Jan. 13, 2019- (2) Big East Games...

[SJUBBALL]

I think Marquette, Nova are locks.

Seton hall is in right now and as long as they keep doing what they’ve been doing they will be in.

St. John’s is in trouble. Big trouble. If they keep struggling and no other teams go on crazy winning streaks, it could definitely be 3 bids

[adoraz]

Yeah 3 is possible, just like it was in year 1, but unlikely. One of Butler, St. John's, or Creighton should make it. Someone could win the BET (like Providence did year 1). Just a week ago we had brackets with 6 teams in (very unlikely too). Always important not to get too high or too low on teams, as outlooks can look completely different from one game to the next.

That said, even if 3 happens, not a big deal. Just means we'll have 3 very strong teams in the Tournament. In terms of negative attention, PAC 12's dreadful year will mostly divert from ours.

Didn't the 14 teams Big 10 get 4 teams in last year? And this year they're going to at least double that?

My prediction: 4 is most likely, followed by 5, followed by 3, followed by 6.

[Omaha1]

No one has started publicly calling for Mac’s head but there is more audible dissatisfaction than I can remember since Altman returned to CU after his dalliance with Arkansas.

[XUFan09]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

[stever20]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

The problem with the matrix is that it includes brackets from a week ago.... And especially now since they've lost 2 games each since those brackets- their position is no where near as good. Right now both are very precarious- and when the Matrix gets updated again, going to find both of them likely on the outside looking in.

[gtmoBlue]

Congrats to Nova Nation and the X Parkway crowd on great wins. Guess the death pronouncements were premature. Shoutout to Novachap and Chesty.

I had hoped for a 4-0 start, but we got a 1-0 start, then smoked in the next 3. Sumthin' ain't rite in Omaha...and it smells like malcoaching. I'm just holdin' my breath til I get bluer still.

[herodotus]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

BU, and CU are both 1-3 in league play. In a down year, I wouldn't want to have an 8-10 record on Selection Sunday. It's certainly way too early for those schools to panic, but they'll need to start stacking some wins. A crucial road game for each team approaches. Butler is at DePaul. and CU will face the Hoyas, after playing at St. John's. Neither game is a cakewalk, but if you can't get road wins there, who in this league can you expect to beat on the road? CU could easily find themselves 1-5 a week from now, which would leave them in an awful position. Last season, all of the contenders could look at Georgetown, Depaul, and St. John's, and assume at least 4 wins, maybe even 5, or 6. Not the case this year. Again, it's still early, but these are close to being must wins for Butler, and Creighton.

[stever20]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

BU, and CU are both 1-3 in league play. In a down year, I wouldn't want to have an 8-10 record on Selection Sunday. It's certainly way too early for those schools to panic, but they'll need to start stacking some wins. A crucial road game for each team approaches. Butler is at DePaul. and CU will face the Hoyas, after playing at St. John's. Neither game is a cakewalk, but if you can't get road wins there, who in this league can you expect to beat on the road? CU could easily find themselves 1-5 a week from now, which would leave them in an awful position. Last season, all of the contenders could look at Georgetown, Depaul, and St. John's, and assume at least 4 wins, maybe even 5, or 6. Not the case this year. Again, it's still early, but these are close to being must wins for Butler, and Creighton.

if EITHER of them are 8-10 in conference play, Creighton is 16-14 and Butler is 17-14 entering the BET. Either one of those would have to pretty much win the BET at that point to get into the tournament. You can make the case that if they go 9-9 they're probably out given they had 4 OOC losses.

You can make the case that the Creighton/St John's game is a must win for both sides.

[XUFan09]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

The problem with the matrix is that it includes brackets from a week ago.... And especially now since they've lost 2 games each since those brackets- their position is no where near as good. Right now both are very precarious- and when the Matrix gets updated again, going to find both of them likely on the outside looking in.

A majority of the brackets were updated Thursday or Friday (38 out of 65). For these, the only change is the weekend games. Also, for the brackets last updated between last Sunday and last Wednesday, Creighton and Butler aren't alone in dropping multiple games this past week. Three other teams on their seed line or in the First Six Out lost both games this week and another three lost one and earned their only win of the week against a crappy team (qualitatively zero for the resume). Also, Creighton lost two Tier 1 games and Butler lost a Tier 1 game and a Tier 2 game (and Xavier might move up into Tier 1). These are hits to their resume but more of missed opportunities than anything. It's hyperbolic to act like they are significantly worse off than before. More than anything, they missed chances to be significantly better while some other teams faltered. It's the Bubble; all these teams will drop games in disappointing fashion. They are no more precarious than any other team on the Bubble. As it stands, they will probably slide into the First Six Out, but that's not much of a drop at all and still puts them in a solid position.

Recall that my original point was 6 teams are more likely than 3, which, again, is highly unlikely. That's because we have two teams that are close to locks, two that are doing well, and two on the Bubble. It's far more likely that all of them make it than that three of them fall short. What's most likely, though, is 4 or 5 bids.

[XUFan09]

I don't think it will happen, but the league could get as few as 3 teams in if things break the wrong way. People have long wanted DePaul to right the ship, but this shows the value of having a dog in the league to soak up losses. You just don't want the same team filling that role every year. DePaul is now a land mine for teams in the league. Georgetown is as well, unless they can reach the 11 BE wins that would likely put them in the mix for a bid. Right now, only Marquette, and Nova are truly locks. St. John's and Seton Hall are in right now, but still have to be careful. St. John's lack of quality wins ooc leaves them especially vulnerable. The rest are on the outside looking in, although a strong run could elevate a few teams.

You know, having two teams that are truly locks on January 13 is actually pretty good, especially in a year of no great teams in the conference. It's possible they only get 3 but it's highly unlikely. Also, both Creighton and Butler are slotted in as 11 seeds on Bracket Matrix. Yes, they both lost today, but Creighton lost at home to a projected 7 seed and Butler lost on the road to the NET #78 team, so neither was a bad loss at all. I would hardly characterize them on the outside looking in when they are in a solid place on the Bubble while two of their fellow projected 11 seeds and 4 of the First Six Out all have lost this weekend. All together, the Big East is more likely to get 6 teams in than 3.

BU, and CU are both 1-3 in league play. In a down year, I wouldn't want to have an 8-10 record on Selection Sunday. It's certainly way too early for those schools to panic, but they'll need to start stacking some wins. A crucial road game for each team approaches. Butler is at DePaul. and CU will face the Hoyas, after playing at St. John's. Neither game is a cakewalk, but if you can't get road wins there, who in this league can you expect to beat on the road? CU could easily find themselves 1-5 a week from now, which would leave them in an awful position. Last season, all of the contenders could look at Georgetown, Depaul, and St. John's, and assume at least 4 wins, maybe even 5, or 6. Not the case this year. Again, it's still early, but these are close to being must wins for Butler, and Creighton.

Okay. All six teams making it in is still significantly more likely than only three. And odds are good that at least one of the last two makes it in.