Jay Wright: This is the Best BE

[intlzncster]

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

There's only 10 active coaches* with National Titles under their belts. And that includes Tubby Smith, Steve Fisher and Jim Boeheim. That can't be the only metric of quality coaching.

*iirc: K, Izzo, Pitino, Roy, Cal, Boeheim, Self, Brown, Ollie, Fisher, Tubby

 

[FDNY99]

There's only 10 active coaches* with National Titles under their belts. And that includes Tubby Smith, Steve Fisher and Jim Boeheim. That can't be the only metric of quality coaching.

*iirc: K, Izzo, Pitino, Roy, Cal, Boeheim, Self, Brown, Ollie, Fisher, Tubby

Quality of coaching just went out the window in reference to Jay Wright when he made those statements about the quality of the BE to Andy Katz! Jay Wright also is not even close to the league of coaches you just put in this post.

 

[intlzncster]

Quality of coaching just went out the window in reference to Jay Wright when he made those statements about the quality of the BE to Andy Katz! Jay Wright also is not even close to the league of coaches you just put in this post.

I never said (nor implying) he was. But there's plenty of very good coaches who haven't won NCs. Guys like Sean Miller, Beilein, Shaka, Few, Huggins, Brey. Jay Wright is in that category imo.

 

[FDNY99]

I never said (nor implying) he was. But there's plenty of very good coaches who haven't won NCs. Guys like Sean Miller, Beilein, Shaka, Few, Huggins, Brey. Jay Wright is in that category imo.

Not after he made the statement he did about the BE. It's fine to try and back up your conference..but the BE he came into when he was hired at Nova was hands down a MUCH better AND tougher league than it is now. I also think it is a travesty to the other guys on that list that you put Brey in there. Even the ND fan base doesn't like him much. I'm always extremely scared and want to talk back my question..when I ask my dentist who is a ND grad and HUGE booster about Brey...he goes off on a rant and then starts to dig into my mouth,,LOL.

 

[intlzncster]

Not after he made the statement he did about the BE. It's fine to try and back up your conference..but the BE he came into when he was hired at Nova was hands down a MUCH better AND tougher league than it is now. I also think it is a travesty to the other guys on that list that you put Brey in there. Even the ND fan base doesn't like him much.

Well that's way over dramatic; I just threw him in there without much thought. Take him out if you want, or make up an 'exact' list. It makes no difference to my post.

The thing about the new BE or the AAC, is that the coaches HAVE to go way over the top in backing their leagues in public. They are just not good leagues right now, and are considered lesser than the P5 conferences, even if talent in any given year is above one or more of the P5s. It's all about marketing and PR at this point.

 

[Husky1964]

Brey might win one if he's K's replacement but NOT at ND!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Not after he made the statement he did about the BE. It's fine to try and back up your conference..but the BE he came into when he was hired at Nova was hands down a MUCH better AND tougher league than it is now.

He's a coach. He's talking up his league. It literally means nothing. Now he doesn't belong in a certain group of coaches because he said his league is good? That's nonsensical.

 

[FDNY99]

He's a coach. He's talking up his league. It literally means nothing. Now he doesn't belong in a certain group of coaches because he said his league is good? That's nonsensical.

Hey if you are a fan of any team no longer in the BE that had anything to do with making that league what it was in it's hey day of the 90's and early 00's then that is a slap in the face...be it a UCONN fan, Pitt fan, Syracuse fan, Louisville fan...even a BC fan. He went a bit overboard talking up his league IMHO. But then again he doesn't have those schools to smack him around anymore and now he is the big dog on the block. I also have never really thought too highly of Jay Wright. My impression of him is this..although a good coach he has a VERY high opinion of himself just like Mike Brey..and if it wasn't for the schools I mentioned as former BE members would not even be close to being in the class he has been compared to in this thread.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

Hey if you are a fan of any team no longer in the BE that had anything to do with making that league what it was in it's hey day of the 90's and early 00's then that is a slap in the face...be it a UCONN fan, Pitt fan, Syracuse fan, Louisville fan...even a BC fan. He went a bit overboard talking up his league IMHO. But then again he doesn't have those schools to smack him around anymore and now he is the big dog on the block. I also have never really thought too highly of Jay Wright. My impression of him is this..although a good coach he has a VERY high opinion of himself just like Mike Brey..and if it wasn't for the schools I mentioned as former BE members would not even be close to being in the class he has been compared to in this thread.

