Our BB teams are taking a hit. UofL has a loss. SYR has a loss. Marq lost to Duke. In fact, the ACC looks much better than the BE and I hate the ACC.

Normally, I'd be depressed but WTF. WVU got a shot to be in the title game. I can't even care about anything else.
We'll fix the BB situation later.

I hope UCONN plays their best game but WVU is up to the challenge. Put them to the test UCONN, if they are not ready for a title shot- expose them- better you than on a national stage. If Slayton, White, Devine, Schmitt and company can't pull off three more wins- I'll have to... they'll do it.

I'd like the BE to be the best conference in football and men's hoops every year. However it is MUCH MORE important for the conference to do well in football right now. BE hoops is a proven entity with 4 of the top 10 programs of all time according to Street & Smith's (UL, UC, UCONN, and Syracuse) in addition to the strong traditions of Villanova, Georgetown, and Marquette. If we struggle in basketball it's accounted to a little bit of a down year, if we struggle in football people say the conference sucks.

RealDeal Wrote:I'd like the BE to be the best conference in football and men's hoops every year. However it is MUCH MORE important for the conference to do well in football right now. BE hoops is a proven entity with 4 of the top 10 programs of all time according to Street & Smith's (UL, UC, UCONN, and Syracuse) in addition to the strong traditions of Villanova, Georgetown, and Marquette. If we struggle in basketball it's accounted to a little bit of a down year, if we struggle in football people say the conference sucks.

BINGO! Alls I know I'm almost as excited about WVU as if it were Rutgers. Its a big deal for the most maligned conference in America and for our schools who go way back in terms of mutual athletic success together its a big deal for the fans. I'm just going to hate recruiting against you guys even more for running backs.

frogman Wrote:Our BB teams are taking a hit. UofL has a loss. SYR has a loss. Marq lost to Duke. In fact, the ACC looks much better than the BE and I hate the ACC.

I realize this thread is more about football than basketball, but on the roundball issue...

It's not that bad. UConn played well against probable Final Four team Memphis. A young and raw Syracuse losing to tOSU (which will finish no lower than third in the Big Ten) isn't a big deal. And Marquette losing to a Duke team which will finish second in the ACC and was ranked ahead of them in a close game was to be expected.

Worse BE loss so far is Louisville losing to BYU, but it likely saved them the embarrassment of being blown out by UNC. And Providence losing to Miami was a distant second.

West Virginia played SEC favorite (and some say a good bet for the Final Four) Tennessee toe-to-toe in a great game last night. And Georgetown, Pittsburgh, and Villanova are still undefeated in this young season.

I think those 9 Big East teams are our best bets for NCAA tourney bids.

The ACC will be good again having 4 Top 25 teams, UNC, Duke, Clemson, and Virginia. How good they will be depends upon how NC State, Maryland, Miami, and FSU perform. They'll likely get their usual 6 bids as well.

Pac-10 is getting a lotta love for being THE best conference this year, but so far, I haven't seen it with USC, Stanford, and Oregon already with mid to low major losses and Arizona and Washington both looking inept in losses to BCS teams. UCLA and Washington State appear to be the class of that league.

Both the BE and the ACC look better to me at this point.

Quote:Normally, I'd be depressed but WTF. WVU got a shot to be in the title game. I can't even care about anything else.
We'll fix the BB situation later.

I hope UCONN plays their best game but WVU is up to the challenge. Put them to the test UCONN, if they are not ready for a title shot- expose them- better you than on a national stage. If Slayton, White, Devine, Schmitt and company can't pull off three more wins- I'll have to... they'll do it.

If Syracuse can't win the National Championship, then I always root for the Eers to win it. To me, they are the best football program never to have won an NC. They are due.

Cheers,
Neil

I'm hopeful for the Mountaineers in basketball. The Tennessee game last night showed me they can play Huggyball, and play it well. I look forward to seeing how they'll play as the season progresses.

frogman, you shouldn't over worry. UofL gave out way too many turnovers and played entirely too sloppy to beat a good team like BYU. UofL should beat a team like BYU but I thought they were top 40 quality going into the game. UofL is not a top 10 team without Padgett and Palacios, but more like a top 20. We will see how UofL improves and what happens when ("if" for Padgett) UofL gets healthy. BYU won't be a "bad" loss in the tournament/RPI sense, but of course any loss is bad if you are gunning for a 1 or 2 seed.

As for leagues overall, UNC is probably better than anything the Big East has right now, but why the ACC>BE for sure talk right now? Duke and Marquette was down to the last minute, and was a tossup for example.

