Not a good week at all. Here is the good:
- Syracuse wins pre-season NIT
- Marquette wins the Paradise Jam
- Georgetown knocks off #8 Memphis
- Depaul beats Texas Tech
- UConn over Florida State
Now the bad:
- Notre Dame loses by 20 to Mizzou and also loses to Georgia
- Rutgers loses to Illinois State and Richmond
- #4 UConn loses to Central Florida
- Nova loses by 12 to St. Louis
- Cincy loses at home to Marshall
- Providence loses to both Northern Iowa and Iowa State
- St. John's loses to Northeastern by 14 AT HOME
Big East not looking too good in the non-con at this point.
UPDATED for latest games. Just a pathetic week.
Basically got their collective asses handed to 'em.
the Big East is ripe of MU to pluck. Will we have a banner this year?
Mizzou beat ND by 29. It could have been worse. They beat a ranked Cal team by 39 the next night. Syracuse did beat Stanford today after losing much of the game.
Providence lost today too, making Marquette one of three remaining undefeated teams in the Big East, along with Syracuse and Louisville.
Why is this bad...
ND loses by 20
#4 UConn loses.....tough for any team to live up to those expectations early.
Nova losing is not a surprise....nice game Rick
Cincy loss is a surprise
Got another 2 - 3 weeks of this "stuff" before teams get it dialed in.
Big East won't be the beast as in recent years, but still one of the top couple/few leagues when all is said and done.
All these results (and many other upsets involving plenty of other non-Big East teams) reinforce is that hanging on to win (as MU did vs. Norfolk State) is far better than the alternative!
Quote from: AnotherMU84 on November 25, 2011, 08:47:17 PM
the Big East is ripe of MU to pluck. Will we have a banner this year?
Couldn't agree more. It seems everyone picked in front of MU (preseason BE coaches poll) has issues.
Quote from: Benny B on November 26, 2011, 01:01:43 AM
Couldn't agree more. It seems everyone picked in front of MU (preseason BE coaches poll) has issues.
Also agree.
I think the collection of old and young on the MU squad could really do some damage this year. The biggest question has yet to be answered though: how will they respond to adversity?
Quote from: real chili 83 on November 25, 2011, 10:29:16 PM
Why is this bad...
ND loses by 20
#4 UConn loses.....tough for any team to live up to those expectations early.
Nova losing is not a surprise....nice game Rick
Cincy loss is a surprise
Got another 2 - 3 weeks of this "stuff" before teams get it dialed in.
It is bad, because conference strength determines the number of NCAA bids the conference gets. Only out of conference games determine conference strength, Last the Big East collectively won over 80% of their non-conference games resulting in the league getting 11 bids, Preseason predictions were that we would get 9 bids this year. I think we are down to 8.
Quote from: bilsu on November 26, 2011, 09:05:36 AM
It is bad, because conference strength determines the number of NCAA bids the conference gets. Only out of conference games determine conference strength, Last the Big East collectively won over 80% of their non-conference games resulting in the league getting 11 bids, Preseason predictions were that we would get 9 bids this year. I think we are down to 8.
As long as we're one of the eight, who cares?
Quote from: dgies9156 on November 27, 2011, 07:23:36 AM
As long as we're one of the eight, who cares?
At this point I question if we are looking at even eight bids. We care because each bid that the Big East does not get costs Marquette $$$.
Quote from: MarquetteDano on November 27, 2011, 09:25:33 AMAt this point I question if we are looking at even eight bids. We care because each bid that the Big East does not get costs Marquette $$$.
It's also a question of seeding. If we Nova, GTown, and Cincy make the tourney, and the Big East gets 9 bids, that's a minimum of 11 league games against tourney teams. If it's a 6-8 bid league, especially if Cincy and Nova end up outside looking in, that could only be 5-9 games.
Proving yourself against tourney opposition is big, and we want as many chances as we can get. The better the league is, the better we look at or near the top if it.
The conference looks pretty bad this year, but we have been spoiled. Let us take advantage of it and not do what Wisconsin did with the Big Ten in football. They will live with the haunted memories for decades knowing the Big Ten was as bad as it has ever been and they blew it twice or they would be playing for a national title.
MU needs to take advantage of this poor Big East. I have them 3rd in the pre-season and now think they can win it. Take advantage of the fact the conference has taken a few steps back.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on November 27, 2011, 01:29:03 PMThe conference looks pretty bad this year, but we have been spoiled. Let us take advantage of it and not do what Wisconsin did with the Big Ten in football. They will live with the haunted memories for decades knowing the Big Ten was as bad as it has ever been and they blew it twice or they would be playing for a national title.
