All it means is UConn is the Gonzaga of the east at this point. A dominant team in a conference that is having a down year. UConn is the team that can build resumes in the BE.
Yep, I agree. I’m not too concerned about Creighton and Villanova, but now every BE win comes with a matching BE loss. Not a great OOC stretch for anybody not named UConn or….St Johns??
And as a counter, I submit 2016.
I never said they wouldn't make the tournament (don't put words in my mouth). What I did think was that they were more likely a team in the +/- 15 range as I think they were given a bit too much respect for their starting 5 (they're very good but not as good as all the hype they got/you'd think they were Bird, Parrish, McHale, Ainge, DJ level for crying out loud) and their lack of depth was totally ignored by the pundants.
I agree they'll be a tough out but it'll be difficult for them to go back to back to back nights in the BE tourney. It might be easier for them to win 3 or 4 games in the big dance as rest between games will help their lack of depth.
I think your "Gonzaga of the East" label is well taken with respect to perception but probably not in reality. Xavier and Marquette have proved themselves to be of Top-Thirty quality, and Creighton and Villanova will get there in time. So UConn will come out of its conference play far more battle-tested than past Gonzaga teams. They will be prepared for tournament play. But because the BE goes into conference play with only one acknowledged Top Thirty team, it will be difficult for its top teams to earn top NCAA seeds. Short of going undefeated, UConn probably cannot guarantee itself a #1 seed and a free ride into the Sweet Sixteen. All it can do is prove itself the top team in the BE. It can assure itself the highest seed of any BE team, and that, I submit, turns out to be the goal for the regular season.
Creighton ( who ever thought it was a good idea to name a school Creighton) is going to start making their 3 s again at some point- most likely against us - and when they do watch out. They will be tough.
www.cbssports.com
MoV -- I believe this was true in the first year of the NET only. It was adjusted the following year to be capped at ten.20 years ago, you could basically draw a line under the #45 RPI team, and everyone above it got into the tournament, and maybe 3-5 other teams would make it as at-larges. Then the MVC started gaming the RPI really well, and sent 3 teams a couple of years and I believe 4 teams one year. The Selection Committee stopped weighting RPI so heavily, and then finally did away with it altogether, replacing it with the NET.
The NET is a black box that no one really knows what is in it, which makes it a terrible selection criteria. Many have tried to reverse-engineer it, and I suspect they are pretty close.
The NCAA overhauls the NET ratings used to build the March Madness bracket: Key takeaways
What you need to know about the changes coming to the NCAA NET ratings
One glaring weakness of the NET, and KenPom's ratings too, is that Margin of Victory is uncapped. Basically, pummeling bad teams is a great way to get a high NET. The idiots at the NCAA probably thought that this would help the power conference teams, but the MWC has gamed it and now has 6 teams in the top 52 NET despite a modest 7-4 record against P6 opponents among those 6 teams. How did the MWC get so many teams with such high NETs? By bludgeoning bad teams. Utah State has a 12 NET and New Mexico has a 24 NET despite neither team playing a single power conference opponent. Nice work NCAA.
The MoV actually helps the Big East this season despite a poor head to head record against other P6 leagues because a lot of the losses were close while many of the wins were blowouts.
Nice write up. I was going to write something in more detail but I just woke up, did not have my morning coffee and wanted to start the day off with the Boneyard community excitement instead.
Georgetown is so bad you can't even find a write-up about yesterday's game against orange outside of the Ontario province.
The Big East is the 4th ranked conference in KenPom, clearly ahead of the Pac12 and ACC. I still believe that there will be 5-6 bids out of the conference, more likely 6.
Thankfully, I don't think we are losing 3 games.
Unfortunately, I doubt that though it is possible. If you roughly assume that the #6 team goes 10-10 in conference, that team will be around 18-13 going into the BET. Must win in the 6/11 game. At 19-14, that is a bubble team. It will depend upon resume at that point.
Justin Moore
Torn Achilles.
