Pick One

[GIGAFAN99]

Since there's speculation.

I choose the Sweet 16. There's a reason the Big East Tournament comes first. It's because it's a play-in tournament for the NCAAs.

As such, I must choose winning 2 in the latter tourney over 3 in the former.

[theEDGEfactor]

people 10 years from now wont remember us losing in the sweet sixteen but they will remember us winning the BET

[GUHoya07]

Big East Tournament Title, for sure. I don't think getting to the Sweet 16 is that incredible of an accomplishment, its 2 wins against usually weaker teams. Winning the Big East Tournament is incredibly difficult and its an actual title, winning 2 NCAA games gets you nothing.

[Madgesdiq]

theedgefactor said:

people 10 years from now wont remember us losing in the sweet sixteen but they will remember us winning the BET

Absoutely, BE title. We haven't won one since my freshman year, and I was in Florida on spring break so I didn't get to share in the excitement. At the time I thought, "Zo is a freshman. We have 3 more of these to go." I still haven't recoverd from the UCONN loss.

[Big Dog]

that's totally ridiculous. nobody cares about a conference TOURNAMENT title.

Syracuse fan: Remember in 2006 when we shocked the world and went to the Elite 8? You guys got beat by No. 12 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee, didn't you?

Gtown fan: Yeah, but WE won the Big East Conference Tournament!!

Woohoo!!

Nobody even remembers the conference tournament champion by 2pm the Thursday of the first day of the NCAAs.

i can't even believe we're having this conversation. Give me a choice between one BET win and one NCAA win and I'll take the NCAA win every time.

[Grandpa]

A tough call for me, as I've never witnessed a Hoya Big East title during my time as a fan (beginning in 1992), but I voted "No Big East title, Sweet 16 in NCAAs" under the reasoning that if we win the Big East title, I think we'd probably be a 2 or, at worst, 3 seed in the NCAAs. That would then mean we would suffer the ignominy of losing to either a 15 or 14 seed team. Thus, in voting for "No BE title, but Sweet 16", I am imagining that we make it at least to the Semi-Finals in the BE tournament, thus garnering a solid 4, possibly 3 seed. While people (at least that follow the Big East) will remember who wins the BE tournament, a run to the Sweet 16s really gets Georgetown back into the collective consciousness of even the "March Madness" fans that don't really follow the regular season as much.

[AustinHoya03]

bigdog said:

that's totally ridiculous. nobody cares about a conference TOURNAMENT title.

Syracuse fan: Remember in 2006 when we shocked the world and went to the Elite 8? You guys got beat by No. 12 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee, didn't you?

Gtown fan: Yeah, but WE won the Big East Conference Tournament!!

Woohoo!!

Nobody even remembers the conference tournament champion by 2pm the Thursday of the first day of the NCAAs.

i can't even believe we're having this conversation. Give me a choice between one BET win and one NCAA win and I'll take the NCAA win every time.

This is exactly why there should not be a playoff for college football, where conference titles do still mean something, even to the average fan.

Did you see the shots from College Station last night? You will never see anything like that at an NCAA tournament game.

We choose to play in the Big East, a conference with rivalries going back over two decades. It means something to me every single time we beat Syracuse. Arkansas, on the other hand, just happened to be the opponent we beat in the first round of the 2001 tournament. By chance. Does anyone feel any lingering animosity for Hampton? What matters more, beating the kids across the New South hallway in pickup basketball, or some kids you've never met before and will probably never see again? The Big East is a special conference when it comes to basketball, and its tournament, played in the best basketball arena in the best basketball city in the world, is superior to all others. Georgetown has done its share of damage in this tournament, and that's a tradition I am proud of.

Big Dog, you are right that nobody cares if "nobody" is the typical dude on the street who tunes in to CBB annually in March in order to fill out his bracket. But for Hoya fans, the BET should be more important. This is about bragging rights in our own backyard. This is about announcing to the rest of the conference, and the nation, that Georgetown basketball is back. This is about punching Syracuse, UConn, and Villanova in the gut. Wouldn't you like that more than a couple wins over a cupcake and an SEC team?

[alonzosflattop]

Big East Championship. I'd rather hang the banner. Hoyas made the Sweet 16 when Hampton paved the way in '00. I think that showed that making the Sweet 16 isn't always incredibly honorable.

[SirSaxa]

A BET title is worth more than anything except a Final Four apperance.

We are in the Big East to win it.
A BET title will be cited each year the BET comes around.
A sweet sixteen appearance is nice but fleeting -- and who really cares.
15 other teams accomplish the same thing each year -- big deal.
It doesn't have the lasting value of a BET Championship.
An Elite 8 appearance doesn't have the lasting impact either, and on top of that.. it is really really frustrating and disappointing because one more win would have given us a Final Four appearance... and that DOES mean a lot to a program.
1980 and 1996 come to mind especially.
Had we made the FINAL FOUR in either of those years, it would have expanded significantly JT2's reputation
as well as our Hoyas. As it is now, we "only" went to the FInal Four in Ewing years.

So yes, I would take a BET championship over anything short of a Final Four apperance.
Especially this year with two top-5 teams in the BET.

I don't think it is even a close argument.

