Big East hoops blog talk

by Mike Rutherford on Mar 10, 2009 2:58 PM EDT in Basketball Comment 3 comments

With the greatest conference tournament in college basketball officially underway, myself, Sean from Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician and Chris from Rakes of Mallow figured this was the perfect time for some inter-bloggal Big East hoops talk.

The new topic - ushered in by TNIAAM - is whether nor not the Big East sending only seven teams to the NCAA Tournament (should it occur) is a disappointment, and the answer is absolutely.

This league had eight teams in the top 25 for much of the early part of the season, and nine as late as Jan. 5, so to only send seven to the dance would be a massive letdown.

I've come to terms with the fact that the Big East, though ridiculously tough, is not as good as most of us thought it was going to be before the season started. The common thought was that four or five losses would probably win the regular season title, but Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut beating up on the rest of the league as badly as they did really eliminated any chance the conference had of sending nine or ten teams. Though it did make being the first league to have three teams as No. 1 seeds a realistic possibility.

Notre Dame returned the leagues POY and lost only Rob Kurz from a squad that was a four-seed in last year's NCAA Tournament, so their monster fall from grace is really inexplicable. Nobody expected Georgetown to be on the level they were the past two seasons, but it was equally unfathomable to think they'd be where they are now after starting the season 10-1 with wins over Memphis and Connecticut.

The inability of these two teams to hold serve against the bottom of the league and be just average against the rest of it is why the Big East might not be the conference with the most teams in the dance.

The fact that Providence went 10-8 and is still widely considered to be on the wrong side of the bubble also speaks volumes.

Sure, there's always an adjustment period when a new head coach comes in, but there's more than enough veteran talent on that roster to have taken care of Northeastern, Saint Mary's and Baylor, and if that had happened then there wouldn't be an issue here.

In short, I think sending half the league meets, but in no way exceeds, preseason expectations, but getting any less than eight in would have to be a disappointment.

Feel free to disagree, and here are two more items for you all to chew on: How many teams does the league advance to the second weekend of the tournament, and which Big East team outside of Louisville, Pitt and UConn has the best chance at making a surprise run to the Final Four?

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Answering to the last paragraph

I fully expect at least four teams from the Big East to be playing into the second weekend.

As for the team most likely to make a Final Four run outside of the Big Three, I’d say Syracuse. Villanova also has to be considered a dark horse, but I give the nod to ’Cuse with their frontcourt combined with a hunch that they are going to be neutral court beasts over the next few weeks.

As for the brief game wrap, I wanted to post my take here, so it wasn’t buried and I could see what others thought. I wasn’t sure what to think of T-Will’s reaction after the game as Jerry et al was celebrating (pre-apple juice) like a child, particularly since I had a similar reaction (I was so angry after his second miss that I could barely celebrate Butler’s three being long). But I’m with Mike on this one; this wasn’t like E5’s reaction during the UK game when he nearly blew it by himself, then didn’t seem interested in celebrating after Sosa’s bomb. T-Will knows he’s the leader of this team, and to clinch the Big East title, he knew he had to make one of those shots, and he didn’t do it. I also think he’s a smart enough player to know that a similar situation could surface in the coming weeks, and that if it does, we may not be so lucky to have the other team miss a three (and make no mistake about it, we were lucky, if Butler hits that shot we have no chance at winning in OT), thus he has to knock down those shots. At first I thought he was being selfish, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was angry at himself, and that he wasn’t satisfied, despite the win, due to his failure to shut the door when he should have. I agree that whatever the rest of the team does in this cursed building on Thursday, there is no doubt that T-Will is going to show up and make damn sure that if he has two free throws to seal a game in the late stages, he won’t miss both of them.

by doctorofdunk on Mar 10, 2009 5:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

On T-Will

I feel the same way. I was glad that he was pissed at himself, but as you can tell by the celebration picture, he got over it after a while and was able to celebrate what his team was able to accomplish, which is also good.

by Mike Rutherford on Mar 10, 2009 5:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i think its god both he and jerry reacted the way they did

sort of how us as Cards fans should react. Winning the Big East is a huge accomplishment worth of hugging anyone, but as doctoreofdunk pointed out, TWill is the leader and expects more from himself and the team. Jerry was there to lift Twill up and Twill was there to ground everyone, which as the unquestioned leader, he should do.

good post though

by Ben Go CARDS on Mar 11, 2009 4:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs