Big East: Too Much of a Grind? Wall St. Journal Story

[WarriorHal]

The Sublime Absurdity of the Big East
It May Get 11 NCAA Bids—but Are Its Teams Too Pooped to Win? A 'Ridiculous' Schedule

By DARREN EVERSON

The Big East Conference, a sprawling monstrosity that knows no geographic or numeric limits, is more than just college basketball's biggest and best conference. It's the sport's ultimate sadistic pleasure.

For two months now, the Big East—which could land a record 11 NCAA tournament invites, or roughly one-sixth of the total—has been tearing itself apart for our collective amusement. So far, there have been 28 Big East games involving two ranked teams, including five top-10 showdowns. The totals for all other conferences: 35 and three.

Other conferences like the Pac-10 and Southeastern have regular schedules in which each school plays everyone (or every division opponent) twice. Not the Big East. Its matchups are decided in part by which ones are most attractive. Other conferences cling to the quaint notion that their member schools should be in the same geographic region. The Big East already stretches from Rhode Island to Wisconsin to Florida and is poised to gobble up even more territory in 2012 when it adds Texas Christian as its 17th team.

We admit it: We enjoy the spectacle and the nightly carnage. But we're starting to wonder if the Big East has gone too far. The Big East season is a grind unlike any in the sport. And it might be doing the conference's members a disservice.

Since growing to 16 teams in the 2005-06 season, the Big East hasn't won a national title, nor have any of its teams played in the championship game.

All five of the other major conferences—the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and Southeastern—have had at least one title-game appearance over this span, despite having accumulated significantly fewer bids than the Big East.

The Big East's overall NCAA tournament performance has been solid, but hardly befitting its superconference stature. Its .593 winning percentage over the past five years is superior to the ACC and Big Ten, but it's equivalent to the widely derided Pac-10 and behind the Big 12 (.618) and SEC (.614).

As the conference portion of the season winds down, Big East power Villanova—once ranked No. 6 in the nation—is mysteriously collapsing. The Wildcats (21-9), who started 16-1, haven't even had a lead in their last 115 minutes of action, and their next game is at No. 4 Pittsburgh. "We've had little nagging injuries to our best players, and we've played a ridiculous schedule," said coach Jay Wright. "In this league, it can just catch you. It can make you believe you're not that good."

If the Big East stumbles again in the NCAA tournament, where its teams went just 8-8 last season, calls for change are likely to grow louder. Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun has suggested cutting the conference schedule to 16 games from 18.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto said he doesn't anticipate making any changes to the schedule. The conference is contractually obligated to provide CBS and ESPN with 18 games, including a choice of some matchups. And besides, the Big East likes its identity as college basketball's most grueling gauntlet, even though it hasn't collected any titles lately. "We'll get there," Marinatto said. "We'll have another national champion. We're too good not to.

"Sometimes people lament about the negatives, and they forget what our exposure helps bring," he added. "Coaches want the exposure because it helps them get recruits. It's hard to argue with the exposure we get."

For two weeks in February, The Wall Street Journal followed West Virginia, a team that's been trying to secure an at-large NCAA invite amid a brutal six-game stretch against five ranked teams to close the regular season. As tough as that sounds, it isn't even the toughest series of games played by a Big East team this season (St. John's took on eight straight ranked opponents in January).

The run began on Feb. 14 when the Mountaineers played three consecutive top-20 opponents (at then-No. 17 Syracuse, home against No. 8 Notre Dame and at Pittsburgh). They won the middle game and lost the others by double digits.

The next game, at Rutgers on Sunday, was supposed to be a relative breather, but it wasn't. West Virginia didn't pull away until the final two minutes. The Mountaineers then won a pivotal game against No. 16 Connecticut Wednesday, virtually assuring themselves of an NCAA tournament invite.

The extreme degree of difficulty in the Big East first hit West Virginia coach Bob Huggins two years ago as he relaxed on the team bus with a Jimmy Johns sandwich after upsetting Georgetown on the road. "My assistants came over and put, like, 12 tapes on my seat," he said. "They said, 'Come on, Huggs, we've got Pitt on Sunday.' That's just our league. It's brutal."

The Mountaineers, a veteran team that reached the Final Four last season, showed signs of strain during the stretch. Junior guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant has agonized over how to snap an epic shooting slump. Through the Syracuse game, he had missed 81 of his last 106 shots. A local reporter asked him if he'd heard critics saying that they thought the freshman version of Bryant was better. (He curtly said no.) "It got so bad, my friends from home started talking about it," Bryant said.

After shooting extra jumpers before the Notre Dame game despite being exhausted from practice and class, he finally broke out, scoring 24 points. But he's 7-for-30 since then.

