Is the BE deep or just down?

[Knicks411]

Honestly--who cares?

I only root for SU. I have no concerted interest in whether our conference opponents advance. I certainly don't derive any utility from seeing pitt, uconn, louisville, notre dame, etc. have more successful postseasons than Syracuse.

Provided SU performs well, I couldn't give a crap about the rest of those teams. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't "root" for them to beat OOC opponents from other big conferences in the post season, but I certainly don't miss any sleep about how the BE performs.

Conference loyalty or whatever is a funny thing. It's not really a pro sports deal.

I care about it more when we are a bubble type team. But right now, stuff like that doesn't matter too much to me.

 

[Cuseman78]

Oh I agree. I was just pointing out that if this is the best conference then college hoops may certainly be down. I just did a piss poor job in explaining my point.

Its funny though because I feel the top of college basketball is as strong as its been in a couple of years. I don't think we are going to see a mediocre champion this year like the last couple of years. I believe we have 5 elite teams (us plus UNC, UK, Ohio State, and Baylor) and I would honestly be a bit surprised if we see a champion outside of those 5. Remember last year we had schools like SDSU and BYU rise to the top 5. Those schools would not have been top 5 schools this year.

 

[Cuseman78]

I'm not sure I understand the first point. Are you saying Kevin Jones' numbers are only good because there aren't other stars, or that his numbers wouldn't get considered in another year? His numbers are really good.

When I think superstar, I don't think Kevin Jones. I think the Big East is sorely lacking star power this year. He may be having a nice year, but when Kevin Jones is your league's best player, to me that's an indictment of the whole league.

 

[OrangeCrush22]

The B1G is the best basketball league in the country this season.

It's a toss up between the XII and ACC for second.

The only really good team the Big East has this year is SU.

 

[Knicks411]

When I think superstar, I don't think Kevin Jones. I think the Big East is sorely lacking star power this year. He may be having a nice year, but when Kevin Jones is your league's best player, to me that's an indictment of the whole league.

That could be true, but it could also be because you are used to Jones not being a star, but being a really good player the last few years. If he was a freshmen, or a JUCO or something, it may be easier to accept him as a superstar.

kinda like Wes, I could see B12 fans who saw him his first 2 years thinking "this is the BE POY?"

 

[SU2NASA]

The B1G is the best basketball league in the country this season.

It's a toss up between the XII and ACC for second.

The ACC is very top-heavy with SU, Duke, and UNC. Though our record may be inflated since we have to play so many out-of-conference games against crappy Big East teams.

 

[Orangemen]

I'm not sure it should be young as much as it might be teams that are inexperienced playing with one another. Which of course are often young teams.



Is this true though? Even throwing out the AO injury, we lost (SELECTIVE ENDPOINTS TIME!!!!) our last 2 games of the season. @Lville, Gtown at the BET. And we lost to Lville a few weeks prior to that, so we lost 3 of our last 7 games. We did lose to good teams, of course.

But if you just look at the BE season (and I'll include the Memphis game we played cause it's in the BE season, and it makes it easier for me), in the first 9 games we outscored opponents by about .135 points per possession. Int he last 10 games, we outscored teams by .10 points per possession.

That's not a huge difference, and it's selective endpoints as well, but I think it may be fair to say we didn't play as well at the end of the season as we did at other times. If I just looked at the last 8 games, we "only" outscored teams by .07 poinjts per possession.

I think we all understand the Louisville phenomenon, regardless of when we played them that year, we would have lost. And the Georgetown game was when we lost AO.

Regarding the early/late season split, take a look at the schedule. Our first 9 BE games included 4 easy games (SH, USF, Rutgers, DePaul) and 5 tough games Pitt, Gtown WVU, ND, Marq), while our last 9 had 3 easy games (PC x2, SJU), and 6 tough ones (UConn, Ville x 2, Gtown x 2, Nova). That 2 game swing is bound to impact ppp, especially considering Louisville was in the last group twice.

 

[Marsh01]

When I think superstar, I don't think Kevin Jones. I think the Big East is sorely lacking star power this year. He may be having a nice year, but when Kevin Jones is your league's best player, to me that's an indictment of the whole league.

It reminds me of when Demetrius Nichols almost won the BE POY his senior year. He was a nice 4 year player who was able to be the man his senior year for his team. Jeff Green ended up beating him out that year.

