Big East is beast of college hoops

ACC backers not facing the facts


With all due respect to Billy Packer – actually, with no due respect to Billy Packer – must we go through this again?

Must we nod like Bobblehead dolls as Packer and the other TV heads force-feed us this nonsense again about the Atlantic Coast Conference being the best college basketball league in the country?

Packer, the arrogant voice of CBS college basketball and a Wake Forest graduate, has started his annual full-court press that the ACC deserves at least six and maybe even seven bids for the NCAA Tournament.

He’s not alone. ESPN’s Dick Vitale and Doug Gottlieb neatly complement Packer in their biased perception of the league’s worth.

Here’s a stat for all of you come Selection Sunday: The Big East is 6-1 against the ACC this season. Even lowly Providence, winless in the Big East, dumped previously ranked Virginia 98-79 last week.

Ninety-eight points? Providence hasn’t scored more than 81 in a conference game this season.

Wake Forest, North Carolina and Duke are all fine teams and deserving of the hype and credit they receive. But to anoint Georgia Tech and Maryland as sure-fire tournament teams based on preseason predictions and exaggerated claims of league superiority is ludicrous.

Georgia Tech is 13-7 overall, 4-5 in the league and has lost five of its last seven. Maryland is also 13-7 overall, 4-5 in the league and has lost its last two … to Clemson and Miami.

Big East members Boston College and Georgetown beat Clemson this season by an average of 12 points.

Just because something has always been doesn’t mean it still is.

The power in college basketball climbed up the coast to the Big East two years ago and the league will lap the field next season when Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul and South Florida join the fold. Big East coaches are already lobbying for a seventh, eighth and potentially ninth NCAA bid for what will become a 16-team league.

And why not?

The Big East, not the ACC, has the last two national champions.

The Big East has seven Sweet 16 teams the past two years. The ACC has three.

The ACC sent two teams (Duke and Georgia Tech) to the Final Four last year. Big East beast Connecticut beat them both on its way to the national title.

If recent tournament history isn’t convincing enough, maybe the best argument for Big East supremacy comes from the epicenter of the ACC, where Big East defectors Virginia Tech and Miami are more than holding their own.

In their own arrogance and ignorance, the ACC coaches picked Virginia Tech and Miami to fight for last place in the league.

But in a twist that Packer, Vitale and others try to dismiss as unbalanced scheduling and unfamiliarity, these two Big East busts already have combined for 11 ACC wins this season.

Virginia Tech (6-3 in the ACC) went 7-9 in the Big East last season, 5-11 the year before that and 1-15 the year before that, Hokie at best.

Miami (5-5 in the ACC) lost 11 of its last 12 games last season, fired its coach, then suffered two transfers and the loss of its top recruit. The Hurricanes were 8-24 in their last two seasons as a Big East member, not even a Category 1.

A change of scenery now has these two Big East bottom-feeders building NCAA Tournament resumes in the mighty ACC. Miami didn’t even qualify for the Big East Tournament last year, let alone the NCAA.

Where the ACC is top-heavy with its big three, the Big East is stacked with talented teams 1 through 12. No team has escaped the close call.

Through the weekend, 31 of 53 Big East games (58 percent) were decided by seven points or fewer. The ACC has featured only 17 of its 50 games (34 percent) settled by seven points or fewer, most of those coming in games between teams in the bottom-third of the conference standings.

Packer put his foot in his mouth last year when he berated St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli during an interview over Martelli’s Hawks earning a No.1 tournament seed. Not satisfied, Packer then crammed his foot down his throat when he picked his alma mater, Wake Forest, to beat St. Joseph’s in the round of 16. The result? An 84-80 Hawks win and a serving of raw crow for Packer and his ACC fraternity.

Packer is scheduled to be courtside Sunday when Connecticut plays at North Carolina in the latest chance for the ACC to prove it can compete with the Big East.

He’ll likely cram his foot down his throat again. If he doesn’t, his microphone might fit nicely.


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