney with a 10 team round robin format. It's the reason I think we'll go to 12 sooner rather than later.

[Bill Marsh]

Well it took less than a month for many national pundits and some of our own to proclaim doom for the Big East after yesterday. Everyone needs to relax and realize this league has multiple good teams but probably not an elite one - this year. Maybe Villanova becomes the darling of the league this season who knows? We will get multiple teams in the NCAA tourney and recruiting had shown kids want to play in the Big East. Everything gonna be all right.

Repeat after me - The sky isn't falling.

Depends on what you mean by the sky falling. Is there cause for concern? You bet there is. Based on the first month's returns, the Big East has played like a 1-2 bid league. The top teams have not been playing up to theirpre-season predictions, nor have the supposedly emerging teams. Villanova is the only top team. Butler has been the best story, but that's only because they're not bottom of the pack and have played instead like a legitimate tournament bubble team.

Are the long term prospects bright? Of course they are. These schools have great histories and recruiting has been excellent.

What will happen this year? No one knows. There's still time to turn OOC performance around and accumulate some meaningful wins to strengthen the conference's profile, which actually stacks up pretty well - #4 right now accruing to Team Rankings.com. The problem so far is that except for Villanova, almost everyone else has played like teams ranked 50-100, which means NIT. that equals depth, but not NCAA tournament teams. If some group of schools take charge of the conference competition and post records of 15-3, 14-4, 12-6, then that depth will translate to a lot of good wins in conference and a bunch of teams going to the tournament. But if everyone plays a little above or a little below .500, 11-7, 10-8, 9-9, then it can mean a lot of NIT teams falling on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble.

Time will tell.

[hoyahooligan]

I don't know it's not good right now. Maybe I just had higher expectations coming into the season. But at this point it's going to be difficult to get the 6 teams into the NCAA tournament I was expecting. It's looking more like 4 right now at best.

Here are the chances teams have left ooc to make up ground:

Butler: Purdue( neutral) need to win if hope to make NCAA tournament. Vandy is a decent win, but missing on Oklahoma St and LSU hurt a lot in the missed potential category.

Creighton: Cal need to win and not drop any other games. Arizona St and St. Joes are good wins, but GW and San Diego St loses are not teams Creighton should lose to.

DePaul: Arizona St need to win and not drop any other games OOC. Oregon St win is good for DePaul's standards, but Texas and Soutern Miss losses are bad.

Georgetown: @ Kansas, Michigan St (Neutral) Need to pick off one of these two games, VCU is a good win but nothing else besides that so far.

Marquette: @ Wisconsin, New Mexico (Neutral) Need at least one of these wins. 0 good wins to date.

Providence: @ #24 Umass. BC will end up being a good win I hope, if not not much to hang their hat on, Vandy and Lasalle wins are decent, but not great.

Seton Hall: No good OOC games left. Just have to avoid embarrassing themselves any further.

St. John's: Cuse only OOC game left of note. Need to win that game to have a chance and avoid any more bad losses.

Villanova: Already punched their ticket by taking care of business in Bahamas, just avoid any bad losses at this point, @ Syracuse would be another feather in their cap, but not necessary to win.

Xavier: Cincinnati, @ Alabama, need to win at least 1, 2 would be better, basically threw away their Tennessee win by getting swept in the Bahamas including losing badly to the same tennessee team.

The problem is unless teams take care of business the rest of the OOC schedule wins over each other won't look as impressive. In the past we had multiple chances at least 5 a year to take down a top 25 team in conference play. At this point we'll only have 2 chances each in home and homes with Nova, but if too many people do defeat Nova then their stock will plummet.

[Bill Marsh]

As important as wins against ranked teams are - and they are important - all games matter, even the ones agains teams that are not ranked. The Mountain West got a bunch of teams in the tournament last year by winning against the top 100 OOC, not necessarily against the top 25. The Missouri Valley did the same thing 7 years ago.

The fact that all of the power ratings have the Big East rated as the #4 conference more or less reflects the sum total of the wins that have been accumulated. If that continues, the league will still be in good shape going into conference play. At that point it will depend on whether a group of 4-5 teams dominate the conference or whether everyone knocks each other off with almost everyone within a game or two of .500 in conference.

All of that has to play out.

[BigmanU]

I know this has not been an impressive stretch but, 4 teams will automatically punch tickets unless they embarrass themselves somehow the rest of the season.

Villanova
Georgetown
Marquette
Creighton

One of the following will rise from the pack:

Butler is actually the sleeper team
Providence can get its issues in order
St. John's if it could just put it together

[stever20]

I know this has not been an impressive stretch but, 4 teams will automatically punch tickets unless they embarrass themselves somehow the rest of the season.

Villanova
Georgetown
Marquette
Creighton

One of the following will rise from the pack:

Butler is actually the sleeper team
Providence can get its issues in order
St. John's if it could just put it together

I'm actually not 100% sold on Marquette. Part of it is their record. 3 losses already with Wisconsin and New Mexico(in Vegas) coming up. If they drop even 1 of those games, and then go 9-9 in conference, that's 13 losses before the BET. A QF loss and 14. Also, they haven't beaten anyone yet- right now their best win is GW. I'd say they're far from automatic.

Same could almost be said about Georgetown- but we do have the VCU win.

[BigmanU]

I know this has not been an impressive stretch but, 4 teams will automatically punch tickets unless they embarrass themselves somehow the rest of the season.

Villanova
Georgetown
Marquette
Creighton

One of the following will rise from the pack:

Butler is actually the sleeper team
Providence can get its issues in order
St. John's if it could just put it together

I'm actually not 100% sold on Marquette. Part of it is their record. 3 losses already with Wisconsin and New Mexico(in Vegas) coming up. If they drop even 1 of those games, and then go 9-9 in conference, that's 13 losses before the BET. A QF loss and 14. Also, they haven't beaten anyone yet- right now their best win is GW. I'd say they're far from automatic.

Same could almost be said about Georgetown- but we do have the VCU win.

You can realistically say that about all four teams mentioned. I specifically should state if they play status quo (up to their level) the past few years those four teams will be fine. Marquette in particular will figure it out when it matters. History has proven that.

[stever20]

well for one- compared to the other 3 teams- Marquette doesn't have the good win... Saw a tweet last night that said that for Marquette it's hard for them because their best player is Gardner, a post player(wish I could find it this morning to get the exact words, but I can't).

[BigmanU]

well for one- compared to the other 3 teams- Marquette doesn't have the good win... Saw a tweet last night that said that for Marquette it's hard for them because their best player is Gardner, a post player(wish I could find it this morning to get the exact words, but I can't).

Creighton doesn't have a good win either but, they'll post come March. Again history until proven otherwise.