Big East Tournament Scenarios | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Big East Tournament Scenarios

HooperScooper said:
And even that wouldn’t rid the bad taste of that loss. I still can’t believe they lost to that crappy team. I’ll get over it at some point.
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I don't think we've had a true blowout of any real (i.e. not Nov/Dec KP 300+ cupcake) team this season. I think tomorrow is the perfect time to hang a 30+ point rout on an opponent.
 
Get a Job said:
Who gives a flip about the national audience? We ARE fans of an individual team in the conference tournament in question. Are you saying you derive enjoyment from observing the accolades UConn collects from non-UConn fans, and not from the games and achievements of the team itself?
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superjohn said:
There's no point in being a fan with his attitude. He's basing his rooting interest on what he thinks other fans may care about or remember in the future. As a fan I want "my" team to win every regular season game, win the conference championship, win the conference tournament, win the NCAA tournament.

Some of my favorite memories as a fan and some of the best games I've ever seen were in the conference tournament. I'm extremely happy I got to watch the UConn Georgetown Big East championship game where Ray hit the scissor kick runner in the lane. It's one of the best games I've ever seen. Taliek with the desperation three point bomb to bury Pitt in another title game classic. Kemba putting McGhee on skates and draining the long jumper for the win as time expired. One of the most iconic plays ever. The list goes on.
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I care about the national audience, because recruits are in that national audience. I'm invested in the sustainability of what this program has going on. Will anyone here give a S if Kentucky wins the SECT beyond the next year? Most conf tourney champs are long forgotten and don't register much in the history books.

As for the BET, I'm looking at this year over year, and I find this year to be delicate given injuries & matchups (StJ) and personally will always find it more rewarding to win games on the national stage of the NCAA tourney, than the BET. I love the BET and in most years if we were fully healthy, had a real chance to win it, I'd be all in. I'm not going to not enjoy if they did make a run and win it, I simply see value in bowing out and resting going into the dance and in a less assuming position this year.

You can talk about Ray's scissor kicks all you want, we and everyone discuss our 6 titles far more. Gonzaga has won their crappy tournament a number of years and no one gives a damn, but they're seen as a top hoops brand because of their performances in the tournament (and they've never even won it).
 
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navery12 said:
I don't doubt this, and I suspect others here will agree with you, but I couldn't disagree more. That's a wild mindset to me
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I would call this the vast minority of fans thinking. A run in the NCAA all but wipes out any disappointment in a conference tourney, you also get to extend your season a week. You get paid for advancing in the dance - no funds coming from winning the BET. Such a weird take. I love the BE purists, but it's highly ignorant to the macro view and economics of today. There is a large group of fans here who wish they could go back to 1994 and stay there forever.
 
WrenchFan69 said:
I would rather win the Big East tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA than lose in the Big East tournament but make the Sweet 16, maybe even the Elite 8. Trophies matter
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This is crazy talk. If we get to the Elite8 it will be a successful year. Losing in first round will be totally disappointing.
 
UConnTrumbull said:
True but by this logic only a final four/national championship matters to a national audience. Only a select few programs are final four or bust any given year.
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If we don't qualify as part of the 'select few', nobody does.
 
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WrenchFan69 said:
I would rather win the Big East tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA than lose in the Big East tournament but make the Sweet 16, maybe even the Elite 8. Trophies matter
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This sounds like you would be willing to sacrifice a game in the big dance if it meant winning the conference tournament.

I personally prefer the way 2014 and 2023 turned out and there is no way in hell that anyone could convince me that it would have been beneficial to sacrifice an NCAA tournament game in each of those years to win our conference tournaments.
 
WrenchFan69 said:
I would rather win the Big East tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA than lose in the Big East tournament but make the Sweet 16, maybe even the Elite 8. Trophies matter
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Personally I would take the sweet 16 and definitely the elite 8, but to each his own.

Conference tournaments are important for seeding purposes, but the Big Dance is what I remember most about any given season.
 
It's all relative to expectations and the actual circumstances rather than general hypotheticals. If we, as we are this year, are an 8 seed, a Sweet 16 run would be great because that means we beat a dominant one seed in the NCAAs. That would be awesome. That to me would be equivalent to a deep BET run.

But if we were like a 6 and beat an 11 and then a 3, give me the BET championship if it's against St. John's with a rocking MSG.
 
This is a silly argument because it’s never an either or position the team will be in. Big east titles are great, the 5 in 5 will live forever in basketball circles, but the ultimate goal is always to win the whole thing.
 
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RuffRuff said:
I would call this the vast minority of fans thinking. A run in the NCAA all but wipes out any disappointment in a conference tourney, you also get to extend your season a week. You get paid for advancing in the dance - no funds coming from winning the BET. Such a weird take. I love the BE purists, but it's highly ignorant to the macro view and economics of today. There is a large group of fans here who wish they could go back to 1994 and stay there forever.
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I don't think anyone would dispute that a Final Four berth erases any hard feelings over an early conference tournament exit. That's not exactly a hot take. But 4 teams make the final four every year. 348 don't.

