NCAA Sunday - Xavier vs Wisconsin...

[ChelseaFriar]

Almost every ACC team played a 10 seed or higher in the round of 32. Some serious easy paths for them. Look at ND and Syracuse. They got gifts.

[billyjack]

Tough ending. Freakin kid couldn't miss. Wisconsin needed a dozen things to go perfect for them in the last minute. Great season for X.

And some of you are overreacting as far as perception of the conference, etc... that's not decided by one game. It's thru the complete body of work, 5 bids a year, rankings, seeds, etc, and yes a part of that is also the tourney.

This is a game where people will remember that Wisc needed to hit a couple of bombs late to get an improbable win. It's a tourney where people will remember that the Pac-12 stunk. Our place as a conference is firmly planted within the "Big 6", and really the Top 4.

Also, after Friday's games the growing feeling of the sports world, and this will continue to build, is that the NCAA's are a crapshoot. It's the Billy Beane thought that the MLB playoffs are a coin flip. Does anyone for example think less of Texas cuz a guy hit a 60 foot shot? Or a late Cincinnati dunk?

Anyway, the key thought here is that we're a top conference, and are capable of deep runs even if its still in the future. The big winner this tourney is the ACC, though they've been the beneficiary of beating low seeds and swallowed whistles (SFA-ND), etc.

[SJUBBALL]

Damn, I'm really sorry X fans. That was painful. Reynolds was a beast for a while.

Please, please Nova - Final Four????

Damn it sucks but the BE comes up short in March again.

I am sorry about Xavier, I was obviously really rooting for you guys, and this isn't just directed at ChelseaFriar, but it is these constant posts that make me want to vomit for being in the Big East. This has nothing to do with Villanova being in the Sweet 16, I have been saying it ALL ALONG dealing with the "what can Villanova do for us this year?" mentality since no other teams are stepping up. Like it is Villanova's responsibility to do well in the tournament or else we have failed the whole league.

AS A WHOLE.....AS A WHOLE, the whole Big East still has to step up. It still hasn't happened. But enough with the F'ing Villanova NEEDS to win, or Xavier NEEDS to win nonsense, because if they don't it makes as all look bad. Worry about your own F'ing teams stepping up and helping. So far it hasn't happened and Villanova is just as guilty, but putting the pressure of the World on ONE team to do well to redeem the WHOLE entire league is F'ing bush league. I AM SICK OF IT.

Again, I am sorry to Xavier fans, I love your team and was hoping for big things, but this has gotten old. Not the losing in the tournament, I know these coaches and players want to win, but having to deal with the F'ing fans in this league who are more upset about a team like Villanova not doing well in the tournament than they are about how their team is not even in it anymore. It's F'ing pathetic. ENOUGH.

Nobody is doing this. But our teams are out. You say "how about your team steps up" like we have a say in our team stepping up. Yea if I could magically insert St John's into the sweet sixteen right now I would. But I can't, so I root for Villanova and hope they can do big things because the conference needs it.

Just like I'm sure ChelseaFriar wishes Kris Dunn and co beat UNC last night. But it didn't happen, so we are rooting for nova cause they are still alive. I don't know why you take something that is positive and turn it into a negative. We are just a bunch of big east fans who care about the leagues perception, and know that nova is the only team left that can help with the perception.

Yes in a perfect world St John's would have somehow rebuilt their roster in one year, and the entire big east would be dancing, but this isn't a perfect world, nova is all we got right now.

[MackNova]

Almost every ACC team played a 10 seed or higher in the round of 32. Some serious easy paths for them. Look at ND and Syracuse. They got gifts.

If we're going down that route, then you have to concede that Xavier got a gift path last year, too.

[ChestRockwell85]

ChelseaFriar, that was NOT just directed at you. Throughout the year I have made SEVERAL similar posts having to deal with people (most from schools who haven't done an F'ing thing in the tournament in well over a decade) bashing Villanova for not doing anything in the tournament since 2009. It is completely a mid-major mentality when you are expecting ONE team EVERY year in the Big East to do something in the tournament to redeem the rest of the league for not doing anything. In 3 years the Big East has only had TWO teams in the Sweet 16. It is not good, but again, and this is NOT just directed at you, I understand where you are coming from, it is directed at the SEVERAL other posters who have said similar things over the course of the year, until the league steps up as a WHOLE, stop pointing the finger at one team for not doing well in the tournament by themselves because the rest of the league isn't doing shit.

