The Big East: Not as good as advertised

[tzznandrew]

UConn and Marquette (minus strange Wisconsin loss) look to fit the bit. Creighton will be good, though I don't like them being blown out by Colorado State (who is better than people thought, but not 20 points better).

The rest is pretty mediocre to bad. We came into this year with some posters laughing at anyone suggesting the Big East wasn't the best conference (in terms of quality teams). It's clear now they're not in the same league as the B12.

 

[HuskyHawk]

UConn and Marquette (minus strange Wisconsin loss) look to fit the bit. Creighton will be good, though I don't like them being blown out by Colorado State (who is better than people thought, but not 20 points better).

The rest is pretty mediocre to bad. We came into this year with some posters laughing at anyone suggesting the Big East wasn't the best conference (in terms of quality teams). It's clear now they're not in the same league as the B12.

I thought we were overrating a bunch of teams. That includes Creighton, it was laughable to have them 2nd and UConn 3rd. Good, but probably bottom of top 25 good.

St. Johns is overrated. HOF coach and a bunch of mercenary players pulled together with no thought as to how they'd fit together.
Villanova has talent and the worst coach in the Big East. They are 2016 UConn right now.
PC I thought might surprise to the upside, but getting blown out by OU is worrying.
Xavier has fallen like a rock from two years ago.

Oddly, Butler might not be terrible. Beat TT and Penn State and hung with FAU.

 

[Travelman6]

Oh well, at this point in the year just need UConn to be good as OOC winds down for everyone, (the conference probably has, what, 25 OOC games left?) UConn and rhe other 9 just need to not lose to DePaul but otherwise, too late to pull for anyone other than UConn in the BE. Conference is what it is at this point.

 

[Mr. French]

Hopefully these teams grow as the year progresses, but I agree Nova, X, Hall, Creighton all a bit disappointing, at minimum.

 

[superjohn]

UConn and Marquette (minus strange Wisconsin loss) look to fit the bit. Creighton will be good, though I don't like them being blown out by Colorado State (who is better than people thought, but not 20 points better).

The rest is pretty mediocre to bad. We came into this year with some posters laughing at anyone suggesting the Big East wasn't the best conference (in terms of quality teams). It's clear now they're not in the same league as the B12.

It won't show in wins and losses but we've actually played the Big 12 straight up. It should be 5-5 or at least 4-6 instead of 3-7 with Marquette heavily favored tonight against Texas.

The things that are really hurting the league this season is that Neptune stinks and Xavier is so badly compromised with season ending injuries. Those are two schools the Big East relies on being really good year in and year out. Nova needs to fire Neptune end of the season at the latest.

I still think UConn, Creighton, and Marquette all have a chance at the final 4 and UConn has a better chance of anyone winning the whole thing if healthy.

 

[Tyler2Rings]

The things that are really hurting the league this season is that Neptune stinks and Xavier is so badly compromised with season ending injuries.

Villanova and X have been the big disappointments. No fault of X with their injuries. A smaller but notable letdown is DePaul. They were a respectable bottom-feeder last year. This year IDK if they would have a winning record in the Horizon League

Not worried about Creighton at all

 

[Doctor Hoop]

I agree to an extent, as Creighton has McDermott who has shown that his teams get better as the season progresses. But I do see Marquette and UConn in the final four. With the offense and defense clicking, if the injuries don't get us, we have a great chance to repeat.

 

[Palatine]

What was the final talley for the B12/BE challenge?

 

[tzznandrew]

The things that are really hurting the league this season is that Neptune stinks and Xavier is so badly compromised with season ending injuries. Those are two schools the Big East relies on being really good year in and year out. Nova needs to fire Neptune end of the season at the latest.

If Nova was consistent and Xavier wasn't destroyed by injuries, I do think the BE would probably have lived up to its hype. So it goes.

I also think that by next year St. John's will be much closer to a Pitino team. What might be frustrating is that they might start to get there in the BE season after being pretty mid in the OOC.

 

[NJHusky]

Villanova and X have been the big disappointments. No fault of X with their injuries. A smaller but notable letdown is DePaul. They were a respectable bottom-feeder last year. This year IDK if they would have a winning record in the Horizon League

Not worried about Creighton at all

It looks like the battle for Atlantis was the aberration for Nova, not the expectation...they are lucky they didn't play Temple this year

 

[kobe]

glorified wcc. its uconn and a bunch of bums

 

[HuskyFich]

Cooley going to Gtown disrupted 2 teams for this season as well.
Next year I'm hoping PC & GTown are much more competitive, along with St Johns.

But man, Neptune stinks. Get him out before the bball media starts punishing the Big East for Nova's fall from grace.

The Big East coaching tree is still incredible. Hard to argue most or all of these guys won't have figured it out by February

Hurley
Miller
McDermott
Smart
Pitino
Cooley
Matta

 

[Matt1010]

Creighton had 1 flop game against a good CO State team. Even with that dud they are still Kenpom #7 and Torvik #4. Us, Marquette and Creighton are all FF caliber teams but the rest of the league has pretty much stunk it up. Besides the top 3 the only team that has outperformed expectations so far is Butler.

