big picture view of Big East teams

[Edrick]

Are you serious?

WTH?

Gonzaga has more or less free reign on a quadrant of the country that is almost devoid of any kind of reasonable competition for resources save Oregon and Washington.

Its not a perfect proxy, but at least something like Iowa would be reasonable in that they have to largely go out of state to get players into states that actually have players that include conference mates.

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Look, I like Creighton, I really do. But there is absolutely no reason to believe itll be a top half program given its resource limitations. None. Everyone else in the league are doing those same things, just in drastically better places to do them.

[Bluejay]

Creighton is always going to be at an extreme disadvantage as it relates to the rest of the league because of access (or lack thereof) of talent in their area. Long-term its why Creighton will almost certainly be a bottom half program in the league. Its a problem that's not going away. Nebraska is always going to be Nebraska.

You seem to be of the impression that Omaha is smack dab in the middle of the state. It isn't - its right on the border with Iowa, who does routinely produce D1 hoopers at a much higher clip. In fact, Iowa has always been more important to Creighton than Nebraska when it comes to recruiting (Doug McDermott, Grant Gibbs, Kyle Korver, etc.). Omaha is also only a couple of hours from Kansas City.

We aren't going to get a lot of top 50 kids admittedly. Creighton will probably always recruit system kids primarily from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska/Dakotas, and Minnesota. We'll venture into Chicago too (1 hour flight on cheap Southwest Airlines). Depending on a coach's ties, other avenues will be available where there are lots of kids as well. Right now Texas is that area for CU and they have had some success selling basketball players on enrolling at a basketball school instead of a football school (In Texas, football is first, last and everything in between). Will recruiting be a challenge? Of course, but it isn't as impossible as some like to think.

[cujaysfan]

now you've outed yourself as an arrogant east coast know-nothing

iowa has pretty damn good talent - i believe iowa currently has 5 top 100 recruits on it's roster that are from the state of iowa - i don't know how many of those guys were top 50 - but someone else can look that up

marcus paige at UNC - that guy sucks - i wonder where he's from?

gee - i bet omaha is a podunk little town where they ride their durn tractors around in dirt covered streets and store corn and hay in their garages and barns

there's a rumor that they'll get indoors plumbin there in a few years - and maybe even the internets before 2020! that there is real progress for that third world burgh!

who would ever want to go to a school like creighton in a town like omaha?

no one ever would want to go there from towns like Houston or Denver. Why would kids from Chicago not blast back "return to sender" on any piece of mail postmarked from the great black hole of Nebraska?

UNPOSSIBLE!!!!!

[Barley]

Creighton is in a unique position without a comparable school nearby. SLU is the nearest private playing somewhat similar probably. I think Creighton is in a better position long term than many Big East schools. Time will tell.

[TrueBlueJay]

Look, I like Creighton, I really do. But there is absolutely no reason to believe itll be a top half program given its resource limitations. None. Everyone else in the league are doing those same things, just in drastically better places to do them.

I'm so confused now. What resource limitations does Creighton have (please don't let him call student/athletes resources)? Everyone else is doing what same things and how in the world are those places they are doing them drastically better? Wow...just wow. In fact I would be willing to bet that CU has better resources than most of the BE schools, or at least on par with.

Can someone else help me, please; is this Edrick just a troll, a joker or just plain ignorant?

[GumbyDamnit!]

now you've outed yourself as an arrogant east coast know-nothing

Don't lump him in with us... I think Edrick is a Butler fan.?. Maybe Marq. Not sure but I'm almost certain he is not an "east-coaster." We are more intelligent than that..

[BillikensWin]

Edrick is a hard-core Butler fan.

[bluejayfanatic]

In 2012, Xavier also had to beat #7 seed Notre Dame to even get to that game.

So what? The obstacle we're describing is getting past the 1 or 2 seed in the second round. Xavier got lucky with Lehigh beating Duke to clear the path to the Sweet 16.

And Xavier earned those better seeds.

The point I'm responding to is Stever's point that Xavier and Butler had "tourney success" with the same seeds Creighton did. Whether Xavier earned higher seeds does not have any bearing on that claim.

[Edrick]

Let's spell this out in real terms. Creighton's 2013 class would've ranked 10th in this 10 team league. The 2014 class rates 8th. There is absolutely no reason to think this would change and once more given that Creighton exists in by far the worst location in the entire conference for recruiting, there's every reason to believe that's who they're going to be.

Creighton will very likely be a 2nd division program in the Big East.

I'm sorry. This is who you are long-term. Enjoy the year.

And Christ, could you help out my argument that the talent is lacking anymore than you did by referencing Iowa of all places as being good. You know how many NBA players come from New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, etc? There is no comparison. Which is precisely what I was talking about in the first place. Creighton is blameless in the relative lack of recruiting resources, but it's still the driving force in their long term outlook.

[TrueBlueJay]

When this particular class of seniors were incoming freshman, where do you think the recruiting experts would have ranked them?

We've been hearing about Creighton not being able to keep up for 20 years now....I'm still waiting for the crash.