Big East OOC thread '25/'26 | Page 10 | The Boneyard
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Big East OOC thread '25/'26

navery12 said:
The Big East sucks but anyone having Creighton out of the tournament because of 1 loss to a top 25 team is beyond reactionary. Creighton is a very good team and a tournament lock
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They are not a lock. This is the worst Creighton team since 2022. That team started out preseason 53 and best non-con win was 58 BYU (w/ losses to #43 ISU and #46 CSU and #97 ASU). They got in as a 9 seed because they beat #10 Nova, #22 us twice. #32 PC and a trip to the BET Championship. Also worth noting, that BE is likely stronger than this year's though.

McDermott's track record shows they should make the tournament, but it's quite the rebuild year for him and a lot of new pieces. I honestly do think he will figure it out and they should make the tourney, since they most likely will pound every BE team not named us/SJU. But no such things as locks with them/Marquette right now, who is on a similar trajectory/path as them this year.
 
navery12 said:
I don't disagree that a lot of teams have looked bad, or even that a lot of teams in the Big East are bad.

But I still expect 4-5 bids, because with all the player and roster turnover in college basketball, everyone looks bad. There's a ton of bad basketball and surprising results all over college basketball as teams learn to play. I don't think Creighton looking bad yesterday necessarily means it's going to look like that all year
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Possibly, but then you have an Indiana, who is nothing but transfers and they ran a team full of continuity. With Creighton, I'm just not sure how impressed I am with their roster and I do thinking finally losing a guy like Kalk exposes them some. They have zero athletes on that team.

I'd lean towards these BE teams being bad. If we were to get 4-5 teams in (which would be suprising since we only got 3 in last year), it would be out of default. The one thing on our side is that the SEC shouldn't have bids in the teens and mid majors really aren't going to be making much noise to get auto bids in today's environment.

Georgetown could surprise as KJ & Mack are a solid core, they have a couple bigs and some solid role players.
 
RuffRuff said:
Possibly, but then you have an Indiana, who is nothing but transfers and they ran a team full of continuity. With Creighton, I'm just not sure how impressed I am with their roster and I do thinking finally losing a guy like Kalk exposes them some. They have zero athletes on that team.

I'd lean towards these BE teams being bad. If we were to get 4-5 teams in (which would be suprising since we only got 3 in last year), it would be out of default. The one thing on our side is that the SEC shouldn't have bids in the teens and mid majors really aren't going to be making much noise to get auto bids in today's environment.

Georgetown could surprise as KJ & Mack are a solid core, they have a couple bigs and some solid role players.
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Spot on. Creighton having ZERO blocks last night is the most glaring indication on how much they miss Kalkbrenner. Other than the two Iowa transfers (and it's not like Iowa was that good last year) they're relying on some mid-major transfers from Howard and Charlotte to be major contributors. Lot of work to do in Omaha, but luckily they have a very good coach.
 
Devland said:
Always happy to see Creighton lose. I've never understood rooting for conference mates. No other sports do. Do Giants fans root for Eagles or Cowboys?
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Not even close to being the same situation. The Giants are competing (well maybe not for a few years) with other teams in the division for OVERALL record to win the division, so of course Giants fans are not going to root for the Eagles, Cowboys and Washington.

The NCAA is seeded based on numerous factors including opponents. So if Creighton wins all their non conference games it makes wins against them better. So of course Uconn fans should root for all Big East teams to win all their non conference games.
 
ThabeetDown said:
Spot on. Creighton having ZERO blocks last night is the most glaring indication on how much they miss Kalkbrenner. Other than the two Iowa transfers (and it's not like Iowa was that good last year) they're relying on some mid-major transfers from Howard and Charlotte to be major contributors. Lot of work to do in Omaha, but luckily they have a very good coach.
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McDermott is the only reason I think they have potential. They're slow and just not very talented. McAndrew is a nice big stretch 4, but ultimately just a skinny tall guy that can shoot and not do much else. They have very little to compliment him. I'm honestly surprised a guy like Green isn't a more key player on this team. Me personally, I think McDermott is the kinda guy that doesn't jive with the portal and is on the 18th hole.
 
Need to stop the bleeding on Friday and Saturday. But in this league we pretty much have to do things on our own. Without us this league is nothing in terms of national respect. Nova was the last stalwart and those memories are fading fast.
 
Jimdish255 said:
Need to stop the bleeding on Friday and Saturday. But in this league we pretty much have to do things on our own. Without us this league is nothing in terms of national respect. Nova was the last stalwart and those memories are fading fast.
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I'd say those memories are only that, memories. Nova may have the resources to rise again, but the Neptune era at the NIL/Portal turn was really bad timing for their brand. I don't know how I feel about Willard being the guy to resurrect them.

I agree, we are on an island here and have to operate that way. The more kids I hear about kids college selections, the more I see a trend of them all wanting big state schools.
 
RuffRuff said:
I'd say those memories are only that, memories. Nova may have the resources to rise again, but the Neptune era at the NIL/Portal turn was really bad timing for their brand. I don't know how I feel about Willard being the guy to resurrect them.

