Congratulations to Xavier

[NJRedman]

It has nothing to do with Villanova fans being sensitive, it has to do with the rest of you not recognizing the MID-MAJOR mentality that is taking place here. In the Old Big East, if Villanova got knocked out early, nobody cared because 4 or 5 other teams would have stepped up and continued to make noise for the Big East. Relying on ONE teams performance in March to give the rest of the league credibility is pathetic.

Until I hear, "Oh, Villanova got knocked out early again? No big deal. St. John's, Butler, Providence and Xavier are all in the Sweet 16", I will say OK, we have made it, the New Big East has finally arrived! But we haven't come CLOSE to that yet.

The success of this league does not rest on the shoulders of what the top 1 or 2 teams do in the dance every year, it should rest on what the top 4 or 5 teams do in the dance every year and until we get there, stop pointing fingers, and worry about your own team.

To be quite honest, and I am not saying Xavier fans are doing this, but if being the ONLY team from your league to make the Sweet 16 makes you stand up and declare yourself "The King Of The Conference", we are already SCREWED!

40% of the league in the sweet 16 is making it? I'm all about the conference succeeding but thats just ridiculous. It's not mid-major mentality to hope our best team can make it past the first weekend.

[DudeAnon]

Can we stop turning every single thread into a "Nova tourney" bitch-fest on both sides?

Nova fans aren't stupid, they know about the NCAA tournament disappointments. Doesn't change the fact they have been our best team by far. Need I remind my fellow X fans we haven't beaten them once.

[Westbrook#36]

[stever20]

It has nothing to do with Villanova fans being sensitive, it has to do with the rest of you not recognizing the MID-MAJOR mentality that is taking place here. In the Old Big East, if Villanova got knocked out early, nobody cared because 4 or 5 other teams would have stepped up and continued to make noise for the Big East. Relying on ONE teams performance in March to give the rest of the league credibility is pathetic.

Until I hear, "Oh, Villanova got knocked out early again? No big deal. St. John's, Butler, Providence and Xavier are all in the Sweet 16", I will say OK, we have made it, the New Big East has finally arrived! But we haven't come CLOSE to that yet.

The success of this league does not rest on the shoulders of what the top 1 or 2 teams do in the dance every year, it should rest on what the top 4 or 5 teams do in the dance every year and until we get there, stop pointing fingers, and worry about your own team.

To be quite honest, and I am not saying Xavier fans are doing this, but if being the ONLY team from your league to make the Sweet 16 makes you stand up and declare yourself "The King Of The Conference", we are already SCREWED!

you are forgetting the big difference....
In the Old Big East....
13- 4 top 4 seeds 8 teams in total- 4 of 8 seeded 6 or better.
12- 4 top 4 seeds 9 teams in total- 5 of 9 seeded 6 or better.
11- 5 top 4 seeds 11 teams in total- 9 of 11 seeded 6 or better.
10- 5 top 4 seeds(all top 3) 8 teams in total- 7 of 8 seeded 6 or better.
09- 5 top 4 seeds(all top 3) 7 teams in total- all seeded 6 or better.
so in 5 years- 23 top 4 seeds, with 31 top 6 seeds. Or average of 6 top 6 seeds a year....
In the New Big Esat
15- 2 top 4 seeds 6 teams total- 5 of 6 seeded 6 or better.
14- 2 top 4 seeds 4 teams total- 2 of 4 seeded 6 or better
so in 2 years 4 top 4 seeds, with 7 top 6 seeds. On average of 3.5 top 6 seeds a year.

The difference is back with the old conference you would have 4-5 teams expected to make the sweet 16. Even if 1 failed, you would have teams there to pick up the garbage. Now, conference is getting 4-6 teams in PERIOD, with only 2 in the top 4 seeds. So if 1 of those goes down, it hurts.

[ChestRockwell85]

The point is, I feel like I can make a post like the one I made here about Villanova in the tournament in pretty much every other thread on this board. Please realize, every time I have made a post like that it has been in RESPONSE to something somebody else said and it has come from EVERY fan base in the Big East at one point or another.

I fired back at St. John's fans, and then was basically called a bully. My point is, if I want to, I can dissect every single one of your teams and make you realize that your team has a way to go before you start giving Villanova grief, so again, stop with the Villanova, a team that lost to the eventual National Champion in the tournament 5 times in the last decade, is a big disappointment, and worry about your own team, and the league as a WHOLE.

THANKS!!!!!!

[hoops22]

It has nothing to do with Villanova fans being sensitive, it has to do with the rest of you not recognizing the MID-MAJOR mentality that is taking place here. In the Old Big East, if Villanova got knocked out early, nobody cared because 4 or 5 other teams would have stepped up and continued to make noise for the Big East. Relying on ONE teams performance in March to give the rest of the league credibility is pathetic.

Until I hear, "Oh, Villanova got knocked out early again? No big deal. St. John's, Butler, Providence and Xavier are all in the Sweet 16", I will say OK, we have made it, the New Big East has finally arrived! But we haven't come CLOSE to that yet.

The success of this league does not rest on the shoulders of what the top 1 or 2 teams do in the dance every year, it should rest on what the top 4 or 5 teams do in the dance every year and until we get there, stop pointing fingers, and worry about your own team.

To be quite honest, and I am not saying Xavier fans are doing this, but if being the ONLY team from your league to make the Sweet 16 makes you stand up and declare yourself "The King Of The Conference", we are already SCREWED!

ChestRockwell85 don't get too sensitive here. It's regretable that you and several other decent Nova fans got caught in the crossfire that was primarily directed at one Nova fan in particular. Life would be so much easier if Ball would announce he's now a Temple fan or something. Then world peace and harmony on the board would abound for all.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Not going to get pulled into the "Nova letting the rest of us down" discussion. It's so ridiculous it's not worth yet another thread. But let me throw out an interesting point about the need for ALL teams to contribute. Here is a list of teams that made a FF as a member of the BE:

G'town (4x)
Villanova (2x)
UConn (4x)
St. John's
Providence
Seton Hall
Syracuse (2x)
Louisville (2x)
West Virginia

And Marq had made the FF two years before joining the BE. Now THAT is a serious conference, with serious street cred up and down the conference. It wasn't a conference with just one bully--every team was a bully.

It's wasn't the ACC where it was basically Duke and UNC and a bunch of so-so teams; not the B12 with Kansas or the SEC with UK & FL or the Pac10 with UCLA. Just about EVERY team contributed.

No one waited around for Syracuse, Uconn, G'town or Nova to "win one for the rest of us."

[GumbyDamnit!]

ChestRockwell85 don't get too sensitive here. It's regretable that you and several other decent Nova fans got caught in the crossfire that was primarily directed at one Nova fan in particular. Life would be so much easier if Ball would announce he's now a Temple fan or something. Then world peace and harmony on the board would abound for all.

Honestly do people understand the "Ignore" feature on a message board. All I read about is how people can't stand NovaBall and yet they don't just ignore him.

So from this point forward I call BS to anyone who says they are just responding to someone that they openly admit they can't stomach. IGNORE! It's so, so simple.

1. Click on Ball's name.
2. Click: "Add foe."
3. Confirm

Now all of his posts are ignored. Problem solved.

[Masterofreality]

Thanks for the Congrats, NovaBall.....and can't we all just get along?

I love this league, and I cheer hard for every Big East team when we're not playing each other. The "Us against the World" to me is this whole league against the ogres of Huge school mania who think that unless you have a State name in your college, you are ripe to be discounted. I want all of us to kick the F-ing door down and get 4 Big East teams in the Final 4.
How about THAT!!???

[BEX]

Wow. This thread got off topic in a hurry.