Do not look at the Big East's record

[whaler11]

36-2. Told you not to look.

 

[Yankees32123]

I'd rather be back in this Big East than in the AAC. Creighton is solid, PC is solid, Villanova is still a power, and Marquette has one hell of a recruiting class coming in.

 

[upstater]

Lot of cupcakes in those 36 wins though. Villanova and Providence have shown very well with 2 big ins apiece. Creighton has done well too, 1 big win. All in all, that's 5 wins over tough teams. All the rest are cupcakes.

On the other hand, they have no bad losses other than Marquette looking awful against Omaha. Then almost losing to NJIT.

So, the conference holds par against cupcakes, Wojo is the only embarrassment, and the top 3 teams impress. Good start but for some reason, only PC seems formidable to me.

 

[champs99and04]

PC seems more formidable than a team that just whacked VCU and beat Michigan?

 

[Fishy]

Stop. There's a ton of cupcakes in everyone's wins.

The ACC has 15 losses. The Big Ten has 11 losses. The Pac 12 has 14 losses. The AAC has 13.

The Big East has two and both belong to Marquette.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Other than Coach Courtslapper, the Big East is looking very impressive right now. Villanova looked great last night. Generally Villanova is one of the mentally softest teams in the Top 25, but they came to play last night and Pinkston had a huge block in the last minute. Providence put on its big boy pants with that schedule. I actually like that program now mostly because of Cooley, but they may have bit off more than they can chew. They will have a tremendous RPI though. Butler, St. Johns and Depaul will start to wrack up some losses soon, but Creighton, who everyone expected to suck, looks pretty good with a win over Oklahoma.

My sense is that this is a league of good, not great teams with maybe the exception of Villanova.

 

[upstater]

Stop. There's a ton of cupcakes in everyone's wins.

The ACC has 15 losses. The Big Ten has 11 losses. The Pac 12 has 14 losses. The AAC has 13.

The Big East has two and both belong to Marquette.

Ah, here we go again. all last year, the board had BE pumpers and BE detractors, and at the end of the day, the conference spit the bit. I expect no more this year.

The difference between all the losses all the other conferences have (forget the AAC) and the BE's losses is that the BE plays no one. So when you say everyone plays cupcakes, that's true. But they don't play 95% cupcakes. Even Northwestern has taken on some decent teams. Whereas in the BE, the only teams that have played anyone decent are the ones mentioned above.

I still think that only losing to one cupcake is a real good start for them, but it should be noted that even the lowly AAC has played more good teams than the BE has.

 

[upstater]

PC seems more formidable than a team that just whacked VCU and beat Michigan?

I had doubts about VU last year, I'll have them this year. But the 2 teams in your post have even more questions. VCU is talented but weird and small. Michigan is worse off than UConn with the roster turnover.

Having watched PC a couple times, they are impressive. They play hard and have talent on the floor.

If you're asking me what team do I think UConn would have the most trouble with in the BE, I wouldn't even hesitate to say PC. I'd have confidence in UConn beating Villanova. Not so PC.

 

[7774]

Not sure what the point of their OOC record is. When the schools that play football break way from the NCAA completely and start their own version of the NCAA tournament, they're all duck*ed, even if their entire conference goes undefeated between now and then.

We're not in this conference because it's better at basketball than the NBE, we're in it because it gives us the best chance at survival in the long term, unlike the NBE teams which are dead men walking.

 

[Pudge]

It ain't what it used to be ...

That's all that matters. I really don't like seeing the brand or the name. It's just not the BE

 

[Antiobserver]

Big East*

 

[Mots010]

They looked great last year too, until they all crapped themselves in rounds 1 and 2 in the tourney.

 

[uconnell]

I'd rather be back in this Big East than in the AAC. Creighton is solid, PC is solid, Villanova is still a power, and Marquette has one hell of a recruiting class coming in.

No

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Be skeptical of the cupcake wins all you want, but every other conference has managed to have multiple teams lose games that they're not supposed to. You can't lock down a tournament bid in November, but it's very easy to shoot yourself in the foot. When you're Tulsa and you think you have an outside shot at an at-large bid, a November loss to Oral Roberts just kills you. When you're SMU and you open the season with three tough games out of five, going 0-3 really hurts you too.

We'll find out how good some of these Big East teams really are soon enough, but there's not much to criticize as of today.

 

[upstater]

The thing that kills me about the BE is that the rep is largely due to the name. They don't schedule well, so the records are inflated. We saw this last year and it's happening again. They will be over seeded. Nova was a 2nd seed, no? The AAC was awful but the teams at the top, Louisville and UConn, were under seeded. Despite RPIs and SOSs and signature wins that trumped anything out of the BE. It shows how a brandished name carries weight.

