the devil you know...

northeastern over providence 70-66.

curry terrible.

Northeastern's been a good major program for a couple of years... always talked about as a NCAA Tourney candidate.  That sucks for Providence but I bet it won't be as bad a loss as VMI over KY!

This is not good for a conference that is trying to get 10 teams in the NCAA & who I call the best conference in the NCAA

Northeastern's been a good major program for a couple of years... always talked about as a NCAA Tourney candidate.  That sucks for Providence but I bet it won't be as bad a loss as VMI over KY!

A good major program for a couple of years? I think you mean mid major program.

When I think of mid major, I think of GMU and Davidson.
Maybe Gonzaga, Butler and Drake recently.

Norhteastern isn't LIU, or St.Francis, but that should be a win for a BE team loaded with seniors.

Zags are major now. Tru.

Quote from: peter on November 15, 2008, 11:13:01 PM

Northeastern's been a good major program for a couple of years... always talked about as a NCAA Tourney candidate.  That sucks for Providence but I bet it won't be as bad a loss as VMI over KY!

A good major program for a couple of years? I think you mean mid major program.

When I think of mid major, I think of GMU and Davidson.
Maybe Gonzaga, Butler and Drake recently.

Norhteastern isn't LIU, or St.Francis, but that should be a win for a BE team loaded with seniors.

Yes, mid-major.  But check up on Northeastern.  There are always a few other mid major teams outside of the ones that make a March name for them, and those teams are tough.  Check the Rivals 343, check the preseason previews.  Check some blogs with opinions on the Coaches vs Cancer - folks who watch for mid-major upsets have a high opinion of Northeastern.  Though I was wrong about one thing - they fell off for a year or two, I was thinking of the Jose Juan Berea teams that got some love when mid-majors were discussed, that was 2006.

And Providence - they don't rebound well, they're in a new system, they need their shots to fall (not enough defense to pull out ugly wins), and their main ballhandler was out last year.

Quote from: Poison on November 16, 2008, 07:28:04 AM

Quote from: peter on November 15, 2008, 11:13:01 PM

Northeastern's been a good major program for a couple of years... always talked about as a NCAA Tourney candidate.  That sucks for Providence but I bet it won't be as bad a loss as VMI over KY!

A good major program for a couple of years? I think you mean mid major program.

When I think of mid major, I think of GMU and Davidson.
Maybe Gonzaga, Butler and Drake recently.

Norhteastern isn't LIU, or St.Francis, but that should be a win for a BE team loaded with seniors.

Yes, mid-major.  But check up on Northeastern.  There are always a few other mid major teams outside of the ones that make a March name for them, and those teams are tough.  Check the Rivals 343, check the preseason previews.  Check some blogs with opinions on the Coaches vs Cancer - folks who watch for mid-major upsets have a high opinion of Northeastern.  Though I was wrong about one thing - they fell off for a year or two, I was thinking of the Jose Juan Berea teams that got some love when mid-majors were discussed, that was 2006.

And Providence - they don't rebound well, they're in a new system, they need their shots to fall (not enough defense to pull out ugly wins), and their main ballhandler was out last year.

This group at PC has always been inconsistent but who knows maybe they'll get it together by BE time.

I love how people talk about how powerful the Big East is, and it is--at the top--but look at the bottom seven teams!!!  If you are a very good team, you get almost seven guaranteed victories. 

USF
SH
STJ
Cincy
Prov
Depaul
Rutgers

GROSS!!!

So the bottom third of the conference is not good.  Shocker. Guess that's why they're the bottom third.

If you look at the Rivals rankings (not that they're the be all and end all but it's the longest list available to me quickly) and use outside the top 100 as the dreck meter then the only major with a lower percentage of teams outside the top 100 is the Pac 10 with 1 (10%).  SEC has 3 teams (25%), ACC 2 teams (17%), B 12 4 teams (33%) and B 10 2 (18%) teams outside the top 100.  BE also has 2 (11%). The strength at the top of the BE makes tje bottom look worse and really affects the final w/l record of those bottom teams. 