I agree, we are on an island here and have to operate that way. The more kids I hear about kids college selections, the more I see a trend of them all wanting big state schools.
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You are in mid season form
 
RuffRuff said:
Not to say I told you so, but I've been saying this for weeks. That these OOC for us are critical to any decent seeding in the tourney because all the BE can do is weigh us down. Why I was really concerned with the Mullins injury.

BE has one team in the KP top 20, 2 teams in the KP top 43. Nova is 44 right now. The Mount West has 3 teams in the top 45 as well, as a barometer.
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Why don't people listen to you? Maybe you should post more.
 
For those that say Big East teams will be better later in the season now is the time to build your metrics. If the conference teams lose now in out of conference games, beating each in conference play will not matter much. A team with a 60 RPI beating a team with a 70 RPI means nothing. The Big East is simply not a very good conference. We will be carrying the torch. We really need to move on. I would love the Big 10 but that may be just a dream. The ACC needs us as much as we need them.
 
I type fast Hans and have a hybrid computer job. There are some good Uconn conversationalists here, you not included. I like to think of you as drunk wannabe Shakespeare. Let me know if you'd like me to find you the Drunk Shakespeare message board.
 
RuffRuff said:
I type fast Hans and have a hybrid computer job. There are some good Uconn conversationalists here, you not included. I like to think of you as drunk wannabe Shakespeare. Let me know if you'd like me to find you the Drunk Shakespeare message board.
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iu
 
RuffRuff said:
Brother, our conference strength has a lot of bearing on how we seed in the tourney, it also brings money to the league. It also brings TV revenue. Division strength doesn't matter in pro sports, it does in college. Let's not forget that top kids want to play against good team.

I used to pull hard for our conference mates on an emotional level when I was prideful for the BE being the best conference in the country. Now that any chance of that is gone, much less so. I'll always pull for our old brothers like GTown & Nova, less so for the midwest adds. Nowadays I simply pull for them as it comes to positioning Uconn best possible from an economics, recruiting and seeding perspective.
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I will continue to root against any school with a religious affiliation. Big East or not.
 
RuffRuff said:
Possibly, but then you have an Indiana, who is nothing but transfers and they ran a team full of continuity. With Creighton, I'm just not sure how impressed I am with their roster and I do thinking finally losing a guy like Kalk exposes them some. They have zero athletes on that team.

I'd lean towards these BE teams being bad. If we were to get 4-5 teams in (which would be suprising since we only got 3 in last year), it would be out of default. The one thing on our side is that the SEC shouldn't have bids in the teens and mid majors really aren't going to be making much noise to get auto bids in today's environment.

Georgetown could surprise as KJ & Mack are a solid core, they have a couple bigs and some solid role players.
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5 BE teams appeared in the tournament last year.
 
superjohn said:
The year before he's thinking of when the Big East was really good and should've had 6 bids but instead had 3.
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I (maybe incorrectly) assumed he meant last season since he was using it as a metric to predict how many get in this season.
 
RuffRuff said:
I did confuse seasons, sorry about that. Last year was 5 with Xavier in the play in game. We got two teams to the second round.
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Yes and the year before the Big East got 3 teams in when they should've gotten at least 5, probably 6. All 3 teams got to the sweet 16 and UConn won it all with the largest tournament margin of victory ever. The conference was really good in 23-24. Seton Hall won the NIT and St. John's turned it down.
 
Do we actually need the big east to really be good year to year to sustain a top tier program? Obviously more NCAAT money would be great, but I don’t see a lot of evidence of top flight programs being dragged down by their conferences (see Gonzaga and UNC/Duke with bad ACC years). As long as we can generate budget for players, I think we can stop the sky is falling act every other year
 
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BGesus4 said:
Do we actually need the big east to really be good year to year to sustain a top tier program? Obviously more NCAAT money would be great, but I don’t see a lot of evidence of top flight programs being dragged down by their conferences (see Gonzaga and UNC/Duke with bad ACC years). As long as we can generate budget for players, I think we can stop the sky is falling at every other year
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It's a good point - have thought about this. It certainly hasn't stopped Few for going on two decades plus. Few gets very creative with recruiting. He's also somehow mastered the art of KenPom/metrics too.

I'd say playing in a weak conference does give you less room for error and a much harder seeding. It also makes for a fairly lackluster conference slate from a fan perspective.
 
RuffRuff said:
It's a good point - have thought about this. It certainly hasn't stopped Few for going on two decades plus. Few gets very creative with recruiting. He's also somehow mastered the art of KenPom/metrics too.

I'd say playing in a weak conference does give you less room for error and a much harder seeding. It also makes for a fairly lackluster conference slate from a fan perspective.
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I agree from the fan perspective. For example, I was more excited to watch the exhibition against MSU than I was to watch any of our three games that counted so far. Of course, I watched all of them, but it’d be very exciting to have more frequent marquee matchups throughout the year.
 
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