As for UofL and UNC, I have to disagree with Neil that UofL was going to get blown out. However I would have only put UofL shot at winning right now around 15-20%. I would have loved the chance to play though.

Injuries killed UofL like they are killing UC. UC has looked a lot better the past two games and have uped there recored to 3-2, but the seniors on there team are horrible. With Mike Williams and Jamaul Warren out with injuries the Bearcats are relying on freshman to get the job done. Its going to be another long year in Bearcat country, but next year and the years after should be great!

Depaul lost today to NC A&T! Ugh, what an RPI killer!!

wvucrazed Wrote:Depaul lost today to NC A&T! Ugh, what an RPI killer!!

Who is Depaul? are they in our conference?

Hey the Bearcats won today!

Seton Hall beat a ranked Virginia team earlier tonight.

cuseroc Wrote:Seton Hall beat a ranked Virginia team earlier tonight.

Wow! That is a nice surprise. Seton Hall had looked like the worst undefeated team in the nation. They had been taken to overtime by Robert Morris & Monmouth, and only beat Navy by 4. This will probably be one of those strange results in a few months where the Big East #12 beat the ACC #4 or something, but we have had a few of these on the reverse end so nice job Pirates to get one back.

What's up with DePaul losing to NCA&T? That is just sad. The Bulldogs are coached by Louisville great Jerry Eaves, and he has A&T playing much better basketball, but Big East schools don't need losses to the MEAC. DePaul looks like a strong candidate to miss NYC in March this year.

CollegeCard Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:Seton Hall beat a ranked Virginia team earlier tonight.

Wow! That is a nice surprise. Seton Hall had looked like the worst undefeated team in the nation. They had been taken to overtime by Robert Morris & Monmouth, and only beat Navy by 4. This will probably be one of those strange results in a few months where the Big East #12 beat the ACC #4 or something, but we have had a few of these on the reverse end so nice job Pirates to get one back.

What's up with DePaul losing to NCA&T? That is just sad. The Bulldogs are coached by Louisville great Jerry Eaves, and he has A&T playing much better basketball, but Big East schools don't need losses to the MEAC. DePaul looks like a strong candidate to miss NYC in March this year.

I just dont know how to read Depaul at all. Sometimes these guys can beat anybody. Nights like last night shows that they can lose to ANYBODY. This team has been wildly inconsistant from the moment that they entered the BE.

Nova just lost to NC State on a bad call by the refs. there was 2.2 seconds left, and NC State down by 1. State Inbounded almost the whole court. A state player caught the ball and knocking over a Nova player who hit the ground. Another nova player simply put his arms up almost simultaneously to impare the shot. Guess who was called for the foul? The nova player who put his arms up. Even in slow motion you could plainly see that Nova player did not touch the State shooter. Nova got bamboozeled.

cuseroc Wrote:Nova just lost to NC State on a bad call by the refs. there was 2.2 seconds left, and NC State down by 1. State Inbounded almost the whole court. A state player caught the ball and knocking over a Nova player who hit the ground. Another nova player simply put his arms up almost simultaneously to impare the shot. Guess who was called for the foul? The nova player who put his arms up. Even in slow motion you could plainly see that Nova player did not touch the State shooter. Nova got bamboozeled.

ACC screws the Big East again - 4 years later. Maybe we shouldn't play ACC teams.

cuseroc Wrote:Nova just lost to NC State on a bad call by the refs. there was 2.2 seconds left, and NC State down by 1. State Inbounded almost the whole court. A state player caught the ball and knocking over a Nova player who hit the ground. Another nova player simply put his arms up almost simultaneously to impare the shot. Guess who was called for the foul? The nova player who put his arms up. Even in slow motion you could plainly see that Nova player did not touch the State shooter. Nova got bamboozeled.

Saw it too - that was a BS call.

BugsyCT Wrote:

cuseroc Wrote:Nova just lost to NC State on a bad call by the refs. there was 2.2 seconds left, and NC State down by 1. State Inbounded almost the whole court. A state player caught the ball and knocking over a Nova player who hit the ground. Another nova player simply put his arms up almost simultaneously to impare the shot. Guess who was called for the foul? The nova player who put his arms up. Even in slow motion you could plainly see that Nova player did not touch the State shooter. Nova got bamboozeled.

Saw it too - that was a BS call.

It was likely a make-up for a travelling call that turned the ball over to Nova about a minute earlier even though the travel was clearly caused by the Wildcats player running into the Wolfpack with the ball.

Still, had either team hit their free throws someone in this game would have had a comfortable margin.

Top 25 took a major hit this week, with half of the teams losing at least once.

Could be one of those years.

Cheers,
Neil