No Easy BE Wins

[uconn_jack]

I think it’s as simple as this team just plays to their competition and its physical conference play…

I agree, I think it is as simple as this.

And while playing down risks eventually getting bit, and we very well might at some point, I still have not been particularly worried about losing any of our close games this year, and I'm not usually like that. It just always feels to me like this team is not going to let themselves lose.

 

[HooperScooper]

I agree, I think it is as simple as this.

And while playing down risks eventually getting bit, and we very well might at some point, I still have not been particularly worried about losing any of our close games this year, and I'm not usually like that. It just always feels to me like this team is not going to let themselves lose.

The PC game?

 

[ucp990411]

They know us, they don't fear us, they hate us, we're the circled game on their schedule twice a year every year, we're their path to the tournament, they have their best crowds when we come to town, they have their best TV exposure when they play us

and yes, because they know us so well, they know our motion offense and they get overly physical when they see something coming

Then Danny is going to lose it, often times getting a T, and then the refs go on pretending we're not getting fouled

Often times getting t’d up? 2 this year and one was at halftime

 

[ucp990411]

Do you watch how other conferences are reffed? It’s a completely different sport. The BE refereeing is abominable. It’s designed to prop up the less talented teams by allowing them to muck up the game.

Same refs work in all conferences now. There is no such thing as a “Big East Ref only Referee”

 

[superjohn]

I picked the year because he referenced it. Follow along Johnnie. Yeah there are now 2 in the top 25. I missed St John’s. 6>2. Oh and it is #25. 4 in the Top 11 is better. Sorry mate, the real Big East was eons better that this motley group. You want to go back to the early years? Sure. Like 1985, the year the Big East had 3 teams in the final 4. There were 9 teams, I believe. The original 7 plus Villanova in 1980 and Pitt in 1982. 6 bids. 5 in the round of 16. 3 in the Final 4. 2 in the Final. The only way the current group performs like that is if every team the power conferences decide not to participate and they backfill with teams from the MAC and the Northeast Conference. You and your friends like to pretend that Catholics will someday rise up and be significant players again. Maybe Villanova does, though I think their coach is limited. He’s good not great.

You know basketball and you know the current Big East is a shadow of the Original group whether you want to talk 1979-94 or after 1995, or certainly the post 2005 realignment.

What is the real Big East? 2009 looked nothing like the Big East of 1985.

Things have always changed. Programs and conferences have always had ups and downs and they have always changed as to teams moving and being added and they will continue to...

1985 when the Big East got three teams in the final 4 the league was 9 schools- St. John's, Georgetown, Syracuse, Nova, Seton Hall, Pitt, UConn, Providence, BC

The late 90's early 2000's period the Big East was a conference of 13 teams with 5 bids each year and even a 4 bid year. The conference was UConn, St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, Villanova, Georgetown Syracuse, BC, Pitt, Miami, Rutgers, West Virginia, Notre Dame, with Virginia Tech being added at the end of it to make the conference 14 teams.

Then in 2005-2006 BC, Miami, and Virginia Tech were gone and Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati, DePaul, and South Florida were added to make it a 16 team conference and the conference was getting 8 bids culminating in 2010-2011 when the conference got 11 bids.

Then the league went down to a 10 team conference of St. John's, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, Nova, Marquette, DePaul and new additions Creighton, Xavier, Butler where they got 4 bids, 6 bids, 5 bids (national champion), 7 bids, 6 bids (national champion), 4 bids, no tournament Covid (would've had 5 or 6 bids.)

Then it went to it's current form as an 11 team conference with the addition of UConn 4 bids, 6 bids, 5 bids (national champion), 3 bids but should've been 5 or 6 bids (national champion), 5 bids, this current season? I suspect 3 or 4 bids.

Big East National Champions- Georgetown 1984, Nova 1985, UConn 1999, Syracuse 2003, UConn 2004, UConn 2011, Nova 2016, Nova 2018, UConn 2023, UConn 2024

 

[Inyatkin]

Not even a vaguely close comparison. In 2009 the Original Big East had 6 teams in the Top 25, 3 in the Top 10, 4 in the top 11. The NewBE has 1 in the top 25. People who weren’t around or were in their pre-teens have no freaking idea of the difference in quality between the 2

We're calling 2009 the original Big East? The one that had South Florida and Notre Dame?

 

[KingAG]

Same refs work in all conferences now. There is no such thing as a “Big East Ref only Referee”

The conference dictates how the games are called. BE games are clearly reffed different. It’s coming from the top.

 

[uconn_jack]

The PC game?

Yes, even the PC game. I may have been mildly concerned, but I still felt we'd pull it out.

 

[RuffRuff]

Yes, even the PC game. I may have been mildly concerned, but I still felt we'd pull it out.

Down 11 with a little over three minutes to go, you felt like we were getting that one? If they ran odds on it, was probably 5%ish UConn. PC could have likely sat on the ball and ran shotclock and had a better chance to win. Uconn made up 8 points after PC went up 11 at the 3:11 mark. Crazy looking back on it.

 

[Huskies990411]

Down 11 with a little over three minutes to go, you felt like we were getting that one? If they ran odds on it, was probably 5%ish UConn. PC could have likely sat on the ball and ran shotclock and had a better chance to win. Uconn made up 8 points after PC went up 11 at the 3:11 mark. Crazy looking back on it.

Yes, at that exact point in the game down 11, ESPN had our win probability at 2.9%.

 

[HooperScooper]

Yes, even the PC game. I may have been mildly concerned, but I still felt we'd pull it out.

I wish I had your confidence. I would probably sweat a lot less during the games. 😀

 

[Iluvsuebird]

I have been thinking about this team a lot. I believe that there is one important point that we as a community, and myself individually, do not mention often enough: Ever since New Mexico, Dan Hurley teams get better as the season goes on. That point is obvious in 23 and 24, but also last year, when we played our best ball in March. We came within a whisker of defeating the eventual champion, and in fact, gave them the toughest game of the tournament. I say all of that to say this: history tells us that we are in good shape. This team will peak when we have to peak.

 

[uconn_jack]

I wish I had your confidence. I would probably sweat a lot less during the games. 😀

Trust me, I did not feel like that last year, or even in '23. '24 I did, because that team also had a refuse to lose attitude.

Of course, doomed.

 

[RuffRuff]

I have been thinking about this team a lot. I believe that there is one important point that we as a community, and myself individually, do not mention often enough: Ever since New Mexico, Dan Hurley teams get better as the season goes on. That point is obvious in 23 and 24, but also last year, when we played our best ball in March. We came within a whisker of defeating the eventual champion, and in fact, gave them the toughest game of the tournament. I say all of that to say this: history tells us that we are in good shape. This team will peak when we have to peak.

Yes! I do think you have to believe in this staff, in terms of their plan and what levers they pull. This is the one part I hold out on.

Last year though - we did not look great in the BE tournament. We did look good against Florida for that one game.

One thing we can put to bed at this point is Hurley's inability to win close games.