Wouldn't the slap on the face be jumping ship to another conference after being so successful being part of the conference you created? selling out to CFB is more of a slap on the face. But yeah, blame the small basketball schools for staying behind and trying to build something great. Blame them for sticking to basketball and trying to compete against the football powerhouses. Bottom line is that if you truly like College Basketball then you have to love what the Big East stands for. Its a fight against the status quo. A fight for survival in the current college landscape. It's a great league and its fun to watch. It's also very stable now in its current configuration. Everyone can focus on basketball with no worries about realignment

I have no sympathy for Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, and BC. They left in search of the FB money and I hope they never return to the top in CBB. So far, Syracuse, BC, and Pitt are following the script. I'm hoping Louisville also collapses (unlikely).

 

[upstater]

Wouldn't the slap on the face be jumping ship to another conference after being so successful being part of the conference you created? selling out to CFB is more of a slap on the face. But yeah, blame the small basketball schools for staying behind and trying to build something great. Blame them for sticking to basketball and trying to compete against the football powerhouses. Bottom line is that if you truly like College Basketball then you have to love what the Big East stands for. Its a fight against the status quo. A fight for survival in the current college landscape. It's a great league and its fun to watch. It's also very stable now in its current configuration. Everyone can focus on basketball with no worries about realignment

I have no sympathy for Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, and BC. They left in search of the FB money and I hope they never return to the top in CBB. So far, Syracuse, BC, and Pitt are following the script. I'm hoping Louisville also collapses (unlikely).

UConn didn't jump ship. What are you talking about?

I think you overrate how compelling the BE is. They have a lot of good teams for sure. But honestly, fans are not going to tune into watch some of these just OK teams. I do tune in to watch those top 4 and Georgetown. But that's it Overall, I can't see how those 5 are going to draw more eyeballs than UConn, SMU, Cincy, Memphis and Temple. I don't think they will. So at that point, I think 6-1o become irrelevant.

I'm not going to watch UCF or Tulane, but I'm not watching Creighton or whoever either.

Point is, the BE has better teams this year, but I just don't see where the juice is. I consider myself a pretty engaged college bball fan, but watching Creighton interests me just as much as watching USF. In other words, not at all.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

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).

You are comparing a 34-year span of success vs 3-year span of the current configuration of the Big East. I don't think there has been enough time to make a fair comparison of the current configuration vs. the historical one. We also have to consider that the Pre-2013 Big East had many different alignments with many different programs coming and going so it makes the historical comparison even more difficult.

But truth is that five of the original conference members out of the nine. It lost BC back in 2004 and lost three more in 2013. The majority of the members, however, still remain and the majority of the history it's still there kept in their record books


edit typo: Configure but i meant consider

 

[upstater]

You are comparing a 34-year span of success vs 3-year span of the current configuration of the Big East. I don't think there has been enough time to make a fair comparison of the current configuration vs. the historical one. We also have to configure that the Pre-2013 Big East had many different alignments with many different programs coming and going so it makes the historical comparison even more difficult.

But truth is that five of the original conference members out of the nine. It lost BC back in 2004 and lost three more in 2013. The majority of the members, however, still remain and the majority of the history it's still there kept in their record books

I really think most of us are comparing the lack of success over a couple decades by the current teams in the BE. In other words, the conference, post 1988, was dominated by UConn, Syracuse, Pitt and in the later years Louisville. Georgetown was good in the Iverson years conference-wise, but it was out of the scene nationally.

 

[ecasadoSBU]

UConn didn't jump ship. What are you talking about?

I think you overrate how compelling the BE is. They have a lot of good teams for sure. But honestly, fans are not going to tune into watch some of these just OK teams. I do tune in to watch those top 4 and Georgetown. But that's it Overall, I can't see how those 5 are going to draw more eyeballs than UConn, SMU, Cincy, Memphis and Temple. I don't think they will. So at that point, I think 6-1o become irrelevant.

