OT- Idiotic quote from TC

[MarquetteBallin]

"I spent three years in the Big East," said Indiana coach Tom Crean, late of Marquette. "It's a tremendous league, but this league doesn't take a back seat to anybody's league.

"There's no question that Michigan State should be a No. 1 seed no matter what happens here, and nobody should be shocked it this league gets nine [including Northwestern]. OK, maybe we get happy with eight. But there ought to be a major revolt if it's seven because it wouldn't make any sense."





Throw that in the 'You've got to be kidding' me box. It would be a disaster for college basketball if the Big 10 got more than six teams in the Dance, let alone eight. And the best conference in America? After what we saw tonight from Syracuse, THE SIXTH BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE?!?!?

TC has had his brain fried in the tanning both apparently.

[Lennys Tap]

TRANSLATION:"I coached in the Big East for 3 years and when I was there I believe that I was coaching in what I considered to be the top conference that I had ever seen. Presently, I am employed by IuIu. I think, and I have always thought, at least since I was a small boy and I watched them win the national title that I was destined to coach IuIu. Maybe it's because it begins with I, the letter I always liked best. Did I mention that I coached in the Big East for 3 years?"

[MilWarrior]

Crean is doing his PR gig. Can't blame him. What's he supposed to say? Believe me I'm definitely not a Crean supporter, but nobody should be surprised by this quote.

[TVDirector]

Larrivee on TMJ last night was also singing the praises of the bigeleven and dissing the BE.. says it's full of wonderful athletes, but D is bad... went on to say MU's D is awful.
gee-- ya think?  playing UConn, Looville, Syracuse, Nova, Pitt in a row is gonna show ANY weakness you may have-
vs. playing Iowa, Indiana, UDubja etc

lost some respect for that knothead

[GGGG]

Remember that Larrivee works for the Big Ten Network too.

It is a ridiculous statement.  Only one (MSU) and maybe two (Purdue) Big Ten teams could play consistently with the seven BE teams that are tourney bound.

My guess is that the BE gets five to the Sweet 16 while the Big Ten gets one.

[ecompt]

There are 20 New York City amd Chicago high school teams that could finish .500 in the Big Ten. There's just no talent there, and TC is a horse's ass.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

"I spent three years in the Big East," said Indiana coach Tom Crean, late of Marquette. "It's a tremendous league, but this league doesn't take a back seat to anybody's league.

"There's no question that Michigan State should be a No. 1 seed no matter what happens here, and nobody should be shocked it this league gets nine [including Northwestern]. OK, maybe we get happy with eight. But there ought to be a major revolt if it's seven because it wouldn't make any sense."





Throw that in the 'You've got to be kidding' me box. It would be a disaster for college basketball if the Big 10 got more than six teams in the Dance, let alone eight. And the best conference in America? After what we saw tonight from Syracuse, THE SIXTH BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE?!?!?

TC has had his brain fried in the tanning both apparently.

It's a crappy quote.

But, its extremely rare to find a coach that would put down his own conference.

Every coach is always going to try and pump up their own league.

Lame? Sort of.

Same as other coaches? Yep.

[Hards Alumni]

Here is the thing.  Tommy might not be wrong.

I agree, the Big Televen is having a down year.

BUT.

so is everyone else.


14 automatic qualifiers:
3/4 SEC Teams: LSU, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida?
6/7 Big 12 teams:  Kansas, Oklahoma, Mizzou, Tex A&M, OK st., Texas?
6/8 ACC: Duke, UNC, FSU, Clemson, Wake, BC? Maryland? Miami?
7 BEAST: MU, Pitt, UConn, Nova, Cuse, WVU, Louisville
5/6 PAC-10: WU, ASU, USC, UCLA, Cal, Arizona?

I threw the ?'s by questionable teams...

so 14 auto's, 28-32 at large BCS conferences MINUS the Big Televen.

we are at 41-45 teams so far. add in some of the obvious midmajors and Memphis
Butler, UNLV, XU, Dayton, BYU, Utah, and we are up to 49-53

You guys say what, 6-7? as opposed to Tommy saying 8 (possibly 9)

that means

MSU
U of I
Purdue
OSU
UW
PSU
all as locks.

Michigan, Minnesota or NU with a good showing in their conference tournaments have a legitimate shot at making the field.

where else would you take teams from?  The teams have to come from somewhere.

Providence?  I love their win over Pitt and their conference record, but they beat up on the crap of the BE, and took a dump in the BET.  Similar situation with Cincy.  You could make an argument for some of the leftover mid majors, but really, none of them deserve the nod over those BT teams.

I for one, do NOT envy the committee's job this year.


Here is the part where I agree with you though.  The top of the BE is LEAPS AND BOUNDS better than the Big Televen.  The BT will get more qualifiers, the BE will get their teams deeper.

edit: fixed some of the mistakes

[NavinRJohnson]

Here is the part where I agree with you though.  The top of the BE is LEAPS AND BOUNDS better than the Big Televen.  The BT will get more qualifiers, the BE will get their teams deeper.

They probably will get 8 teams in (you forgot Michigan), unfortunately for them that will also probably be their average seed. Many will be gone by Friday night, and most will be gone by Sunday.

[MU B2002]

14 automatic qualifiers:
3/4 SEC Teams: LSU, Tennessee, South Carolina, Miami?

Florida?

[Hards Alumni]

haha, sorry for the mistakes, its early still and I typed that up rather quickly.

but the point of the whole write up was that you have to take teams from somewhere, and those BT teams have the resume.

[GGGG]

I for one, do NOT envy the committee's job this year.

