ACC 3, City of Richmond 2, Big East 2

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I suspect the answer to all of the above is that Roy Williams is a ******.

mmm guess he has started to copy ratface then

 

[peplaw06]

I probably wouldn't agree with this anymore then I would Mike Krzyzewski is.

Well of course you wouldn't...

mmm guess he has started to copy ratface then

That's Mr. Ratface, or G.O.A.T. to you. Whichever you prefer.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Well of course you wouldn't...

Because it would not be true Pep.

 

[Cythim]

"The results obviously aren't what we were hoping for," Big East commissioner John Marinatto told the New York Times.

I would say so.

"For four months every team had a chance to build a resume, and for four months 11 teams earned their way in," said Dan Gavitt, the Big East associate commissioner for men's basketball. "Unfortunately, once everyone was 0-0, some teams played better than others. Some had tough losses, and some lost to opponents that played better."

​

11 teams earned their way in by playing in a tough, yet overrated conference. Villanova didn't deserve a spot after going 5-10 toward the end of the season. St John's put on a pretty performance against the Big East but fell to teams such as St. Mary's, St. Bonaventure and Fordham. They showed their true identity by getting knocked out in the first round to a mid-major auto-bid.​

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas even picked three of them - Pitt, Syracuse and Louisville - to advance to the Final Four. He did not apologize Monday.
"The Big East has underperformed in the tournament, there's no getting around that," he said. "But that doesn't mean it wasn't the best league during the year, and it doesn't mean they don't have the best and most competitive teams."​

Sorry, Jay, but that does mean they don't have the best teams. They have a lot of good teams but it is quite obvious they are not the best.​

"But I said during the year I wouldn't be shocked if the Big East doesn't have any Final Four teams. There aren't as many (future pros) as there were before. The league wasn't as good as it was in 2009. It was better than any other league this year, but the tournament is not about leagues, it's about individual teams."

​

So was the Big 12 the best football league because it came down to the final weeks to decide a champion? No, the SEC is because it has the best teams. The ACC is the best basketball league because of Duke and North Carolina.​

Bilas noted that the bottom had fallen out of Villanova's season heading into the tournament and that Georgetown and St. John's suffered injuries to key players down the stretch.​

Notre Dame, he said, "got a really bad matchup" against an excellent defensive team "that was big and long and could get into their shooters."
Bilas, who likes to debunk conventional wisdom, blasted the popular theory that Big East teams struggle in the NCAA Tournament because they beat each other up all year.​

All I hear are excuses. Good teams overcome adversity and win games that matter. The Big East teams struggled in the NCAA tournament because they are not good teams.​

"What happened with UConn?" he said. "They won five games in five days (in the Big East Tournament?) and won both their (NCAA) games with ease."​

Ahh, a situation that contradicts the idea that Big East teams struggle because they beat each other up all year. The team that has played the best basketball in the tournament also had to battle through five games in five days while teams like Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame only played two conference tournament games which gave them more time to rest. This is a lame duck excuse.​

Statistical analyst Ken Pomeroy, who uses mathematical formulas to rank teams and conferences throughout the season, still had five Big East teams in his top 15 yesterday, including Pitt (No. 6) and three other teams that lost.​

My neighbor has 10 Pac-10 teams in his top 5, so what?​

"I'm not one of those people that thinks the tournament is the sole determinant of how good a conference is," Pomeroy said. "I think the season-long record speaks for itself. But I had the Big Ten (ranked) higher than the Big East. I didn't have it on a pedestal. It's still a good conference. It just had a bad weekend."​

The tournament is where teams prove how good they really are. Not every team expects to make the finals but good teams have to make it past the first two rounds. Getting beat by auto-bids shows that the Big East isn't as good as people think.​

​

 

[WV Cowboy]

The ACC is the best basketball league because of Duke and North Carolina.

Is that the same Duke who came within a whisker of losing to Michigan in the 2nd round, and got absolutely thrashed by Arizona?

You better hope UNC wins or your opinion holds no water, ... it's leaking like a sieve already.

People that are crying that the Big East is over-rated are proving that they either don't watch much basketball, or it is just sour grapes.

If they are an ACC fan we know which one that is.

 

[WV Cowboy]

and WVA lost quite handily.

/rant

Handily ??

The Mountaineers used a 22-7 run at the end of the first half to take a 41-33 halftime lead, but a six-minute scoring drought at the beginning of the second half allowed Kentucky to get back into the game.

West Virginia made it a one-possession game, 61-58, with 2:02 left when Kevin Jones put in a baseline hook, but the Wildcats made enough free throws down the stretch, winning by 8, to advance to the Sweet 16.

Try to keep your /rant to facts only, .. and more people will pay attention.

 

[peplaw06]

Is that the same Duke who came within a whisker of losing to Michigan in the 2nd round, and got absolutely thrashed by Arizona?

You better hope UNC wins or your opinion holds no water, ... it's leaking like a sieve already.

People that are crying that the Big East is over-rated are proving that they either don't watch much basketball, or it is just sour grapes.

If they are an ACC fan we know which one that is.

Yeah, we know you're completely unbiased...

11 teams in the tourney and 2 in the sweet 16... versus 4 in the tourney and 3 in the sweet 16. Last two titles. That's all that needs to be said.

UConn's not going to save your overrated conference.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Yeah, we know you're completely unbiased...

I've got no say in who or where the sportswriters/coaches rank any teams in the polls.

I've got no say in how many teams from each conference get in the tournament. I'll leave that to the people that actually follow and know college basketball way better than me.