This is a group effort and we should be looking at 2 or 3 teams in the Sweet 16 every year if we want to be taken seriously.

Xavier doesn't owe anybody ANYTHING. They had a very good year and I'm sorry it ended the way it did. I look forward to another strong showing from X next year. Congrats on a successful season.

[ChelseaFriar]

Almost every ACC team played a 10 seed or higher in the round of 32. Some serious easy paths for them. Look at ND and Syracuse. They got gifts.

If we're going down that route, then you have to concede that Xavier got a gift path last year, too.

I don't even remember, to be honest.

I'm just amazed at the number of teams it happened to his year from one conference.

[MackNova]

Damn, I'm really sorry X fans. That was painful. Reynolds was a beast for a while.

Please, please Nova - Final Four????

Damn it sucks but the BE comes up short in March again.

I am sorry about Xavier, I was obviously really rooting for you guys, and this isn't just directed at ChelseaFriar, but it is these constant posts that make me want to vomit for being in the Big East. This has nothing to do with Villanova being in the Sweet 16, I have been saying it ALL ALONG dealing with the "what can Villanova do for us this year?" mentality since no other teams are stepping up. Like it is Villanova's responsibility to do well in the tournament or else we have failed the whole league.

AS A WHOLE.....AS A WHOLE, the whole Big East still has to step up. It still hasn't happened. But enough with the F'ing Villanova NEEDS to win, or Xavier NEEDS to win nonsense, because if they don't it makes as all look bad. Worry about your own F'ing teams stepping up and helping. So far it hasn't happened and Villanova is just as guilty, but putting the pressure of the World on ONE team to do well to redeem the WHOLE entire league is F'ing bush league. I AM SICK OF IT.

Again, I am sorry to Xavier fans, I love your team and was hoping for big things, but this has gotten old. Not the losing in the tournament, I know these coaches and players want to win, but having to deal with the F'ing fans in this league who are more upset about a team like Villanova not doing well in the tournament than they are about how their team is not even in it anymore. It's F'ing pathetic. ENOUGH.

Nobody is doing this. But our teams are out. You say "how about your team steps up" like we have a say in our team stepping up. Yea if I could magically insert St John's into the sweet sixteen right now I would. But I can't, so I root for Villanova and hope they can do big things because the conference needs it.

Just like I'm sure ChelseaFriar wishes Kris Dunn and co beat UNC last night. But it didn't happen, so we are rooting for nova cause they are still alive. I don't know why you take something that is positive and turn it into a negative. We are just a bunch of big east fans who care about the leagues perception, and know that nova is the only team left that can help with the perception.

Yes in a perfect world St John's would have somehow rebuilt their roster in one year, and the entire big east would be dancing, but this isn't a perfect world, nova is all we got right now.

I'm not sure what prompted ChestRockwell's post because no one in this thread has suggested that. But it has been frustrating as a Villanova fan to have other teams' fans ripping our March performance when no other team has done anything either.

Xavier was the best non-Villanova team the league produced thus far, and it failed to make the Sweet 16 against an opponent that people thought was trash on pages 1-2 of this thread. Creighton lost, too, for its McDermott team. Xavier lost a heartbreaker it fought to the wire, while Creighton got massacred, but the end result is the same.

Major gut-punch to the league.

[JohnW22]

This isn't a dig at Nova but it might sound like it. How do you go 2 straight amazing seasons in the regular season then lose early in the tournament and the season be considered a failure. This is rough, might be the longest summer of my life

[billyjack]

Guys, relax and enjoy the ride.

[MackNova]

This isn't a dig at Nova but it might sound like it. How do you go 2 straight amazing seasons in the regular season then lose early in the tournament and the season be considered a failure. This is rough, might be the longest summer of my life

It's the nature of the one-and-done tournament. It's not the best way to decide the best team, but it certainly provides excitement.

Villanova was better than NC State last year. Xavier was better than Wisconsin this year. But in a one-and-done format, that's what happens.

It's also the curse of expectations. When you build up expectations, a Round of 32 exit is brutal.

The season is three parts - regular season, conference tournament, and NCAA Tournament. Last season, Nova passed the first two stages with flying colors and flunked the final exam.