ESPN Bracketology

[MUPanther]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
Has SIX Big East schools in!

[FriarJ]

Nova in Providence again. seems like they go there every time we host.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Villanova (2)
Butler (4)
Xavier (8)
Georgetown (9)
Providence (11)
Marquette (12)

For one, it's great to have six teams "be considered" to be in the NCAA Tournament. I have said that, if we average 5 teams in per season, that would solidify us as a power basketball conference. If we get 6 teams in two consecutive years in a row, we would rival the B1G and ACC as elite power basketball conferences - which should be the league's goal, IMO.

Beggars cannot be choosers, but if this were to be the actual tournament matchups, it would be unfortunate because three schools would be in the same bracket. Villanova, Marquette and Georgetown would all be in the East. On one hand, it would be nice because it triples our odds of a team going to the Final Four. Personally, I like us more spread out to improve our odds of several teams going far.

[NovaBall]

Nova ends up in providence because nova lands good seeds and good seeds stay closer to home.

People underestimate how important that is. what percentage of duke's trip to the second weekend originated from them playing the first weekend in North Carolina? (This yr the Raleigh sub regional is available for them) Syracuse marching through Albany to make the final four in 2003. Nova marching through philly and Boston in 2009.

People also take for granted that the round of 32 game is actually a tough game, which is why the geographic protection is so big. A 2 seed might be a team ranked around 8, while a 7 seed is a team ranked around 25. And if 8 plays 25 on a neutral court the 8 team is not usually going to run away with the game, especially in situations where the lesser ranked team is playing with a nothing to lose attitude and the better ranked team is playing with a try to survive attitude.

That nova team had fallen apart in 2010. But they had the protected location, which gave them in essence a home crowd advantage that the needed against Robert Morris, and as poorly as they played in the rd of 32 game they were still in a position to win down the stretch (until some kid made a 30 foot bank shot three while sitting down almost out of bounds).

The big east desperately needs to get teams in the east region for the philly regional. That's bight is season.

[NovaBall]

I don't see Georgetown and Marquette as bubble teams this year (8 and 9 seeds are usually in the fence until March comes around).

Real important for these teams to take care of business out of conference this year.

[stever20]

I don't see Georgetown and Marquette as bubble teams this year (8 and 9 seeds are usually in the fence until March comes around).

Real important for these teams to take care of business out of conference this year.

Marquette is totally going to be a bubble team. They need to be up to 10 wins OOC because their OOC schedule is pretty soft. And then be .500 in conference. That means needing to win at least 1 out of vs LSU, Arizona St/NC State, Iowa, and Wisconsin- and not dropping any games like Friday vs Belmont. Friday is for season openers a HUGE game. It's the only OOC game outside the 4 that I mentioned that the Ken Pom winning percentage isn't at least 93%.- it's still 77% but Belmont always has a solid team. Marquette's problem is they have a whopping 7 OOC opponents in the Ken Pom bottom 50- with 3 of the 11 worst teams in the country.

Georgetown totally should be ok as long as we can beat at least 2 of Maryland, Wisconsin, Duke(if we see them), Syracuse, and UConn. You don't want to go like 1-4 in those 5 games(or if we see VCU instead of Duke).

[milksteak]

I think he's got it right for the most part. Georgetown and Xavier will be better than 8 or 9 seeds though. I'm not convinced Butler is worthy of a four seed. They are certainly capable of earning it though. Providence seems like a play-in team to me.

[stever20]

think part of Georgetown is record...
got 5 tough OOC games- Maryland, Wisconsin, Duke or VCU, Syracuse, and UConn. Say we go 2-3 in those 5.

Then he's got us 4th in conference. That's a 10-8 type of record.

That's 20-11. A loss in the BET- say we're 21-12. Safely in the tourney- but in the 8/9 range pretty easily.

Xavier similar. They have Michigan, the Advocare tourney, and Cincy. Plus Auburn and Wake Forest. That's 7 pretty tough games. 3 losses seem possible. Then say they go 11-7 in conference- they'd be 20-10. Then a loss in the BET- they'd be 21-11. That's again safely in the tourney- but in that 8/9 range. Maybe get a 7- depends on the season....