Even Huggins, a 29-year veteran who's seen it all, can't hide his nerves. Against Rutgers, the WVU coach, who is the rare college basketball coach who doesn't wear a suit, came out wearing one, saying he wanted to "change the karma."

By halftime he'd changed back to his usual warmup garb. "I'm not a businessman," he said later. "I'm a basketball coach."

It's great theater, watching the Big East's coaches and players drive themselves to the brink of exhaustion, if not madness, in January and February.

It just might not lead to great results in March.

[WarriorHal]

I've gotten frustrated at times this season and overreacted to Marquette losing games it seemed we should have won. But the comment by Jay Wright puts things in perspective and probably applies to us as well as to Villanova and a bunch of other BEAST teams.

"We've played a ridiculous schedule," said coach Jay Wright. "In this league, it can just catch you. It can make you believe you're not that good."

[jaybilaswho?]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703300904576178672621622248.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_1

Talks about the grueling Big East conference schedule and how it hurts the conference in the Dance.

Thought I would share.

[Tugg Speedman]

Great article!

I've started many a post to try and make this same point ... this league has been impossible this year.  What is a normal Tuesday night game in the BE is the biggest game of the season for other conferences.

MU had the choice to stay in CUSA and if we had this team was in that conference, I have no doubt we would be above UAB and UTEP for the lead. I'd rather be 9-8 in the BE.

[Benny B]

Great article!

I've started many a post to try and make this same point ... this league has been impossible this year.  What is a normal Tuesday night game in the BE is the biggest game of the season for other conferences.

MU had the choice to stay in CUSA and if we had this team was in that conference, I have no doubt we would be above UAB and UTEP for the lead. I'd rather be 9-8 in the BE.

If MU was still in CUSA, there's no way we'd have this team.  Or Buzz.  Or any at-large hopes.  Or perhaps even this website.

[Tugg Speedman]

If MU was still in CUSA, there's no way we'd have this team.  Or Buzz.  Or any at-large hopes.  Or perhaps even this website.

How far does this go?  Would Obama be President if we were still in CUSA? 

[BrewCity83]

Would Fr. Wild be retiring?

Would TTT ever have left for II,II?

[mu03eng]

Would Tiger blood be readily available?

[jaybilaswho?]

Would Lindsey Lohan still have a career?

[esotericmindguy]

Would Tiger blood be readily available?

Would our faces melt off? Would our kids be weeping over our exploding bodies?

[77fan88warrior]

Would Charlie Sheen still live like Charlie Manson?

[wildbill sb]

Would I be riding in the sleek Rascal that my so-called "loving children" promised they would buy for me?

[Doris Burkes Thong]

Would Trevor Mbakwe be the Pope?

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

Would the student section show up for midweek games against East Carolina, Tulsa, SMU, and Southern Miss?

[Stuckin1977]

Would Brandon Davies still be playing at BYU?

The only knock you can have against the BE schedule is that teams may be too beaten up by the time the tourney rolls around.  That has been the case in some instances (ahem, G-town), but we've had at least one team in the final four 3 of the last 4 years.  I love the schedule, every other conference looks up to us as far as who's the best.

[Henry Sugar]

Would Cracked Sidewalks exist?

Would we play defense?

[MARQKC]

Havin' fun here, but there is a serious point: Big East is the best conference playing the best college basketball on the planet. I've said it before and I'll write it here: I'd rather attend the Big East Tournament than any of the three-game mini-tournaments called March Madness or the Big Dance or whatever. Better bball. Better players. Best coaches. Best environment in the world's most famous arena in the greatest city in the world. Best teams. Best, smartest fans anywhere, most of whom get it and respect the league, each other and the game. I'd rather be DePaul than Kansas any given March, because Kansas plays in a patsy league, and DePaul might beat Pitt, 'Cuse, UConn or 'Nova. (OK, maybe not DePaul, but you get the idea.) That's my rant and I'm stickin' to it.

[NCMUFan]

I say the schedule just makes the BEAST teams battle tested, tough and ready. 

[dgies9156]

I have been watching Marquette basketball since I was 10 -- I'm now 54 -- and I can honestly say Al never played a schedule like this! Nor did Hank, Rick, that loser guy who played piano or anyone else before Traitor Tommy and Buzz.

Al probably played one or two teams a season (prior to the tournament) as good as 12 of the 16 Big East teams we play in a season. I realize that Al still would go 28-1 if he coached in our league today (well, guys, he was AL!), but the challenges before Buzz are like nothing most of guys in the 1960s and 1970s faced.

The thing I don't understand is that if you face that pressure night after night, you should be able to handle it in the tournament. Who would you rather be, UAB that's a 10 or 11 seed and seeing their first real Beast team in the tournament or Marquette, which has played a dozen ranked teams this year and probably four or five more that have a case to be ranked?