Here's how I see it.  At the very top...say the top 15-20 or so...there is a lot of parity.  Every major team has a weakness.  However, the quality drops pretty quickly to the next tier of teams.  I think the first two rounds could be very boring, without a lot of major upsets.  However, I think the second week could be very interesting.

[Hards Alumni]

I completely agree with you Wiz

[AlumKCof93]

Is Crean supposed to say the Big Ten is awful - we should have won 10 games and are disappointed to have won only 1 against this pathetic group of teams?

I think the media should just stop quoting coaches on their thoughts on how their conferences match-up.  Its all a waste of breath - they all say the same things and none of it matters. 

[79Warrior]

Every coach with half a brain talks up their league. Big deal.

[ecompt]

If I'm Providence and I'm left out while nine Big Ten teams get in, I'm screaming. The Friars would finish second in that conference. Penn State, Northwestern, Minnesota and Michigan would be in the 9-16 range in the BE.

[SERocks]

I stopped taking anything Crean said seriously after the Marquette Gold debacle and his interview after the name was announced.  It was 100% crystal clear from that day forward (as if anyone missed this fact about him prior to that) that Crean is a shill.  He shills for whomever will help him in the long run. 

I am not sure the man is capable of honest intellectual thinking.

That being said, for all of those that will bash me as a Crean hater, don't bother.  I think he did incredible things for Marquette and the program.  I just did not like his malleability.

[CTWarrior]

The next coach that doesn't praise his own conference will be the first.  I have no problem with what he said.  I think at this point in time the Big 10 deserves more teams than the Big East.  The Big East, this season, just completely beat the life out of solid teams Georgetown and ND, who I think would have been more competitive and very possibly NCAA teams in any other conference.

But you can't deny that most of the other big time conferences don't have the awful bottom tier like South Florida, Rutgers, Saint John's, Seton Hall and DePaul.  These teams didn't get beat down by the conference.  They were losing to weak teams before the conference season started.  So as tough as this conference is, if you're an NCAA quality team you should start off 5-0, plus Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence and Cincinnati, all of whom you should beat 90% of the time if you get them at home and maybe split with them on the road.  Figure most teams get an extra game or two against that group, so an NCAA quality team gets a 8-2 start in the Big East before dealing with the real quality at the top thhat makes the conference so special.  That's why 10-8 isn't all that impressive in the Big East, but getting those extra two wins to get to 12-6 or better is very impressive, because you can't do that without beating some very good teams.

[GGGG]

I stopped taking anything Crean said seriously after the Marquette Gold debacle and his interview after the name was announced.  It was 100% crystal clear from that day forward (as if anyone missed this fact about him prior to that) that Crean is a shill.  He shills for whomever will help him in the long run. 

I am not sure the man is capable of honest intellectual thinking.

He's not a shill...he's an employee.  I mean, what did you *want* him to say after the Gold debacle?  "This name sucks and the Board of Trustees is a bunch of retards?"

[Wade4Life]

His tan is finally getting to his head.

I hate TC; Final Answer!

[SERocks]

He's not a shill...he's an employee.  I mean, what did you *want* him to say after the Gold debacle?  "This name sucks and the Board of Trustees is a bunch of retards?"

No, he doesn't have to call anyone a bunch of retards, but at the time I remembering thinking his "speech" was over the top complimentary.  He doesn't have to do that either.  He could have supported it, in a more thoughtful manner.  He was gushing about how great it was and no one, and I mean no one, thought it was great.  I am sure that even the board had their doubts about it.  Crean thought it was the second coming.

[TJ]

The next coach that doesn't praise his own conference will be the first.  I have no problem with what he said.  I think at this point in time the Big 10 deserves more teams than the Big East.  The Big East, this season, just completely beat the life out of solid teams Georgetown and ND, who I think would have been more competitive and very possibly NCAA teams in any other conference.

But you can't deny that most of the other big time conferences don't have the awful bottom tier like South Florida, Rutgers, Saint John's, Seton Hall and DePaul.  These teams didn't get beat down by the conference.  They were losing to weak teams before the conference season started.  So as tough as this conference is, if you're an NCAA quality team you should start off 5-0, plus Georgetown, Notre Dame, Providence and Cincinnati, all of whom you should beat 90% of the time if you get them at home and maybe split with them on the road.  Figure most teams get an extra game or two against that group, so an NCAA quality team gets a 8-2 start in the Big East before dealing with the real quality at the top that makes the conference so special.  That's why 10-8 isn't all that impressive in the Big East, but getting those extra two wins to get to 12-6 or better is very impressive, because you can't do that without beating some very good teams.

What you said isn't false, but the same applies everywhere.  In the Big 11 this year, if you're an NCAA quality team you should start off 4-0 (II and Iowa), plus 2 each with Minnesota, Michigan, and Northwestern, leading to an 8-2 start in the Big 11 before dealing with the real quality at the top.  Oh, wait, there is no quality at the top besides Mich St.  So you have 2 games each with Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin instead of 4-6 games against Nova, MU, Syr, WVU - then 2 with Mich St. instead of 3-4 with Lou, Pitt, and UConn.

10-8 is far more impressive in the BE than 10-8 in the B11.

[The Lens]

Going thru the Big 10 with TC's talent may be harder than going thru the Big East with DJ & Co.  I don't think he's lying.  Once he gets his players he'll realize, man this is easy...then he'll find a way to F it up...too much Cotton Eyed Joe, too many deflections, too many late nights surfing the message boards, too much John Mellancamp, too much Tony La Russa, too many flying planters, too much comparing Nick Williams to Wade and Bobby Caps to Amo and not enough Jump Around Guy.

[Nukem2]

One of the silliest threads ever.

[Avenue Commons]

Whatever happened to sending all TC-related threads to the Superbar?