[quote name='thamaster24']I think dmaul answered it pretty well above. I don't think the conference is overrated, they have a huge amount of "good" teams. Teams that can win on any given night. This doesn't mean that they are world beaters but can take each other down like we saw in Big East conference play all year. It gives highly competitive basketball with all-around better players than almost all other conferences. I'll try and break it down a little more.
Villanova- Jay Bilas put it well by saying they got in on their total body of work, played a respectable game for how they had been playing prior to the tourney. I think they went 5-10 to close the season.
Gtown- Different team with Chris Wright and he wasn't really ready to come back I don't think. They needed him back quicker.
STJ- Another team with their second leading scorer out= bad news in the tourney
Louisville- Just got outplayed by a more determined team. Should they have won? Yeah but theres going to be a couple big first round upsets.
Syracuse- An example of bad execution down the stretch. Also Marquette got lucky with this matchup as they see Syracuse and breakdown tape on them all year.
WVU- Tough game, but pretty much what was expected with seeding.
Cincinnati- Destroyed Mizzou and then got beat by in conference familiar opponent UConn.
Pitt- Ran into battle tested Butler. Definitely should've won based on seeding but their play always seems to get them out of the tourney. Team is based on rebounding, great for reg season bad for postseason.
Notre Dame- I have no clue. Didn't really get to watch these guys this year seemed like their style was a turrrrible matchup against Fla State though. Teams based on 3-pt shooting can be hot, but if the shots not failing its no bueno.
Note that all of this is coming from a Memphis, C-USA fan. I have no real bias whatsoever outside of C-USA. I think the Big East has been the best conference year in and out for a while but they do seem to have a lot of trouble in the tourney. Why? The only real thing that I could say other than prep problems which they probably don't have, is that these guys are 18, 19, 20 year old kids and not always consistent.
Marquette's run will most likely end at UNC but UConn has a shot if they can stay hot to make a run at the FF, most likey EE I think though.[/QUOTE]
It is all excuses. A lot of teams have similiar issues. For example, we (FSU) have been without "our star" the ACC Defensive Player of the Year Chris Singleton for multiple games. He currently is only playing 10 min-ish (due to his foot surgery) and yet we have knock off good teams like a fully healthy ND team (note Bernard James, our best big man, was on an IV prior to gametime).
The Big East plain and simple looks overrated. This isn't the first year their teams have messed over brackets due to people buying into those teams. They didn't have these excuses last year when they also were exiting early (Nova screwed over a bunch that year). The Big East, for the most part, can't play against good/great teams. Period.
Why? The only real thing that I could say other than prep problems which they probably don't have, is that these guys are 18, 19, 20 year old kids and not always consistent.
That excuse can only be used for UConn, who is still playing and looks to actually be the best of the conference. The rest of the teams in conference are ran by upperclassman (i.e. JR and SR).