big picture view of Big East teams

[XUFan09]

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.

Fair enough. But what year do you think Creighton earned better than a 7 seed (honest question)? Being in the 7 through 10 slots is tough, but a team needs to put in the regular season work to do better than that. Even last year, when they were a top 20 team in efficiency metrics, they also had downsides: a couple losses to 51-100 teams was a dent and a couple bad losses really hurt (not to mention that the conference record wasn't stellar).

[XUFan09]

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.

Well said. I'm willing to bet that Creighton will keep attracting the high IQ shooters like it has in the past, and with the new conference affiliation, they'll attract a higher caliber too. And places like NYC and Philly produce great NBA players, but Creighton's product is not one based off future NBA players, so Iowa is a great recruiting ground for them.

[cujaysfan]

Does your throat get dry from all the mouth breathing?

You keep moving the argument – first we don’t have resources – then the state from which CU has historically drawn part of its roster doesn’t produce enough nba players for your feeble-minded argument (even though that idea has already been refuted by Iowa’s roster (currently in the top 25) many of whom might have chosen CU had our association with the BE happened sooner. Maybe Roy Williams oughta stop showing up in Iowa to try and poach players like Harrison Barnes and the already mentioned Marcus Paige (plus Adam Woodbury). I’m sure that Bronx native Devin Brooks will be interested to find out that he doesn’t belong at CU.


Hmmm – based on your (giggle) hypothesis – how is st john’s not the best team in the league – or depaul? Help me understand that.

I also find it laughable that a butler fan is belittling CU’s resources. CU has more than double the endowment. CU has over 15k season ticket holders (almost double butler’s attendance) – many of whom must donate at a high level to receive their tickets. CU is located in the city with the most millionaires per capita in the US (gee I wonder if any have a CU diploma on their wall or are ticket holders). There are schools in this conference that can outspend CU – but Butler ain’t one.

CU isn’t fighting with the Pacers, IU, Purdue, etc for fan dollars or interest much less trying to pickup their recruiting scraps.

CU has had the “resources” to keep its basketball coaches despite numerous poaching attempts over the last 15 odd years.

CU has had the “resources” to build a brand new practice facility. Couple donors just coughed up about 8 million for that to happen. It’ll probably be even easier to raise dough now with the BE.

It would appear that CU is wasting its time sending its coaches to Texas, the NE, Chicago, California, Minn, etc to recruit student athletes. Perhaps it’d be better if they’d just panhandle in North Omaha to see if they can convince some kids to play in our NBA quality arena – in front of the largest crowds in the league – and get an education that USNWR ranks better than Butler.

[anXUfan]

"Hmmm – based on your (giggle) hypothesis – how is st john’s not the best team in the league – or depaul? Help me understand that."

If you're a guy I think you have to go with "chuckle" or maybe "snicker" there instead of "giggle."

[cujaysfan]

fair point - but trying to keep that NY resolution and those make my mind wander a little

[handdownmandown]

I cannot believe a freaking Butler fan has the juevos to post something like that.

I think that if I heard that from a member of each of the other nine school's fan bases, that would be the LAST school whose fans would be qualified to tell us why we are destined to suck. What do they have better than us? Hinkle? That would depend on the kid when it comes to recruiting, because 18K per game was a pretty freaking popular stat with our recruits this past year. And recruiting? Jesus, you get one Matt Howard to turn down Purdue to come to Butler and you're snot nosing people.

And please don't regale me with epic tales of that fantastic metropolis known as Indianapolis.



I still can't believe I read that. Did that really just happen?

[jayball]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/alumni-tracker/school/1073

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/alumni-tracker/school/6121

Looks like we tie for nba players right now.

[ljay]

DePaul 99
Butler 94

Enjoy your evening Edrick.

[Omahanian]

Geez, it is probably just me. (I am usually in a crowd of one in my way of thinking it seems.) But . . . are we as Bluejays fans trying to get a bad reputation on this board? Me thinks we need to get thicker skins. In my opinion of one it seems like we complain about WSU and then go out and act the same way or worse.

Relax already. We have a lot to prove. It will be fun to see if we can get it done and done with consistency over the years. I think we can and we will. But who knows really. Same for those who think we have no chance in purgatory. They don't really know either for sure.

I think we all have a human tendency to think of ourselves, our geographical region, our culture, our way of doing things as being the center of the universe. It appears some from the east, in huge population centers, mega media centers think of their culture and ways as the end-all, be-all. Everywhere else is the sticks. It is human nature to have this tendency. Omaha does it too. We make fun of Wichita and other places with an arrogance. And we think its okay because we believe its true. But when we're on the receiving end of it, then it's suddenly not okay because others are being arrogant toward us. They obviously don't know what they're talking about. But seriously, if we were living on the east coast somewhere having little previous experience with Omaha and the rest of flyover country, do we think we would not have some attitude about the middle of the country too.

Omaha is never (at least not in a couple or more lifetimes) going to be like the big eastern populations centers in a lot of ways. Nothing against the big cities of the east. But while I like visiting them, I would never want to live there. Part of it is I appreciate my culture here. And part of it is I have my own biases. I mean I couldn't name half the Big East teams before this season. Doesn't mean they haven't been great teams. I mean I had heard of them but almost zero current familiarity with them. They just weren't in my orbit of midwest interests.

Human nature happens. Will continue to happen. Get over it. Show some self-confidence. It's going to be okay.

As far as whether Creighton belongs in the Big East and if they will be a top half contender. Time will tell. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, enjoy the ride, make some new friends. Just remember to breathe. Not everything is a personal attack that has to be vigorously defended. And we're not going to get past all of our differences in one long thread. If we're deserving of credit, others will give it to us when they judge that to be the case for themselves.

(I am probably in trouble now with my own brethren. This is why I don't post too much. An opinion of one. Back to basketball.)

[cr8onbb]

Nice post, I feel the same way. I started to type a long post and realized I basically said the same thing you did, so I deleted it all and will simply say, ditto. Loving this year so far.