 

[Knicks411]

It reminds me of when Demetrius Nichols almost won the BE POY his senior year. He was a nice 4 year player who was able to be the man his senior year for his team. Jeff Green ended up beating him out that year.

Yeah as soon as I posted that, I thought of Nichols as well.

Think it was Hibbert who was POY though.

 

[jordoo]

The B1G is the best basketball league in the country this season.

It's a toss up between the XII and ACC for second.

The only really good team the Big East has this year is SU.

ACC is not betterhan the BE IMO. Duke, UNC, Virginia and who?

 

[Knicks411]

Yeah, the second best team in the ACC is better than the second best in the BE, but Virginia is probably roughly equivalent to the third best BE school, and after that, while the BE isn't great, it's better than the ACC, imo.

 

[Marsh01]

Yeah as soon as I posted that, I thought of Nichols as well.

Think it was Hibbert who was POY though.

No definitely was Jeff Green. Cant really argue with that choice as he had a solid year.

 

[BuffOrange]

I'm not sure it should be young as much as it might be teams that are inexperienced playing with one another. Which of course are often young teams.



Is this true though? Even throwing out the AO injury, we lost (SELECTIVE ENDPOINTS TIME!!!!) our last 2 games of the season. @Lville, Gtown at the BET. And we lost to Lville a few weeks prior to that, so we lost 3 of our last 7 games. We did lose to good teams, of course.

I forget what was the time & score when AO got hurt? I thought it was a close game with a decent amount of time left but I could be wrong. Also we won @G'town after the 1st L'ville game and curbostomped 'Nova.

 

[Marsh01]

I forget what was the time & score when AO got hurt? I thought it was a close game with a decent amount of time left but I could be wrong. Also we won @G'town after the 1st L'ville game and curbostomped 'Nova.

I believe we were down 3-5 points with under 4 minutes left when he went out. I just remember we were up 59-51 and then they went on a 19-2 run to take a 70-61 lead.

 

[jordoo]

We were losing when AO went down can't remember by how many though. I'll never forget how my heart dropped when I realized it was serious. I then spent the next week convincing myself that it wasn't that big a deal and we would be fine for a deep run . . . . . . . we really missed that second viable big against Futler.

 

[Knicks411]

Yeah, sorry about the BE POY thing. thinking about it, I think I may have been pimping Hibbert for it, so I assumed he won.

As for the AO and Gtown game, I'm about to check the game log, my memory is we were down about 6 or 7 with 3 min left.

Not bad, we were down 7 with 5 min left.

 

[Marsh01]

Yeah, sorry about the BE POY thing. thinking about it, I think I may have been pimping Hibbert for it, so I assumed he won.

As for the AO and Gtown game, I'm about to check the game log, my memory is we were down about 6 or 7 with 3 min left.

Not bad, we were down 7 with 5 min left.

Lol I just looked it up as well. Down 4 with 5:07 left when Arinze got hurt (and fouled Monroe) who made both FT's to take a 72-66 lead.

 

[MartyCuse]

Up or down I guess its your perspective.. however some of the teams that are traditionally strong have had some early conference losses. SU is sitting pretty right now but as the season goes on and some of those teams ie UCONN, sPitt, Louisville and so on, may become more desperate for a good win, we are going to see some strong focused challenges... where the random bench player shoots 50% from three land and lights up the zone. However this team has the tools and skills the weather those games.

 

[Cuseman78]

It reminds me of when Demetrius Nichols almost won the BE POY his senior year. He was a nice 4 year player who was able to be the man his senior year for his team. Jeff Green ended up beating him out that year.

Exactly

 

[Knicks411]

I'm reading it as 72-66, AO fouled Monroe, who split them, to make it 73-66. Not a huge deal, of course.

 

[Marsh01]

I'm reading it as 72-66, AO fouled Monroe, who split them, to make it 73-66. Not a huge deal, of course.

yes you are right. Tough sometimes to read those PBP columns. I just remember sitting in Kitty Hoynes and ordering my 15th Guiness after that play hoping to drown my sorrows in booze.

 

[stuckinbig11]

I guess it depends on how you define it, but I think the B10 and B12 are better. Pac12 is terrible.

Who in the Big10 is really good? Ohio State, Michigan State, and ??? Some will have good records because they get to play a lot of games against really lousy teams.

 

[Knicks411]

Who in the Big10 is really good? Ohio State, Michigan State, and ??? Some will have good records because they get to play a lot of games against really lousy teams.

Indiana.