MU needs to take advantage of this poor Big East. I have them 3rd in the pre-season and now think they can win it. Take advantage of the fact the conference has taken a few steps back.
I also had them third, but still see us behind Syracuse. The Orange are really good and really deep. We might be spoiled a bit by Louisville's injuries, it will be interesting to see what happens with the Cards if they get everyone back early on in the New Year.
Either way, this is definitely a year we can capitalize on. I really thought that the league looked like a two-horse race between Louisville and Syracuse, with Marquette, Cincy, UConn, and possibly an unexpected team like WVU or ND jumping in to battle for the 3-6 spots. Cincy and UConn don't look as good as expected, WVU looks a bit thin, and ND will be crippled without Abromaitis. The other teams that look like they could possibly jump up and challenge now are Pitt, 'Nova, and Georgetown. Pitt and 'Nova both look suspect, though Georgetown looks better than expected.
Still think Syracuse wins it, but Marquette, Louisville, and G'Town may well be battling for the second spot, and might be able to capitalize if the Orange slip. At this point, I'll be disappointed with anything less than a top-four league finish.
The way this is trending though, Syracuse could have a big mid-season shakeup. I think they are one of the top 2 teams in the Big East, but who knows what might happen in the upcoming weeks with Boeheim.
yes, the Syracuse situation is getting creepier and creepier
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7286347/otl-audio-tape-syracuse-orange-assistant-bernie-fine-wife-admits-worries-abuse
Last year the Big East was, in the opinion of Jay Bilas and many others, the best conference in the HISTORY of college basketball. It won't be as good this year - but it still will be at or near the top among D1 conferences. Any comparison to this year's very weak Big Ten football group is absurd.
Villanova loses by 1 to Santa Clara. the tough week for the BEast goes on
Quote from: Lennys Tap on November 27, 2011, 03:45:20 PM
Last year the Big East was, in the opinion of Jay Bilas and many others, the best conference in the HISTORY of college basketball. It won't be as good this year - but it still will be at or near the top among D1 conferences. Any comparison to this year's very weak Big Ten football group is absurd.
That would be a great story to tell the kids if it was true. Unfortunately it's not, especially the part about the Jay Bilas.
In fact, here's what he said March 15, 2011 as the NCAA tournament started.
"I don't think the Big East is as good this year as it was two years ago," ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. "In 2009, the Big East was much better. I think it's more competitive top to bottom, but that is due to the lack of strength at the top, relative to the top a couple of years ago.
"I think the reason we're talking about 11 teams getting into the tournament is the relative weakness of the rest of the country. This is the weakest at-large pool we've ever had. ... Parity doesn't mean everybody is really good. We've got parity down the line because everyone is really average. ... That's why we're talking about 11 teams, not because the Big East has raised its level of play."
The idea that Bilas or many others thought last year's Big East was the best in college basketball history is pure comedy. The conference proved as much getting dismissed consistently throughout the tournament with the exception of UCONN. It underperformed. The 2009 version is the one that is arguably the greatest in college basketball history with three #1 seeds, not last year's by any stretch.
http://beyondthearc.nbcsports.com/2011/03/15/big-east-unlikely-to-live-up-to-massive-expectations/
Now, to clear up my remarks. We have been spoiled by how good the Big East has been the last five years. This year's version will be the poorest version in the last five. That does not mean it's as bad as the Big Ten was in football, nor was that comparison made. My reflections are on the task at hand. The Big Ten was considerably down in football this year and Wisconsin blew a chance at a national title. The Big East will be down this year in hoops and MU has a chance to step up and really do something special.
Today, the Big East is ranked as the 6th best conference in the Ratings Percentage Index (the RPI). We have been 1 or 2 the last 5 years. That streak will end this year and it would be surprising to see the Big East in the top 4 conferences this year.
http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2012/conferencerpi
What's up with Nova? The only legit loss was to SLU, the other two surprise me.
We gotta take care of Jacksonville so we can't be an SOS deadweight conference-wise.
Sucks that the teams have been struggling...
Quote from: Jamil_toMU10 on November 28, 2011, 01:33:57 AMWhat's up with Nova? The only legit loss was to SLU, the other two surprise me.
What's up is that they aren't very good. Wayns is the only returning player with any consistency. The rest are role-players and kids. I didn't think we'd see this until Big East play because they have a really soft non-con, but this isn't remotely the Villanova of 2-3 years ago.