Game of the year on Wednesday

[Xavier4036]

You do realize I hope that the main reasoning pundits give for Nova coming up short the last 2 years in March is that their conference does nothing to prepare them for March pressure and competition. Xavier, who I "guess" had a better season since they won an extra game against a double-digit seed in March, certainly didn't give Nova a challenge last year. Maybe they will tomorrow. To date, Nova has a +12.4 margin of victory in BE games. So if Nova comes up short again, there will certainly be plenty of questions about the quality of competition, or lack there of, from the rest of their conference.

So now you are blaming Villanova's 2015 2 seed first weekend exit and 2014 1 seed first weekend exit ..... on the Big East?

What about the 2010 2 seed first weekend exit? Or how about not mustering to win a game as a 9 seed in either 2011 or 2013 (did not make tournament in 2012)? Are all of those winless tournaments or early exits the fault of the Old Big East?

You have schools that were in much lesser conferences.... VCU, Butler, Xavier, George Mason, Witchita State.... make deep runs in the NCAA tourney. Does the A-10, Horizon, Missouri Valley, the Colonial "prepare teams for March pressure and competition" better than the Big East?

[FormulaX]

Uh, well, because 2009 is the point that Villanova stopped being "settled into the hunted role nicely" as evidenced by a 1 seed, 2 seed, 2 seed (and two other 9 seeds) and out of all that mustered to get exactly THREE WINS.

You do realize I hope that the main reasoning pundits give for Nova coming up short the last 2 years in March is that their conference does nothing to prepare them for March pressure and competition. Xavier, who I "guess" had a better season since they won an extra game against a double-digit seed in March, certainly didn't give Nova a challenge last year. Maybe they will tomorrow. To date, Nova has a +12.4 margin of victory in BE games. So if Nova comes up short again, there will certainly be plenty of questions about the quality of competition, or lack there of, from the rest of their conference.[/quote]

Seriously? You're going to type that to Xavier and Butler fans? Umm, Xavier and Butler had to come out of the Horizon and A10. Pundits? In all my years, I haven't heard that from just one single fan, blame the conference for not preparing a team for the tourney???... I'm laughing out loud!

[stever20]

For those that say that the Big East didn't prepare Nova last year for the tourney. Wasn't the Big East #2 last year in college basketball? If the #2 conference in the country can't prepare you for the tourney, what in the hell can?

[PhilaNova]

For those that say that the Big East didn't prepare Nova last year for the tourney. Wasn't the Big East #2 last year in college basketball? If the #2 conference in the country can't prepare you for the tourney, what in the hell can?

I don't agree with the excuse that the Big East didn't prepare Nova for the tournament last year, but come on, for starters the Big 10 and ACC were on another level than the big east last year. No big east team would have beaten UCONN 2 years ago, and I don't think any other big east team would have beaten that very talented NC state team last year.

[Westbrook#36]

Wow this escalated quickly, goes to show all fan bases have their Dbags. Love how these threads turn into bash Nova thons at the drop of a hat, of course it all about March(small sample size of the last 2 years to boot), sorry we all can't run into Lehigh, Georgia St., OG March chokers Pitt, or a #12 Wisconsin to coast into the S16. Remind me again how many F4's X has? We even have schools who haven't(including this year) made the tourney 3 straight years, *cough* Marquette *cough*, plus others(usual suspects) talking some shit. Like I said all fan bases have their Dbags.

[SJUBBALL]

Westbrook lets not play victim when a nova fan had his hand in the cookie jar from the beginning and he sad something that is insulting to every fan in the big east, hence why all fans are jumping in

[chopper]

For those that say that the Big East didn't prepare Nova last year for the tourney. Wasn't the Big East #2 last year in college basketball? If the #2 conference in the country can't prepare you for the tourney, what in the hell can?

In 2014, the BE sent 0 teams to the Sweet 16.
In 2015, the BE sent 1 team to the Sweet 16.

Yes, Villanova is certainly part of that equation. But it is a 10-team league, and the league had 10 chances to advance past the first weekend. Congrats to Xavier for taking care of an 11 seed and a 14 seed. But overall the entire league has come up way short.

Nova failed twice...once to the eventual national champions, and once to a team that also beat Duke, Louisville (on the road), and UNC (on the road) in the same year. The point there is that the losses, while disappointing and unexpected, were not quite so shocking as one would like to make out a typical 1 or 2 seed early exit. Most talking heads last year heading into March said Nova was not as good as their ranking said. How could that be? Did they not deserve that ranking that was obtained by destroying the rest of their conference? Based on the last two years, a case could be made. Now look at this year to date, and Nova so far is still dominating the league, and outside of Xavier, no other team is a convincing March selection.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Except in March, evidently.

DBag comment of the day.

You can't throw stones when your own program is 0-fer vs the other team AND has never made a FF let alone a NC.

Howso? It's fairly accurate. And he didn't say anything about FF or NCs he just said March, X has had loads of success recently in March so I'd say he has earned the right as an X fan to critique when a program chokes on their own hype... three times.

It sort of like us saying: "well, X has not beaten us in 6 tries in the Big East" or "I'm just hoping for a better challenge than that 32 point ass-whipping in the first game." Or for you MUBoxer, "at least we aren't looking like Marq who will go 3 straight without making the tourney. Good job contributing there Golden Warriors." All pass your litmus test of being "accurate" statements. But much like your comments: "douchey" IMO.

[stever20]

This is where the round robin argument to me is the weakest. I think a main strength in the OBE was you got to see 15 different teams, with a lot of different styles. So you get to the tourney and you play any team and odds are really good you've played a team in conference that is just like that.

[scoscox]

From Musketeermadness.com:

Jenkins starts now. He helped knock out Edmund Sumner in the New Years Eve blow-out in Philly (95-64 Villanova win).

Stay classy, Xavier.

Righttttttt... cause if Jalen Reynolds would've fouled Arcidiacano hard under the basket and got up and celebrated not letting him score with his teammates, while arcidiacano is twitching and unconscious under the hoop, your fans wouldn't have some lingering resentment towards Reynolds. rightttt... It's not like he's saying anything that isn't true in this post. If anyone should be concerned about class it's the team that almost killed another team's player.