I know it's a bit early to talk about the tournament but here is Lunardi's latest Bracketlogy (Jan 5th). http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology [TABLE="width: 500"] Conference Bids Big East 7 Big 12 6 ACC 6 SEC 5 Big Ten 5 Pac-12 4 American 3 Mountain West 3 WCC 3 MVC 2 CUSA 2 A10 2 [/TABLE] Really surprised at the 7 Big East bids, I only suspected he'd put 5 at the most in. Here are the Big East Teams, their seeds, and locations. #2 East: Villanova #5 South: Seton Hall #6 South: Butler #7 Midwest: St. John's #9 East: Georgetown #10 South: Providence #11 East: Xavier (Play-in game) Needless to say, if we got a 6 seed I'd be ecstatic. As of right now I don't really think we are that caliber, but by the end of the season it seems like a possible. Some other notable things about the bracket: Butler would play the winner of Syracuse and Michigan State. That would be an extremely tough out. Butler Wins in the Bracket: #7 St Johns, #4 UNC, #9 Georgetown Butler losses in the Bracket: #2 Villanova, #4 Oklahoma, Indiana (First Four Out) Below I will post links to my other posts as Lunardi updates his bracket January 15th
Thanks for posting. I'll take any bracket without Kentucky. They could lose the first game or realistically win 3 depending on the matchups. Next year will be another Final Four run so I'm good with whatever happens this year.
Not bad for a conference that is neither a high mid major nor a low high major. We are a bread apart!
Someone over at HolyLand asked him about this comment, he replied that since we only have 1 legitimate pro player (No idea who he was thinking of), that we are not a strong high major conference.
Here is what Jeff Goodman had to say about the Big East being an overrated conference. "There were minimal expectations entering the season, but now everyone is touting the league as one of the elite after a strong nonleague performance. However, I’m still not buying that it’s one of the top three leagues in the country. I just don’t see anyone in the league with the potential to go deep in the tournament besides Villanova."
Good stuff. If we can continue to play decent and really nab a 6ish seed? I think we'd all have to be happy as a clam with the season. I'm hoping we can and it starts tomorrow.
The Big East is a top 3 league. Just because the SEC and PAC-12 have Kentucky and Arizona and the B1G has Wisconsin and maybe Maryland doesn't make them elite leagues either. It simply means they have an elite team in their league, not that the league itself is really that good. The ACC is better in terms of having multiple teams that can make a deep run, but they're also extremely top-heavy, and have some really crappy teams at the bottom of their league.
The top 3 conferences in my opinion: Big 12 Big East ACC I honestly don't see any other conference as being better than the Big East top to bottom. I have zero idea who these ESPN guys are putting there besides us because it surely isn't the top heavy PAC 12 or SEC and the B1G is weaksauce this year.
Hell, even better, Palm has us as a 5 playing the winner of one of the play in games. In the same bracket as Wisconsin.
How about the Big 10 outside of Wisconsin? The SEC outside of Kentucky? The PAC 10 outside of Arizona?
You're damn right and I agree. I'd be meh on a play in game, but getting in for real? HUGE accomplishment.
Again, with everything that's happened this season, I'll take a 6 seed all day....but how 'bout let's just get hot and get up to the 4 or 5 seed line?? Can't we be greedy for once?
TeamRankings predicts tournament seeds as well, which is always interesting to follow. Right now has Butler with an 82% chance to make the tournament and a #5 seed as the most likely. 20% chance Butler makes a sweet 16 and 2.1% chance of returning to the Final 4.
With how we've played away from home I believe this team can A) win enough big games to get us into the tournament and B) can win once we are in the tournament. Why not believe?
This website http://www.bracketmatrix.com/ keeps track of all the major (and not-so-major) folks that do Bracketology. There are quite a few that have been extremely accurate over the past few years. Right now, their consensus has us in at a 7 seed, with a high of 4 and a low of 11. Think they were showing seven teams from the Big East in the tournament at this point.
7 makes sense now, but I can't see 7 being the final number. Teams are going to get beat up on each other, and naturally a few teams are going to lose more games than they should, just like a few will win a few more than they should. Only way I could see than many is if 2-3 teams just really sucked and lost nearly every game to the top 7, helping them all stay above .500 in conference. So far Marquette and DePaul aren't cooperating with that though.
Agree. Five is probably the number that makes more sense. The rugged nature of our conference play will make it almost impossible for 70% of this group to get in. Would be nice to be rewarded for how well the conference played OOC, but don't realistically see that happening.
