ranking the big east as of 12-21

[Bulldawg]

Butler is going to be on the bubble come tournament time, and the Princeton win will be the reason we make the tournament.

[stever20]

Butler is going to be on the bubble come tournament time, and the Princeton win will be the reason we make the tournament.

yeah though the win got tarnished a smidge last night when the Tigers lost to Portland...

[Jet915]

Xavier with a nice comeback to keep them in the possible at large conversation. Still, the last place finish in atlantis (without even playing the two best teams) was real bad.

Stever, I like your analysis, but I would push all the conference wins up one. The only team I think can get in with fewer than 11 conf wins is villanova. The other teams in the conversation will need 11 wins to be on te bubble, 12 to be safe (although 10 might get them in the bubble conversation, it likely won't be enough absent a nice run in nyc).

Disagree, the Big East will be the 3rd or 4th rated conference, alot of top 100 rpi teams in the league. 10 wins will mean atleast 6 top 100 wins in addition to non-conference wins. That should be enough for the top half of the league if they can get 10 conference wins.

[stever20]

Xavier with a nice comeback to keep them in the possible at large conversation. Still, the last place finish in atlantis (without even playing the two best teams) was real bad.

Stever, I like your analysis, but I would push all the conference wins up one. The only team I think can get in with fewer than 11 conf wins is villanova. The other teams in the conversation will need 11 wins to be on te bubble, 12 to be safe (although 10 might get them in the bubble conversation, it likely won't be enough absent a nice run in nyc).

Disagree, the Big East will be the 3rd or 4th rated conference, alot of top 100 rpi teams in the league. 10 wins will mean atleast 6 top 100 wins in addition to non-conference wins. That should be enough for the top half of the league if they can get 10 conference wins.

wow Jet, bet you didn't think you would ever be defending my analysis did you?

I think some teams may need 11. PC if they lose to UMass, Marquette, Georgetown possibly, St John's maybe. Xavier if they lose to Wake.

[Chalmers0]

Agreed on the poor focus on power conference teams. Xavier lost to a bad USC team. I'd much rather have lost to Utah State or a team like that. My hope is that USC will break the top 100 (They're 106 in the RPI right now). Then Xavier just needs to sweep Seton Hall and DePaul to finish the season with no bad losses on the resume.

excellent example of USC. That loss is much worse than say Creighton losing to GW for instance. And Georgetown beating VCU is so much more impressive than them beating Kansas St. Teams matter. Conferences don't.

Not that I disagree that the USC loss sucks, but they did help that a bit today by winning at Dayton though, which was great for Xavier fans on multiple levels obviously

[Jet915]

Agreed on the poor focus on power conference teams. Xavier lost to a bad USC team. I'd much rather have lost to Utah State or a team like that. My hope is that USC will break the top 100 (They're 106 in the RPI right now). Then Xavier just needs to sweep Seton Hall and DePaul to finish the season with no bad losses on the resume.

excellent example of USC. That loss is much worse than say Creighton losing to GW for instance. And Georgetown beating VCU is so much more impressive than them beating Kansas St. Teams matter. Conferences don't.

Not that I disagree that the USC loss sucks, but they did help that a bit today by winning at Dayton though, which was great for Xavier fans on multiple levels obviously

Yeah, crazy last second 3 by USC at the buzzer downs Dayton.

[Xudash]

Not that I disagree that the USC loss sucks, but they did help that a bit today by winning at Dayton though, which was great for Xavier fans on multiple levels obviously.

Yeah, crazy last second 3 by USC at the buzzer downs Dayton.

That was just Dayton being Dayton: a mediocre, undistinguished program that has a large sweater-vest fan following that still hangs onto a reputation that existed in the 60's and 70's. It should have never come down to that shot IN UD ARENA if UD is serious about wanting to be taken seriously.

It's actually worse than that for the A10 today: Dayton went down along with Richmond, UMass yesterday, and LossSalle today.

[BillikensWin]

Not that I disagree that the USC loss sucks, but they did help that a bit today by winning at Dayton though, which was great for Xavier fans on multiple levels obviously.

Yeah, crazy last second 3 by USC at the buzzer downs Dayton.

That was just Dayton being Dayton: a mediocre, undistinguished program that has a large sweater-vest fan following that still hangs onto a reputation that existed in the 60's and 70's. It should have never come down to that shot IN UD ARENA if UD is serious about wanting to be taken seriously.

It's actually worse than that for the A10 today: Dayton went down along with Richmond, UMass yesterday, and LossSalle today.

Not the best of weekends for the A10. Most people here are probably pretty happy about that fact.

[redmen9194]

Here's how I would go, and note numbers 3-6 could be interchangeable.

