Was the first year of the new Big East a success?

For  first year it was fine.  Remember nobody had any BE teams pre-season top 10 including the two consensus pre-season favorites, Marquette and Georgetown.  So yeah it would have been nice to have some teams get past the 2nd round but the conference is not at that level yet.

Need Marquette and Georgetown to bounce back and need SJU, not just for us as fans but the conference as a whole, to make a big leap next year.  Not just be an NCAA team (that is a minimum) but be a top BE team and win 25 games plus.

For  first year it was fine.  Remember nobody had any BE teams pre-season top 10 including the two consensus pre-season favorites, Marquette and Georgetown.  So yeah it would have been nice to have some teams get past the 2nd round but the conference is not at that level yet.

Need Marquette and Georgetown to bounce back and need SJU, not just for us as fans but the conference as a whole, to make a big leap next year.  Not just be an NCAA team (that is a minimum) but be a top BE team and win 25 games plus.

Agree Fordham.  Lots of good pieces.  Btw, how we going to get better if we aren't bringing any impact talent in this year (that we know about thus far)

Quote from: fordham96 on March 23, 2014, 10:19:58 PM

For  first year it was fine.  Remember nobody had any BE teams pre-season top 10 including the two consensus pre-season favorites, Marquette and Georgetown.  So yeah it would have been nice to have some teams get past the 2nd round but the conference is not at that level yet.

Need Marquette and Georgetown to bounce back and need SJU, not just for us as fans but the conference as a whole, to make a big leap next year.  Not just be an NCAA team (that is a minimum) but be a top BE team and win 25 games plus.

Agree Fordham.  Lots of good pieces.  Btw, how we going to get better if we aren't bringing any impact talent in this year (that we know about thus far)

Easy as #23. Also I think as dense and repetitive and unwilling to accept any kind of blame as Lavin was, I believe that he understands that some of the failures of this year are definitely on him. He should come back and have a firmer idea of a workable rotation.

I am worried about the same things as everyone else is though, front court depth. Our 4 and 5 are as good as any in the league, but who will spell them off the bench?

Winner of BET got an 11 seed. 4th team in had to play in play in game. Best team in BE lost to former member from a conference that the NCAA comittee deemed was weak. The 2nd best team got their asses handed to them by Baylor. 4th team lost play in game. Providence should have won and played well in tourney. Bottom line no team alive in Sweet 16 and on top of that the conference lost one of its best coaches. Not sure how season can be viewed as anything other than a bad year.

The Big East was a dramatic failure, and again, I point to one program that deserves the majority of the blame. Clearly, it's St.John's. Simply put, we don't pull our weight.

Winner of BET got an 11 seed. 4th team in had to play in play in game. Best team in BE lost to former member from a conference that the NCAA comittee deemed was weak. The 2nd best team got their asses handed to them by Baylor. 4th team lost play in game. Providence should have won and played well in tourney. Bottom line no team alive in Sweet 16 and on top of that the conference lost one of its best coaches. Not sure how season can be viewed as anything other than a bad year.

Spot on.

Winner of BET got an 11 seed. 4th team in had to play in play in game. Best team in BE lost to former member from a conference that the NCAA comittee deemed was weak. The 2nd best team got their asses handed to them by Baylor. 4th team lost play in game. Providence should have won and played well in tourney. Bottom line no team alive in Sweet 16 and on top of that the conference lost one of its best coaches. Not sure how season can be viewed as anything other than a bad year.

Yep

Winner of BET got an 11 seed. 4th team in had to play in play in game. Best team in BE lost to former member from a conference that the NCAA comittee deemed was weak. The 2nd best team got their asses handed to them by Baylor. 4th team lost play in game. Providence should have won and played well in tourney. Bottom line no team alive in Sweet 16 and on top of that the conference lost one of its best coaches. Not sure how season can be viewed as anything other than a bad year.

You forgot to mention that the 5th BE team got blown out in their own arena by Robert Morris in the first round of the NIT.

Quote from: we are sju on March 24, 2014, 09:51:35 AM

Winner of BET got an 11 seed. 4th team in had to play in play in game. Best team in BE lost to former member from a conference that the NCAA comittee deemed was weak. The 2nd best team got their asses handed to them by Baylor. 4th team lost play in game. Providence should have won and played well in tourney. Bottom line no team alive in Sweet 16 and on top of that the conference lost one of its best coaches. Not sure how season can be viewed as anything other than a bad year.

You forgot to mention that the 5th BE team got blown out in their own arena by Robert Morris in the first round of the NIT.

I don't follow the NIT. We lost?

