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I'm never negative toward the Big East and how it has helped Butler cement itself in the national basketball conscience, but I am beginning to worry that the Big East may have a fundamental problem with our rosters/talent/coaching. It seems we always go into the tournament looking for multiple runs, and end up with Villanova or bust. What happens when the string of All-American types end at Nova? Can we say we are really setting kids up for the NBA? I'm concerned.

For 2018, I really thought it set up nice for 6-0 to start and up to 4 in the Sweet 16. We end up 5-5 after the first weekend.

Thoughts on how things can get better? Like it or not, we are judged on March.

You really expected 6-0 to start and four in the Sweet 16 when four of the six teams were in the 7 to 10 seed range? That's a classic case of unrealistic expectations. Xavier blew it last night, but otherwise the conference has essentially performed to seed.

XUFan09 wrote:You really expected 6-0 to start and four in the Sweet 16 when four of the six teams were in the 7 to 10 seed range? That's a classic case of unrealistic expectations. Xavier blew it last night, but otherwise the conference has essentially performed to seed.

I didn't expect it, I just thought it was possible. I was happy with 4-2 in the first round, but we really took a dive in the second. Butler, Seton Hall, and Xavier all looked like the better teams at points in the second round; none could find a way to close it out and win. (Obviously losing to a #1 is not as big of a deal - Seton Hall)

We are judged by March, and these numbers don't look good:
Big Ten 6-2 (1.50 wins per team)
Big 12 8-3 (1.14)
ACC 10-6 (1.11)
SEC 8-6 (1.00)
Big East 5-5 (0.83)

It starts right here......

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/bas ... order/true

as BE homer I look at teams from other confs and think they are overrated all season. but then I watch them for the first time against BE and notice they have a lot of talents. (you can make argument they have more)

so it all comes down to recruiting. we need more talents and please let's go get more size. i don't know how tall the FSU guy was but Xavier bigs looked like guards trying to front him.

and let's not forget about the FBI investigation. I wouldn't be surprised at all if these football schools winning recruiting battles lately had something to do with it.

BEhomer wrote:so it all comes down to recruiting. we need more talents and please let's go get more size. i don't know how tall the FSU guy was but Xavier bigs looked like guards trying to front him.

He is 7'4". He scored 2 pts. They were both foul shots.
They also have a 7' guy. He scored 2 pts also.

i think the style of play has changed a lot with the current coaches in the Big East......

where before it was a really defensive league- you've seen the impact of Creighton and Marquette. Where before the league was much more ground and pound, it's now much more of a finesse league. And don't think that translates to March well(unless you have 50 bombers like what Nova has).

looking at the great numbers that Ken Pom has....
Offensive rebounding- in the old Big East- 2002-13- the league was always in the top 10 with the last 5 years in the top 3. Now, it's never been in the top 10, and this year was a league worst 25th.
percentage of shots as 3's- in old big east- league was never higher than 12th, and last 5 years always in the bottom 10. Now, it's never been outside the top 20, and this year was 10th.
tempo- in old big east- league ws in the top 10 only once, and in the 3 years before the split, was in the bottom 5 twice. Now, in the last 3 years, been in the top 5 twice.

Villanova and Xavier were the only two with a realistic chance to get past the 2nd round. Xavier was upset. It happens. Welcome to the club.

Virginia
Wichita State
Arizona
North Carolina
Michigan State
Tennessee

Bill Marsh wrote:Villanova and Xavier were the only two with a realistic chance to get past the 2nd round.

BE's 6-11 seeds seems to have lower ceiling than its counterpart from other conferences.

kayako wrote:

Bill Marsh wrote:Villanova and Xavier were the only two with a realistic chance to get past the 2nd round.

BE's 6-11 seeds seems to have lower ceiling than its counterpart from other conferences.

I wouldn't say they have a lower ceiling, they just didn't pull their games out. Butler and Seton Hall were no worse than Florida State, they both played their top seeds down to the wire. They both were right there at the end, SHU in a defacto road game, but unfortunately teams are judged by results rather than performance and the results just didn't go our way. I know it's irrelevant, but I have little doubt that Seton Hall would've beaten Kansas if that game was played on a true neutral court.

If there's one positive, it's that Villanova's the only 1 seed that didn't get anything close to scare in the opening weekend.