A Pitt'ers view on the Big East

[spiral97]

from the yahoo newsfeed up above...

Paul Zeise: I'm not down on the Big East, I'm just being realistic about it. I often say this and I believe it -- for the foreseeable future, say the next decade or so, the Big East will always be under rated in football and over rated in basketball. Fair or not, that's just how it is. The Big East is a good basketball league, but take a close look at the so-called marquee programs. Villanova, Syracuse, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville -- they are all flawed and aren't very good or consistent. Marquette and Georgetown were supposed to be top 15 teams and neither has even approached that kind of consistency. Pitt is head and shoulders above every team in this league right now and take your pick as to who is the second best team. I would have said WVU a week ago, but they lost to Notre Dame, who is an interesting team to say the least. DePaul beats Kansas, but loses to Northwestern, Purdue, UAB, Kentucky and St. Johns

While I'll agree with a lot of what is said about the big east teams, I disagree with the last bolded sentence.. head and shoulders is quite extreme.. sure they're 14-2.. and yes, I would say that I THINK they are good but to make it sound like the big east is holding them back is a pretty high and mighty viewpoint.. they haven't proven that they even deserve to be in the top 15 themselves.. ALL of their wins have come at the hands of unranked teams and EVERY game they've played against a top 25 ranked team has resulted in a loss.  that just tells me they belong between #26 and #50ish along with many of the other teams in the BE.  Stuff like this makes me want to pour on the pain the next time we play em... doesn't hurt that they were already on my list of distaste from last year too.  One game at a time indeed but I hope we go to Pitt on the 21st and deliver some butt kicking!

[MilTown]

It's too early to tell how good the BE is as a conference. Overall, I think the consensus is that the league is going through a down year. I tend to agree with that assessment. We have a league with pairity. You either love it or hate it. I tend to enjoy parity as every game will be a dogfight. You can have a league with good parity, meaning we have a multitude of good teams like last year, or you can have the opposite with a bunch of bad teams. I think we have a group of very solid young teams. Our league may not have a dominant team, but it will be entertaining. This is all cyclical. It will all change next year or the year after.

As far as PITT goes, I think they have the strongest team in the BE. From top to bottom, they are strong and it never hurts to have a polished 7 footer down low. I don't know why a watered down BE will hurt PITT. If you are good, you are good.

[Sir Lawrence]

I don't think that Pitt is that much better than a bunch of teams in the BE, including MU, Georgetown, and WVU.  They don't play ND. 

If you look at Pomeroy, for instance, you see that while he has them with an 11-5 conference record, a bunch of those games he has as very close wins for Pitt, (including what I hope is a stellar MU game on March 3).

And, I  can't stand them. 

[MilTown]

I can't stand PITT either! That Gray elbow in Milwaukee and the cheap shots on James at PITT last year still have me angry. But, I still think that they have the best starting 5 in our conference. What scares me most about them is their size and how physical they are in both the front court and back court. They are also well coached and seem to have gained some discipline this year on offense and defense. They will lose some games, but in the end, I think they will win the regular season. 

[ecompt]

Pitt is man-for-man the best team in the conference, with about eight teams fighting for second-best. Still, I'd rather watch the Big East than the Big Ten, which is a terrific UW team, a dangerous Ohio State team, and a lot of fertilizer.

[MilTown]

Yeah, I agree with your assessment of the Big 10. That conference is in way worse shape than the BE. Really off year for them. IU is starting to come around lately, so it may be a 3 horse race. The rest of the conference is really bad. U of I is especially surprising. They never had the recruits lined up to replace Williams and Augustine, and the year before Head, Williams, and Powell. Losing out on Gordon for next year is a giant setback for them going forward.

[MUCHI814]

Everyone thinks these big conferences are having "down" years, but come down to March both the Big East and the Big Ten will have some of the top and most dangerous teams entering the tourney.  For example,(Just one example) MSU in the Big Ten.  If they get into the tourney Izzo always has his guys ready to play in March.  When it's all said and done I don't think you can tell if a conference has had a down year until the tourney is over.

[MilTown]

MSU didn't look too ready last year. They have been bounced first round 2 of the last 3 years. Granted, they went to the final four 2 years ago which makes the first round exits a little easier to take. This year, I don't even know if they will make the tourney. I think from top to bottom, the big 10 is down. At the top, UW, OSU are solid teams and will head to the dance, but who else is a lock to go in the big 10 right now? IU is making some noise, but who knows how they will end up.

[Harrison]

Not sure how this guy can comment on where either sports will be over the next 10 years.   With that said conference strenght as we all know has turnover.  the Big East lost if I recall 11 guys to the top 32 picks of the NBA draft.  Chances are that will affect this years clubs, just look at Mu, Uconn, Nova , etc.  Now how he can say that somehow projects 5-7-10 years down the road is beyond me. 
I will agree with him though that I think Pitt is the best team in the conference and underated nationally. They picked up an extremely good Mike Cook and are extremely talented and deep at every position.  But as for projecting the future I think he is lost.  Show me a team in the Big East that will not be improved next year...probably Pitt and maybe Syracuse.  The Big East will be back and loaded the next 2 years.