I'm not going to watch UCF or Tulane, but I'm not watching Creighton or whoever either.

Point is, the BE has better teams this year, but I just don't see where the juice is. I consider myself a pretty engaged college bball fan, but watching Creighton interests me just as much as watching USF. In other words, not at all.

Notice how I didn't mention Connecticut not even once in that post. It's obvious Connecticut didn't jump ship. But our program so badly wanted to. We were ready to sell our basketball soul for CFB money. It just didn't work out they way we wanted to. We got caught up in the realignment battle and got burned. We were forced out.

I doubt the Big East will ever draw as many eyeballs in FS1 as the AAC on ESPN currently does. It's impossible. The Big East programs don't have big enough fan bases to outdraw the P5 + AAC and especially on the flagship ESPN. But they definitely can compete on the field. Not competing on TV doesn't mean they cannot compete on the field and they are definitely putting a lot of effort to remain as competitors on the field. They are also getting paid well for the next 8 years so they have a good opportunity to continue to mature the brand and build rivalries

 

[ecasadoSBU]

I really think most of us are comparing the lack of success over a couple decades by the current teams in the BE. In other words, the conference, post 1988, was dominated by UConn, Syracuse, Pitt and in the later years Louisville. Georgetown was good in the Iverson years conference-wise, but it was out of the scene nationally.

You are right the football schools in the Big East had the competitive advantage over the smaller private schools and that advantage became more obvious in the 1990s and it was only getting wider and wider. The cool thing about the current Big East is that now you have a level playing field of schools with relatively powerful basketball brands beating up on each other to make to the top tier of the league. They all get the same revenue and the same TV time and now don't have to worry about a football school having a more powerful brand and getting the better talent. I think this has helped schools like Providence bounce back and I expect basketball schools like Providence and St. John's to have a better future now in this current alignment. DePaul is also putting a lot of effort (building a new arena) to become competitors even though they have a lot of work to do

 

[intlzncster]

I have no sympathy for Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, and BC. They left in search of the FB money and I hope they never return to the top in CBB. So far, Syracuse, BC, and Pitt are following the script. I'm hoping Louisville also collapses (unlikely).

Louisville remains much more committed to their BBall team than the others. After all, they didn't fire Pitino for having a hooker recruiting program under his watch.

And the Catholics did the only thing they could do. Form a nonfootball league. That's survival.

 

[A10 fan]

You are right the football schools in the Big East had the competitive advantage over the smaller private schools and that advantage became more obvious in the 1990s and it was only getting wider and wider. The cool thing about the current Big East is that now you have a level playing field of schools with relatively powerful basketball brands beating up on each other to make to the top tier of the league. They all get the same revenue and the same TV time and now don't have to worry about a football school having a more powerful brand and getting the better talent. I think this has helped schools like Providence bounce back and I expect basketball schools like Providence and St. John's to have a better future now in this current alignment. DePaul is also putting a lot of effort (building a new arena) to become competitors even though they have a lot of work to do

It's funny how folks like to boost up St. John's, and their potential, based on what they did 30 years ago, yet the same folks will sneer at the potential of a Houston. If we're basing future potential on what happened 30-40 years ago, keep in mind that Houston was better than St. John's in that same era, and was better than DePaul, or PC as well.

By the way, Pitt is doing fine, Top 25 last time I looked.

 

[intlzncster]

It's funny how folks like to boost up St. John's, and their potential, based on what they did 30 years ago, yet the same folks will sneer at the potential of a Houston. If we're basing future potential on what happened 30-40 years ago, keep in mind that Houston was better than St. John's in that same era, and was better than DePaul, or PC as well.

By the way, Pitt is doing fine, Top 25 last time I looked.

Have you seen Houston' shack stadium court?

 

[A10 fan]

Have you seen Houston' shack stadium court?

Yes. I've seen Carnesecca Arena too. The Garden is great when the team is winning, and the bandwagon is full. Not so much now.

