College Basketball's Best Conference Is...The Big East?
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/11/28/big-east/
12:59 pm ET
Nov 28, 2014
By Andrew Beaton
(http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-FT898_stjohn_G_20141128123057.jpg)
There was little hype about the Big East at the start of this college-basketball season. No. 1 Kentucky, with its platoons of McDonald's All-Americans, resides in the Southeastern Conference. The Atlantic Coast Conference, with Duke, North Carolina, Virginia and Louisville, had four teams in the top 10 of the preseason Associated Press poll. Only Villanova, at No. 12, made the preseason AP top 25 from the Big East.
Now, it's impossible to ignore what the non-football conference is doing: Its 10 teams are a combined 41-5 to start the season, the best in the nation.
And it's not as if they have been snacking solely on cupcake opponents, either. Villanova beat two ranked foes in VCU and Michigan this week. (See a video of Villanova's game-winning block below.) Creighton, 5-0 in what was supposed to be a rebuilding season after the departure of national player of the year Doug McDermott, took down a ranked Oklahoma team. Georgetown upset No. 18 Florida. St. John's beat Big Ten opponent Minnesota. Providence beat two ACC opponents in Notre Dame and Florida State.
Then there is Butler, which handed No. 5 North Carolina its first loss of the season on Wednesday. The Bulldogs, who went on to lose to Oklahoma on Thursday, have mastered the early upset in recent years: Two years ago, they beat No. 9 North Carolina and No. 1 Indiana. Before advancing to the NCAA tournament final in the 2009-10 season, they beat eventual No. 2-seed Ohio State in non-conference action.
The new Big East is in its second season since seven of its members split from the old football/basketball Big East, which became the American Athletic Conference. Its first season didn't end well: None of its four NCAA tournament teams got past the round of 32. This season, though, looks more promising.
On Friday, the Big East will have a rare pre-conference game between conference opponents, as Butler and Georgetown play in the Battle 4 Atlantis consolation game at 2 p.m. Friday in the Bahamas. Both lost in the semifinals on Thursday after their upsets against ranked opponents (Butler to Oklahoma, Georgetown to No. 2 Wisconsin).
8-)
Jon Rothstein @JonRothstein · 11h 11 hours ago
The Big East continues to accumulate huge non-conference wins. This league may very well get more bids in March than some power-5 leagues.
Jon Rothstein @JonRothstein · 11h 11 hours ago
Creighton continues to build a legitimate resume --- Bluejays just beat Nebraska in Lincoln and already own a win over Oklahoma. Impressive.
Typical east coast bias.
they are playing to our HUGE alumni bases!
Quote from: bamamarquettefan on December 09, 2014, 10:42:49 AM
they are playing to our HUGE alumni bases!
Hey! I limited myself to just one cupcake at dinner last night.