Your posts generally seem to indicate that your primary interest is "macro" trends and shifting theories as to roster construction, recruiting, etc. That's fine. But some of us are, first and foremost, UConn basketball fans. We want to see UConn play games and win them and the Big East Tournament - the best conference tournament in college basketball - is a big part of that.

I heard "Hypnotize" the other morning and my brain immediately pictured UConn's starters being introduced at a BET final. It's like a pavlovian response wired into my brain because the BET final is freaking awesome.

And with this team, specifically, I don't see much value in an early departure. I'd rather see them play some good teams under bright lights and hopefully build for the following week.
 
RuffRuff said:
I

I care about the national audience, because recruits are in that national audience. I'm invested in the sustainability of what this program has going on. Will anyone here give a S if Kentucky wins the SECT beyond the next year? Most conf tourney champs are long forgotten and don't register much in the history books.

As for the BET, I'm looking at this year over year, and I find this year to be delicate given injuries & matchups (StJ) and personally will always find it more rewarding to win games on the national stage of the NCAA tourney, than the BET. I love the BET and in most years if we were fully healthy, had a real chance to win it, I'd be all in. I'm not going to not enjoy if they did make a run and win it, I simply see value in bowing out and resting going into the dance and in a less assuming position this year.

You can talk about Ray's scissor kicks all you want, we and everyone discuss our 6 titles far more. Gonzaga has won their crappy tournament a number of years and no one gives a damn, but they're seen as a top hoops brand because of their performances in the tournament (and they've never even won it).
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This is such a strange defeatist attitude. It's the end of the season, every team is beat up physically. You seem to only want UConn participating in the Big East tournament if our health is 100% and we are expected to win it.

It's March, I want us playing our best ball of the season which is something we typically do in March. The Big East tournament is a big part of that and it's about as good a 4-5 days as there in the sport, especially as a UConn fan. I guess we should've packed it in and rested in 2011 so we could gear up for the NCAA tournament because we were the 9 seed and would have to play 5 games in 5 days against 4 ranked teams.
 
BigErnMcCracken said:
I don't think anyone would dispute that a Final Four berth erases any hard feelings over an early conference tournament exit. That's not exactly a hot take. But 4 teams make the final four every year. 348 don't.

Your posts generally seem to indicate that your primary interest is "macro" trends and shifting theories as to roster construction, recruiting, etc. That's fine. But some of us are, first and foremost, UConn basketball fans. We want to see UConn play games and win them and the Big East Tournament - the best conference tournament in college basketball - is a big part of that.

I heard "Hypnotize" the other morning and my brain immediately pictured UConn's starters being introduced at a BET final. It's like a pavlovian response wired into my brain because the BET final is freaking awesome.

And with this team, specifically, I don't see much value in an early departure. I'd rather see them play some good teams under bright lights and hopefully build for the following week.
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I've been watching Uconn hoops as a kid since the pre-Cliff Robinson days (I know that does compare to some of the Wes B crowd here). Yes, my primary interest is in roster building, brand building & economic sustainability. That's because I love this program. Not sure if you experienced the Ollie years, but we saw how fun it is to be a fan when you're in a dungeon. The reason I have a keen interest is because I never want to see that again.

I've been to 3 Uconn BET championship wins in person and love the experience. It's just when I look at this specific team, having watched every single game, I'm balancing my expectations with what I feel is best for this team in a tournament that is exponentially more important. Getting beaten up by a StJ team after 3 games/3 days before playing next Thursday doesn't resonate as a great scenario. Maybe it's defeatist, but I'll be much more enthused if it helps them get to the second weekend. This team has very little room for error in making a run and I think having Hassan as healthy as possible is a major factor in any chances to do that. The kid has looked 70% out there.

We lost in the semi's 2 years ago, does anyone really care? I know I don't. Again, happy to watch a fun ride in the BE tourney, 100x happier to see them surprise us in the Dance. To each their own.
 
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Prefer the 3 seed over the 2 seed because the game times are more favorable to our players observing Ramadan.

Our coaches and players want to win three things - the regular season conference championship, the conference tournament championship, and the NCAA tournament. The NCAA tournament championship is the most difficult so obviously the most valuable. But the other championships matter a lot. I'm with the coaches and players.
 
navery12 said:
I don't doubt this, and I suspect others here will agree with you, but I couldn't disagree more. That's a wild mindset to me
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To play Switzerland here, winning the BET could put the possibility of a six seed (or better?) in play, allowing us to avoid the “dangerous” two seed (likely Tennessee or Florida) until the second weekend
 
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WrenchFan69 said:
I would rather win the Big East tournament and lose in the first round of the NCAA than lose in the Big East tournament but make the Sweet 16, maybe even the Elite 8. Trophies matter
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Makes no sense.
 
navery12 said:
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The only part of this nutty thread that matters. So: win against SH and we are at worst a 3 seed with a shot at being a 2 seed. I think it's irrelevant, since UConn is opposite Creighton either way. It's just uniform color. Or can Marquette move to 3 and Creighton fall to 4?