[Big Dog]

The problem with the silly "bragging rights" theory, is that a first round exit very likely means that many of our Big East rivals go farther and get more NCAA exposure than we do. And I'm sorry, but for recruits and for everything else, that trumps what happens at MSG.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I choose both.

[Deleted]

stpetersburghoya said:

I choose both.

You have chosen... wisely.

[SirSaxa]

There are 48 games played that first weekend.
How much exposure does that really mean? 2 of 48?
Recruits already know about us... and for sure they follow the BE tournament.
And they will watch the BE Tourney FINAL on TV because it is the biggest game on that night -- nationally.
WInning the Big East over top-5 UCONN and NOVA is a huge accomplishment.
Only 1 school wins the BE Title each year.
ANd in the areas of the country where we get the vast majority of our recruits,
EVERYONE will know.

Getting to the Sweet Sixteen is a good thing... no question.
But as mentioned.... 16 teams do it every single year.
It really isn't very memorable.

No, a BIG EAST Title means a lot
and it does go into the BE History books and furthers GU's legacy.
It would also put us back at #1 in our own conference for BET Titles.

Hands down...no contest.
BIG EAST title trumps Sweet Sixteen.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

this has to be just thought of theoretically cause there's most likely no way wither choice is happening. hypothetically if i had the choice i'd take the BET. but in reality i'm happy with making the semis of the BET and going to the sweet 16. In truth this is just a terrible question. would you rather have a BET and no NCAA wins or No BET title but sweet 16 in NCAA's i'll take the later cause it could mean we go all the way to the championship game of the BET it doens't say we loose in the first round. BET title would be amazing but i'd rather have sucess at both than just in one.

[GIGAFAN99]

I have to say, I don't think Big Dog and I have ever agreed on anything more (though that's not a large sample).

Not only don't I care about the BET title over the NCAAs, but I'd take the regular-season title 10 times out of 10 over the BET title.

One's 3 months of dominance and one is the national tournament. The BET is just a really good weekend of basketball. It's entertaining but not really important to me.

[AustinHoya03]

Oh my God it's the NATIONAL tournament! We could get NATIONAL exposure!

Our most fertile recruiting ground is on the eastern seaboard. If success in the NCAA tournament was all recruits cared about, Jeff Green would be at UMD. (Of course, to be fair, we weren't beating anyone in the BET when Jeff signed on either.)

We will hopefully play UConn and Villanova at MCI next season -- what does a win over a Pac-10 team do to fill the building for those games? Does it do more than creating bad blood by beating one of those teams in the finals of the BET?

What did getting to the Sweet 16 in '01 do for this program in '01-'02? What did it do for the program and the fan base in '01? Allow some dude in Boise to wear his Hoya tie to work and taunt his Arkansas-grad co-worker? Did the entire nation get up and collectively scream "Oh my God the Hoyas are great, we'd better run out and buy merchandise and next year's season tickets!" No, because that kind of stuff only happens in the Final Four, maybe the Elite Eight.

Why was beating Syracuse better than beating Duke (per JTIII)? The latter gave us more national exposure.

Programs are built upon conference titles (and yes, Giga, I'd rather have the regular season title, too). Programs are not built on NCAA tournament appearances, or even making the Sweet 16, as we saw in 2001. I could give a F about national exposure. All that means is the idiots at ESPN are hyping us because we won a few games, and some schmucks in Portland, Boca Raton, El Paso, etc., etc. are believing them. Meanwhile, the 'Cuse fans sit around and talk about how overrated we are, how ESPN is giving us unwarranted dap, and how they're going to kill us next season. Kind of like we did with West Virginia (I'm looking at you, Giga) this season.

I'd rather punch the neighborhood bully in the face than some national/international/intercontinental/intergalactic bully. It's what you do in your own community that builds pride and a rep.

[CAHoya07]

To frame the question differently, last year, who would you have rather been: (a) Syracuse, who won the Big East Tournament but got upset by Vermont in the NCAA's as a 4-seed, or (b) Villanova, who lost in the Big East semifinals, but got to the Sweet Sixteen as a 5-seed and while there nearly upset eventual national champion North Carolina. Based on that, I'd have to choose (b), Sweet 16. That first round loss would sting too much.

That said, a Big East title would mean a lot more for Georgetown than other schools, because we haven't won it since 1989 (I'm pretty sure?). That and I think winning the Big East title is a tougher task, because of the competition.

But I'd still go Sweet Sixteen. Conference tournaments are fun and everything, and we can get a Big East Tournament Champion Banner if we win. But what really matters is the NCAA Tournament. That's ultimately what your season is judged upon, how far you went in the Tournament.

[Big Dog]

That's hilarious CAHoya! Until you posted that I DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHO HAD WON THE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT LAST SEASON.

But I CERTAINLY remembered that Syracuse had been upset in Round 1 of the tourney as a 4 seed.

[Big Dog]

Quite honestly, I don't think ANYBODY cares who the conference tournament winner is except for the conference tournament winner. I'd bet that 95% of fans of Big East programs couldn't name you the last five conference tournament champions. I certainly can't without looking it up, other than to remember several UConn-Pitt matchups. But don't ask me who won.

[theEDGEfactor]

how about we get the title and go farther than 16 this year instead of having this huge thread about it?