Lousy interconference results by other Big East teams is making the USC & NC State games even more important. Providence, St Johns, Georgetown, Marquette, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Villanova have all essentially failed to get important wins, lost poorly, lost to weak teams, played average teams too close, or were upset. Now I assume our conference loses aren't going to be offset as much by the presumed strength of the conference. Reputation means a lot. Seton Hall, Xavier, and Villanova at least pass the 'eye test'. Providence has sucked, Georgetown loses to Navy, St Johns let BC come back 20 points in minutes with their wild style and showed no poise in the last minute, and Marquette wasn't competitive with Okl St. Villanova gets tripped up, and Creighton, Depaul, and Butler have just been out of the loop so far against good competition. Not many key out of conference games left for the other teams to make their mark. It is up to us to win and keep winning. Pressure, pressure, pressure.