PS I think that after a few games Providence and Cincy, at least, will be a lot better than you think.

Also re Providence I noticed that they redshirted Greedy Peterson, anyone know why that is?  Is he hurt?

Finally one other BCS team that had a bad loss is Washington (with players of interest Isiah Thomas and Joe Wolfinger) who lost to Portland

Finally one other BCS team that had a bad loss is Washington (with players of interest Isiah Thomas and Joe Wolfinger) who lost to Portland

Washington has had descending win totals over the past few years-culminating a first round CBI bounce last season.
With his frontcourt, that's inexcusable for Romar to lose these games, but signing Gaddy will buy him more time and should help him out with Wroten and big Josh Smith.
Oregon St. losing to Howard was a really bad one too.

So the bottom third of the conference is not good.  Shocker. Guess that's why they're the bottom third.

If you look at the Rivals rankings (not that they're the be all and end all but it's the longest list available to me quickly) and use outside the top 100 as the dreck meter then the only major with a lower percentage of teams outside the top 100 is the Pac 10 with 1 (10%).  SEC has 3 teams (25%), ACC 2 teams (17%), B 12 4 teams (33%) and B 10 2 (18%) teams outside the top 100.  BE also has 2 (11%). The strength at the top of the BE makes tje bottom look worse and really affects the final w/l record of those bottom teams. 

PS I think that after a few games Providence and Cincy, at least, will be a lot better than you think.

Also re Providence I noticed that they redshirted Greedy Peterson, anyone know why that is?  Is he hurt?

Finally one other BCS team that had a bad loss is Washington (with players of interest Isiah Thomas and Joe Wolfinger) who lost to Portland

I don't know if %'s are a great way of looking at it, though.  The Big East is a HUGE league.  The bottomline is that you get 7-9  games a year in the Big East against teams that are just not that good.  And if you are into %'s 7/16 is not the bottom third, it is almost half of th league!

I think Cincy has a chance to be very good this year.  It all depends on how much a stud Yancy Gates is.  Losing Cashmere Wright really, really hurts them, but I think they could put a great deal of distance between themselves and the rest of the also-rans.

Quote from: yankcranker on November 16, 2008, 03:02:54 PM

So the bottom third of the conference is not good.  Shocker. Guess that's why they're the bottom third.

If you look at the Rivals rankings (not that they're the be all and end all but it's the longest list available to me quickly) and use outside the top 100 as the dreck meter then the only major with a lower percentage of teams outside the top 100 is the Pac 10 with 1 (10%).  SEC has 3 teams (25%), ACC 2 teams (17%), B 12 4 teams (33%) and B 10 2 (18%) teams outside the top 100.  BE also has 2 (11%). The strength at the top of the BE makes tje bottom look worse and really affects the final w/l record of those bottom teams. 

PS I think that after a few games Providence and Cincy, at least, will be a lot better than you think.

Also re Providence I noticed that they redshirted Greedy Peterson, anyone know why that is?  Is he hurt?

Finally one other BCS team that had a bad loss is Washington (with players of interest Isiah Thomas and Joe Wolfinger) who lost to Portland

I don't know if %'s are a great way of looking at it, though.  The Big East is a HUGE league.  The bottomline is that you get 7-9  games a year in the Big East against teams that are just not that good.  And if you are into %'s 7/16 is not the bottom third, it is almost half of th league!

I think Cincy has a chance to be very good this year.  It all depends on how much a stud Yancy Gates is.  Losing Cashmere Wright really, really hurts them, but I think they could put a great deal of distance between themselves and the rest of the also-rans.

You can talk about the bottom 7 but only 2 of them are ranked outside the top 100 in the Rivals rankings.  So as bad as you say they are others don't see it that way.  That's all I was saying.