Nine in BE have a shot

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

Based on the close to mid-year Big East standings, it appears that 9 teams have solid tourney aspirations:

Pittsburgh 7-1 19-3
Marquette 6-2 19-4
Georgetown 5-2 15-5
Louisville 5-2 15-6
Notre Dame 5-3 17-4
West Virginia 5-3 16-4
Syracuse 4-3 15-6
Providence 4-3 14-6
Villanova 3-4 14-6

After that, teams are up in the 9 loss area already with poor conference records. I would guess seven get in as there are bound to be a few teams that get beat up towards the end of the season. We are 1-2 against these top nine teams with a shot at 6 more squads in our last 9 games in the top 9. This makes St. Johns, Cincy, and Uconn must wins in my opinion.

[sleepyjackson21]

Nine might have a shot but i think only 6 will go. The conference rpi is way too low (bad). Right now the Big East is only ranked 7th. Not good.

[SFHoya99]

sleepyjackson21 said:

Nine might have a shot but i think only 6 will go. The conference rpi is way too low (bad). Right now the Big East is only ranked 7th. Not good.

I'm thinking we get seven. The committee seemed to break a bit from RPI last year, so I don't know if it will be as cut and dry as before.

That said, Sagarin and Pomeroy don't put the BE seventh. This league needs a scheduling clinic. We're getting left behind in the RPI and big wins categories not because we aren't any good but because half of our teams still schedule like pansies.

[hchoya]

good thing we still have to play 6 of those teams....got to win some big games down the stretch boys.

[TBird41]

sfhoya99 said:

That said, Sagarin and Pomeroy don't put the BE seventh. This league needs a scheduling clinic. We're getting left behind in the RPI and big wins categories not because we aren't any good but because half of our teams still schedule like pansies.

*cough* Boeheim *cough*

[AustinHoya03]

sfhoya99 said:

This league needs a scheduling clinic. We're getting left behind in the RPI and big wins categories not because we aren't any good but because half of our teams still schedule like pansies.

And what really annoys me is the bad schedulers are often solid programs. UConn and Notre Dame, for example. Some of the other big boys like Pitt and Nova have tough schedules this year, but programs like DePaul (RPI: 71, SOS: 17) are helping to keep the conference numbers afloat, too. If the Blue Demons can play a tough schedule, why can't the Huskies and their HOF coach put together something similar?

[DoubleOhHoya]

We shouldn't be throwing stones while WSSU is on the schedule.

[Filo]

A coach is going to make up his schedule to benefit his team -- sometimes scheduling pansies works (see JTII's dominant teams), sometimes it does not (see UCONN this year - so far, anyway). We are heading off the deep end here if you think the coaches are going to (or should) start scheduling things for the benefit of the conference -- they do what they think is in the best interest for the team and I don't blame them.

[SFHoya99]

JTII's schedules are irrelevant now. NCAA tournament selection and seeding has changed so drastically that who you play is now overweighted in regards to how you play.

Scheduling pure patsies isn't in Boeheim's or Calhoun's best interest. Neither is going to get fired for a losing season, and how do you improve playing thing sisters of the poor? In addition, if either team is borderline, they are going to miss the NCAAs because of their non-conference slates.

[vcjack]

sfhoya99 said:

Scheduling pure patsies isn't in Boeheim's or Calhoun's best interest. Neither is going to get fired for a losing season.

Really? It seemed to me on the Cuse bords that they were calling for Boeheim's head after the Louisiville game, and with the success that UConn has had for years, I can't immagine that too many fans are happy with Calhoun for this NIT bubble team. Perhaps their administrations are less fickle and imature than fans, but "fire (blank)" movements start from the fans.

[Filo]

So Boeheim and Calhoun just don't know what they are doing or they just don't care because they are not going to get fired. I see.

Or maybe, in Calhoun's case at least, he knew he had an extremely young team and he did not want them to get beat up all season. I am not saying he is right or wrong, just that I am sure he did what he thought was in the best interests of his team, even if it was not to the benefit of the league's RPI.