As for the national audience thing. Sort of true. I think winning regular season > winning conf. tournament. But it's not worthless either. How about, just win every damned game that you can win? It's not like winning in the BET makes you less likely to win in the NCAAs. Al Davis had it right.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The only part of this nutty thread that matters. So: win against SH and we are at worst a 3 seed with a shot at being a 2 seed. I think it's irrelevant, since UConn is opposite Creighton either way. It's just uniform color. Or can Marquette move to 3 and Creighton fall to 4?

As for the national audience thing. Sort of true. I think winning regular season > winning conf. tournament. But it's not worthless either. How about, just win every damned game that you can win? It's not like winning in the BET makes you less likely to win in the NCAAs. Al Davis had it right.
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Amazon Football GIF by NFL On Prime Video
 
HuskyHawk said:
The only part of this nutty thread that matters. So: win against SH and we are at worst a 3 seed with a shot at being a 2 seed. I think it's irrelevant, since UConn is opposite Creighton either way. It's just uniform color. Or can Marquette move to 3 and Creighton fall to 4?

As for the national audience thing. Sort of true. I think winning regular season > winning conf. tournament. But it's not worthless either. How about, just win every damned game that you can win? It's not like winning in the BET makes you less likely to win in the NCAAs. Al Davis had it right.
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Well, actually, @RuffRuff's argument that no one agrees with is that winning the conference tournament DOES make the team less likely to win in the NCAAs.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The only part of this nutty thread that matters. So: win against SH and we are at worst a 3 seed with a shot at being a 2 seed. I think it's irrelevant, since UConn is opposite Creighton either way. It's just uniform color. Or can Marquette move to 3 and Creighton fall to 4?

As for the national audience thing. Sort of true. I think winning regular season > winning conf. tournament. But it's not worthless either. How about, just win every damned game that you can win? It's not like winning in the BET makes you less likely to win in the NCAAs. Al Davis had it right.
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Just win ten more this season.....................

Each game is a game unto itself.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The only part of this nutty thread that matters. So: win against SH and we are at worst a 3 seed with a shot at being a 2 seed. I think it's irrelevant, since UConn is opposite Creighton either way. It's just uniform color. Or can Marquette move to 3 and Creighton fall to 4?

As for the national audience thing. Sort of true. I think winning regular season > winning conf. tournament. But it's not worthless either. How about, just win every damned game that you can win? It's not like winning in the BET makes you less likely to win in the NCAAs. Al Davis had it right.
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Creighton can only drop the 3 so if we're the 3 seed they're the 2 seed. The only real impact is our round 1 opponent. Georgetown is unlikely to move the needle in a 2/7 game, there's an outside chance Villanova sneaks in as a Q1 game in the 3/6 matchup
 
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navery12 said:
Creighton can only drop the 3 so if we're the 3 seed they're the 2 seed. The only real impact is our round 1 opponent. Georgetown is unlikely to move the needle in a 2/7 game, there's an outside chance Villanova sneaks in as a Q1 game in the 3/6 matchup
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Very tough to move up 3 spots with a win against a terribly ranked opponent and then a loss. But it's possible. They'd probably have to lose close, which despite becoming Q1 may then make our other metrics worse at the same time, so probably not a great tradeoff (though would depend how heavily the committee is indexing on the quads).
 
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auror said:
Very tough to move up 3 spots with a win against a terribly ranked opponent and then a loss. But it's possible. They'd probably have to loss close, which may then make our other metrics worse at the same time, so probably not a great tradeoff (though would depend how heavily the committee is indexing on the quads).
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Yeah that's why I said outside chance, especially when their round 1 game is against Seton Hall. Safe to assume they'll be locked in as a Q2 game at this point
 
businesslawyer said:
In the world of "man, was that a bad call" statements, how do you grade yourself on a scale of 1 to 10?
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Well that one didn’t age well per the one game, and Samson did play lights out. Good for him. I am holding out on the fact Tarris is a much more important ingredient come big tourney. If Samson takes us on a wild journey of madness, then I’ll share a picture of myself actually eating a crow.

Speaking of which
Tarris Reed Jr.'s untapped potential could fuel UConn's quest for a three-peat | FOX Sports
 
navery12 said:
Yeah that's why I said outside chance, especially when their round 1 game is against Seton Hall. Safe to assume they'll be locked in as a Q2 game at this point
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Seton Hall isn't near any quad cliffs, so we should definitely root hard for Nova to blast Seton Hall by 30+ in the BET first round (assuming we end up as the 3 seed).
 
Immediate goal: Beat Seton Hall
Next goal: Win BET
Once the NCAA tourney starts: Win the NCAA

Good thoughts heading for those goals:
1. Senior night and obviously then a home game vs Seton Hall
2. For the last 2 years, the best version of the Huskies was in the NCAA tournament, not the regular season.
3. Our two centers played their best games of the season in the last 2 games (Tarris @ Providence, Samson vs Marquette)
4. I think we finally figured out Hurley's take on Samson vs Tarris: if the opponent has a big C or no real height, Tarris gets the minutes. If the opponent has a more mobile C, Samson gets the minutes. Who starts is irrelevant.

BET should be fun - I am trying to get Thursday and Friday tickets but waiting for Saturday's games to conclude for times to be cemented for each team.
 
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