Back off the ledge

[R Jay]

Dear Board,

Please back away from the ledge. Tonight has sucked so far with Nova going down early and Georgetown falling to (a higher seeded) Utah. Do not overreact to a one night sample size. It will not make or break our league. Also, don't listen to the garbage that stever or our other resident trolls throw our way.

Go Butler tonight! Go X next Thursday! Most of all, Go Big East!

[jfan]

Dear Board,

Please back away from the ledge. Tonight has sucked so far with Nova going down early and Georgetown falling to (a higher seeded) Utah. Do not overreact to a one night sample size. It will not make or break our league. Also, don't listen to the garbage that stever or our other resident trolls throw our way.

Go Butler tonight! Go X next Thursday! Most of all, Go Big East!

Good post R Jay.
When things go this badly it's hard not to at least take a peak at the ledge. As another poster noted, the ACC only got 1 in the S16 last year. Something I didn't know and something that gives hope

[dmac80]

I don't mean to imply the league is going to collapse, that we are a mid major or that the world is coming to an end. I love what we've got. I don't need to say what that is because every regular posting here knows why our conference is amazing. However for the last 2 years the national critics have been saying mid major and a second disappointing tourney will only amplify that. So the point of my thread is to get ready because that will be the story of this tourney unless X or Butler do serious (elite 8 or final 4) damage,

The important point here since you bring up the big 12 this year and ACC last year is that we do not enjoy the same leeway as long established huge state school football conferences. If the b12, ACC or others flop they won't have much lasting impact. We're considered a new conference and there are a ton of doubters in the media and basketball circles. We're a bunch of much smaller mostly catholic schools than our rival conferences. We need respect to keep above the mid majors and keep recruiting at a high level and to get respect we need to perform in March.

[MackNova]

Villanova tarnished its own reputation with the loss. I think the early exit narrative was overblown before. Now it's fully earned. And if Villanova continues to dominate the league, it'll hurt the perception. Butler winning right now would be huge...

[Burrito]

Take it easy dmac80. Your negative posts are just being reposted on the AAC board.

[BEhomer]

it all starts with recruits. One glaring weakness for this league all year has been lack of nba caliber talent with the exception of Dunn. but that should change next year with govan, and development of this year's freshman hoyas. marquette's top 5 recruiting class. nova's jalen brunson.

look forward to seeing these teams come back stronger next season.

[billyjack]

Good post R Jay.

Tough day, since the BE had the potential to make some noise, but had 3 close losses.

The conference is getting built brick by brick, and as it is, we're a couple of years ahead of schedule.
4 bids last year, no Sweet-16's, 2 teamed ranked.
6 bids this year, 70% of the BE ranked, and an 8th team grabbing a Sweet-16, and a chance for an Elite-8 later this week.
Conference with 5 NCAA wins.

Great recruiting, great coaches, great fans.

And congrats XU on your Sweet-16...!!!

[stever20]

Good post R Jay.

Tough day, since the BE had the potential to make some noise, but had 3 close losses.

The conference is getting built brick by brick, and as it is, we're a couple of years ahead of schedule.
4 bids last year, no Sweet-16's, 2 teamed ranked.
6 bids this year, 70% of the BE ranked, and an 8th team grabbing a Sweet-16, and a chance for an Elite-8 later this week.
Conference with 5 NCAA wins.

Great recruiting, great coaches, great fans.

And congrats XU on your Sweet-16...!!!

the problem with your logic is we never presented ourselves as a new conference. Everyone on here was like we are the original Big East, period. So to say we're a couple years ahead of schedule? What? And to act like the media is going to be patient, that's insane to think like that.

Bottom line, we missed out on a great opportunity tonight. There is no other way to frame it but that. We needed this postseason to validate what we had done in the regular season, and that just didn't happen. Now, next year when we have teams close to getting ranked, the voters will remember this.

[Wildabeast]

If we're not on the ledge, than we obviously don't have the passion needed to be a top tier conference.

Let's be honest boys, year 2 of this experiment was an unmitigated disaster.

I'm trying to find the silver lining.

[Bill Marsh]

I wasn't surprised by the Friday night losses, but yesterday was very discouraging - especially Villanova and Butler. (I actually thought that Georgetown was overseeded and wasn't surprised by their loss.) right. Now I'm brokenhearted and it's really hard to watch any basketball. Xavier is a pleasant surprise, which would have been a nice addition to a Villanova run, but by itself it doesn't mean much to anyone but Xavier fans. Does anyone really expect them to beat Arizona? Nonetheless, I'm happy for them.

I'm beginning to think that the conference may have been overrated due to the OOC success early in the season. Without one-and-done type talent, the league's best teams were largely built around upperclassmen, veterans of the college basketball wars. That's an advantage in November and December when other teams are still bringing their elite young talent along an developing their team chemistry. But by March, teams with elite but younger talent now have a full 30-game season under their belts. The edge we had on paper was apparently much thinner at this time of year than it appeared.