III is listening to Tranghese

[MCIGuy]

Recently there's been discussion about the size of the new BE conference and whether its a good move if, say, only six or seven teams at most make the Big dance each season. Mike Tranghese responded to such questions by mentioning that from what he has been led to believe the BE could get nine or more teams in IF the teams themselves took care of business. By that he meant that if the teams put together very impressive non-conference schedules and held up their end in conference play they would get invited to the NCAA tourney. The BE conference as its currently structured will be one of the top three leagues for the near future, if not #1. So with the BE as a major power conference, a Big East program must now take care of its own end by putting together a tough schedule to assure itself of getting in if its within striking distance at the end of the season. Think back a few years when Georgia went about 7-9 in the SEC but was still chosen for the NCAA tourney anyhow. It was a combination of the SEC being ranked very high and Georgia's on conference schedule being brutal. That's what got the Bulldogs in. In fact I believe that team had a higher or equal seeding to Gtown which made the tourney with a 10-6 record in the Big East (Swets' frosh season). Obviously its all about the RPI and Tranghese is hammering that home.

With this tough road schedule I believe JTIII is listening to Tranghese and pulling out all stops, giving the upcoming team some breathing room so that even if they only go .500 they will still receive an invite. I believe the coach of West Virginia has gotten that message to. But based upon what I have been reading on message boards, the Pitt and Syracuse non-conference schedules will be as weak as usual. If so if those teams don't do exceptionally well in the BE, they could be on the outside looking in. And they will only be able to blame themselves.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I completely agree with you MCI. When it comes time for the tournament committee to review Georgetown they will see a team that is clearly willing to go anywhere and play anyone. We have a pretty tough schedule with teams on the road from the Big 12 (tenative), Big 10, C-USA, and the Pac-10. We also don't know the OCC schedule at MCI outside of Fairfield, but I see no reason why this trend of tough scheduling wouldn't continue for us at Home (especially since playing a very easy team at home can wreck your RPI regardless of result). I think that if we had had this schedule last year with our conference schedule we would have danced.