Jay Wright: This is the Best BE

[CL82]

Yeah I'm not clear on what people on here expect him to say. "Honestly, Andy, the conference is fine but it's not nearly as good as it was when Connecticut, Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville were involved. Quite frankly, I wish I coached at UConn, the finest program in the land, but they already have the best coach in American in Kevin Ollie."

That would be okay...for a start.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

Umm, looks like I'm the only one who doesn't think this is a big deal. Do I agree? Of course not. But what do you expect Jay to do? He's barracking for his conference. Influence public perception whatever way you can. I hope Ollie/Brown/Cronin et al do the same for the American.

^^^^This

Jay is basically the lead sales agent for the company that owned the Titanic 2 weeks after the iceberg. He has to sell this product to a weary market; which means he has to say insane things with utmost confidence. That is his job.

 

[Husky1964]

Stick to Northwestern commercials Jay. The last time u went to the FF the NCAA conveniently allowed the regionals to be played on your sometimes home floor!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ConnHuskBask]

More of a side bar than anything but adding Creighton to the Big East basically because of McDermott seemed like a bad move at the time, and even worse now.

Good fan support and decent tradition for a mid major, but in Nebraska for christ sake. Seemed like Dayton should have been a no brainer.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Yeah I'm not clear on what people on here expect him to say. "Honestly, Andy, the conference is fine but it's not nearly as good as it was when Connecticut, Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville were involved. Quite frankly, I wish I coached at UConn, the finest program in the land, but they already have the best coach in American in Kevin Ollie."

I had the same reaction. Actually, at first I misread the title and thought this was said by Jay Bilas. That might be noteworthy.

But Jay Wright, coach of Villanova, hyping his own conference? Really nothing to see here, people.

 

[Arizona Husky]

His wife said it all in 2009...

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleg...2010/03/17/villanova_wants_final_four_repeat/

 

[superjohn]

Providence is legit. We all knew about Dunn but Bentil is also a star and Bullock is a great third man.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

I dont know if its the best ever... but Besides Connecticut I absolutely don't waste anytime on the AAC. I have made Fox Sports 1 my default channel in my cable box. I been watching more Big East basketball than I ever, mostly due to the amount of games on national TV. Its a great league to watch and it's nice to see how the basketball league is thriving with parity.

I still love Stony Brook and Connecticut basketball. But the AAC is a crapfest. Can't waste my time watching other league members crap the bed. Hoping for Connecticut to get to the NCAAs some how... but with the RPI problems this conference has I'm not too confident

 

[CTMike]

It offends me that they are still called the Big East.

 

[David 76]

You expect him to talk up his conference. But it's just that the BE had so many historic seasons, it's just a stupid thing to say.
And Villanova was involved in one of them. Talking them up is fine. This is like saying today's politicians are the greatest group of statesmen our nation has seen.

 

[UConn3432]

The NBE is getting national attention because PC is playing well with a NPOY candidate, Butler is scoring 90 points per game and Xavier hadn't lost, until recently. It's most likely a charade, because they'll all take turns beating each other in conference and we'll all realize come March that they don't have a legitimate title contender. We learned from being in the real big east that it doesn't matter how many teams you get in or their seed lines, but how many teams you get to the final four and ultimately cut down nets. Also, if Xavier or Butler are the ones to make a run, is that really the big east and does anybody care?

That said I think the worst thing that's happened in recent memory for the AAC was SMU losing early in the tourney last year to UCLA with an easy road to a matchup with Duke in the E8.

 

[Kitaman]

He's just selling the conference. Of course he knows its not true. He is dong better in the BE these days, so selfishly he has reason to feel its better.

Anyway: Patrick Ewing, Ray Allen, Mutumbo, Chris Mullin, Iverson, John Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Emeka Okafor, Pearl Washington, my man Taliek Brown, and the list goes on and on. Wow I'm tearing up just reminiscing.

Oh. and the BE Coaches were outstanding and they too were better than JW (who wasn't bad at all).

 

[A10 fan]

That said I think the worst thing that's happened in recent memory for the AAC was SMU losing early in the tourney last year to UCLA with an easy road to a matchup with Duke in the E8.

The worst thing that's happened to the AAC is the fact that SMU can't play in the tourney this year, when they have a team that would have an outside shot of reaching the Final Four if the matchups were favorable.

The AAC will never be the old BE, but it could be the third best league in the land if three things would happen.

Memphis gets a real coach
Temple gets a better coach than Dunphy, who is the JT3 of the AAC
Houston continues it's upward trajectory.
Those three programs have been elite in the past, and have the potential to return to that level, unlike the no tradition teams at the bottom.

In fact, two of those three happening would make this a very solid league.
It would also help if some of the dregs would have the occasional good year, the way BC would sometimes do in the old BE.

