We are on to tournament play. The Big East Tournament kicks off Tuesday in New York City. Let‘s take a look at the final regular season standings as well as the match-ups for New York.
FINAL STANDINGS:
Pitt Panthers 15-3
Notre Dame Fighting Irish 14-4
Louisville Cardinals 12-6
Syracuse Orange 12-6
St. John’s Red Storm 12-6
West Virginia Mountaineers 11-7
Cincinnati Bearcats 11-7
Georgetown Hoyas 10-8
UCONN Huskies 9-9
Villanova Wildcats 9-9
Marquette Golden Eagles 9-9
Seton Hall Pirates 7-11
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 5-13
Providence Friars 4-14
South Florida Bulls 3-15
DePaul Blue Demons 1-17
BET SCHEDULE:
TUESDAY
March 8th:
NOON
9 – Connecticut
Vs
16 - DePaul
2:00
12 – Seton Hall
Vs
13 – Rutgers
7:00
10 – Villanova
Vs
15 – South Florida
9:00
11 – Marquette
Vs
14 – Providence
WEDNESDAY
March 9th:
NOON
8 – Georgetown
Vs
Tuesday NOON winner
2:00
5 - St. John’s
Vs
Tuesday 2:00 winner
7:00
7 – Cincinnati
Vs
Tuesday 7:00 winner
9:00
6 – West Virginia
Vs
Tuesday 9:00 winner
THURSDAY
March 10th:
NOON
1 - Pitt
Vs
Wednesday NOON winner
2:00
4 – Syracuse
Vs
Wednesday 2:00 winner
7:00
2 – Notre Dame
Vs
Wednesday 7:00 winner
9:00
3 – Louisville
Vs
Wednesday 9:00 winner
BET MATCH-UPS:
Here are some match-ups or possible match-ups that could be very interesting games this week in New York.
TUESDAY:
Marquette vs Providence, 9:00 PM
This is an interesting match-up because Providence has the talent to play with every team in the conference and Marquette has struggled to close out this season. I think Marquette is comfortably in the NCAA Tournament, primarily because the field/bubble is so weak this year, but if I were the Golden Eagles, I would not want to leave it in question with the selection committee. A win and Marquette is 100% in, no questions asked. A loss and they should still be in, but you never know.
Seton Hall vs Rutgers, 2:00 PM
This game really doesn’t mean much as far as the NCAA Tournament, but it is 2 rivals playing for a 3rd time this season. The 2 teams split the season series. What is maybe more interesting is the possible 2nd and 3rd round games if Seton Hall wins. The winner would go on to play St. John’s, a team that the Hall just beat Thursday by 14. The winner of that game would get Syracuse, a team that Seton Hall beat by 22 earlier this year. With Jeremy Hazell healthy for the Pirates and some favorable match-ups they are a team that might be able to make a splash in NYC.
WEDNESDAY: (possible match-ups)
Connecticut vs Georgetown, NOON
How strong is the Big East? Both of these two teams were ranked in the top 10 at some point this season, and when they played 3 weeks ago Georgetown was ranked 9th and UCONN 12th. Now they are playing as the 8th and 9th seeds in the Big East Tournament. No word yet on if Chris Wright will be back from his broken hand yet, if not they could be in a lot of trouble. The Hoyas finished the season losing their last 3 games with Wright running the point. UCONN won that meeting between these 2 teams, it was the only time they met this season.
Seton Hall vs St. John’s, 2:00 PM
As mentioned above I think this game could be a very intense game between two teams that just had a very hard fought game the last week of the regular season. St. John’s had their head coach get 2 technical fouls and ejected, then one of their players committed a flagrant foul and was also ejected. There is certainly no love lost between these two teams and it would be fun to see them matched up in New York. St. John’s has not lost in Madison Square Garden since losing to Syracuse on January 12th.
Villanova vs Cincinnati, 7:00 PM
Who would have guessed that of these two teams, Cincy would be the one with the bye in the Opening Round? Both of these teams are in the NCAA Tournament, Nova has been falling fast in seeding and a win for Cincy certainly wouldn’t hurt, but neither of these two teams will have anything to worry about come Selection Sunday. This is going to be a game for the winner to get some momentum going leading into the Big Dance.
