The Big East is the best conference in the land, hands down. Currently I am projecting 11 Big East teams in with an additional 2 being watched. The only teams with no chance in this league are Seton Hall, South Florida, and DePaul. Now, the key over the next two months will be who defends their home court the best. No team is going undefeated and I believe 3-4 loses will still be enough to win the league. When all is said and done I'm predicting 10 bids for the Big East (yes that means Marquette is probably in). A quick rundown on who's over and under rated so far this year:
Underrated
Georgetown - 1-3 in the conference but has played a tough schedule. JT3 will have them rounding into shape come March and he won't let them forget last year's early exit to Ohio
Villanova - currently being bashed by the "experts" as being a fraud amongst the top Big East team the 'Cats are 19th in adjusted Offensive Efficiency and 21st in Defensive Efficiency. Keep on eye on them.
Notre Dame - Two loses have come at Kentucky and at Syracuse. Have played a whopping 9 games against teams in the bracket currently and are 7-2 in those games. I'm not waving on my preseason bracket that had them in my Elite Eight.
Overrated
Cincinnati - Their efficiency numbers are solid, 53rd and 16th but this is biased on the poor scheduling they had at the top of the year. They close out at Georgetown, vs UConn, at Marquette, and vs Georgetown. They need at least two of those to stay on the right side of the bubble.
St. John's - everybody loves Steve Lavin. OK, maybe not but at 10-4 they are big news so far. An RPI in the top 10 looks good as well but there are some bad losses out there. Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and St. Mary's are not Big East schools. The new shiny object fades away and I predict this team is on the wrong side of the bubble when all is said and done.
Syracuse - Sure, they are 16-0 and a top 5 team but only 2 of their wins have come against teams currently in the bracket. I'm curious to see how they handle the grind of the Big East. I'm calling it now...they won't see the second weekend of the tournament.
1 comment:
You may be right when it comes to St. John's being on the wrong side of the bubble, and it may be because they had terrible losses to St. Bonaventure and Fordham, but not because they lost to St. Mary's on the road.
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