Tournament preview: Big East - Dana O'Neill ESPN Well, that didn’t take long. The Big East started this season with one goal: to carve a spot in the national picture. To get there, the league needed its name-brand programs to get better. Problem solved. The Big East is in line to get as many as six bids to the NCAA tournament, thanks largely to the resurgence of St. John’s and Providence and the re-emergence of Butler and Georgetown. Those teams -- three from the original Big East and one with two recent Final Four appearances -- are exactly the teams the Big East needs to be good for good things to happen. The league still runs through Villanova. The Wildcats might have their doubters nationally, but no one within the Big East confines will argue their merit. Providence coach Ed Cooley all but stumped for Villanova after the Wildcats systematically picked his team apart, and St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said the Wildcats were “playing the best basketball of anyone in the country." That was after Villanova closed the regular season against the Red Storm by turning a game in which it trailed by eight into a win by 37. Somewhere, Kentucky fans probably scoffed at that statement, but it’s not entirely inaccurate. Villanova has won its final 12 games by an average of 15.4 points. In a lot of ways, Villanova’s issue, for lack of a better word, isn’t much different than what ails the league. The Wildcats aren’t terribly sexy -- not in terms of flashy star power, at least -- and instead are more effective because of the sum of their parts. That sort of team won’t necessarily turn heads, at least not those of people who haven’t seen Villanova, but it has won an awful lot of games and makes for a very tough team in March. What’s at stake? The biggest prize of all: A No. 1 seed for Villanova. With a 29-2 overall record and an 11-1 record against the top 50 in the RPI, Villanova is in the driver’s seat to claim a top seed in the NCAA tournament. But a loss in New York in the Big East tournament -- especially an early one -- could swing the door open for either Wisconsin or Arizona, should either win its conference tourney crowns. Villanova has been a top seed once -- back in 2006, when it rode that wave to the regional final, where the Wildcats were greeted by a Florida team en route to its first national title. A No. 1 seed would be not only a reward for Villanova, but also a victory for the entire conference. Fair or unfair (and frankly, more of the latter), the Big East in its reorganized state is still considered a step below the Power 5 conferences. Blame it on the member schools' profiles, which lack the big money/big exposure of football, and blame it on transition. The conference is still trying to craft its identity out of the shadow of its predecessor, but it boasts the second-best league RPI, behind only the Big 12, and more than a few notches in its nonconference belt, including wins against Notre Dame (Providence), Oklahoma (Creighton) and North Carolina (Butler). Should Villanova earn a No. 1 seed, it would signal proper respect for not just the Wildcats but also the Big East as a whole. Team with the most to gain At some level, it’s Villanova, with the lure of that 1-seed out there. Beyond the Wildcats, though, it’s St. John’s. The Red Storm, winners of four of their final five, are firmly in the NCAA tournament. That’s not what’s at stake. What's at stake is a chance to recapture New York City. With so many options to choose from, New York sports fans’ hearts are never given away entirely to one team, but they will at least put them out there on a loaner season by season. St. John’s hasn’t really been on the donor list for a while. In fact, Syracuse has taken to billing itself as New York’s No. 1 college sports team, and really, few could argue. The Red Storm have been more of a tease, promising to deliver a resurrection and a reason to root but never quite delivering. This St. John’s team is good enough to be an upset winner of the Big East tournament (presumably, Chris Obekpa will be healthy), and if they get rolling, the Red Storm will find more than a few New York fans in their corner.
the BE has always had an inferiority complex and it continues in the new BE. 'Nova getting a 1 wouldn't signal respect for the BE anymore than Gonzaga getting a 1 would signal respect for the WCC.
Sure it would No one expected the Big East to get a 1-Seed. Gonzaga was handed one by the AP from Day 1 of this season and dropped the ball.
the BE wouldn't be getting a 1 seed, Villanova would be. Gonzaga wasn't handed anything. Gonzaga was 13th in the AP preseason poll, 'Nova 12th. do you do anything but make stuff up?
Georgia Tech stinks, BC stinks....hell, half that conference stinks (top half's good). That's true, however no team in America has has to deal with more injuries and more illnesses than the 'Heels' So I don't want to hear anything about injuries....not with what the 'Heels' have had to endure. Oh and let's not even mention them having to put up listening to "the whispers" .....sob!....
Based on their schedules, who would you have predicted to have more losses this season, Villanova or Gonzaga?
neither had a tough sched and I expected both to be good but I thought Gonzaga would have a better record.
Villanova beat : VCU TEMPLE SYRACUSE ILLINOIS MICHIGAN and that is it besides their conference schedule. The scores of those games don't matter at this point of the argument of whether they are over-rated or not. They are 11-1 against the RPI top 50. That sounds great until you realize they played number 39-50.
junc, thanks for the play-by-play update, but in this case does anybody really care about a pair of 12-19 & 13-18 ACC doormats when the "winner's" getting shelled by UNC in the next round anyway? edit: (in before, "they'd be 19-12 & 18-13 in the Big East.." )
BC played UNC tough last month and Hanlan is a handful for anyone. I expect the Heels to win but this is a team that can be beaten by anyone.
except if it is Gonzaga, right? I agree w/ you. I don't think 'Nova has played the most difficult sched but watching them play it is impossible not to be impressed and not to think they are a favorite to reach Indy.
UNC dominates the boards; I can easily see a 15-20 blowout in this one unless UNC's guards are throwing up bricks at which point they'll pound it inside and crash the offensive glass. Hanlon can 'j' but he alone won't get it done. Clifford is a stiff compared to Johnson/Meeks (even if Meeks' still sick). I saw SU and Christmas totally expose him (and BC's) lack of a low post game and I can see the same thing here. UNC's front line is man/boy better than BC's.
