mu alone in 7th

[marquette99]

Well, for the next 2 days marquette is in 7th place.  Uconn and mu are both 2-1 within the mini conference in. 4iway tie for 7th due to nova dropping to 11th place with tonight's loss and therefore mu's loss to them no longer counting in the mini.

Ironically if the season ended today, then the 2nd round games would be:

7-marquette vs 10-cincy and
8-uconn vs 9-wvu

Which actually are the matchups wednesday. (Assuming neither wvu or cincy were upset opening round).

[Doris Burkes Thong]

Could we still bump teams like WVU, UCONN, and Nova on the seed lines if we win out? What you folks think?

[marquette99]

Should have noted - we win the tie-breaker vs uconn now because our win over syracuse (5th) is better than any of uconn's wins.  Nice that we have the tiebreaker over both uconn and wvu, so just beat cincy and we are in good shape.

[brewcity77]

Could we still bump teams like WVU, UCONN, and Nova on the seed lines if we win out? What you folks think?

If we win out, I expect we will most likely finish in 6th. If we win out and DePaul upsets Syracuse, we probably finish 5th. There's a Cracked Sidewalks thread here that explains who to root for and how it all breaks down, and I did a follow-up explanation on why we should root for the teams they suggest. Might be worth a look.

[Warriors10]

Gotta root for 'Cuse to lose

[PGsHeroes32]

Now hes my question. If we win out....who do we most likely play then


who that be Nova in a 6/11 game(assuming Nova doesnt tank to Prov)?

then St Johns?


not very fun in that one.

Depending on how we play against cincy tomorrow, i might prefer a 7/10 vs cincy and another go at ND even if they are hot. We match well.

[brewcity77]

Now hes my question. If we win out....who do we most likely play then

Looking at kenpom projections and how I believe the tie-breakers would work, here's the final standings:

1) Pittsburgh 15-3
2) St. John's 13-5 (wins tiebreak over ND because they beat Pitt while ND split with Pitt)
3) Notre Dame 13-5
4) Louisville 12-6 (UL beats 'Cuse on head-to-head tiebreak)
5) Syracuse 12-6
6) Marquette 11-7 (MU beats WVU on head-to-head tiebreak)
7) West Virginia 11-7
8) Connecticut 10-8 (Wins 8-10 mini-con with 2-0 record)
9) Cincinnati 10-8 (2nd in 8-10 mini-con with 2-1 record)
10) Georgetown 10-8 (Last in 8-10 mini-con with 0-3 record)
11) Villanova 9-9
12) Rutgers 5-13 (RU and SHU split season series, both have a best qualifying win of Providence, I can't separate them, so I went on overall record)
13) Seton Hall 5-13
14) Providence 4-14
15) South Florida 3-15
16) DePaul 1-17

First Round

9 Cincinnati v 16 DePaul
10 Georgetown v 15 South Florida
11 Villanova v 14 Providence
12 Rutgers v 13 Seton Hall

This could actually be interesting all around. DePaul came close to knocking off the Bearcats in Chicago while South Florida kept it pretty close with Georgetown in Tampa, though pulling off upsets in MSG will be tough. Villanova was soundly thumped in their only trip to Providence, while Rutgers and SHU split the season series and as I mentioned are nearly inseparable in the standings.

Second Round

5 Syracuse v Rutgers/Seton Hall
6 Marquette v Villanova/Providence
7 West Virginia v Georgetown/South Florida
8 Connecticut v Cincinnati/DePaul

We'd either face a Providence team we destroyed or a reeling Villanova team that we played pretty tight on the road. I'd like our chances in that one. Syracuse could have their hands full regardless; Seton Hall drubbed them at the Carrier Dome while they needed overtime to put away Rutgers at home just 10 days ago. West Virginia would be looking to repeat their win over Georgetown in DC (or over USF at home) while UConn would likely face a Cincinnati team that they handled well away from home.

Looking ahead...

...is always dangerous in the Big East tournament, but we're not playing in it, so we have that luxury. If this panned out, we would end up with a third crack at Notre Dame in the quarterfinals. Personally, I'd love that. I felt we were the better team for the bulk of both games, they just got an insane hot streak for a period in the game at the Joyce and managed to hold on. I think we're playing more consistently than we did then, and would have every chance of knocking off the Leprechauns.

Then it's a toss-up, most likely St. John's, possibly West Virginia or Georgetown. I'd hate to face any of those teams at MSG, though I'd probably hate WVU the least. St. John's at home would be a pain, Georgetown drubbed us there last year, while West Virginia won the title a year ago. At least we know we can beat the Mountaineers.

Beyond that, who knows? Pittsburgh, Louisville, Syracuse, UConn...it could be anyone. But we beat two of those teams, one needed a miracle comeback to beat us on their own court, and one needed ridiculous 3-point shooting also on their own court. On a neutral court, I'd actually like our odds against any of those teams better than facing St. John's there. Of course, all this looking ahead is just speculation, and considering the results of the past week, the odds that the final standings pan out like that are probably pretty slim. But if they take it one game at a time, there's no reason we can't make a bit of a run, and possibly even shock the nation and cut down the nets at MSG. It's not likely, but hey, it's the Big East tournament. Does any team actually have "good" odds of winning it?