 

[runner11]

Agree with most everything posted. That said, the bottom of the bubble is always so weak. We are going to have 2-3 teams gel mid-season, win 60% of their conference games and pick off enough games from our top 3 that they become tourney locks. It’s not too late to make a move and it takes time to gel with so much turnover. I think our Euro trip helped immensely in that regard. So even though I only believe 3 teams can make noise in March, I anticipate 2-3 others ending up as first round casualties.

 

[HeGotGame]

glorified wcc. its uconn and a bunch of bums

I feel bad for you.

 

[huskyharry]

'Nova is really terrible against zone defense, particularly the 3-2. their offensive rhythm is based upon drive and kick or low-post and kick and they have been lost trying to establish rhythm against the zone.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

I thought we were overrating a bunch of teams. That includes Creighton, it was laughable to have them 2nd and UConn 3rd. Good, but probably bottom of top 25 good.

St. Johns is overrated. HOF coach and a bunch of mercenary players pulled together with no thought as to how they'd fit together.
Villanova has talent and the worst coach in the Big East. They are 2016 UConn right now.
PC I thought might surprise to the upside, but getting blown out by OU is worrying.
Xavier has fallen like a rock from two years ago.

Oddly, Butler might not be terrible. Beat TT and Penn State and hung with FAU.

For those who recently hopped on the bandwagon :
In 2016 we won 26 games the AAC title and got to the 2nd round of the NCAA loosing to the number 1 seed . I think Nova fans would take that this year.
We probably would have won more regular season games except we lost Brimah for much of conference play and we were operating with 2-3 reduced scholarships. Injuries and recruiting fails get magnified the shorter the roster.
2016-17 was certainly no powerhouse especially after the injuries which reduced it to a 6 or 7 . man team 2 of them freshman. . They did beat Syracuse forever cementing an unheralded freshmsn named Vital‘s legend as a gamer . They also got to the semi’s of the AAC tourney beating Samson‘s pretty good Houston team . When you consider 1/2 the lost games were with their best player out or not healthy they might have overachieved .
2017-19 we had the worst talent since JC first year.. We still went 1-1 with Syracuse . I’ll try being nice and just call those teams undermanned it’s a more accurate description than underachieving and less mean than saying they stunk.

 

[auggie22]

Sadder: Kobe on this board on the reg, or Kobe spending his evenings working to keep his gif game fresh?

Either way he is definitely, involuntarily celibate. But I find the idea he spends his evenings searching, organizing and stockpiling images to be more pathetic.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

The Big East goes through cycles. I think St John’s and Georgetown will be back as soon as next year. Villanova, I’m convinced, needs to move on from Neptune. If those 3 get good, very different outlook on the conference.

 

[HuskyHawk]

For those who recently hopped on the bandwagon :
In 2016 we won 26 games the AAC title and got to the 2nd round of the NCAA loosing to the number 1 seed . I think Nova fans would take that this year.
We probably would have won more regular season games except we lost Brimah for much of conference play and we were operating with 2-3 reduced scholarships. Injuries and recruiting fails get magnified the shorter the roster.
2016-17 was certainly no powerhouse especially after the injuries which reduced it to a 6 or 7 . man team 2 of them freshman. . They did beat Syracuse forever cementing an unheralded freshmsn named Vital‘s legend as a gamer . They also got to the semi’s of the AAC tourney beating Samson‘s pretty good Houston team . When you consider 1/2 the lost games were with their best player out or not healthy they might have overachieved .
2017-19 we had the worst talent since JC first year.. We still went 1-1 with Syracuse . I’ll try being nice and just call those teams undermanned it’s a more accurate description than underachieving and less mean than saying they stunk.

To be clear, I mean 2016-17 when we came in ranked #18 to start the season and went 16-17 and 9-9. We had good returning players including DHam and Sterling Gibbs and had a top 15 recruiting class.

I think it's similar to Nova, vastly underperforming.

 

[Hi-Low]

What was the final talley for the B12/BE challenge?

B12 leads 7 - 3 .....final game tonight Marq vs TX in Milwaukee.

 

[tzznandrew]

To be clear, I mean 2016-17 when we came in ranked #18 to start the season and went 16-17 and 9-9. We had good returning players including DHam and Sterling Gibbs and had a top 15 recruiting class.

I think it's similar to Nova, vastly underperforming.

DHam and Gibbs left after 2016.

They returned Adams, Purvis, and Brimah and brought in a class headlined by Gilbert and had a transfer Terry Larrier coming in.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

KenPom has the conferences ranked as:

1) Big 12

gap

2) Big 10
3) SEC
4) Big East

those three are really close to one another.

gap

5) Pac 12

gap

6) ACC


That objective conference ranking seems both accurate subjectively, and hilarious when it comes to the ACC.

 

[HuskyHawk]

DHam and Gibbs left after 2016.

They returned Adams, Purvis, and Brimah and brought in a class headlined by Gilbert and had a transfer Terry Larrier coming in.

You are correct. Still, we had some talent. We flopped.

 

[shizzle787]

This is the worst the conference has been since realignment. I think it’s time to add Gonzaga.