Sweet Success
March 24, 2003 09:36 AM | General
March 24, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It was a sweet weekend for the Big East conference. Four Big East teams advanced through the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.
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| Pitt guard Carl Krauser celebrates the Panthers victory over Indiana. Pitt was one of four Big East teams to advance to the round of 16. (AP photo) |
That year Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova and Boston College each advanced to the round of 16, and Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova all made it to the Final Four.
The Big East’s 8-0 record through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament is ample proof that the selection committee made a big mistake by only picking three at-large teams for the field.
This year was the first time since 1997 that the Big East failed to send at least five teams to the Big Dance. Yet of all of the conferences, the Big East has the most teams left in the tournament heading into the round of 16.
In defense of the selection committee, the computer printout on the Big East isn’t quite as compelling as some of the other big conferences.
To illustrate this point, CollegeRPI.com lists four Big East teams (Georgetown, Rutgers, Miami and Virginia Tech) with RPIs lower than 100. Two, Miami and Virginia Tech, have RPIs at 177 and 188.
Not good.
By comparison, the ACC didn’t have a single team with an RPI in the 100s (Clemson was the lowest with an RPI of 90), the SEC had just one (Vanderbilt), and the Big XII had only two (Kansas State and Nebraska).
The Big East wasn’t top heavy with highly rated teams either. Entering the NCAA tournament, Syracuse had the highest RPI in the Big East with a ranking of nine. Notre Dame was 10, Pitt was 16, and Connecticut was 40 -- all four of those teams made the NCAA tournament.
Seton Hall and Boston College, two teams with 10-6 records inside of league play, were left out of the NCAA tournament. Seton Hall’s RPI was 36 and Boston College’s was 46.
Non-conference schedules were the main reason, although BC counted a nice win at North Carolina State on its resume. Also, two Big East teams that didn’t make the tournament captured big non-conference wins when West Virginia stunned Florida on a neutral floor and St. John’s downed Duke at the Garden.
So where does league play factor into the RPI equation? Aren’t Seton Hall’s wins against Pitt and Notre Dame as impressive as Cincinnati’s two best league victories against Louisville and St. Louis? UC’s 9-7 record in C-USA play was actually one game worse than Seton Hall’s Big East mark.
In the eyes of the selection committee, Seton Hall blew its chances outside of league play against Texas, Louisville and Ohio State earlier in the year. That is unfortunate.
The reason Cincinnati got into the tournament was because the Bearcats beat Oregon and Oklahoma State outside of league play. I might also add that Cincinnati had to play those two in addition to Dayton, Xavier and Clemson because Conference USA has so many weak teams.
I use Cincinnati as an example only because both Conference USA and the Big East had the same number of teams picked for the NCAA tournament. C-USA managed to get Louisville, Marquette, Memphis and the Bearcats into the Big Dance despite having seven teams in its league with 100-plus RPIs, including No. 214 Houston.
Not surprisingly, C-USA has just one team left after the first weekend of play in Marquette, which faces Pitt in the “Sweet 16.”
There are other examples. The Pac 10 managed to get one more bid than the Big East despite having five teams with RPIs in the 100s. Washington State was lowest rated team at No. 227.
Like Conference USA, the Pac 10 has just one team left in the “Sweet 16” in top-seeded Arizona, which barely beat Gonzaga to get there.
The Big Ten, which also got five teams into the tournament, had three teams with ratings in the 100s in Iowa (108), Northwestern (181) and Penn State (189). Remember, the Big Ten has 12 teams while the Big East has 14.
The Big Ten has two teams left in Michigan State and Wisconsin.
Notre Dame tripped Big Ten tournament champion Illinois and Pitt routed Indiana in the Big East’s two head-to-head second-round meetings with the Big Ten.
This hasn’t been the year of the Cinderella, either. Only Butler has made it past the first weekend.
The top two rated conferences, the Big XII and the SEC, have a combined five teams left in the tournament.
The Big XII has Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas left, and the SEC has Kentucky and Auburn still alive. The Big East has two head-to-head opportunities against them, with Connecticut playing Texas and Syracuse facing Auburn.
Notre Dame will be pitted against Arizona while Pitt plays Marquette.
With all four Big East teams in different regions, there is a possibility the conference could have more than one team reach the Final Four. Three of them are legitimate national championship contenders in Pitt, Syracuse and Connecticut.
Said Indiana coach Mike Davis after his team lost by 18 points to Pitt on Sunday: “We played Kentucky this year, we played Illinois, we played some really good basketball teams. But we hadn’t played a team like that all year.”
The high point of the conference came in 1985 when Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s each made the Final Four. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Big East once again sent three teams to the Final Four?
It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.
