The Big East is so deep, the last place team beat Duke and Villanova. And the team tied with them, DePaul, blew them out and nearly swept them.

I hate to give the Big East much credit, I can't stand them but they are incredibly deep, no easy wins this year.

This is going to be a great tournament this year. There are so many teams that can win the whole thing. But, you're right, the BIG East is very solid and deep this year.

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It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

(02-19-2018 07:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

You can't compare modern teams to those teams.

Superstars like Drexler and Kareem would have gone pro after their freshman year.

Hakeem would have gone straight to the NBA draft. Even if he still went to Houston, he wouldn't have played with Drexler because Drexler would have gone pro before Hakeem got there.

(02-19-2018 07:58 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

You can't compare modern teams to those teams.

Superstars like Drexler and Kareem would have gone pro after their freshman year.

Hakeem would have gone straight to the NBA draft. Even if he still went to Houston, he wouldn't have played with Drexler because Drexler would have gone pro before Hakeem got there.

I agree. But the other poster made a comment about there not being any world-beating great Big East teams this year so i was just replying that.

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

true, the BE only currently has 2 projected number 1 seeds

The way this year has gone, it has really been optimal for the league. You get two teams at the top of the conference that really beat up on everyone else (Villanova and Xavier). Then you get the next grouping that beat up on each other and the bottom of the league (Butler, Creighton, Providence, and Seton Hall). Then, finally, you have the bottom (Marquette, Georgetown, St. Johns and DePaul). What has been unique is the fact that even the bottom teams have competed and won against the middle and top.

This year is very indicative of what many had hoped the league would look like as a non-football conference. With ten schools all prioritizing men's basketball, it has made for a very special league, highlighted by the round-robin set-up. No other league, with the exception of maybe the SEC (Football) has one sport where every member makes it their athletic priority. When you have that initiative, you get a very special product.

Big East got kind of lucky that it was Nova beating Xavier 2x. Otherwise, Nova wouldn't have been a 1 seed probably. Nova at 10-4 or 9-5 especially isn't a 1 seed.

I don't know that I'd call a league being optimal when the league could easily wind up with 2 top 2 seeds, and then every single other seed being 7 or lower. But that's VERY possible. Parity is great for the regular season. But postseason- having had parity isn't good because you wind up with 7-10 seeds and your gift is basically a road game in rd 2 of the tourney.

just looking at Lunardi today-
Seton Hall 9 playing 1 Virginia in Charlotte rd 2
Creighton 7 playing 2 Auburn in Nashville rd 2
Providence 10 playing 2 Duke in Charlotte rd 2
Butler 7 playing 2 Purdue in Detroit rd 2
none of those 4 exactly great setups.

And March is where the Big East has yet to really consistently deliver in the new setup.

(02-19-2018 07:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

Thanks for exposing that you really aren't an AAC fan.

And only casually a USF fan, if at all.

(02-19-2018 08:48 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:58 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

You can't compare modern teams to those teams.

Superstars like Drexler and Kareem would have gone pro after their freshman year.

Hakeem would have gone straight to the NBA draft. Even if he still went to Houston, he wouldn't have played with Drexler because Drexler would have gone pro before Hakeem got there.

I agree. But the other poster made a comment about there not being any world-beating great Big East teams this year so i was just replying that.

I didn't say anything about the Big East, so don't don't turn this this into an us against them. I even complimented the whole league by starting this thread.

(02-19-2018 10:49 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

true, the BE only currently has 2 projected number 1 seeds

See above, I was talking about college basketball overall.

(02-20-2018 01:32 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 10:49 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

true, the BE only currently has 2 projected number 1 seeds

See above, I was talking about college basketball overall.

I was about to apologize for misunderstanding you (re - your reply to me above saying you never said anything about the Big East) but since two of us thought you were referring to the Big East specifically as having no "really great and outstanding teams", well, the fault must have been yours for poor wording.

(02-20-2018 01:25 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 07:20 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  It's only wide open because there's no really great and outstanding teams.

That's probably true of everyone. Name a team this year that is in the same league with the best 1960s or 1970s UCLA teams, the best 1980s Georgetown teams, the best 1990s Duke teams, or Phi Slamma Jamma? There isn't one.

But, what we already do know for sure is that, for the fifth straight year, every year since the split, the Big East has been better than the AAC.

Thanks for exposing that you really aren't an AAC fan.

And only casually a USF fan, if at all.

