Prerankings Wayyy to Early

[KampusFoods]

Happened with Enes Kanter out of Kentucky some years ago.

Of course he was ruled permanently ineligible to play collegiate basketball, so he didn't have much of a choice.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I went by standings.  The results of what actually happened on the court throughout the season, not some computer projections that don't take into account injuries to the best players on 2 of the teams.  Providence finished 3rd.  There's really no debating that.  They played the 18 games and the result was they were the 3rd place team in the BE.

But that only takes into account the conference season. The non-conference season still counts and is more relevant to determining which conference is stronger.

[wadesworld]

But that only takes into account the conference season. The non-conference season still counts and is more relevant to determining which conference is stronger.

Sure, but 2 teams that were pretty clearly the 2nd and 3rd (or maybe 4th if Butler was better than Xavier with Sumner) best teams in the conference had a fully healthy team throughout the entire non-conference and then fell to the 6th and 7th place spots in the conference based on what actually occurred when the 10 teams in the BE all played each other once at home and once away from home. The results are what they are. Providence was the 3rd place team based not on some computer metrics but based on what actually happened when they played 2 games against the other 9 teams in the BE. It really can't be debated. It happened.

Whether people want to admit it or not, those injuries were big time injuries for this conference. What probably would've been a 1, 2, 4, 4, and then maybe two 10-ish seeds (I'm assuming Xavier and Creighton would've won some games against MU/Providence/SH that they didn't and one ends up missing the Tourney) turned into a 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 11 seeds. The conference COULD HAVE BEEN better without the injuries to Sumner and Watson, but those dominoes fell and it completely lowered the profile of this conference.

[Lennys Tap]

I agree with Wades on this. Injuries to Sumner and Watson made the conference much weaker. We went from 4 really good teams to 2. The weakening enabled MU and Providence to sneak in - quantity over quality though.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Sure, but 2 teams that were pretty clearly the 2nd and 3rd (or maybe 4th if Butler was better than Xavier with Sumner) best teams in the conference had a fully healthy team throughout the entire non-conference and then fell to the 6th and 7th place spots in the conference based on what actually occurred when the 10 teams in the BE all played each other once at home and once away from home. The results are what they are. Providence was the 3rd place team based not on some computer metrics but based on what actually happened when they played 2 games against the other 9 teams in the BE. It really can't be debated. It happened.

Whether people want to admit it or not, those injuries were big time injuries for this conference. What probably would've been a 1, 2, 4, 4, and then maybe two 10-ish seeds (I'm assuming Xavier and Creighton would've won some games against MU/Providence/SH that they didn't and one ends up missing the Tourney) turned into a 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 11 seeds. The conference COULD HAVE BEEN better without the injuries to Sumner and Watson, but those dominoes fell and it completely lowered the profile of this conference.

I recognize the injuries hurt the conference. No one's denying that. But even if with the injures, the total body of work, which includes what Creighton and Xavier did before the injuries, as well as after them, is better than the total body of work that the third and fourth best teams in the Big East did last year.

You keep focusing on conference games, but that doesn't include what they did in non-conference and in the postseason. I believe results matter too. That's why I use KP rankings because they are based on results of the ENTIRE season. If you want to say Providence was the third in conference play, fine. But they weren't the third best team over the course of the season. If they were, they wouldn't have been playing in Dayton with the lowest seed of any Big East team that made the dance.

[GoldenDieners32]

I was just watching the NIT and realized MU would dominate probably close to every team in that tournament