Big East Notebook
February 26, 2003 02:49 PM | General
February 26, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s Big East tournament chances took a turn for the better after Seton Hall’s victory at Rutgers Tuesday night.
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| West Virginia's Tyrone Sally drives to the basket at Pitt earlier this year. Sally hopes to make his first Big East tournament appearance after West Virginia missed the tournament last season. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
West Virginia, 4-8 in Big East play, will go to New York if it can maintain its current sixth-place position in the conference standings. Helping the cause is the fact that West Virginia swept Rutgers earlier this year, giving the Mountaineers the tiebreaker if the two should finish with identical league records.
After a game tonight at No. 15 Syracuse, West Virginia has regular season conference games remaining at Seton Hall and at home to Georgetown and Virginia Tech. If West Virginia loses all four remaining games, then Rutgers (3-11) still has to win two of its last three games at home against Notre Dame, and on the road at St. John’s and Syracuse to make the tournament.
If WVU should win one of the remaining four, Rutgers would have to win all three and if WVU wins two, Rutgers is eliminated all together.
Georgetown has removed itself from shaky ground by winning back-to-back league games against Miami and Providence. The Hoyas, now 5-8 in Big East play, have jumped past West Virginia into fifth place in the West standings and have games remaining against Syracuse, West Virginia and Notre Dame.
On the East side, Miami is in danger of becoming the first team other than Virginia Tech from that side not to make the conference tournament. The Hurricanes (3-10) are last in the East, one-half game behind the 3-9 Hokies.
Tech has games remaining against Pitt (tonight), Villanova, Miami and West Virginia.
In addition to traveling to Virginia Tech, Miami finishes with home games against Boston College and St. John’s.
Making things more difficult for the Hokies is the fact that their third-leading scorer Carlos Dixon is out for the remainder of the season with a broken foot suffered against Miami.
The race is equally contested for the East-West divisional titles and the coveted first round byes in the Big East tournament.
In the West, Syracuse has moved into a tie with Pitt for the top spot with matching 9-3 records. Notre Dame is right on their heels with a 9-4 mark. Seton Hall has moved into the picture with an 8-4 record and boasts the league’s long current winning streak at seven games.
The Pirates have games remaining against Villanova, West Virginia, Pitt and Providence.
After tonight’s game against West Virginia, Syracuse has remaining dates against Georgetown, Notre Dame and Rutgers.
Pitt has Virginia Tech, UConn, Seton Hall and Villanova remaining, while Notre Dame has games left at Rutgers, at home to Syracuse and at Georgetown.
The East has whittled itself down to a three-team race between Connecticut, Villanova and Boston College.
UConn is a game up on Villanova in the win column with a 9-4 league mark. The Huskies have two road games remaining at Pitt and Boston College, and a home contest against Providence.
Villanova must play at Seton Hall, at Virginia Tech and at Boston College before winding up the regular season at home against Pitt. Boston College has games remaining at St. John’s and Miami, and home games left against Villanova and Connecticut.
As far as the Big East tournament, history remains on the side of the teams that have earned byes. Both division champions made the Big East championship game last year and divisional winners claimed the tournament the two years prior to that.
News and Notes
First-round Byes: Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the West and Connecticut and Villanova from the East
Game 1: Seton Hall (West 4) vs. St. John’s (East 5)
Game 2: Boston College (East 3) vs. West Virginia (West 6)
Game 3: Providence (East 4) vs. Georgetown (West 5)
Game 4: Notre Dame (West 3) vs. Virginia Tech (East 6)
Realistically there are three other Big East teams still on the NCAA bubble in Villanova, Boston College and Seton Hall.
Of the three, Seton Hall (14-9) probably has the strongest case right now. The Pirates have won down the stretch (8 of last 10) and have the strongest RPI (#35) of the three coming into this week’s play, according to CollegeRPI.com.
Five of Seton Hall’s non-conference losses have come against teams in the RPI top 72: #2 Texas, #11 Louisville, #42 DePaul, #57 Ohio State and #72 Manhattan.
Still, Seton Hall is going to probably have to get to the 18 or 19-win level to get in. A real key game toward determining a possible fifth NCAA tournament team from the Big East conference takes place Thursday night when the Pirates play host to Villanova in a makeup game.
Villanova is still in the running with a 15-10 record. However, the Wildcats are just 5-5 in their last 10 games and show conference losses to West Virginia and Providence during this stretch. Villanova’s RPI of 52 is in the bubble area and like Seton Hall, has respectable non-conference losses to #15 Marquette, #18 Dayton, #28 St. Joseph’s and #31 Memphis -- all on the road.
Still, with 10 losses Villanova is going to have to get close to the 20-win mark by selection time and that will be tough with regular season road games left at Seton Hall (#35), Virginia Tech and Boston College (#50).
Boston College (14-9) remains in the hunt mainly because of its late season surge, winning 7 of its last 10 games. The Eagles have nice non-conference road wins at #67 N.C. State and #91 Iowa State, but must explain a horrible, 72-67 home loss to #244 Northeastern.
Like Seton Hall, Boston College is going to have to get to the 18 or 19-win range to be seriously considered for the NCAA tournament.
A week ago, Providence had a slight chance of getting some at-large consideration with an RPI of 63, but the Friars eliminated that prospect after a road loss Tuesday night at Georgetown left them 13-12.
Providence has games left against #37 Connecticut and #35 Seton Hall, but wins over both still won’t come close to getting them where they need to be.
Remaining Games This Week
Wednesday
West Virginia at Syracuse
Pitt at Virginia Tech
Boston College at St. John’s
Thursday
Villanova at Seton Hall
Saturday
West Virginia at Seton Hall
Villanova at Virginia Tech
Syracuse at Georgetown
Boston College at Miami
Notre Dame at Rutgers
Sunday
Duke at St. John’s
Connecticut at Pitt