Really, only someone with a very biased agenda can conclude that my comment about the Big East once again being better than the AAC says anything at all about my status as a USF fan, much less that it means I'm a 'casual' one if at all. It says nothing about my support for USF whatsoever.

I guess in your world, if you don't deny the obvious, then you aren't a fan. E.g., if a Miami Dolphins fan says "yes, the Patriots have been a lot better than the Dolphins the past 20 years", well, he must be just a casual Dolphins fan, if at all?

Hilarious ...

What? You don't sound like a USF fan half the time though I'm reasonably sure you're just a realist to the max.

(02-20-2018 10:52 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  What? You don't sound like a USF fan half the time though I'm reasonably sure you're just a realist to the max.

FWIW, I go back with USF a long way. I watched Phi Slamma lose national title games to NC State and Georgetown from USF dorm rooms. Ten years later, I was still on campus, wrapping up graduate work and also teaching classes.

But, what would a USF fan "sound like" to a Houston fan anyway? I'm curious.

(02-20-2018 01:07 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  But, what would a USF fan "sound like" to a Houston fan anyway? I'm curious.

"What is this sport being played on a ballroom floor, and why did those guys cut the sleeves off our football jerseys?"

Just my best guess.

(02-20-2018 01:07 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-20-2018 10:52 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  What? You don't sound like a USF fan half the time though I'm reasonably sure you're just a realist to the max.

FWIW, I go back with USF a long way. I watched Phi Slamma lose national title games to NC State and Georgetown from USF dorm rooms. Ten years later, I was still on campus, wrapping up graduate work and also teaching classes.

But, what would a USF fan "sound like" to a Houston fan anyway? I'm curious.

Look, I don't want the mods riding up my you-know-what about personal attacks but you sound like the biggest TPC (Traditional Power Conference) homer ever. You may not be and that's probably not your intention but that's what it looks like. You even tried to turn this thread into an us versus them when I actually begrudgingly gave the Big East credit.

(02-20-2018 01:13 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(02-20-2018 01:07 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  But, what would a USF fan "sound like" to a Houston fan anyway? I'm curious.

"What is this sport being played on a ballroom floor, and why did those guys cut the sleeves off our football jerseys?"

Just my best guess.

Thing is, basketball has a much longer and deeper tradition at USF than football. We've been playing football for 20 years, basketball for 25 years before that.

Heck, the whole 11 years I spent on USF's campus, we didn't have a football team and homecoming and everything else athletically was organized around basketball.

For decades, basketball was THE sport on the USF campus. When I was there, it was Charlie Bradley and Curtis Kitchen and Lee Rose and trips to the NIT in the 1980s, and then Bobby Paschal's 1990 and 1992 teams that finally broke through, won a conference title (1990 Sun Belt, still the only title we've ever won) and made the NCAA tournament. Yes, all of that is light-years from what UConn was doing in the Big East, but for us at USF, it meant something and still does.

Even now, with love for USF football fully ingrained, nothing about USF athletics feels the same or resonates as deeply to me as a trip to the Sun Dome to catch a Bull's hoops game, even if there are only 2,000 fans in attendance. I try to do that when I'm in town. It goes back all the way to my youth.

(02-20-2018 01:19 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(02-20-2018 01:07 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(02-20-2018 10:52 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  What? You don't sound like a USF fan half the time though I'm reasonably sure you're just a realist to the max.

FWIW, I go back with USF a long way. I watched Phi Slamma lose national title games to NC State and Georgetown from USF dorm rooms. Ten years later, I was still on campus, wrapping up graduate work and also teaching classes.

But, what would a USF fan "sound like" to a Houston fan anyway? I'm curious.

Look, I don't want the mods riding up my you-know-what about personal attacks but you sound like the biggest TPC (Traditional Power Conference) homer ever. You may not be and that's probably not your intention but that's what it looks like. You even tried to turn this thread into an us versus them when I actually begrudgingly gave the Big East credit.

First, as has been explained, the Big East reference i made was prompted by my interpretation of your comment, which made it sound like you were downing the Big East. I wasn't the only one who thought that's what you meant so if anything the fault was with you. And so as a Big East hoops fan - which i make no secret of being - i responded. Anyway, that's over so no need to keep flogging it.

Second, being a USF fan doesn't mean hating on the P5. I recall when USF was in the Power club, albeit on the fringes of it. And my goal is to see us get back to that. I don't hate the P5, I want us to join them. IMO, hating on them doesn't do USF any good.

That's my POV.