Fact: Joe Lunardi's most recent Bracketology predictions have 11 Big East teams in the tournament, with Pitt as a No. 1 seed and both UConn and Villanova as No. 2 seeds.Fact: 7 Big East teams are currently ranked in the Top 25. Another 2 are receiving votes after just dropping out. That's over half the conference.
Fact: The Big East's 7 ranked teams have a combined 82-6 non-conference record.
Fact: The Big East is the toughest conference in the country. Just ask Providence College basketball fans (they do exist -- Facebook claims there are 3,742 of them). Their Friars just took down Villanova by 15 at home. Even better, Seton Hall beat Syracuse by 22 points in the Carrier Dome in what was the Orange's third-biggest home loss in the Jim Boeheim Era. Possibly most impressive was Notre Dame overcoming a 5-point halftime deficit to beat Pitt in Pittsburgh, where the Panthers had won 51 of their past 52 games.
Fact: UConn's Kemba Walker is still atop the National Player of the Year poll.
This, my friends, is part of the reason why the NCAA tournament is so exciting (and why the BCS can never match the thrill of March Madness). Seeding does not matter, because right or wrong, a team's win/loss record plays the biggest role in where a team gets seeded. The computers just cannot account for the experience that a team develops by playing 18 conference games in the Big East.
So the truth is, a team like Marquette will probably end up in the tournament at 18-13, or maybe 19-12 if they can pull out a win on the road at Villanova, UConn, or Georgetown. They might get a No. 8 seed. But does anyone really want to play the Golden Eagles?
They lost by 5 to Duke. They lost by 3 to Gonzaga. They lost by 8 to Pitt, and by 1 to Louisville. They lost by 5 to Notre Dame and by 8 to UConn. All these single-digit losses were to Top 25 teams, and Marquette hung tough in each game.
So I ask you again: does anyone want to play the Golden Eagles in March?? That's what I thought. Big East basketball, baby!
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You forgot to mention that St. John's now has the #1 recruiting class for next year--- just jumped over Duke. i grew up in the Mullin/Wennington/WalterBerry/MarkJackson years. Will be nice to say them be tough again. I still think my most memorable sports moment was jerome Lane ripping the rim off the backboard. #2 was Flutie's pass that crushed Kosar's Hurricanes.
ReplyDeletesorry Uconn fans but Jimmer Fredette is the best in the country right now!
ReplyDeleteBig East is a great conference indeed. I hope to make it to the Quarters Day/Night session this year in March!!!
Marco -- you're absolutely right about St. John's. Practically overnight, Steve Lavin has done an incredible job recruiting. He has a long history of doing so, twice producing the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation with UCLA. Even if Lavin capitalizes on just 10% of the talent emanating from NYC, he will build a perennially strong Big East contender very soon.
ReplyDeletePaul -- I admire your dogged (ha ha) distaste for UConn, but you are mistaken on this one. I'll start with the obvious point here -- Kemba is putting up insane numbers against Big East competition, while Fredette is lighting up such MWC schools as Air Force, Colorado State, TCU, and Utah.
And although Fredette's talent is nasty, he's carrying BYU all by himself, so he looks even better than he is. But Kemba is content to let his scoring average slip to 3rd in the nation, in order for his surrounding cast to improve.
Check out the chart for UConn on SI's latest power rankings: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/luke_winn/01/27/power.rankings/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin
Notice that as Kemba's scoring drops, freshman Jeremy Lamb's numbers rise up. So Walker is essentially developing his own team around himself. That's called leadership, my friend, and Fredette is a ball hog.
At the very least, these two guys are equals in the POY discussion: http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-men/hc-uconn-men-0128-20110127,0,2968510.story But at the end of the day, the most important sign of a winner is how his team does. And right now, I'll take UConn over BYU, thank you very much!
Marco mentioned that St. John's jumped over Duke for the #1 recruiting class next year. Well, your team just jumped over Duke on the court, carrying a 21-point halftime lead (!) all the way through for a highly impressive 93-78 win at MSG. Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteInteresting note: the Big East is now 6-1 against Top 10 ranked teams this year.
Interesting note #2: a ton of teams lost this weekend. 11 ranked teams lost, including 4 in the Top Ten. Wow.