ESPN Shade

[Aughnanure]

ESPN's list of the teams from each conference with the best chances of making the Final Four throws a good amount of shade on the Big East.

This is its rundown of the Big East:
Team with the best shot in 2016: Villanova
Most recent Final Four appearance: Never (The new Big East was created in 2013, after the old league was dissolved.)

Maybe he needs a billboard or something. Schools do that for Heisman hopefuls. Maybe Nova should create one for Josh Hart, college basketball's Thelonious Monk, a player who hasn't matched the hype of his contemporaries in leagues with bigger profiles but no doubt possesses the same ravishing skill set. We focused on Hart in Nova's win over Butler on Saturday, and we just kept thinking that if this guy gets loose in the tourney and Nova remains defiant on defense (.91 PPP allowed this season, sixth in the nation) and nearly unstoppable at the rim (69.2 field goal percentage per hoop-math.com) and maintains its edge, why shouldn't Jay Wright's program make a trip to the Lone Star State in early April?

Hmmm, okay if that's your policy.
...But then its gets to the MWC, a conference that was formed in 1999.

Team with the best shot in 2016: San Diego State
Most recent Final Four appearance: UNLV 1991

Again, we have to pick someone. And yes, the Aztecs sit atop the Mountain West, but what does that mean? The Mountain West is ranked 12th in Jerry Palm's conference RPI ratings, and SDSU's 1-4 record against the RPI's top 50 ain't all that. But Steve Fisher's team will likely earn the conference's lone bid, unless crazy things happen in the league tourney. The good news for the program is Jeremy Hemsley (13.6 PPG, 79 percent from the charity stripe, 35 percent from the 3-point line) is a franchise player who could blossom into an elite guard in the coming years. Three of SDSU's top four scorers are underclassmen. That's great for the future but troubling for the current postseason outlook. Still, the Mountain West's only Final Four or at-large hope is San Diego State.

[SaveOD238]

If we go by the standards they used for the MWC, when was the last Final Four by a current Big East team?  2007 Georgetown, correct? (fun story, this was the year I got all four teams right in my bracket but lost because my natl title teams both lost)

Before that it's us back in 2003, ya?

[SaveOD238]

If we go by the standards they used for the MWC, when was the last Final Four by a current Big East team?  2007 Georgetown, correct? (fun story, this was the year I got all four teams right in my bracket but lost because my natl title teams both lost)

Before that it's us back in 2003, ya?

Thank you Google, for answering my own question.  Forgot about Scottie Reynolds and Nova back in 2009.

[Aughnanure]

If we go by the standards they used for the MWC, when was the last Final Four by a current Big East team?  2007 Georgetown, correct? (fun story, this was the year I got all four teams right in my bracket but lost because my natl title teams both lost)

Before that it's us back in 2003, ya?

Well Butler went twice, which would count if UNLV counts. Nova went in 2009?

[mu03eng]

Final Fours are such a crap shoot and a terrible, lazy metric of a conference capability and strength.....but what else does the HotTake Network have to work with these days?

[SaveOD238]

Final Fours are such a crap shoot and a terrible, lazy metric of a conference capability and strength.....but what else does the HotTake Network have to work with these days?

Yes, but I think it would do wonders for the national perception of the Big East to get a final four run out of Nova or X this year.  Why not both?

[MU82]

Yes, but I think it would do wonders for the national perception of the Big East to get a final four run out of Nova or X this year.  Why not both?

Why not us?!?!?!

Go Warriors!

[bilsu]

Yes, but I think it would do wonders for the national perception of the Big East to get a final four run out of Nova or X this year.  Why not both?

You never know, but the NCAA could put them in the same bracket. They just cannot meet in the first two rounds.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Jaybee's old lady!  Haven't seen her it in a while.

[MerrittsMustache]

You never know, but the NCAA could put them in the same bracket. They just cannot meet in the first two rounds.

Wasn't that changed recently? MU played Syracuse in the second round in 2011 and Cincy played UConn. Or was an "exception" made because there were so many BE teams that made it that year (and the committee wanted to make sure that at least some were knocked out early)?

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Wasn't that changed recently? MU played Syracuse in the second round in 2011 and Cincy played UConn. Or was an "exception" made because there were so many BE teams that made it that year (and the committee wanted to make sure that at least some were knocked out early)?

There were 11 teams from the BE that year.  It wasn't possible.

[MerrittsMustache]

There were 11 teams from the BE that year.  It wasn't possible.

Sure it was.
Switch MU and Penn State (10-seed West)
Switch Cincy and UCLA (7-seed SE)

Seeds change slightly but it was possible.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Sure it was.
Switch MU and Penn State (10-seed West)
Switch Cincy and UCLA (7-seed SE)

Seeds change slightly but it was possible.

Touche, Mustached man.

[mikekinsellaMVP]

The author shouldn't surprise you.  Myron's never let fact-checking stand in the way of good narrative!