Providence or Marquette vs West Virginia, 9:00 PM
This is the game to miss on Wednesday, and luckily it is the last game of the day and session so you can hit the sack early and rest up before another big day Thursday. To be honest none of these 3 teams have impressed me one bit this season. It is kind of crazy that one of these 3 are guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals.
THURSDAY: (possible match-ups)
UCONN/Georgetown winner vs Pitt, NOON
This match-up has been the Championship game in the Big East Tournament 5 times in the last 9 years. Pitt has played UCONN 3 times and Georgetown twice in that span. This is what you get in the Big East, Pitt wins the conference, being in 1st place everyday of conference play and in the 1st round of the Big East Tournament they will be playing a team that has been ranked pretty much all season.
Seton Hall/St. John’s vs Syracuse, 2:00 PM
This game could be the best attended game in an afternoon session in Big East Tournament history. Syracuse claims to be New York’s college team and St. John’s in NYC and this years team has taken the city by storm. St. John’s was in position to have a bye to this round and hold the #4 spot until Seton Hall upset them on Thursday. Syracuse took advantage of that slip up and now gets the double bye.
Villanova/Cincinnati vs Notre Dame, 7:00 PM
This will be a fun match-up no matter if it is Cincinnati or Villanova. Those teams both play a more athletic style of game that really fits their teams. Both are longer teams and have some really good athletes all over the court. Notre Dame is the opposite. They don’t have the athletes of most teams in the conference, but they have the toughness and discipline that not many teams in the conference have. And they can shoot, just ask Villanova about the game last week when ND made 20 of 32 from long range.
West Virginia vs Louisville, 9:00 PM
Louisville is by far the better team, but then again they just lost to the Mountaineers in Morgantown on Saturday. I think that once again the nap cap is the worst game on the schedule Thursday as it is Wednesday.
PREDICTION:
I like Pitt beating Louisville in the Championship Saturday night, giving Pitt their 8th championship game appearance in the past 11 years and 3rd title.
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4 comments:
Well written, but I think you show some bias against some teams.
Why do you talk up the Marquette/Providence game and say Marquette should be in NCAA's and Providence can play with anyone, but on the Wednesday against WVU, you say none of the teams impress you at all.
Also on the Thursday rounds you say Louisville is much better than WVU. Well they played twice this year splitting 1-1; Louisville won at home by 1 at the last second, WVU won at home by 2 at the last second. sounds like a pretty even match up to me.
Overall good job, just try to leave the bias out
I don't think there is much bias behind what I wrote. It is very well noted that this year the bubble is weak and in most years Marquette and maybe Cincinnait as well would not make the tournament with the resumes they have this season. As for Providence, they are a team that can play with anyone, unfortunately they can't close out games and have lost way more than they have won. West Virginia wins ugly. Not that that is a bad thing, but it is tough to enjoy and not exactly pleasing to the eye.
As for the Thursday match-up with Louisville, I guess saying that Louisville is the "far better" team may be a little strong, but again WVU is tough to figure out. When they all play well they are good, but that hasn't happened much this year. They play ugly and they win ugly. They don't have any dynamic scorers or playmakers that ability jump off the court at you. Louisville on the otherhand doesn't have as much talent, but they play hard and have a ton of athletes.
As for being biased, I think you may want to rethink your wording. Maybe opinionated, but I certainly don't think I am biased towards any of these teams mentioned.
Thanks for reading!
You're probably right, and biased wasn't the right word, it was just the first word that popped in my head.
You are right on about west virginia, but that's just how Huggins likes his team to play. And with a sweet 16, Final four, Big East Tourney championship and and one NCAA first round exit, it's hard to argue results too much, though it isn't always fun to watch.
And as much as it pains me, as a WVU fan, I agree with you that I think Pitt will win the Big East Tournament. They just play so poised and never seem to get rattled, and I don't see a team tripping them up.
I enjoyed reading and definitely will check back from time to time to see what else is on here. Keep up the good work
Thanks Jack, I appreciate the kind words and your support!
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