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Big East has captured the zeitgeist of the sports world a bit. With 3 legitimate final four contenders in the second weekend, Rick Pitino going to St. John's and Cooley going to Georgetown there is a whole lot of chatter about the Big East. The most I have seen in a while. Dave Portnoy spent all day yelling at Jeff Goodman about Cooley and now Fanta will be on PMT today. No real point to this thread, just cool to see the conference become a national talking point for a while. Sounds like McDermott is once again testing the free agent waters for Notre Dame.

I would say this recent explosion in press really proves two things.
1) March success matters. Nova got their credibility from March and now the rest of the league is beginning to follow suit.
2) Coaching matters. I would be shocked if Cooley and Pitino didn't do fantastic jobs and if nothing else they are going to provide great storylines

Now add Gonzaga!

the Big East is absolutely shining right now. For all the right things.

Feels like this conference hasn't even reached its ceiling yet. Every year it gets better. LETS GOOOOO.

Hopefully the party keeps going and all three teams cross to the Elite 8

DudeAnon wrote:Big East has captured the zeitgeist of the sports world a bit. With 3 legitimate final four contenders in the second weekend, Rick Pitino going to St. John's and Cooley going to Georgetown there is a whole lot of chatter about the Big East. The most I have seen in a while. Dave Portnoy spent all day yelling at Jeff Goodman about Cooley and now Fanta will be on PMT today. No real point to this thread, just cool to see the conference become a national talking point for a while. Sounds like McDermott is once again testing the free agent waters for Notre Dame.

I would say this recent explosion in press really proves two things.
1) March success matters. Nova got their credibility from March and now the rest of the league is beginning to follow suit.
2) Coaching matters. I would be shocked if Cooley and Pitino didn't do fantastic jobs and if nothing else they are going to provide great storylines

Now add Gonzaga!

I've seen people on the Twitter machine talk about the ND thing. Not journalists or recognizable names. I think it's normal for his name to come up when the team has success. I think it's unfair and inaccurate to characterize that chatter as "McDermott is once again testing the free agent waters." Has he ever? OSU wanted to talk to him, he listened, and said, "you don't mess with happy." ESPN, among others, reported that ND is waiting on a decision from Shrewsberry. Anything can happen (as we now know) in coaching circles but do you actual think McDermott is testing the free agent waters at 58 to go rebuild somewhere? And if he is, that he would consider a job where he's the second choice? He's more likely to retire at an age closer to Jay Wright than he is to coach another 10 years. Why would he start overt? And why would ND want someone knowing they'd have another coaching search in 5 or 6 years? Shrewsberry is 46, FWIW.

EDIT: ND's athletic department appears to be a bit of a shit show right now. First, their football coach, whose team is on national TV every game and whose recruiting involves, "I'll take you, and you, and you," left to go coach at a school that fired their last 2 football coaches, both of whom won Natty's (something Kelly hasn't done). Then they cut Brey loose after 23 years. I don't know why McDermott or Shrewsberry would take that job. ND may have to cast a wider net.

Big East is the talk of college hoops! No doubt about it.

Yeah saw alot of sports pundits talking Big East yesterday great pub for league.

Savannah Jay wrote:

DudeAnon wrote:Big East has captured the zeitgeist of the sports world a bit. With 3 legitimate final four contenders in the second weekend, Rick Pitino going to St. John's and Cooley going to Georgetown there is a whole lot of chatter about the Big East. The most I have seen in a while. Dave Portnoy spent all day yelling at Jeff Goodman about Cooley and now Fanta will be on PMT today. No real point to this thread, just cool to see the conference become a national talking point for a while. Sounds like McDermott is once again testing the free agent waters for Notre Dame.

I would say this recent explosion in press really proves two things.
1) March success matters. Nova got their credibility from March and now the rest of the league is beginning to follow suit.
2) Coaching matters. I would be shocked if Cooley and Pitino didn't do fantastic jobs and if nothing else they are going to provide great storylines

Now add Gonzaga!

I've seen people on the Twitter machine talk about the ND thing. Not journalists or recognizable names. I think it's normal for his name to come up when the team has success. I think it's unfair and inaccurate to characterize that chatter as "McDermott is once again testing the free agent waters." Has he ever? OSU wanted to talk to him, he listened, and said, "you don't mess with happy." ESPN, among others, reported that ND is waiting on a decision from Shrewsberry. Anything can happen (as we now know) in coaching circles but do you actual think McDermott is testing the free agent waters at 58 to go rebuild somewhere? And if he is, that he would consider a job where he's the second choice? He's more likely to retire at an age closer to Jay Wright than he is to coach another 10 years. Why would he start overt? And why would ND want someone knowing they'd have another coaching search in 5 or 6 years? Shrewsberry is 46, FWIW.

EDIT: ND's athletic department appears to be a bit of a shit show right now. First, their football coach, whose team is on national TV every game and whose recruiting involves, "I'll take you, and you, and you," left to go coach at a school that fired their last 2 football coaches, both of whom won Natty's (something Kelly hasn't done). Then they cut Brey loose after 23 years. I don't know why McDermott or Shrewsberry would take that job. ND may have to cast a wider net.

Don't shoot the messenger. Only reporting what I've been seeing on Twitter from accounts that seem to of accurately reported Cooley, Pitino etc.

Pitino to St John’s is so huge and so overdue, it’s going to change the league as much as UCONN coming back and Novas two Nattys and three final fours. So happy for Johnnies fans.

Long Live The Big East!!!!!

Django wrote:Pitino to St John’s is so huge and so overdue, it’s going to change the league as much as UCONN coming back and Novas two Nattys and three final fours. So happy for Johnnies fans.

Long Live The Big East!!!!!

And if Cooley is able to turn around Georgetown??? That would be gigantic as well. With the transfer portal, it could happen faster than one would think for both St John's and Georgetown. I'd say it's better than 50/50 odds that at least 1 of those makes the tourney next year.

Depaul up next?

gosports1 wrote:Depaul up next?

You would hope it's possible after next season- would be his 3rd year there. They took a decent step backwards this year. Another step backwards next year? Yeah think that could possibly do it, but DePaul has let coaches languish there for 5,5,6 years with no results.