http://www.crimsonquarry.com/2016/2/23/11098924/rutgers-basketball-has-a-chance-to-be-the-first-sub-300-kenpom-power
If you ever need to feel good about yourself, just think about Rutgers basketball.
or Boston College which might be the 1st Power 5 school to go winless in conference for both football and basketball
Kudos to both teams as they pursue these historic feats.
A strength of the new Big East alignment, and an argument IMO of sticking to private non-football schools. Although Rutgers was offered a chance to be a charter member of the Big East, they turned it down. When the Big East got big and good and prominent, Rutgers went nowhere. There was absolutely no reason to add Rutgers to the conference other than football, and they were dubious there. Seton Hall had already taken the New Jersey market.
When the Catholic 7 split from the Big East, of course it was sad to lose Louisville and UConn, and West Virginia and Pitt were pretty good, even if their fans were jerks, but we also left behind Rutgers and USF, not to mention whichever schools got added on in the interest of football. The current conference has ten good, pretty good, or potentially good basketball programs, and they are all committed to men's basketball. No need to accommodate bad fitting schools because they have a football team. Rutgers is no doubt making a bunch of money being in the Big ??, but athletically, they have taken a dive, and they were not good to begin with. Meanwhile, they are an anchor on the Big ??. An outlier with no natural rivalries, little athletic history, and nothing to offer except lots of people with TV sets.
Quote from: Goatherder on February 24, 2016, 12:23:35 PM
A strength of the new Big East alignment, and an argument IMO of sticking to private non-football schools. Although Rutgers was offered a chance to be a charter member of the Big East, they turned it down. When the Big East got big and good and prominent, Rutgers went nowhere. There was absolutely no reason to add Rutgers to the conference other than football, and they were dubious there. Seton Hall had already taken the New Jersey market.
When the Catholic 7 split from the Big East, of course it was sad to lose Louisville and UConn, and West Virginia and Pitt were pretty good, even if their fans were jerks, but we also left behind Rutgers and USF, not to mention whichever schools got added on in the interest of football. The current conference has ten good, pretty good, or potentially good basketball programs, and they are all committed to men's basketball. No need to accommodate bad fitting schools because they have a football team. Rutgers is no doubt making a bunch of money being in the Big ??, but athletically, they have taken a dive, and they were not good to begin with. Meanwhile, they are an anchor on the Big ??. An outlier with no natural rivalries, little athletic history, and nothing to offer except lots of people with TV sets.
Last Four Off The Boat
(http://i66.tinypic.com/1219wys.png)
Rutgers is of their ilk, but at least they got a BTN payday.
Quote from: TAMU Eagle on February 24, 2016, 09:35:40 AM
http://www.crimsonquarry.com/2016/2/23/11098924/rutgers-basketball-has-a-chance-to-be-the-first-sub-300-kenpom-power
If you ever need to feel good about yourself, just think about Rutgers basketball.
One of the problems Rutgers has is it has a screwy campus. It is 4 separate campuses connected by buses. Makes for a lousy student experience. I suppose at the end of the day, all you need to do is recruit 4 good guys a year, but when kids have other options it is easy to see why they go elsewhere. So they get the bottom tier of recruits.
Their football program can semi compete, because as a public school they historically have been able to get a lot of instate NJ walk on talent to fill out the program. They come close to selling out their stadium etc and can offer a kid a big time football experience. Basketball is a doormat there.
This is what really got me:
Not only is rutgers by far the worst P5 school, their Ken Pom ranking would be last in the following conferences
Sun Belt
West Coast (Gonzaga's conference)
MAC
Ivy League
The Summit (by 57 spots!)
Maybe they get John Groce in the offseason. Interpret "get" how you may.
Ought to make that season-ending MN @ Rutgers game quite a draw.