By: Kufere Laing
After watching Big East basketball all season coupled with last night's insane showdown between UConn and Syracuse, I got to wondering, is the Big East too tough? Think about it, Georgetown and Notre Dame were both ranked in the top 10 at point during the season, and now won't make it to the NCAA tourney. There's talk (and my talk I mean Joe Lunardi's bracketology that comes out once a week starting in what seems to be October) that three of the four number 1 seeds for the Dance could come out of the Big East (Louisville, Pitt, and UConn) along with four other teams getting bids. Meaning 7 of 16 Big East teams could end up in the tourney. This year every Big East team beat at least one AP top 25 team, except for Rutgers and those fiesty DePaul Blue Demons and as a conference, the Big East beat a top 25 team a total for 46 times. Right now, 4 teams are ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll with Syracuse and Marquette at numbers 20 and 21, respectively, giving the Big East six top 25 teams, more than any other conference. While all this is great for the viewers, did it end up hurting the Big East come tourney time?
The Big 10 has only 2 ranked teams right now and has been a mediorce conference all year. The best team in the Big 10 Michigan State probably wouldn't be in the top 5 in the Big East (everyone in East Lansing take a chill pill, your Spartans haven't beaten anyone all year UNC and Maryland smoked you guys, enjoy the two games the Spartans will play in the NCAA tourney) and Penn State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio State, and Michigan would all be midlevel, Providencesque teams in the Big East. Neverthelss, my people have all of these teams in the NCAA tourney, while teams like Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Providence, and Georgetown (all of whom would be upper level Big 10 teams) are being left out. It is in this way that the Big East may be too tough. Georgetown started the Big East season off with a bang, knocking off UConn on the road, but then hit a rough spell, lost their confidence and in the process 11 of 15 games. Still, they showed their potential with a tough road win at Villanova only to lose to St. John's and clinch their NIT berth. The same can be said for Notre Dame who beat the Big East champs, Louisville by 33 points! Had an epic game at the Maui Invitational against Texas (a tourney bound team) and also showed their worth against UNC. Lastly, Providence and Cincinnati have been average in the best conference in the country, while the Big 10 schools have been average in an average conference, but are going to get the tourney bids due to the above average conference records.
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ReplyDelete"Lastly, Providence and Cincinnati have been average in the best conference in the country, while the Big 10 schools have been average in an average conference, but are going to get the tourney bids due to the above average conference records."
Are you saying that the Big 10 schools that got their invitations have been above average in their conference records?
yes thats what i was attempting to say
ReplyDeleteA bit of constructive criticism: I've mentioned to Eric before, but I'll say it again. This blog could be sooooooooo good if you took some of these generally well-written articles and gave them a point. I just spent five minutes reading what can basically be summed up as "The Big East is very good this year, and the Big Ten not so much." I knew this back in November. The data is there, good. The coherent structure is there, good. But the statement, the why, is not. When you write these articles, ask the question "So?" The Big East is good. So? The Big Ten sucks. So? If at the end, you had made a point, or offered a suggestion, or otherwise tied everything together, you could have turned an informative yet unimaginative article into a true piece of journalism.
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