This is The Rant’s daily look in at the Big East conference as we creep closer to the BET in New York City, which begins March 10th.
STANDINGS:
Big East Official Tie-Breaking formula
**-Connecticut Huskies 14-2
*-Louisville Cardinals 13-2
*-Pittsburgh Panthers 12-3
*-Marquette Golden Eagles 12-3
*-Villanova Wildcats 11-4
West Virginia Mountaineers 8-6
Providence Friars 9-7
Syracuse Orange 8-7
Cincinnati Bearcats 7-7
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7-8
Seton Hall Pirates 6-9
Georgetown Hoyas 5-10
T-St. John’s Red Storm 4-11
T-South Florida Bulls 3-12
T-Rutgers Scarlet Knights 1-14
T-DePaul Blue Demons 0-15
**-clinched a 2-day bye
*-clinched a 1st day bye
T-clinched a Tuesday game
LAST NIGHT:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 70
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 65
Notre Dame is doing everything possible to make up for a poor start in Big East play and get into the NCAA field of 65. The Irish have won four of their last five games and are now 7-8 in conference play. However, I still believe that they need another big win. Notre Dame has UCONN on Saturday and Villanova at home on Monday; I feel that they need to win at least one of those two to assure themselves a spot in the tournament. The Irish also cannot afford any bad losses the rest of the way, in either their last game (versus St. John’s whom have already beaten the Irish) or in the BET. Rutgers continues to struggle. The Scarlet Knights have now lost six straight and 15 of 16 games. The good news for Rutgers is that they close the season with South Florida at home, so at least they may be able to send their seniors out with a win. The other good news for Rutgers is that even at 15th in the conference they will get to play in the BET this season, something they have not done the past two seasons.
UCONN Huskies 93
Marquette Golden Eagles 82
UCONN is back atop the Big East all by themselves. Yes, I know that they technically they were in first place all along, but now they controls their own fate. With Pitt losing on Tuesday and the Huskies beat Marquette last night, UCONN is back in the drivers seat due to the head to head tiebreaker they hold over Louisville. The Huskies also became the first team to clinch a 2-day bye for New York, guaranteeing that they will not play until Thursday. This is great news for the Huskies and their fans but terrible news for bar and restaurant owners in Manhattan. Marquette now finds themselves in a tough spot, just as Pitt does. Both teams have difficult games to close out the season and both teams are just one game ahead of Villanova, for the last 2-day bye spot. Marquette faces Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse to close out the season, and will now have to go through that stretch without starting point guard Dominic James who broke a bone in his foot last night, which will end his college career.
Seton Hall Pirates 75
South Florida 60
Both of these teams will almost certainly be playing on Tuesday in the BET. Seton Hall has a chance to work its way in to a bye, but would have to win out and finish the season with three teams all ahead of them in the standings. The Pirates close out their home schedule with Pitt on Saturday before trips to Louisville and Cincinnati. South Florida will be going to NYC for the first time to take part in the BET. This is the first year that the conference has invited all 16 teams to the tournament and the Bulls had not qualified the previous seasons.
Villanova Wildcats 74
DePaul Blue Demons 72
Villanova avoided an embarrassing loss last night by coming back from a 10-point deficit to beat DePaul. The loss actually would not have done very much in terms of NCAA seeding (they are in and will beat around a 3-4 seed) or BET seeding (they have the 5 spot all but locked up, and could still move up to 3 or 4). However, it could have been a bad loss for confidence and moral purposes. As for DePaul, well they probably cannot wait for this season to end. This would have been a nice victory for the players, but in reality it still would mean little to a program that is really struggling to compete in the Big East.
GAMES TONIGHT:
West Virginia Mountaineers @ Cincinnati Bearcats
7:00 ESPN/ESPN2 (check your local listings)
UP COMING GAMES ON NATIONAL TV:
Saturday:
Georgetown @ Villanova ESPN
Notre Dame @ UCONN CBS
Sunday:
Marquette @ Louisville CBS
Providence @ Rutgers ESPNU
Monday:
Villanova @ Notre Dame ESPN
Tuesday:
Rutgers @ Syracuse ESPN 360
Cincinnati @ South Florida ESPNU
Wednesday:
Marquette @ Pitt ESPN2
BETology:
TUESDAY
March 10th:
NOON
9 – Cincinnati
Vs
16 – DePaul
2:00
12 – Georgetown
Vs
13 – St. John’s
7:00
10 – Notre Dame
Vs
15 – Rutgers
9:00
11 – Seton Hall
Vs
14 – South Florida
WEDNESDAY
March 11th:
NOON
8 – Syracuse
Vs
Tuesday NOON winner
2:00
5 – Villanova
Vs
Tuesday 2:00 winner
7:00
7 – Providence
Vs
Tuesday 7:00 winner
9:00
6 – West Virginia
Vs
Tuesday 9:00 winner
THURSDAY
March 12th:
NOON
1 – UCONN
Vs
Wednesday NOON winner
2:00
4 – Marquette
Vs
Wednesday 2:00 winner
7:00
2 – Louisville
Vs
Wednesday 7:00 winner
9:00
3 – Pitt
Vs
Wednesday 9:00 winner
Check back tomorrow for another update!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
For the BETology, you should post an actual bracket. I made an Excel spreadsheet in which all you have to do is input the order of teams on the left, and it puts them in the bracket appropriately on the right. It is much easier to read. You could generate the bracket, take a screenshot of it, upload the picture to the Internet, then post it on your blog. If you want the spreadsheet, let me know of an e-mail address to send it to
"The loss (for Villanova) actually would not have done very much in terms of ... BET seeding"
I have to disagree there. I expect Marquette to lose at least one more game. They currently only have one less loss than Villanova. Between them is the all-important border between a one-day and two-day bye in the BET. A loss last night may have made it very difficult for them to beat out Marquette for the 4th spot. Nova and Marquette split their season series, and I don't feel like figuring out the rest of the tiebreaker formula right now. But I think last night's win vs. DePaul (barring a collapse against three NCAA bubble teams - Georgetown, Notre Dame and Providence) made them very likely to end up as the 4th seed in the BET and get the 2 day bye.
uoflcard-
I would love a copy of that spreadsheet. Thanks a lot! My email address is thereitmeyerrant@hotmail.com.
Thanks again.
As for the Nova-Marquette tiebreaker, it would go to Nova, so I could understand where you are coming from. In all honesty I think Marquette loses to both Louisville and Pitt and Nova gets that 4-seed rather easily.
Post a Comment