I've never said that I felt any team should be ranked higher or lower.

I'm just going by what the polls say, .. it is what it is.

Sorry you can't accept that.

 

[peplaw06]

I've got no say in who or where the sportswriters/coaches rank any teams in the polls.

I've got no say in how many teams from each conference get in the tournament. I'll leave that to the people that actually follow and know college basketball way better than me.

I've never said that I felt any team should be ranked higher or lower.

I'm just going by what the polls say, .. it is what it is.

Sorry you can't accept that.

I hear it's fun not thinking for yourself.

 

[DFWJC]

I'm all in all the time with the ACC. And, btw, V Tech should have gotten in.

However, from top to bottom the Big East was the better conference this year. I think they were a bit overrated, for sure. But they were the best conference in the coutry, nevertheless. IMO of course.

 

[WV Cowboy]

I hear it's fun not thinking for yourself.

No, it's putting aside your own arrogance for a minute and not thinking you know everything or are always right.

I don't follow every game throughout the season the way the experts do. I don't know who the top 25 or 30 teams are.

I have to read to find out and trust they are right.

They may not have it perfect, but they usually get it pretty close.

 

[Cythim]

Is that the same Duke who came within a whisker of losing to Michigan in the 2nd round, and got absolutely thrashed by Arizona?

You better hope UNC wins or your opinion holds no water, ... it's leaking like a sieve already.

People that are crying that the Big East is over-rated are proving that they either don't watch much basketball, or it is just sour grapes.

If they are an ACC fan we know which one that is.

The very same. Too bad a close win against Michigan and getting thrashed by Arizona is not the same as losing to Morehead State or getting thrashed by VCU and Gonzaga.

UNC could lose tonight and it wouldn't change the validity of my opinion. Marquette already knocked off Syracuse and Xavier and is one of two bright spots on this dismal tournament the Big East has put together. They sent three teams to the Sweet Sixteen and will get one more to the Elite Eight in Florida State (who knocked off Georgetown, btw).

The fact is the Big East was expected to put at least four teams in the Sweet Sixteen and some [stupid] experts had three of them in the Final Four. Right now it looks like the Final Four will be without a Big East or ACC team but we will have to let it play out to see what happens.

 

[Cythim]

No, it's putting aside your own arrogance for a minute and not thinking you know everything or are always right.

I don't follow every game throughout the season the way the experts do. I don't know who the top 25 or 30 teams are.

I have to read to find out and trust they are right.

They may not have it perfect, but they usually get it pretty close.

If people like Bilas could put aside his own arrogance and admit that he was wrong about the Big East I would have much more respect for his opinion. He put three Big East teams in the Final Four. Three. That is overrated.

Syracuse would have had to get past North Carolina and Ohio State. Pittsburgh would've needed to beat Butler Wisconsin and Florida and UConn had the easiest path with only Duke/Arizona in the way. In no universe would all of that happen. Bilas let the Big East love go to his head and will not admit his mistake.

 

[StylisticS]

If people like Bilas could put aside his own arrogance and admit that he was wrong about the Big East I would have much more respect for his opinion. He put three Big East teams in the Final Four. Three. That is overrated.

Syracuse would have had to get past North Carolina and Ohio State. Pittsburgh would've needed to beat Butler Wisconsin and Florida and UConn had the easiest path with only Duke/Arizona in the way. In no universe would all of that happen. Bilas let the Big East love go to his head and will not admit his mistake.

To be fair. He did put aside his own arrogance. He said the Big East was overrated by everyone after the first weekend was over.

 

[Cythim]

To be fair. He did put aside his own arrogance. He said the Big East was overrated by everyone after the first weekend was over.

I missed that one. The last few clips I heard from him had him aggressively defending his stance on the greatness of the Big East.

 

[StylisticS]

I missed that one. The last few clips I heard from him had him aggressively defending his stance on the greatness of the Big East.

Yeah I heard him say that with Hubert Davis and Rece Davis on Monday. He said we all overrated the Big East. I think Miles Simon said that he thought the Big East was going to have a rough weekend just like last year and they did.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Carolina is crushing Marquette at this point. This is not the most talented Carolina team I've seen in the past few years. Marquette still has a half to improve their performance but at this point, I think you have to say that the Big East is way overrated.

 

[peplaw06]

Carolina is crushing Marquette at this point. This is not the most talented Carolina team I've seen in the past few years. Marquette still has a half to improve their performance but at this point, I think you have to say that the Big East is way overrated.

15 points in 21 minutes?? Wow.

That's a pace to score maybe 29. And UNC ain't a defensive stalwart.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

15 points in 21 minutes?? Wow.

That's a pace to score maybe 29. And UNC ain't a defensive stalwart.

No they aren't. They are better then you might think because they are the top shot blocking team in the ACC and they are third in the ACC in Defensive shooting percentage but this is not even close to the best defensive team Carolina has had in the past. Carolina is the highest scoring team in the ACC but still, I don't think this is a statement of how good Carolina is. This is a statement of how overrated the Big East is this year.

 

[WV Cowboy]

It has been so surprising to me, .. and enjoyably humorous to see all of this Big East bashing.

I for one am of the camp that thinks every team has the same four months to build a resume.

That to me is what each team is about. Those four months tell the whole story of what each team is.

Based on the criteria that people are using to bash the Big East, ... Duke, (a #1 seed) barely got past Michigan to reach the sweet 16, and then got trounced and bounced out of the tournament, ... are we to think Duke is over-rated?

I didn't think so, but based on the way the Big East is being judged, maybe we should.