Big East Tournament Thread

[ecasadoSBU]

I generally agree with you about the current BET, but I don’t share your excitement about its history since 1996. You try to insinuate Freescooter is a chump for referring to the current BE as NBE. I think most realize he was differentiating between the old and the new. The old was so much better than the new. With the old I would watch every single game from start to finish. The Big East was king back then. It was a great tune up and springboard to the big dance for UConn or any other BE school I would back. Now, I will watch our game Thursday. However, if we don’t play Thursday or Friday, then I will have no further interest in the BET. I am excited about our participation in the tournament, but it just isn’t for me what it once was.

That's probably more due to you aging than drop in quality. Happens to all of us. Excitement wanes over time. That's why you'll get a new crop of fans there to pack the house and they'll create their own great memories and 20 years down the line they will say "Remember how good the old Big East Tournament" was.

Now - from an analytical standpoint. Yes - the Big East is down and its not the current king of the BE. Its 5th out of 31 conference. But it remains a heck of a good and exciting league and the BET has been competitive the past decade even after the league reformed. Winning the BET in the heart of NYC is always going have its appeal.

Even a few years ago I attended the all-session BET in the mid 2010s (2014-19) and it was a blast. I can't do it anymore because life gets on the way and there are only so many tenders/fries/hotdogs you can eat over a 4-day period before you feel like crap.


TL;DR: You guys gotta tone down all this negativity over the league and anything related to it. It's really tiring.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

You know about the only thing accurate about this is that it generates revenue for the league. The “ marquee conference tournament” wouldn’t finish behind the SEC, Big 10 , Big 12, ACC and Mountain West in terms of audience. It has even finished behind the A10 a few times. Full disclosure we beat the Mountsin West last year. Its final won’t get bounced out of the prime time broadcast slot. The original Big East title game was the lead in to the selection show. Then it moved to Saturday Prime time. Now it’s Saturday at dinner time. Hardly a marquee time slot. But at least you can watch it and still have time to go out after.
Uh oh. This year we are up against the B12 and the Mountain West. We’ll see if the NBE is indeed the “marquee conference”

My view is it’s a meh league and I dislike these fake made for tv “tournaments” in general and the NBE’s in particular. I don’t get the hype. It has been years since the games have been memorable, the outcome isn’t particularly important, and if I were coaching I would not love risking star players in a 3 or 4 games in a row format when the real tournament is less than a week away. It’s all the value of the NBA’s in season tournament without the extra money for the players.

BTW, have you ever been to another power conference tournament?

Attendance wise the BET is #1 year after year. But sure. you want to focus on TV audience.

You do know that barring a few exceptions out there - your overall TV audience is positively correlated with the size of your alumni base, right? and the draw of the channel its aired, right?

At the end of the day - this is college basketball and a lot of folks tune in to follow their alma mater and unless you are on mainstream ESPN 1/2** (where casuals and sports fans tune in and all the bars put it on every TV) your TV audience ceiling is capped by the size of your alumni fan base. I shouldn't have to explain this. This is obvious

The Big East has an uphill battle on both of those fronts: We know that. We are all well aware that 10 out of the 11 schools are small to mid-size private universities. We are also aired on Peacock/Fox not ESPN.

Even UConn cannot compete with the draw / alumni bases of the large state universities of the South/Midwest. But attendance wise we have many schools that have great attendance and proud CBB traditions

 

[ecasadoSBU]

Man. Its really frustrating that every thread of the Big East in the BY descends into the same old b.s. Just taking shots at the league. and its always the same dude pushing the same tired narrative.

 

[DW1361]

You know about the only thing accurate about this is that it generates revenue for the league. The “ marquee conference tournament” wouldn’t finish behind the SEC, Big 10 , Big 12, ACC and Mountain West in terms of audience. It has even finished behind the A10 a few times. Full disclosure we beat the Mountsin West last year. Its final won’t get bounced out of the prime time broadcast slot. The original Big East title game was the lead in to the selection show. Then it moved to Saturday Prime time. Now it’s Saturday at dinner time. Hardly a marquee time slot. But at least you can watch it and still have time to go out after.
Uh oh. This year we are up against the B12 and the Mountain West. We’ll see if the NBE is indeed the “marquee conference”

My view is it’s a meh league and I dislike these fake made for tv “tournaments” in general and the NBE’s in particular. I don’t get the hype. It has been years since the games have been memorable, the outcome isn’t particularly important, and if I were coaching I would not love risking star players in a 3 or 4 games in a row format when the real tournament is less than a week away. It’s all the value of the NBA’s in season tournament without the extra money for the players.

BTW, have you ever been to another power conference tournament?

Sorry Freescooter. I am going to blow your theory away with just one example. The 2011 BET was won by UConn having to play 5 days in a row. Then you know what happened in the NCAA tournament. There are many examples of this. Also, perhaps the biggest reason for the excitement of a conference championship is the chance for an automatic bid. You see it as a bad thing. Most see it as great. I said I would not watch the entire tournament if UConn wasn’t in it. However, if one of the unlikely schools make it to Saturday you bet your butt that I will be watching and as long as it isn’t UConn I will be rooting for them.

Miami Ohio is in regardless of their tournament. However, I do get the point you are making. I know your didn’t ask me, but although I have not been to our or another conference’s tournament, I think both would be great, especially going to MSG!!!!