I just feel this exact same thread was posted here last year. To a tee.

 

[CTBasketball]

I'd rather go to Ferguson, Missouri and loot a dollar store than join the Big East.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Not sure what the point of their OOC record is. When the schools that play football break way from the NCAA completely and start their own version of the NCAA tournament, they're all duck*ed, even if their entire conference goes undefeated between now and then.

We're not in this conference because it's better at basketball than the NBE, we're in it because it gives us the best chance at survival in the long term, unlike the NBE teams which are dead men walking.

So you think the break will leave behind a conference of big city, tradition rich basketball programs but will drag along a sprawling mid-major conference that shares a lot of markets with top programs?

 

[Fishy]

Ah, here we go again. all last year, the board had BE pumpers and BE detractors, and at the end of the day, the conference spit the bit. I expect no more this year.

The difference between all the losses all the other conferences have (forget the AAC) and the BE's losses is that the BE plays no one. So when you say everyone plays cupcakes, that's true. But they don't play 95% cupcakes. Even Northwestern has taken on some decent teams. Whereas in the BE, the only teams that have played anyone decent are the ones mentioned above.

I still think that only losing to one cupcake is a real good start for them, but it should be noted that even the lowly AAC has played more good teams than the BE has.

Oh, stop.

This is how you lose eight arguments a day here

People get so defensive here - the Big East has had a good start.

It's okay - we can admit it.

Also, Duke and Kentucky are really, really good - we might need to keep counselors on hand to help people here come to grips with that. And, sit down now....I saw Providence this weekend and was impressed.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

The thing that kills me about the BE is that the rep is largely due to the name. They don't schedule well, so the records are inflated.

You do realize that the OOC portion of the schedule isn't over yet, right? No, the BE as a whole hasn't played many good teams yet, but they key word is YET. Georgetown has a bunch of tough games coming up. Nova still plays Syracuse and Illinois. PC still plays Kentucky and Miami. St. John's still has Duke, Syracuse, and Minnesota. Butler plays UNC today. So the number of non-cupcakes played by Big East teams is going to increase very quickly in the next couple of weeks.

 

[upstater]

Oh, stop.

This is how you lose eight arguments a day here

People get so defensive here - the Big East has had a good start.

It's okay - we can admit it.

Also, Duke and Kentucky are really, really good - we might need to keep counselors on hand to help people here come to grips with that. And, sit down now....I saw Providence this weekend and was impressed.

I think I wrote that PC was impressive. Maybe I didn't

As for the rest? Blah.

You're on the same kick as you were last year with this stuff. The BE is gone and it ain't ever coming back.

As for keeping track of own or lost arguments, at least admit you got the bad end on your fawning over the BE last year.

 

[upstater]

You do realize that the OOC portion of the schedule isn't over yet, right? No, the BE as a whole hasn't played many good teams yet, but they key word is YET. Georgetown has a bunch of tough games coming up. Nova still plays Syracuse and Illinois. PC still plays Kentucky and Miami. St. John's still has Duke, Syracuse, and Minnesota. Butler plays UNC today. So the number of non-cupcakes played by Big East teams is going to increase very quickly in the next couple of weeks.

As will the losses....

All those teams are good except for Illinois.

PC stands a really good chance of beating Miami. Maybe badly

 

[whaler11]

I think I wrote that PC was impressive. Maybe I didn't

As for the rest? Blah.

You're on the same kick as you were last year with this stuff. The BE is gone and it ain't ever coming back.

As for keeping track of own or lost arguments, at least admit you got the bad end on your fawning over the BE last year.

I'll give you credit once you make up your mind no amount of evidence to the contrary is ever going to change it.

 

[Pudge]

You are missing the BIG deal.

Conferences rise with the BIG ness of their top teams. I watched Villanova against Temple last February & just did not see anything near what I remember as solid tough-to-beat BE March teams. They were not that good. Creighton either. (and they were ranked top 8 at the time) PC could be darn good today; however, they aren't top 20 really.

36-2 is nice. But, A TEAM considered one of the top handful would be what vaults them into discussions.

 

[whaler11]

It's a good league. I don't know why that pains people to admit.

 

[upstater]

It's a good league. I don't know why that pains people to admit.

Well, Butler settles it. Big East is dominating.

Is it a good league? Yes. But last year we kept hearing about its supremacy over AAC. It was wildly overrated.

So, if people say it's an overrated conference, that means we don't want to admit it's good?

It was clearly overrated last year. How much clearer can things be before you admit that?