Originally Posted by
JasonEvans
I am not here to dwell on what this means for Pitt. I am here to talk about the Big East and Providence.
The Friars now go to 9-7 in the Big East with games left at Rutgers and at Villanova. If they beat Rutgers but lose to Nova (which would seem quite reasonable) they would be 18-12 (10-8) on the season. They would really only have one somewhat bad loss-- at the start of the season to a decent but not that good Northeastern team. They would also have non-conf losses to Baylor, BC, and St. Marys-- all of which are decent-good teams. Those losses were all on the road, so no big deal- though it is notable that Providence did not manage to beat any of those clubs. And, aside from this game against Pitt, Providence's resume of good wins is pretty pathetic. They beat Syracuse, but that ain't all that special. Aside from that, they have a pair of wins against Cincy and a win over Rhode Island-- they have not beaten any other teams in the top 80 or so.
So, would an 18-12 (10-8) team from the BEast with only 1 or 2 (is Syracuse in?) wins against tournament teams make the NCAA tourney? I think probably not. They are currently 77th in the RPI, 73 in Sagarin, and 81 in Pomeroy. Those numbers will go up with the win over Pitt, but not hugely.
The long and short of this is that Providence will not be another BEast team in the dance unless they follow up this win with one or two more against top 15 ranked BEast teams. I think that the better their conference record is, the worse it makes teams behind them in the BEast standings look. Teams like Syracuse (7-7), Notre Dame (6-8), and Cincy (7-7) are not happy to see Providence ahead of them in the standings.
Hehehe... I want the ACC to get more in than the Big East. We need to shut up all those "experts" who claimed the Big East was the greatest of all time or some such nonsense earlier this year. Of course, with UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Villanova, and Marquette all likely to get top 3-4 seeds in the tournament and likely picks to make the Sweet 16, the BEast will have a gaudy NCAA Tournament record-- but I still want the ACC to get 7 or 8 and the Beast to get 6 or 7.
--Jason "I know K likes Boeheim, but I really, really want Syracuse to miss the dance" Evans