NCAA Tournament Blogging -- Is the Big East overrated?
Before I jot down some general thoughts about last night's games and how sorry the Big East looked yesterday, I thought we needed one more look at the jumper than Danero Thomas nailed to slay Vanderbilt. Eat it Commodores!
Thursday had such an entertaining string of games, two of my friends openly pondered whether or not it was the best opening day ever of the NCAA Tournament. (We may have had a few beers at that point.) But still, were they wrong? I think they might have been right. It was certainly the best day I can remember in a long time. We already discussed the days games, but the night games were almost as good.
I didn't think Wake Forest even deserved to be in the tourney, and their game was one of the most exciting of the evening as they knocked off Texas 81-80 in overtime. Tennessee's win over San Diego State was no cakewalk, and New Mexico barely survived against my alma mater, the Montana Grizzlies.
We have to discuss the New Mexico/Montana game for a minute, if only because I'm still grumpy about it. I watched it in a bar with former Sun columnist Rick Maese, a New Mexico grad (assuming they actually hand out degrees at that podunk college, I can't really confirm) and so it was like a blood feud for three and half hours. Montana really could have won, but their leading scorer, Anthony Johnson, who was coming off a 42-point performance in the Big Sky Championship game, had three points and was 1-of-12 from the floor. Disgraceful. I still need to figure out a way to break it to my wife that I gambled away our daughter's college savings and that Maese holds the pink slip to my car, but so if you have any suggestions, leave them below.
Can we talk about the embarrassment that is the Big East before today's games begin? I'm really tired of hearing every year that it's the best conference in the country, only to see it lay a collective egg in the tournament. Big East basketball is ugly basketball, and Georgetown and Notre Dame were U-G-L-Y, and sure didn't have no alibi yesterday. Villanova should have lost to Robert Morris, and probably would have if not for some generous calls from the referees. I'm tired of hearing Georgetown make excuses every year, and Big East apologists like Digger Phelps make excuses for the league. There is no way Notre Dame's Luke Harangody should have zero points two minute remaining against Old Dominion.
I know we're biased here in ACC Country, but it looked a lot more like the Big Least yesterday.
That said, I still don't see how Syracuse doesn't make the Final Four.
Comments
YESSSS. I've been saying this all year. Digger Phelps was still making excuses this morning....."they beat each other up all year". Thats BS. The Big East has several schools that play in large media markets which helps inflate the entire conference. Syracuse is NOT a #1 seed. Villanova should be a 4 seed and same for Gtown. They were way overrated.
Posted by: Rob K. | March 19, 2010 10:43 AM
Couldn't agree more. I lost three of my Elite 8 teams yesterday, all from the Big Least (ND, Georgetown, and Marquette). It's not even like I had a pre-conceived feeling that the Big East would dominate this year. It's just how it turned out as I was looking at matchups. I'm never making this mistake again. The "experts" always talk about how deep the Big East is, and their top 2-3 teams are usually really good. But any conference would be "deep" if it had 16 freaking teams playing in it!!
Posted by: Mr. Deez | March 19, 2010 10:59 AM
Kevin: The short answer is that it's too early to say whether the Big East is overrated.
Look at the teams that finished with the six best records in conference. Only one is out of the tournament (Marquette). The others either won yesterday ('Nova) or play today (Syracuse, Pitt, WVU, and Louisville).
I'm an ACC fan -- and what they did to the conference with expansion is truly sad -- so I have no love for the Big East. But people should wait until the games today before jumping off that bandwagon.
Posted by: cb | March 19, 2010 11:52 AM
Mr Deez...
Well that was just plain dumb picking on your part. ND in the elite 8? really?
KVV-
The "they beat up on each other" excuse is such crap. What do they think the ACC is? A cake walk? They only beat up on each other because they play playground goon-ball (look at G-Town and their power-slam dribbling technique and NBA lane crash course driving). They are a bunch of Galoots. Like the big kid growing up that was good becasue he could run you over.
Posted by: SHAMROCK | March 19, 2010 11:53 AM
Yes. The only reason Villanova beat a 15 seed is because they had an extra three players in stripes on the court.
