By JOHN P. WISEOne Great Season
Outside the typical NCAA Tournament talk of upsets and buzzer-beaters, one of the top conversation points is the Big East and whether it's overrated and deserved the 11 bids it got.
I said it on Twitter last night and I'll say it again here: apples and oranges, brah. These are separate debates. The answer to one has nothing to do with the answer to the other. The league is overrated, and I said that here a month or two ago. Collectively, it underachieved on opening weekend by advancing only two teams to the Sweet 16.
But that doesn't mean it didn't have 11 teams worthy of NCAA Tournament invitations. The conference's last bid went to Marquette, and the Golden Eagles are still playing. Top to bottom, it's a strong league, but when a conference has 16 teams, it should be deep. You shouldn't be surprised, however, that it didn't have a great opening weekend. I mean, do you recall anyone saying during the season that a Big East team would win it all? Most of those votes were going to Ohio State and Kansas. And now with Kyrie Irving back, Duke is in that conversation.
So to grab a line from our boy Chris Crocker, leave the Big East alone. No one expected it to cut down the nets this year; it's still a good conference, and as Mike DeCourcy smartly pointed out over the weekend, the Big East didn't plan to turn itself into the superstore that it has become. It is what it is today because other leagues stole its teams, forcing a subsequent scramble to survive that ended in this 16-team superconference. Which, by the way, is the overall direction in which college sports are headed anyway.
Random Thoughts:
+ Enough with the complaints about the "human error" in the Washington-North Carolina game. There was none. The only reason for the dissection of the lag between when the ball hit out of bounds and when the whistle was blown was because it was in the final seconds of a one-possession game. Lag is involved in every call ever made. At any other point in the game, there would have been no urge to review the play because we can all agree that human reaction is not instantaneous. The ball bounces out of bounds, the official's eyes see it, his brain processes it and his mouth blows the whistle. How much faster than 0.9 seconds can you do all that? While the alternate official could have been more flexible at the scorer's table, there was no error on the floor.
+ What is up with Ohio State? The Buckeyes walloped their two opponents by a total of 61 points. Granted, game one against Texas-San Antonio was expected to be a cakewalk, but OSU's Round of 32 game against George Mason I thought had some potental risks. Ohio State let the Patriots hang around the first few minutes, but then turned the car on, shifted immediately into fifth gear and drove right over them the entire rest of the way.
+ Not only was it neat to see VCU advance, but the way the Rams handled Purdue was pretty impressive. Point guard Joey Rodriguez is fun to watch.
+ Same with Florida State; the Seminoles owned Notre Dame. I knew FSU played some defense, but I thought it was all interior dominance. Leonard Hamilton's crew gets after you on the perimeter as well.
+ Even though Duke had to hold off a late rally by Michigan, the Blue Devils are better with Irving back on the floor. They're just as much of a threat to win it all as Ohio State and Kansas are.
+ It might say something about Arizona that its best player by far, Derrick Williams, struggled, but the Wildcats still beat a good Texas team in a high-pressure, single-elimination NCAA Tournament game. That's a tall order.
+ I certainly didn't see Marquette winning its sub-regional. Wins over Xavier and Syracuse have got to give Buzz Williams' crew some serious confidence.
Looking Ahead:
+ If you prefer watching the sport's bluebloods, the East and West regions are where you want to be. Ohio State-Kentucky should be the best game of the Sweet 16, and if the seeds play out, the Buckeyes will advance to take on North Carolina in Newark, N.J. In the West, I think folks are hoping to see Duke-Connecticut tangle in Anaheim.
+ On the other side of the bracket, Kansas couldn't possibly lose to Richmond, could it? And if the Jayhawks squash the Spiders, a date with the VCU-Florida State winner awaits in the Southwest Regional final.
+ Jimmer Fredette and BYU look to continue their magical season in the Southeast Region, but No. 2 seed Florida appears the favorite to come out of that game, as well as an Elite Eight matchup against Wisconsin or Butler.
Conference Check:
Teams Remaining:
ACC: 3
Big East: 2
Big Ten: 2
MWC: 2
SEC: 2
Atlantic 10: 1
Big 12: 1
Colonial: 1
Horizon: 1
Pac 10: 1
Overall Records:
ACC: 7-1
America East: 0-1
Atlantic 10: 3-2
Atlantic Sun: 0-1
Big East: 9-9
Big Sky: 0-1
Big South: 0-1
Big Ten: 7-5
Big West: 0-1
Big 12: 4-4
Colonial: 3-2
C-USA: 0-2
Horizon: 2-0
Ivy: 0-1
MAC: 0-1
MEAC: 0-1
Metro Atlantic: 0-1
MVC: 0-1
MWC: 4-1
Northeast: 0-1
Ohio Valley: 1-1
Pac-10: 4-3
Patriot: 0-1
SEC: 4-3
Southern: 0-1
Southland: 1-1
Summit: 0-1
WAC: 0-1
WCC: 1-1
My Bracket Check:
CBS: 8 teams left (3 in Final Four)
ESPN: 8 (3)
BracketContest.com: 7 (2)