 

[superjohn]

Willard deserves it, he took over a Nova program who missed three straight tournaments and he instantly made them a tournament team who is going to get a pretty good seed.

If they're going the route of who took a program that was the dregs of the league and made them a solid team I would probably give it to Holtmann over Holloway. I don't like the award going to a coach who isn't making the tournament.

 

[DW1361]

That's probably more due to you aging than drop in quality. Happens to all of us. Excitement wanes over time. That's why you'll get a new crop of fans there to pack the house and they'll create their own great memories and 20 years down the line they will say "Remember how good the old Big East Tournament" was.

Now - from an analytical standpoint. Yes - the Big East is down and its not the current king of the BE. Its 5th out of 31 conference. But it remains a heck of a good and exciting league and the BET has been competitive the past decade even after the league reformed. Winning the BET in the heart of NYC is always going have its appeal.

Even a few years ago I attended the all-session BET in the mid 2010s (2014-19) and it was a blast. I can't do it anymore because life gets on the way and there are only so many tenders/fries/hotdogs you can eat over a 4-day period before you feel like crap.


TL;DR: You guys gotta tone down all this negativity over the league and anything related to it. It's really tiring.

Funny you say that. At 65 I wondered the same thing. The problem is that I lived through the greatness of the Big East when at its height it was arguably the best bb conference. Although the NBE is way better than the American, it still can’t come close to matching those glory years. That’s the crux of the matter for me.

 

[freescooter]

Sorry Freescooter. I am going to blow your theory away with just one example. The 2011 BET was won by UConn having to play 5 days in a row. Then you know what happened in the NCAA tournament. There are many examples of this. Also, perhaps the biggest reason for the excitement of a conference championship is the chance for an automatic bid. You see it as a bad thing. Most see it as great. I said I would not watch the entire tournament if UConn wasn’t in it. However, if one of the unlikely schools make it to Saturday you bet your butt that I will be watching and as long as it isn’t UConn I will be rooting for them.

Miami Ohio is in regardless of their tournament. However, I do get the point you are making. I know your didn’t ask me, but although I have not been to our or another conference’s tournament, I think both would be great, especially going to MSG!!!!

It doesn’t matter for a UConn team. They are in the ncaa tournament. Win lose or draw.

 

[kobebeanbryant]

When is best time to buy tickets for Saturday? Now or after teams start to get knocked out?

Cheapest available is $120 now.

 

[huskyjawz]

I would wait. Saturday is usually not a tough ticket.

 

[mauconnfan]

I want to be done with the big east. I am only concerned with how we come out in the actual tourney. This has been the longest conference season in recent memory. I will begrudgingly watch every single game of the BET

I am with you on this for sure. Honestly one win is fine with me, anything else is gravy. Get this team outta the BE asap, get to unfamiliar teams and better refereeing please. 1,2,3 seed whatever you have to beat good teams. Bring them on but I’m sick of the BE as of now and the holding, grabbing, bumping allowed. Bring on the Dance!

 

[Mike Honcho]

I would wait. Saturday is usually not a tough ticket.

I bought the cheapest available 2 years ago just to get in the door, then my friend and I parked ourselves in the 100 level, center court, about 15 rows up with a perfect line of vision. Rudy Gay sat a row behind us lol. If it's UConn-SJU that's a different story but Marquette fans didn't travel and scalpers held true so as not to depress the market. Entire rows were essentially empty.

 

[Scrutineer]

St John’s plays 11 games at Madison Square Garden. Seems like a home court to me. Doesn’t matter when they aren’t good. When they are, though it is a little unfair, no?

Like holding the women's Big East at Mohegan Sun?
Didn't see other earlier posts saying this.

 

[Scrutineer]

I generally agree with you about the current BET, but I don’t share your excitement about its history since 1996. You try to insinuate Freescooter is a chump for referring to the current BE as NBE. I think most realize he was differentiating between the old and the new. The old was so much better than the new. With the old I would watch every single game from start to finish. The Big East was king back then. It was a great tune up and springboard to the big dance for UConn or any other BE school I would back. Now, I will watch our game Thursday. However, if we don’t play Thursday or Friday, then I will have no further interest in the BET. I am excited about our participation in the tournament, but it just isn’t for me what it once was.

You had to have been there from the beginning to understand what you're saying.
The title game was on Sunday in the early days, but that Big East owned the media and Saturday night, even for just two teams, was a hot ticket. We got eliminated almost every year in the first round but stayed to see great games while trying to imagine how it would feel to have our team playing for the title.
We found out in 1990 and nothing has been the same since.
It's great to have 6 NC's and 8 Big East regular season and tournament titles, but that first BE title had us all floating on air.

 

[Scrutineer]

third from bottom, technically

 

[HuskyinWRNY]

St John’s plays 11 games at Madison Square Garden. Seems like a home court to me. Doesn’t matter when they aren’t good. When they are, though it is a little unfair, no?

Just like Mohegan Sun for wbb

 

[FightOnCT]

St John’s plays 11 games at Madison Square Garden. Seems like a home court to me. Doesn’t matter when they aren’t good. When they are, though it is a little unfair, no?

Not unfair…it’s still Storrs South to me even if St. John’s has a good year or two.

 

[Marat]

I remember the 1999 BET final vs SJU very well. It was totally Storrs South and Johnies fans were like non existent. If its again this match up, expect something like 65% to 35% UConn fans - bit closer but still heavy UConn advantage.

 

[Flipside]

Happy March 10th!