[AustinHoya03]

filo said:

A coach is going to make up his schedule to benefit his team -- sometimes scheduling pansies works (see JTII's dominant teams), sometimes it does not (see UCONN this year - so far, anyway). We are heading off the deep end here if you think the coaches are going to (or should) start scheduling things for the benefit of the conference -- they do what they think is in the best interest for the team and I don't blame them.

Hey, the MVC schedules "for the benefit of the conference" and it's working out pretty well for a lot of the teams that play in that league. I'm not saying the conference should control scheduling, but perhaps general guidelines should be suggested to the members of the conference. And yes, one of those general guidelines should be "don't schedule WSSU." Another one I'd add would be "play more OOC road games." We left Verizon twice in the OOC schedule. Notre Dame, UConn, and Syracuse left their home courts a combined total of TWO times. Throw in a couple gimme games against BCS conference opponents (say, Syracuse at Penn State) and the conference gets an RPI boost.

[Filo]

Yeah, well either way, please shoot me, since I just defended Jim Calhoun for some strange reason...

[hoyaparanoia1984]

Another thing not in our favor from a league standpoint is our conference leader PITT has 3 losses....ALL to ranked teams. They have not beaten a ranked team this year. We are probably the best team they beat which was by 5 on their floor when they shot the lights out.

[coloradohoya]

Look at Syracuse's OOC SOS. It's essentially equal to ours. Syracuse played 1 team in the RPI top 50 during their OOC. We played 3, 2 of them on the road. (Really that will be 4,3 with Vandy by the end of the year.) What is the real difference in the schedules? We played 6 of our 13 OOC games against teams with RPI 200+. Syracuse only played 4.

If we want a higher conference RPI, we need to make more of an effort to schedule teams that are mid-level competition. MVC teams, MWC teams, and teams from the lower ends of the big conferences.

What we need to do is take a couple of WSSUs out of the schedules and replace them with e.g. Ole Miss (I'm sure they would do a home and away), Indiana St., New Mexico (which has one of the toughest gyms in the country, but would provide invaluable experience).

[YB]

While we are hamstrung to some degree by exams and the fact that, in fact, we are not a patsy school.... we could upgrade the WSSUs of the world.

Mid range.... I think Ball St, ODU, ORU would count.

[ExcitableBoy]

vcjack said:

sfhoya99 said:

Scheduling pure patsies isn't in Boeheim's or Calhoun's best interest. Neither is going to get fired for a losing season.

Really? It seemed to me on the Cuse bords that they were calling for Boeheim's head after the Louisiville game, and with the success that UConn has had for years, I can't immagine that too many fans are happy with Calhoun for this NIT bubble team. Perhaps their administrations are less fickle and imature than fans, but "fire (blank)" movements start from the fans.

That's absurd. Neither Boeheim nor Calhoun are in any danger of being fired or forced out because of one lousy game or one disappointing season. Not gonna happen.

Also, we should probably remember that some less than supportive things about JTIII come out of this board after losses. We probably shouldn't assume that restless internet posters reflect the state of affairs for any given school/fanbase after any given loss.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

austinhoya03 said:

We left Verizon twice in the OOC schedule. Notre Dame, UConn, and Syracuse left their home courts a combined total of TWO times. Throw in a couple gimme games against BCS conference opponents (say, Syracuse at Penn State) and the conference gets an RPI boost.

Actually, we left Verizon four times:

@ Vandy
@ Fairfield
@ Duke
@ Michigan

[AustinHoya03]

truehoyablue said:

austinhoya03 said:

We left Verizon twice in the OOC schedule. Notre Dame, UConn, and Syracuse left their home courts a combined total of TWO times. Throw in a couple gimme games against BCS conference opponents (say, Syracuse at Penn State) and the conference gets an RPI boost.

Actually, we left Verizon four times:

@ Vandy
@ Fairfield
@ Duke
@ Michigan

Yep, we did. Blatant mistake on my part, thanks for pointing that out.

[MCIGuy]

I think it will be six teams. Part of em says four but I think there are so many teams in the conference that eventually six will get enough wins to have a respectable enough RPI to earn an invite.

The danger is if the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th BE team ends up winning the tourney and takes a space in the Big Dance.