What's wrong with the Big East?

[tjm62]

With Pitt's loss, the conference has officially finished disgracing itself to a number of mid-major teams. WVU, Lville, Gtown, Nova, Pitt, and others have't even been able to get pas the opening weekend.

Early in the year, the Big East seemed unstoppable... so what is it? Is the schedule too grueling? Is the coaching not good enough? Are the players not good enough?

Many people are looking to blame JTIII, but the problem seems to run deeper than just us.

[reformation]

A lot of good teams, but no real elite teams. I don't think anyone really thinks that any of the BE teams have a good shot at winning the tournament. Pitt, for example is just not that good offensively, lacks elite shooters. Most of the teams that advance have guys who can hit o shots: a lot of BE teams seem to struggle that way. That being said peoples views will change if some the few remaining teams make a big run. there's a lot of parity outside of the handful of really good teams, so the games seem like a coin flip most of the time.

[wahoohoya]

Deep conference. Quality teams, but no dominate teams. This result is hardly surprising, but nevertheless embarrassing.

[tjm62]

We're looking at 3 teams maximum in the sweet 16 out of eleven bids.. almost all high seeds. And that's with 2 games coming up where there are two BE teams facing each other.

[dcc33]

Frankly, after our loss, I'm happy to see it (especially Pitt). If we're going to have a depressing off season - I hope they all do to. Never understood cheering for our rivals in the ncaas.

And I always thoughts it was pretty obvious that the BE didn't have a single final four caliber team. Deep conference, but nobody was really elite.

[the_way]

Pitt is always an enigma. They always seem to be contenders, and then always wind up choking.

like other said, no real elite team.

[FrazierFanatic]

Mar 19, 2011 20:59:42 GMT -5 the_way said:

Pitt is always an enigma. They always seem to be contenders, and then always wind up choking.

like other said, no real elite team.

And Pitt always seems to play fairly hard-nosed D, which is usually a pretty good trait for a tourney team. They just don't have the consistent offense needed to put games away. And apparently from that last foul they ain't too smart sometimes.

[the_way]

Mar 19, 2011 21:06:08 GMT -5 FrazierFanatic said:

Mar 19, 2011 20:59:42 GMT -5 the_way said:

Pitt is always an enigma. They always seem to be contenders, and then always wind up choking.

like other said, no real elite team.

And Pitt always seems to play fairly hard-nosed D, which is usually a pretty good trait for a tourney team. They just don't have the consistent offense needed to put games away. And apparently from that last foul they ain't too smart sometimes.

Pitt reminds of Marty Schottenheimer coached football teams.

Tough hard nose play, great in the regular season. But when it comes to post-season, they just crap out when you think they should win.

[RDF]

Pitt plays okay defense--they hack/foul a lot and benefit from how BE games are officiated and that is especially the case with games in Pittsburgh. They have to get over hump before anyone is scared of them though--because their rep is they choke in March. Let's face it--the blueprint is simple-if you push the ball against Pitt--you'll get great looks and they'll foul. They have no inside presence and Ashton Gibbs ran from the ball today-he wanted no part of that game when your best shooter/offensive players need to step up. Gilbert Brown played huge-but he always gets up for games against Georgetown--or in the Verizon Center--so he was right at home.

Pitt will get over the hump when they realize that sometimes your best defense is a great offensive team and like many teams that struggle in March--they don't get much offense from their defense. Getting stops is important--but getting points off turnovers is very important/easy hoops so you don't have to grind out every game/score against set defense.

I hate about every team in the region they are in--so either way I'll be annoyed and happy at same time. Good riddance.

[bmartin]

Except for Walker, Big East players are guardable by a decent sized mid major athlete. There was no big mismatch in the BE team's favor in any of these games. Except maybe Hollis Thompson.

What VCU and others have shown is that midmajors are full of guys who can bury threes if you let them set their feet.

[NCHoya]

Mar 19, 2011 21:28:42 GMT -5 bmartin said:

Except for Walker, Big East players are guardable by a decent sized mid major athlete. There was no big mismatch in the BE team's favor in any of these games. Except maybe Hollis Thompson.

What VCU and others have shown is that midmajors are full of guys who can bury threes if you let them set their feet.

Just to build on that point, the BE just did not have much NBA talent this season. So like you say, they were guardable by anyone. Also, it should not be a surprise, I think ESPN has said it all year. No real great team in the BE, I mean look what UL accomplished with a roster of nobodies?

[tashoya]

Rdf made the point elsewhere about lack of quality big men this year in the BE. I think that's a lot of it. The tourney is always more difficult for the BE teams too because they are officiated as if the refs think everyone just came from a mani/pedi and want to avoid smudging. I still think Pitt is a top team. Just wasn't their day.

[prhoya]

Not many quality bigs in college basketball, not just BE...

So why did the BE teams dominate their respective OOC during the regular season and not now? What changed? The last I saw/read/heard the BE teams dominated their OOC quality opponents during the regular season. It may be a question of the BE teams beating up on each other for 18 games, having good to tough OOC schedules and getting to the Tournament on fumes. Who knows! We certainly didn't look like the team that ran up and down the court vs. Mizzu.

It would be interesting to see a graph of our 3-point attempts and made 3s throughout the season. When did we peak? When did we bottom out (other than last night)?

[LizziebethHoya]

PR is right; the BE OOC success really stood out this year. We won a number of early tournaments against these SAME teams. So, why can't the Big East get it together when it really matters?

[RDF]

Just wait until tournament is completed to complain. If no teams make it to Final Four--then you have good reason to be skeptical--but having potential 3 of Sweet 16 and 2 of your teams knocking out 2 others--prevents potentially 5 teams from advancing--and then you had 3 teams lose in last possession.

This is a down year for the league talent wise--and still league was better then other leagues top to bottom--just not as good as other leagues top teams if you ask me.

[skyhoya]

The BE was ESPN's advertised big power conference. They got the viewers and
the match ups and the audience. It was all about TV revenue, not BB quality.

[lichoya68]

IS IT KENNER YET cant wait to see hollis and the newbies go hoyas 8-)ps go lady hoyas beat princeton and way to go baseball WINNING LOTS OF GAMES go hoyas

[mrsixer123]

Big East had 1 horrendous loss (gtown), 1 bad loss (ville) and 1 fluke loss (pitt). Zaga was better than st johns w/o dj kennedy. Uk is better than wva, and there is no longer shame in losing to george mason. They were ranked and received a at large bid

[mrsixer123]

Mar 20, 2011 7:04:31 GMT -5 lichoya68 said:

IS IT KENNER YET cant wait to see hollis and the newbies go hoyas 8-)ps go lady hoyas beat princeton and way to go baseball WINNING LOTS OF GAMES go hoyas

Hopefully we get to see the Lady Hoyas vs Lady Terps in round 2

[Deleted]

But then again, the Big East teams were crushing other non conference earlier in the season. We were not the only Big East team to tank as the season wore on. I am not sure what happened.