Since all anyone seems to care about is number of teams in the tournament and success once there, this conference has to add at least 2 more teams.  Simply put, we need more irons to the fire to weather a down year like this one

Since all anyone seems to care about is number of teams in the tournament and success once there, this conference has to add at least 2 more teams.  Simply put, we need more irons to the fire to weather a down year like this one

I like the smaller conference. Just have to play an aggressive OC schedule. Like all good mid major teams do

Quote from: Gray Chudney on March 24, 2014, 10:57:39 AM

Since all anyone seems to care about is number of teams in the tournament and success once there, this conference has to add at least 2 more teams.  Simply put, we need more irons to the fire to weather a down year like this one

I like the smaller conference. Just have to play an aggressive OC schedule. Like all good mid major teams do

I like the round robin, as well.  But as presently constructed, 5 bids seems to be the best case scenario, with 4 being the norm.  That's not enough to have a consistent presence in the dance, which is when all of these conclusions about the strength of the conference are being drawn. 

Regardless, it's clear that we should be playing a harder non conference schedule.

For  first year it was fine.  Remember nobody had any BE teams pre-season top 10 including the two consensus pre-season favorites, Marquette and Georgetown.  So yeah it would have been nice to have some teams get past the 2nd round but the conference is not at that level yet.

Need Marquette and Georgetown to bounce back and need SJU, not just for us as fans but the conference as a whole, to make a big leap next year.  Not just be an NCAA team (that is a minimum) but be a top BE team and win 25 games plus.

In other words, if you set the bar to a MAAC low level, by your standards this year was a hugh success.

hugh success

This could be realfan's new screen name should he want to go back to pretending he's a man.

Quote from: we are sju on March 24, 2014, 11:02:22 AM

Quote from: Gray Chudney on March 24, 2014, 10:57:39 AM

Since all anyone seems to care about is number of teams in the tournament and success once there, this conference has to add at least 2 more teams.  Simply put, we need more irons to the fire to weather a down year like this one

I like the smaller conference. Just have to play an aggressive OC schedule. Like all good mid major teams do

I like the round robin, as well.  But as presently constructed, 5 bids seems to be the best case scenario, with 4 being the norm.  That's not enough to have a consistent presence in the dance, which is when all of these conclusions about the strength of the conference are being drawn. 

Regardless, it's clear that we should be playing a harder non conference schedule.

I agree - the OOC strength has to be upped.  I am a proponent of 12 only if the next two were strong enough candidates.  When St. Louis was bandied about, I had doubts concerning the program's consistency.  Then again....

I really dont think this can be viewed as a successful year.

When was the last time the Big East didnt have a team in the Sweet 16? 1993 i think? 

We got four bids, one was a play in team and no one survived the first weekend.

Our Tournament didn't sell out and due to losing ESPN, there is less interest overall.

I think Buzz Williams is replaceable.  He didn't rebuild Marquette, but he walked into an already good situation left by Tom Crean.  He did a good job though but a guy like Howland would be lateral or even an upgrade.

The Big East is on a track to be more like the Mountain West in basketball than like the "power conferences"...i think the "norm" going forward will be 3-4 NCAA bids with most teams not making it out of the first weekend.  There will be an occasional "Cinderella" but the days of the big east sending teams to the final four and winning national titles are over. 

I really dont think this can be viewed as a successful year.

When was the last time the Big East didnt have a team in the Sweet 16? 1993 i think? 

We got four bids, one was a play in team and no one survived the first weekend.

Our Tournament didn't sell out and due to losing ESPN, there is less interest overall.

I think Buzz Williams is replaceable.  He didn't rebuild Marquette, but he walked into an already good situation left by Tom Crean.  He did a good job though but a guy like Howland would be lateral or even an upgrade.

The Big East is on a track to be more like the Mountain West in basketball than like the "power conferences"...i think the "norm" going forward will be 3-4 NCAA bids with most teams not making it out of the first weekend.  There will be an occasional "Cinderella" but the days of the big east sending teams to the final four and winning national titles are over.

Agree. At least we now won't be jealous of other Big East teams winning the national title.

I really dont think this can be viewed as a successful year.

When was the last time the Big East didnt have a team in the Sweet 16? 1993 i think? 

We got four bids, one was a play in team and no one survived the first weekend.

Our Tournament didn't sell out and due to losing ESPN, there is less interest overall.

I think Buzz Williams is replaceable.  He didn't rebuild Marquette, but he walked into an already good situation left by Tom Crean.  He did a good job though but a guy like Howland would be lateral or even an upgrade.

The Big East is on a track to be more like the Mountain West in basketball than like the "power conferences"...i think the "norm" going forward will be 3-4 NCAA bids with most teams not making it out of the first weekend.  There will be an occasional "Cinderella" but the days of the big east sending teams to the final four and winning national titles are over. 

The prodigal son returns