Many have argued that WVU will never be competitive in the new conference. Reasons ranged from "travel" to "the coach is washed up" to "recruits won't want to play in the middle of the country."


We may lose the rest of our games. In fact, this message might be the kiss of death. But, Bob Huggins has a basketball team this year.

Cincinnati has done squat since they let him go. I know they had to do what they had to do after the umpteenth drinking issue but good for him for turning his life around and turning his alma mater into a big success story against the odds.

Yeah, but wouldn't WV fans feel much, much better if you were #1 in the ACC ??

He is a great coach.

(02-07-2016 12:03 PM)Big Frog II Wrote:  He is a great coach.

I read that as "great couch" at first, which makes sense, because West Virginia basketball and West Virginia couches are both on fire.

(02-07-2016 10:29 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Yeah, but wouldn't WV fans feel much, much better if you were #1 in the ACC ??

Why would they feel that way? The Big XII has five teams in the top 15, while the ACC has two, plus two more in the top 20.

That's quite arbitrary.

(02-07-2016 03:42 PM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  

(02-07-2016 10:29 AM)MplsBison Wrote:  Yeah, but wouldn't WV fans feel much, much better if you were #1 in the ACC ??

Why would they feel that way? The Big XII has five teams in the top 15, while the ACC has two, plus two more in the top 20.

Down year for the ACC would be a very good season for most other conferences

I always knew WVU was going to be good in the Big XII. It's just some former Big East fans now in the ACC who just can't accept WVU Is prospering and getting paid in a real P5 conference. They wish the Mountaineers were in the same boat like Cincinnati and UConn where the ACC is the only option out of G5 purgatory. WVU didn't need the ACC to survive like others in that conference and I can see why it upsets some people when their narrative contradicts the facts.

(02-07-2016 10:24 AM)Big Ron Buckeye Wrote:  Cincinnati has done squat since they let him go. I know they had to do what they had to do after the umpteenth drinking issue but good for him for turning his life around and turning his alma mater into a big success story against the odds.

I don't agree that UC has not done "squat" since both parties moved on. Cincinnati has been to five straight NCAA tourneys and had some success in the former Big East Conference. Huggs has taken WVU to a FF birth and had good seasons but he hasn't scorched the earth either. I don't wish him any ill will and I will always have a place in my heart for the years he resurrected the Cincinnati hoops program beginning in the late 80's/early 90's.

Huggins also gave K-State hoops a jump-start. While it was once the prime attraction in Manhattan with the dumpster fire that was their football team, in the wake of Snyder's great success and some down/mediocre years, fan interest in basketball had waned. He brought some excitement back to their program.

Congrats WVU. I miss playing you guys in hoops and football. I'd like to see UConn schedule you guys. Maybe even do a game at MSG. I think that would be a great BE hoops reunion.

(02-08-2016 04:49 PM)HartfordHusky Wrote:  Congrats WVU. I miss playing you guys in hoops and football. I'd like to see UConn schedule you guys. Maybe even do a game at MSG. I think that would be a great BE hoops reunion.

This won't happen, but it would be neat to do a full-fledged BIG EAST alumni tourney in MSG. I know that there is a limit on how many early season rounds a team can play in a season, but there isn't a limit on how many tourneys can take place at one location at one time. Theoretically, you could do a full tourney. You would just have to do it over a number of years, which is pretty neat idea.

Thinking out loud, Miami, VT, BC, SU, Pitt, WVU, ND, GU, VU, MU, STJ, Prov, SH, DePaul, RU, UL, UConn, USF, and UC all played BIG EAST basketball at one time or another. 19 is an awkward number, but if you excluded the last 3 ranked by RPI, you could get 16. In year 1, you could then break the 16 into 4 tournaments of 4, with the losers playing consolation games. Year two would then be a final four, with a 3rd place game. Then in year 3, the 3 lowest RPI teams at the end of year 2 would be excluded and a new 16 teams would be chosen and seeded by last year's RPI and the process would being anew. In addition to being unique because all of the schools have ton of history together, it would also be unique because 3 years would impact the tourney (year 0 for seeding, year 1 for surviving the first two rounds, and year 2 for the championship/3rd place game). In other words, it would reward consistency.

*****I didn't include TCU because they never played in the BIG EAST, and I didn't include any additions after 2013 because that was the last year that the conference was complete. After that, it was divided into a spiritual successor (the BIG EAST as it exists today) and a legal successor (the American Athletic Conference).*****

I thought WVU would run the Big12 in basketball from day one but then fall off and become mediocre. Mainly because the level of play in the old Big East was light years ahead. Basketball in Texas isn't anything like back east.

Winning on the road isn't easy. Welcome to a three way tie. Now, do you play UT, ISU, or OU again?

Can't play a C+ game and win @ Kansas. Iowa St and OU still have to play in Morgantown. WVU still has to play @ UT

Jackson

(02-09-2016 11:28 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  I thought WVU would run the Big12 in basketball from day one but then fall off and become mediocre. Mainly because the level of play in the old Big East was light years ahead. Basketball in Texas isn't anything like back east.

Hahahahaha what?

(02-09-2016 10:07 PM)CyclonePower Wrote:  

(02-09-2016 11:28 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  I thought WVU would run the Big12 in basketball from day one but then fall off and become mediocre. Mainly because the level of play in the old Big East was light years ahead. Basketball in Texas isn't anything like back east.

Hahahahaha what?

Exactly what I said.

Syracuse, UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Johns, ect... were all tougher competition week in and week out in basketball.

Basketball....I'm talking about Basketball.

(02-12-2016 09:36 PM)polkhigh Wrote:  

(02-09-2016 10:07 PM)CyclonePower Wrote:  

(02-09-2016 11:28 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  I thought WVU would run the Big12 in basketball from day one but then fall off and become mediocre. Mainly because the level of play in the old Big East was light years ahead. Basketball in Texas isn't anything like back east.

Hahahahaha what?

Exactly what I said.

Syracuse, UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Johns, ect... were all tougher competition week in and week out in basketball.

Basketball....I'm talking about Basketball.

You do know Huggins said that the big 12 is the hardest conference he ever coached in?

(02-12-2016 09:51 PM)CyclonePower Wrote:  

(02-12-2016 09:36 PM)polkhigh Wrote:  

(02-09-2016 10:07 PM)CyclonePower Wrote:  

(02-09-2016 11:28 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  I thought WVU would run the Big12 in basketball from day one but then fall off and become mediocre. Mainly because the level of play in the old Big East was light years ahead. Basketball in Texas isn't anything like back east.

Hahahahaha what?

Exactly what I said.

Syracuse, UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Johns, ect... were all tougher competition week in and week out in basketball.

Basketball....I'm talking about Basketball.

You do know Huggins said that the big 12 is the hardest conference he ever coached in?

That's because it's the conference he's currently coaching in. Big12 is a great conference but it's common knowledge the Big East was one of the greatest basketball conferences of all time. Back east it was the Big East and ACC, then everybody else.