MUAvalanche
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RE: Two Thoughts on Big East Status
(03-24-2015 08:30 AM)stever20 Wrote: (03-24-2015 08:14 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (03-22-2015 10:11 AM)xusandy Wrote: (1) Though we didn't make the statement yesterday that us BE fans would have liked, and although only one BE team is still alive in the Sweet 16 (GO X!), this has been one heck of an exciting season for the league, and I do think we now have more national respect than we had last November.
Let's not sugar-coat this: While going 4-2 in the R64 was a nice achievement, going 1-3 in R32 was not, and it is a BIG disappointment to place just one team in the SW16. Sucked that Georgetown and Butler couldn't pull their close games out, and #1 seed Villanova losing round 2 was an abject disaster.
My worry: The Big East has been given MUCHO respect by the tournament committee. We have been treated like a "Power" conference, unlike other non-P5 like the A10, MWC, and AAC. We have gotten lots of bids, and favorable seeding (e.g., my Georgetown was really about a 6 seed, but we got a 4 seed). But two straight poor performances might cause the committee to view us a "mid-major" rather than "major". We really need to do better in the big dance.
We were treated like a power conference because we had 5 teams with a top 25 RPI this year. That's going to get you mucho respect from the committee.
It also means, with a balanced schedule, if you have enough good teams, there may be more opportunities to play for top 50 wins. The BE and BXII were good examples. When 6 top 50 teams out of 10 are in your conference, then most conference games are top 50 games.
As an example, looking at various 8-10 seeds, between conference and conference tournament play, St. John's had 11 top 50 opponents. Oklahoma State had 13. Purdue had 7. Indiana had 9. NC State had 8. Oregon had 7. UCLA had 6.
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03-24-2015 09:14 AM |
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quo vadis
Legend
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RE: Two Thoughts on Big East Status
(03-24-2015 08:30 AM)stever20 Wrote: (03-24-2015 08:14 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (03-22-2015 10:11 AM)xusandy Wrote: (1) Though we didn't make the statement yesterday that us BE fans would have liked, and although only one BE team is still alive in the Sweet 16 (GO X!), this has been one heck of an exciting season for the league, and I do think we now have more national respect than we had last November.
Let's not sugar-coat this: While going 4-2 in the R64 was a nice achievement, going 1-3 in R32 was not, and it is a BIG disappointment to place just one team in the SW16. Sucked that Georgetown and Butler couldn't pull their close games out, and #1 seed Villanova losing round 2 was an abject disaster.
My worry: The Big East has been given MUCHO respect by the tournament committee. We have been treated like a "Power" conference, unlike other non-P5 like the A10, MWC, and AAC. We have gotten lots of bids, and favorable seeding (e.g., my Georgetown was really about a 6 seed, but we got a 4 seed). But two straight poor performances might cause the committee to view us a "mid-major" rather than "major". We really need to do better in the big dance.
We were treated like a power conference because we had 5 teams with a top 25 RPI this year. That's going to get you mucho respect from the committee.
If we keep flopping, the idea that we are 'gaming' the RPI system will set in and then the committee will look askance at us. Conference rep does matter. We need to win more when it counts the most.
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03-24-2015 09:25 AM |
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