Posted by: Neil | March 19, 2010 12:16 PM
Not going to argue with the opinion that the Big East is weak this year. But I guess ACC fans don't care to remember that the Big East went 6 for 7 in last year's opening round and put two teams in the Final Four...
Posted by: Rusty | March 19, 2010 3:53 PM
The Big East IS overrated most years, but this year is a godsend, with them going down in flames to weak teams. Don't stop with the dance, look at the NIT also. They suck there too. Digger and ESPN jam them down our throats every year, so they can justify their "home" conference. Truth is; they are an average conference that gets talked up for commercial reasons. Nearly ALL of the ESPN announcers are Big East alums and it shows. They start all programming with Big Least highlights and results. I will rejoice when the entire Big East is done playing hoops by Sunday.
Posted by: J.E. Browne | March 19, 2010 6:38 PM
What really makes the Big East performance so bad this year is the fact that they were given very high seeds for easier opening round opponents (with the exception of Louisville who had an 8 vs. 9 matchup). Compare that to the ACC seedings - pretty much all 7 vs. 10 or 8 vs. 9 matchups. The ACC was a little embarrassed last year with their opening round performance (due in large part to mostly low seeding) and received a lot of guff for it on TV. The only saving grace for the ACC was UNC's national championship last year. Barely anyone on TV is talking about the failure of the Big East this year - mostly due to not tearing down fan support in the northeast which brings in the most advertising dollars. Never has a conference been seeded so well in the tournament and performed so poorly. On the bright side, the overrated Big East is the major reason this has been one of the best years for upsets. The Big East does themselves a real dis-service during the regular season with the way they call games - it doesn't even resemble basketball and when a foul is finally called you wonder what criteria the referees are using. As a result, the refs have a greater impact on the results of Big East games than in any other conference. Those games are really difficult to watch without thinking - hey, the refs are completely deciding this game. How can Big East teams expect to be ready for the tournament when they play a mutated form of the game during the regular season.
Posted by: Jonathan Watts | March 20, 2010 3:36 PM
Of course the Big East is overrated! They have been for years and probably always will be, since the vast majority of folks in the sports media come from the east coast.
Even this year, getting 8 of 16 teams into the NCAA tournament isn't the best showing by a conference -- it's 50% by my math, while the Big 12 got in 7 (which anyone with a calculator will tell you is 58.3%). And hey, the Big 12 have been "beating each other up" all season, too.
Posted by: Kate | March 20, 2010 4:01 PM
The Big East was overrated again this year.
Based on seedings, only one team (West Virginia) has a chance to overachieve. Six of the eight have underachieved, and one (Louisville) has met expectations, and that was simply by losing.
Overachieved:
None. (With a win against Kentucky, WVU can be the only Big East team to overachieve.)
Met expectations:
9 Louisville
Expected record at end of tournament: 0-1. Actual record: 0-1.
Underachieved:
1 Syracuse
Expected record at end of tournament: 4-1. Actual record: 2-1.
2 Villanova
Expected record at end of tournament: 3-1. Actual record: 1-1.
3 Georgetown
Expected record at end of tournament: 2-1. Actual record: 0-1.
3 Pittsburgh
Expected record at end of tournament: 2-1. Actual record: 1-1.
6 Marquette
Expected record at end of tournament: 1-1. Actual record: 0-1.
6 Notre Dame
Expected record at end of tournament: 1-1. Actual record: 0-1.
To be determined:
2 West Virginia
Expected record at end of tournament: 3-1. Actual record: 3-0, but still playing. Worst WVU can do would be 3-1, which would meet expectations. WVU would have to win to be the only Big East team to overachieve.
Maybe the selection committee overratted the Big East and seeded the teams to high?
Posted by: Phizzy | March 26, 2010 4:47 PM
I would like to see ESPN do a comparison of the Big East in the tourney with the Big 10.
One is obviously over-rated
One is obviously under-rated
Posted by: Bill Anderson | April 2, 2010 10:03 AM