1. Nova - they will hold this spot at least until Big East play regardless of what happens in the Dome next weekend.
2. Creighton - only two losses to San Diego State and GW. the GW one is not great but it's only one and they have beaten some decent teams.
3. St. John's - it hasn't always looked pretty but it doesn't have to. Three losses. Wisconsin which is currently undefeated and in the top 5, Syracuse which is undefeated and in the top five, and Penn State in overtime. The Penn State loss is the only bad one. They played Cuse very close and have outplayed every team they have played in the second half. No marque wins, but very few have those.
4. Xavier- three losses all to power conference teams although two of those were winnable. Nice win against a good Cincy team.
5. Providence - Losses to Maryland and Kentucky. Maryland not particulary good. Decent wins as well. Will be interesting to see how they get throughbtheir injuries.
6. Butler - not sure what to make of the Bulldogs so far but they are certainly holding their own.
7. Georgetown- one bad loss out of three, but nothing very impressive especially of late. The VCU win is losing it's luster and if you are a top team in this league, you can't get blown out in December by Kansas.
8. Marquette- Five losses. They were the on,unranked team in the pre-season and the league favorite. Five losses is tough as we get ready to enter the conference season.
9. DePaul - has four losses but all to power conference teams. This keeps them out of the basement for now.
10. Seton Hall - 1-3 against schools in New Jersey. The win is against Rutgers who is horrible. The losses are FDU, St. Peter's, and Mercer. I will just leave it there.

once again you focus WAY too much on power conference teams. I'm sorry, but the committee doesn't give a rip that VCU is in the A10 or Va Tech is in the ACC. I mean you are saying looking at this that PC's wins over BC and Vandy are good because they're power conference games, while Georgetown's win over VCU doesn't mean much because they're in the A10. That's a joke. Fortunately the committee does not look at things like that at all- they look at each team individually. Also, you are so inconsistent. DePaul lost to Wichita St, which isn't in a power conference according to you.

I am not focusing on power conference teams. The VCU win doesn't look so good because VCU has slipped since the G'Town win. PC's wins against BC and Vandy are better than wins against High Point and Milwaulkee. This is a comparison within the conference. There are very little marquee wins so we are comparing wins against non-marque opponents. And its an opinion, which I don't think this list is very far off from the bulk of where everyone thinks these teams are.

[stever20]

Here's how I would go, and note numbers 3-6 could be interchangeable.

1. Nova - they will hold this spot at least until Big East play regardless of what happens in the Dome next weekend.
2. Creighton - only two losses to San Diego State and GW. the GW one is not great but it's only one and they have beaten some decent teams.
3. St. John's - it hasn't always looked pretty but it doesn't have to. Three losses. Wisconsin which is currently undefeated and in the top 5, Syracuse which is undefeated and in the top five, and Penn State in overtime. The Penn State loss is the only bad one. They played Cuse very close and have outplayed every team they have played in the second half. No marque wins, but very few have those.
4. Xavier- three losses all to power conference teams although two of those were winnable. Nice win against a good Cincy team.
5. Providence - Losses to Maryland and Kentucky. Maryland not particulary good. Decent wins as well. Will be interesting to see how they get throughbtheir injuries.
6. Butler - not sure what to make of the Bulldogs so far but they are certainly holding their own.
7. Georgetown- one bad loss out of three, but nothing very impressive especially of late. The VCU win is losing it's luster and if you are a top team in this league, you can't get blown out in December by Kansas.
8. Marquette- Five losses. They were the on,unranked team in the pre-season and the league favorite. Five losses is tough as we get ready to enter the conference season.
9. DePaul - has four losses but all to power conference teams. This keeps them out of the basement for now.
10. Seton Hall - 1-3 against schools in New Jersey. The win is against Rutgers who is horrible. The losses are FDU, St. Peter's, and Mercer. I will just leave it there.

once again you focus WAY too much on power conference teams. I'm sorry, but the committee doesn't give a rip that VCU is in the A10 or Va Tech is in the ACC. I mean you are saying looking at this that PC's wins over BC and Vandy are good because they're power conference games, while Georgetown's win over VCU doesn't mean much because they're in the A10. That's a joke. Fortunately the committee does not look at things like that at all- they look at each team individually. Also, you are so inconsistent. DePaul lost to Wichita St, which isn't in a power conference according to you.

I am not focusing on power conference teams. The VCU win doesn't look so good because VCU has slipped since the G'Town win. PC's wins against BC and Vandy are better than wins against High Point and Milwaulkee. This is a comparison within the conference. There are very little marquee wins so we are comparing wins against non-marque opponents. And its an opinion, which I don't think this list is very far off from the bulk of where everyone thinks these teams are.

you said power conference teams 2x just in your post. That is focusing on the difference between power conference/non power conference. PC's win vs BC is pretty much meaningless right now, they are 4-8 after losing today. VCU for you saying they have slipped- they have gone 6-1 since that tournament. Wow, that's a huge slippage. NOT. Odds are really good that is a top 25 win at the end of the year. Georgetown's win vs Kansas St on the other hand.... likely won't.