Subjective analysis - Creme’s Bracketology, polls, etc - consider the Big East a bad league (many people think any non-P4 is a bad league)
As far as football and basketball are concerned, UConn could be the exception that proves the rule. It is possible to have an excellent basketball program without a (good) football team.
A shame for sure; Big East basketball is almost always very entertaining. However, there is almost never a crowd in the stands, even for the top teams.
If St John’s, Villanova and, occasionally Georgetown, could be in and out of the rankings pre-breakup, why can’t they post-breakup? A big reason is coaching. Kim Barnes-Arico (St John’s) is now at Michigan, Harry Perretta (Villanova) is retired, and Terri Williams-Flournoy (Georgetown) left to go to Auburn. As there began to be more money available in the men’s game, resources were diverted in that direction.
While I get why people think that, the demise of the conference was much more than just ESPN being involved, if they were. The decision to chase after the football money and expanding well outside of the original Big East is what really caused the conferences demise in my opinion.
Regarding the BE as a conference - the teams remaining from the oBE were, after all, in a Power Conference at the time. The "classic" version of the A10 and Conference USA, before numerous realignments left them practically unrecognizable, and the new (at the time) American were all solid leagues in the tier immediately below the Power Conferences.
Nice! How many top-tier players (anybody that can play significantly for a top 25 team and how many could be a difference-maker for a final-4 team) are there now compared to say, 2014?
That's it! I'm not dumb for wondering why the WBE is not as good
imho denise Dillon is certainly the equal
That is an excellent question. Even when the BE had good football schools, these schools didn't play football, yet the put decent basketball teams on the court. What gives? The law of gravity where money, talent, coaching, etc. get such up by the larger, football playing schools? Again, UConn is the exception.
I don't know too much about Dillon, but Harry had Geno's number. Rumor has it that they were goofing around playing 1-on-1 when Geno torn his ACL many years ago.
It's hard to talk about the other Big East schools. We learn about the good players as we see them, but if you look at the national media there is never an article about a team or player in the Big East not associated with UConn. Creighton and Marquette have had mentioned in the past as they were ranked by the AP, but once they left the list, they become irrelevant. I feel sorry for some of the coaches, men and women who give their all and are not rewarded by their university. Their dream is to be poached by another conference, just as many of our leagues very good players have. Although I hated the league, playing in the AAC was more enjoyable than playing some off these BE teams. Some, not all. One other thing, for the first time for as long as I can remember, I was so bored with the Butler game that I fell asleep. Terribly boring, but I stuck it out until the end because they are my Huskies. BTW, I recorded it and watched it at around 8:30, just to say that I didn't fall asleep at 4:00. LOL
Because BEast schools are funding men’s bball at the expense of wbb and Olympic sports
villanova beat uconn at the civic center 4
other than south Fla the aac was no better than the BE
Funny, come to think of it, it kinda shoots the football school idea out the window. The AAC has some good football- Memphis, East Carolina, Tulane, there’s more I think.
Yep, good point. Those Southern schools are in football country. In some locations women's basketball just barely beats out pickleball as a spectator sport.
Concur. It is indeed. Just ask Mark Few and his outstanding Gonzaga program.
The general forum produces a pretty fair amount of content on other teams nationally, but it does tend to focus on competitive teams. Right now a thread on the Big East would not have much excitement in it. The Portal has sucked talent out of the BE. I love @cferraro04 Game Analysis because the other BE teams get highlighted there. But it still might be something to consider for next season if one or more of our savants would actively manage it and the word gets dropped on other BE campuses and forums.
True enough, but these programs were top notch before revenue sharing and NIL deals. They'll still be great due to recognition. But trying to grow a program without major expense right now? Not impossible, but... Look how fast UConn football loses their good players to the portal. Is there any point to trying to recruit when your best line is, "Hey if you get good, another program will snatch you away! We sometimes feed the big guys!"
Do you mean "exception to the rule", which means to me, that you can succeed in women's basketball without significant football? If that's what you mean, I'm all in. It seems like these BE schools could benefit mightily from a solid WBB program. They could fill their small campus arenas, make a lot of noise, sneak into the Dance, and be a major headache for visiting teams. Build it and they will come. Like how Geno started out. Plus, most of them have a smattering of history. Just look at Creighton and to a lesser degree, Nova and Marquette. I'm sorry, maybe I'm a rock head, I don't get it.
Gonzaga is a fabulous analogy to UConn WCBB, except they haven't won a championship. Too much information: prior to 2017, I followed Gonzaga Men. Traveled cross country twice to see them. Did a teacher program on Lewis and Clark at GU. Awesome. Blogged on their site, "The Slipper Still Fits". Crappy league, big games are early, when other teams are just getting started, smallish hometown, except Spokane is basketball crazy (Stockton and family owns that town), a lot of excellent international recruiting. When they made all those Sweet 16's with Dan Monson and all those boys as assistants, they had tough, hard-nosed, fundamentally sound warriors. Casey Calvary, Santangelo, Dickau.
The Huskies were down to 5 players and one of them, Dorka, was playing injured. But to your point, Villanova had a good year in 2021-22 with a team led by Maddy and Lucy Olsen. Then Maddy graduated and Lucy was lured away to Iowa, which is one of my points, that the best non-UConn BEast players leave for more exposure and/or more money
OK, nice post!The Huskies were down to 5 players and one of them, Dorka, was playing injured. But to your point, Villanova had a good year in 2021-22 with a team led by Maddy and Lucy Olsen. Then Maddy graduated and Lucy was lured away to Iowa, which is one of my points, that the best non-UConn BEast players leave for more exposure and/or more money
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