Since I'm bored, I have decided to do projections as to how I see the Big East shaping up by the end of the regular season.

Georgetown, 7-1, will go 8-2 in their last ten to finish 15-3
UConn, 5-3, will go 8-2 in their last ten to finish 13-5
ND, 5-2, will go 8-3 in their last eleven to finish 13-5
Louisville, 5-3, will go 7-3 in their last ten to finish 12-6
Marquette, 5-3, will go 6-4 in their last ten to finish 11-7
Pitt, 5-3, will go 6-4 in their last ten to finish 11-7

West Virginia, 4-4, will go 6-4 in their last ten to finish 10-8
Syracuse, 5-4, will go 5-4 in their last nine to finish 10-8
Seton Hall, 5-3, will go 5-5 in their last ten to finish 10-8

If this comes about, could be interesting to see how the committee treats the final three. My gut says that West Virginia and Syracuse would get the nod but that Seton Hall would be left out.

Of course, the games still need to be played.

Again, basically bored, stuck at home during an ice storm - so don't put a lot of stock in these projections.

Cheers,
Neil

I actually hope you're right about the UL prediction. Not that I want them to lose any more games, but they will, so there it is. It also fits in with my notion that teams with more than 10 losses could have trouble at selection time. 7-3 over the final ten would put the Cards at nine losses heading into the BE tourney. Unless they win it(doubtful at this juncture) they will end up with exactly 10 losses by selection Sunday.

This is the first day of the season with all 16 teams playing in conference.

Marquette 75 - Cincinnati 60
-Bearcats had the lead for most of the first half, but lost it at the end of the 1st half, and ended up being outscored by 24 over the last 24 minutes. UC shot very poorly and MU actually dominated inside, no joke! In a common theme for UC, Vaughn scored 20+, but got little else from anyone else on offense.

Syracuse 87 - Villanova 73
-Syracuse picks up a much needed road win here over a team struggling big time. Nova is playing like a team that won't be in MSG, losing 4 straight by double digits. The Orange shot 63% from the field and attempted 39 free throws. Understatement of the day, but that's a winning combo nearly every time, even on the road!

UConn 60 - Pitt 53
-No one is hotter than the Huskies, except for GT. Pitt led nearly the whole 1st half, only to give up the lead and be tied at the half. The 2nd half was super close, with no one leading by more than 3 for the first 18 minutes of the half. UConn scored the final 6 points of the game to win going away though.

Georgetown 73 - Seton Hall 61
-Hoyas won their 5th straight, maintaining their conference lead. This was an ugly game, but GT hit their free throws and crushed SH on the boards, 49-21, for the home win.

Louisville 87 - Rutgers 50
-Ugly doesn't even to begin the destruction in this game. UofL was up 76-31 with 4 minutes left. If not for a late flurry of points at the very end by RU when it was walk-ons against walk-on's, this would have been the biggest victory margin in conference history, as UofL led by 45 late.

Notre Dame 89 - DePaul 80
-Harangody was a beast again, with 29 and 14 tonight. The Irish are 11-0 when he has a double-double & only 5-4 when he doesn't. The Demons stayed in it with good shooting, especially from 3, but couldn't end ND's home winning streak.

West Virginia 77 - Providence 65
-WVU picks up a much needed road win. The Friars had a 12 point lead late in the 1st half, but WVU ended the half on a 17-2 run and PU never had much of a lead the rest of the way, with the 'Eers leading comfortably the last 10 minutes. The Friars had NCAA hopes 2 or 3 weeks ago, but should just concentrate on making the conference tournament after 4 straight losses.

St John's 72 - South Florida 58
-What a rough stretch for the Bulls. They fall for the 8th game in a row, and get whipped at home by a team coming off a 32 point loss themselves. They had me questioning myself after they started reeling off non-conference wins, but this is where I expected USF preseason. Heath simply doesn't have Big East talent at this point besides Gransberry and Jones. This was a home game for USF, but I saw the stat today that the Bulls still have not won a road game in the Big East, halfway through their 3rd season in the league.

Standings
1 Georgetown 8-1 18-2
2 Notre Dame 6-2 16-4
3 Connecticut 6-3 16-5
4 Louisville 6-3 16-6
5 Marquette 6-3 16-4
6 Syracuse 6-4 16-7
7 Pittsburgh 5-4 17-5
8 West Virginia 5-4 16-6
9 Seton Hall 5-4 15-7
10 Cincinnati 5-5 10-12
11 DePaul 4-5 9-12
12 Villanova 3-6 13-7
13 Providence 3-6 12-9
14 St. John's 2-7 8-12
15 Rutgers 2-8 10-13
16 South Florida 1-8 10-12

It is still a tight race towards the end. The winner of the BE will come from GTOWN, UCONN or UL. It won't be pretty. Today UCONN just worn PITT down with great defensive. It was ugly but that's normal between UCONN and PITT. GTOWN has been playing great but they are also quite lucky (Win over WVU and Hibbert lucky 3 against UCONN). I would love to see UCONN get another shot at GTOWN. We need to take our BE dominance back to Storrs.

CollegeCard Wrote:Louisville 87 - Rutgers 50
-Ugly doesn't even to begin the destruction in this game. UofL was up 76-31 with 4 minutes left. If not for a late flurry of points at the very end by RU when it was walk-ons against walk-on's, this would have been the biggest victory margin in conference history, as UofL led by 45 late.

Ever since The Cards got all their players back, they've been taking two-steps forward, one-step backwards.

If Pitino can get them to keep going forward, this could be a National Title contender; just a ton of talent that needs to put it all together. We'll find out a lot more how the progress is going on Monday at Marquette.