 

[upstater]

You are right the football schools in the Big East had the competitive advantage over the smaller private schools and that advantage became more obvious in the 1990s and it was only getting wider and wider. The cool thing about the current Big East is that now you have a level playing field of schools with relatively powerful basketball brands beating up on each other to make to the top tier of the league. They all get the same revenue and the same TV time and now don't have to worry about a football school having a more powerful brand and getting the better talent. I think this has helped schools like Providence bounce back and I expect basketball schools like Providence and St. John's to have a better future now in this current alignment. DePaul is also putting a lot of effort (building a new arena) to become competitors even though they have a lot of work to do

Do they have better talent? I don't think this is in evidence yet. It would take players going to the NBA and also teams competing deep into March to show that they have really advanced since the BE old days. This hasn't been shown yet.

 

[David 76]

The NBE members jumped ship. For good reason.

The problem is, we never should have sold them the name. Jay is a pretty good coach. I wish the NBE well. But it was still a stupid thing to say. Even before our reign over the real BE, Georgetown, St John's, Syracuse were all better than anyone in the NBE. Even the Cinderella Nova was better than modern Nova.

 

[BigEast]

It's insanity for any UCONN basketball fan to say they'd rather be in the AAC than the Big East. You can't even say that with a straight face. Playing Tulane tomorrow night.....instead of Nova, Gtown, Providence, Butler, Xavier..even Seton Hall, at least there's some regional context....come on, now. Crap on viewership all you want, it's an outstanding basketball league.

ESPN RPI as of today:
1. Xavier
2. Villanova
4. Providence

I personally think UCONN still belongs in the Big East. The football stuff is garbage for basketball fans, which I assume most of this forum is. UCONN athletics is built on basketball and should be figuring out a way to be in a better basketball league and not concerned with a money draining football program that is spending its time in made up bowl games.

 

[uconnell]

The NBE members jumped ship. For good reason.

The problem is, we never should have sold them the name. Jay is a pretty good coach. I wish the NBE well. But it was still a stupid thing to say. Even before our reign over the real BE, Georgetown, St John's, Syracuse were all better than anyone in the NBE. Even the Cinderella Nova was better than modern Nova.

I feel the same way about the name (Big East). But I understand the reason behind it ($$$$$).

 

[David 76]

I feel the same way about the name (Big East). But I understand the reason behind it ($$$$$).

I don't know it was worth it. Maybe we could have played under that name. But at the very least, the name wouldn't get diluted and confused.

 

[Stainmaster]

It's insanity for any UCONN basketball fan to say they'd rather be in the AAC than the Big East. You can't even say that with a straight face. Playing Tulane tomorrow night.....instead of Nova, Gtown, Providence, Butler, Xavier..even Seton Hall, at least there's some regional context....come on, now. Crap on viewership all you want, it's an outstanding basketball league.

ESPN RPI as of today:
1. Xavier
2. Villanova
4. Providence

I personally think UCONN still belongs in the Big East. The football stuff is garbage for basketball fans, which I assume most of this forum is. UCONN athletics is built on basketball and should be figuring out a way to be in a better basketball league and not concerned with a money draining football program that is spending its time in made up bowl games.

Our football is required to get us into a P5 conference. At a certain point between now and 2030, the P5 will completely destroy the athletic program of any non-P5 school. So whichever precious little Big East program you are a fan of will be stuck playing SUNY schools in middle/high school gyms. We'll be safe and competing for championships. Savor your days on FS1 playing powerhouses like Creighton and DePaul, because your time is ticking and the Big East will be dead within a dozen years.

 

[BigEast]

Our football is required to get us into a P5 conference. At a certain point between now and 2030, the P5 will completely destroy the athletic program of any non-P5 school. So whichever precious little Big East program you are a fan of will be stuck playing SUNY schools in middle/high school gyms. We'll be safe and competing for championships. Savor your days on FS1 playing powerhouses like Creighton and DePaul, because your time is ticking and the Big East will be dead within a dozen years.

You might be right. But there's no denying right now, very simply, it's an excellent basketball conference and the AAC is not. That's all. Say all you want about history - nobody can take UCONN's titles and success when they were in the Big East away. Say all you want about what you think the future will bring, who knows what will happen. But right now, the split has made a whole lot of sense for basketball schools that only care about basketball. And those of us that are in it are really enjoying it. That's all.