 

[Hoophound]

I dont know if its the best ever... but Besides Connecticut I absolutely don't waste anytime on the AAC. I have made Fox Sports 1 my default channel in my cable box. I been watching more Big East basketball than I ever, mostly due to the amount of games on national TV. Its a great league to watch and it's nice to see how the basketball league is thriving with parity. I still love Stony Brook and Connecticut basketball. But the AAC is a crapfest. Can't waste my time watching other league members crap the bed. Hoping for Connecticut to get to the NCAAs some how... but with the RPI problems this conference has I'm not too confident

You and 436 other people tune in to FS1. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but I think the AAC crapfests have a lot more viewers than a good Big East game on FS1.

 

[Kevin Caliendo]

Villanova is taking nearly 50% of its shots from three and shooting 31% as a team. I can't take a coach who allows that to happen seriously

The Big East has maybe three first round picks. Maybe. Dunn and Brunson are PGs.

 

[UC990411]

Probably meant new big east. Until they put at least 3 teams from the new into the final four in the same year you can't consider it. Their league is pretty darn good though this year.
Have been glancing at the Vil / Xavier game and Archie D carries the ball every bit as much as Jalen


Seton Hall is having a good year

They're such an overrated conference that it's not worth going into detail about how the league isn't "pretty darn good"

 

[imno1]

I dont know if its the best ever... but Besides Connecticut I absolutely don't waste anytime on the AAC. I have made Fox Sports 1 my default channel in my cable box. I been watching more Big East basketball than I ever, mostly due to the amount of games on national TV. Its a great league to watch and it's nice to see how the basketball league is thriving with parity.

I still love Stony Brook and Connecticut basketball. But the AAC is a crapfest. Can't waste my time watching other league members crap the bed. Hoping for Connecticut to get to the NCAAs some how... but with the RPI problems this conference has I'm not too confident

Just don't watch fs2. I laugh when the games aren't in HD. It's like watching a local access channel

 

[mauconnfan]

Villanova is taking nearly 50% of its shots from three and shooting 31% as a team. I can't take a coach who allows that to happen seriously

The Big East has maybe three first round picks. Maybe. Dunn and Brunson are PGs.

One thing for sure is if you live by the 3, and almost 50% of their shots is living, then you will be assured this is not a formula for winning 6 in a row in March/April. But keep on winning NBE titles if that's what blows your skirt up Jay.

 

[A10 fan]

One thing for sure is if you live by the 3, and almost 50% of their shots is living, then you will be assured this is not a formula for winning 6 in a row in March/April. But keep on winning NBE titles if that's what blows your skirt up Jay.

Shooting a lot of threes is okay for a decent team that doesn't have high aspirations. If you generally shoot well, there are going to be days where you're just draining everything, even with defenders all over you. If you're playing a good team, you'll probably spring an upset that will leave your fanbase happy. Unfortunately, there are going to be days when even wide open shots clang off the rim. If you're an NCAA Tournament team, this is almost certain to happen at some point during the tournament. If it happens at any point from the round of 32 on, you're likely going home.

 

[FDNY99]

He told Katz 1-10 it's the best ever. They're getting 6-8 teams according to Katz. Thoughts? Sounds like nonsense to me.

Jay Wright is a tool...his next big NCAA Tourney win will be his first!

 

[A10 fan]

You and 436 other people tune in to FS1. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but I think the AAC crapfests have a lot more viewers than a good Big East game on FS1.

UConn has 9 AAC games coming up, that will be on either ESPN, or ESPN2. That is true national exposure, both for UConn, and the AAC. I would bet that these games draw more viewers than nearly every game the nBE has on FS1. ESPN needs to promote these, and the other top league games, more than they do.

 

[A10 fan]

Jay Wright is a tool...his next big NCAA Tourney win will be his first!

Jay has been to the Final Four, so that's not true. That said, 8 teams in is hilarious! DePaul, and St. John's are horrible. Marquette's record was built on a joke schedule. Creighton? Just stop!!! The other 6 are indeed in the mix, but Georgetown has a lot of work to do, and can you really trust Seton Hall? They have 4 locks, and 2 possibles, that's it.

 

[FDNY99]

Jay has been to the Final Four, so that's not true. That said, 8 teams in is hilarious! DePaul, and St. John's are horrible. Marquette's record was built on a joke schedule. Creighton? Just stop!!! The other 6 are indeed in the mix, but Georgetown has a lot of work to do, and can you really trust Seton Hall? They have 4 locks, and 2 possibles, that's it.

When Jay wins a National title then come back and tout his accomplishments...like I said his next Big NCAA Tourney win will be his first

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Wasn't the most watched college BB game on Fox this year was UConn vs DePaul women?
I believe it had 1mm viewers.

 

[intlzncster]

Villanova is taking nearly 50% of its shots from three and shooting 31% as a team. I can't take a coach who allows that to happen seriously

It's actually a good strategy when you run the numbers. Shooting 33% from three has been shown to be roughly equivalent to shooting 50% from two. That's a good tradeoff, especially if your team struggles to get clean two point shots off. This % breakdown is why you are seeing such emphasis on the 3 ball in the pros (notably Golden State).