9:51 - 58-44 Providence
Providence is up big at the half against Pitt. We shall see what happens
9:51 - 58-44 Providence
63 - 50 with 7:03 left
edit:
72 - 59 with 4:03 left
Last edited by prefan21; 02-24-2009 at 08:49 PM.
PC up 10 2:34 left.
PC up 9, 1:18 left
Blair's got 4 fouls
Pitt down 5, 0.50 left. Is a choke going on?
pitt going down...man...i don't know if i WANT duke to be #1 till the end...
Get a number one seed.
a new Duke curse, K got 'em on PTI yesterday. the praise that Killz.
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
In a stunning upset. Is being number 1 a good thing?
Do you know what the chances of the Big East getting only 6 bids are? Exactly zero percent. Do you know what the chances of the Big East only getting 7 bids are? Probably around 5% or so. I would put the chances of the ACC getting 8 bids also at around 5% or so. Let it go, man.
Coaches of top teams should study the game film; see what Providence did to neutralize Blair. I only saw the last 2 or 3 minutes, so I don't know how it happened. Being number one certainly puts a target on your jerseys.
Looks like Memphis may be a lock for one of the 1 seeds. So the rest of the big boys are fighting for the other three.
Well, now that Syracuse beat St. John's, you are probably right about 6 bids. So long as Syracuse gets past a pretty lame Rutgers team, they should be in. Their computer rankings and RPI are strong. I suspect that West Virginia is also in so long as they do not do something crazy like lose to SFlorida and Depaul.
That makes the BEast pretty much a lock for 7 bids. I am not sure where #8 comes from unless Notre Dame, Cincy, or maybe GTown do something crazy impressive down the stretch and into the BEast tournament.
I think the ACC has a decent shot at 8 bids. 5 teams are in and BC only needs one more win to get to be in too. With NC State and Ga Tech left, BC is gonna make it giving the ACC 6 bids for sure. The next two probably require strong finishes from Va Tech, Maryland, and/or Miami-- but that is not out of the question. 8 is a bit of a longshot, but I think the odds are greater than 5%... maybe more like 10 or 15%
--Jason "FWIW, the ACC getting 6 is better than the BEast getting 7 as the Beast has 4 more teams than the ACC" Evans
BC just beat FSU to get to 8-6, so with NCSU and GT left, I think they are in.
That gives ACC 6 teams already, equal to 8 from BE.
Now if only we can get one more in... Miami needs to win out.
If Pitt finishes off the season with three losses (Providence, Marquette, UConn) then they might fall from the #1 seed spot. Similarly Uconn could lose 2 of the last 3 (Marquette and Pitt). Louisville still has Marquette and WVU. Things could get very interesting in the Little East.