Big East Tournament Times/Dates

[Orange Nation]

http://www.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/bige/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/2006-big-east-bracket

SU seems to be locked in to the 8th or 9th spot, there's a decent gap between them and the teams below them, and considering they lose a tie-breaker with Seton Hall, 7th place seems like a pipe dream.* Cuse and Cincy right now seem to be on a crash course for that 8/9 game.* Seton Hall could fall to 8th after that terrible loss at home against Notre Dame over the weekend; talk about taking a virtual lock for an NCAA bid and flushing it down the toilet.

Anywho, SU seems on target to be playing at NOON on Wednesday, and if they should be lucky enough to win that game, they would play at noon again on Thursday....I don't think we need to discuss any possibilities beyond Thursday.

This is what it would look like right now

First Round Byes
1 Nova 11-1
2 UConn 10-2
3 WV 9-3
4 Pitt 9-4

Staying Home
13 Providence 4-8 (lose tie-breaker with Notre Dame and Louisville)
14 St. John's 4-9
15 DePaul 3-9
16 USF 0-12

First Round matchups 3/8
5 Marquette 8-5 vs. 12 Notre Dame 4-8 2 PM
6 Georgetown 8-5 vs. 11 Louisville 4-8 9 PM
7 Seton Hall 7-5 vs. 10 Rutgers 5-8 7 PM
8 Cincinnati 7-6 vs. 9 SU 6-6 Noon

Quarterfinals 3/9
1 Nova vs. 8 Cincy/9 SU winner NOON
2 UConn vs. 7 Seton Hall/10 Rutgers winner 7 PM
3 WV vs. 6 Georgetown/11 Louisville winner 9 PM
4 Pitt vs. 5 Marquette/12 Notre Dame winner 2 PM

If that's the way it could line up, I would think we would have a good shot against Cincy, and I would rather play Nova a second round rather than UConnvicts. I think we would have a shot against Nova in the Garden, an arena we tend to play well in.

[Orange Nation]

Big East Tournament thoughts

All the Big East games for Saturday have ended and the conference standings look like the gridlock on the D.C. Beltway.

Connecticut and Villanova are 1-2 in the league and they could be tied at 12-2 if UConn beats the Wildcats on Sunday.

From 3rd to 6th: Pitt, WVU, Georgetown and Marquette are separated by one game. Pitt and WVU are 10-4. Georgetown's 10-5. Marquette's 9-5.

Seton Hall, Syracuse and Cincinnati are tied with 7-7 records.

Louisville, Providence, St. John's and Rutgers are all 5-9. Notre Dame and DePaul are both 4-10.

Amazingly, the only team that's mathematically eliminated from the Big East Tournament is South Florida.

Notre Dame could still make it to New York. The Irish are at Providence on Wednesday and host DePaul on Saturday. Six wins might be enough, depending on tie-breakers.

Seton Hall's hurting. The Pirates have lost three straight to Notre Dame, St. John's and DePaul. Those are bad losses. Seton Hall plays Cincinnati on Tuesday and finishes at Pitt.

After playing at Seton Hall on Tuesday, Cincinnati hosts West Virginia on Saturday.

Syracuse must beat DePaul on Thursday to guarantee at least a .500 finish in the league. The Orange host Villanova on Sunday.

If Seton Hall loses twice, Cincy loses to WVU to finish at 8-8 and SU splits its last two games to also finish 8-8, Syracuse would win the tie-breaker with Cincy.

(Syracuse loses any tie-breaker with Seton Hall because the Pirates won the only regular season meeting).

The battle after UConn and Nova for the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds is a serious one. No team has won four straight games to win the Big East Tournament. West Virginia almost did it last year.

Louisville's in danger of missing the tournament in New York. Not only do the Cardinals finish with Marquette and at UConn this week, but they have tie-break killing losses to St. John's and Rutgers. In the case of a tie with Providence, Louisville would win.

Speaking of Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights could be headed to NYC. Rutgers hosts South Florida on Sunday and then plays at St. John's next Sunday. A 7-9 record would figure to get Rutgers in.

The Providence-Notre Dame game on Tuesday is huge for both clubs. It's in Providence.

[nyjunc]

Do you like that 4 tams don't make the Conf tourney? I don't like it, part of the fun of conf tourney is the lower teams having a shot to upset the better teams. I think they need to find a way to get everyone invovled in the future.

[Orange Nation]

Agreed, I would like all the teams to meet at MSG. It gives the USF's of the world some hope to make the tourney.

I'm not sure about 4 teams getting Bye's either, it would be better if the top 2 did IMO, or none.

[BLeonard]

If they let the lowest 4 teams in the tourney, there wouldn't be any byes... A team not making thier own conference tourney is a travesty.

-Bill