According to our guest writer Mike Jarvis, the Big East is no big deal. America's best conference went into Thursday with 11 teams in the tournament. After the first weekend, there are just 2 remaining.
Today we have a special guest blogger. His name is Mike Jarvis.
People who oppose this argument might cite St. John’s demolishing of Duke. Other than this win I cannot think of any other marquee wins out of conference for the Big East once their conference schedule started. And while it was an impressive win and I do not want to take anything away from St. John’s, Duke did miss a lot of shots they would normally make. At one point they were 1 for 21 from beyond the arc until they hit a few more threes in garbage time. Ultimately, who is still in the tourney?
Do the Big East teams wear each other out throughout conference play and the conference tournament? I don’t think so. By this logic UConn would have been knocked out in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I mean they did just win five straight games in the “brutal” Big East tournament. Instead, they won their first two games of this year’s tournament en route to seven straight wins. Now they have as good of a chance as anyone to make the Final Four.
While two teams from the Big East in the Sweet 16 is tied for second most of any other conference, it is only two out of the original 11 teams selected to the tournament. Also, how did those two Big East teams make it to the Sweet 16? They did so by beating two other Big East teams. I don’t know what the problem is. Maybe the Big East style of play is so much different from every other conference that come tournament time they have trouble handling out of conference teams. But, the bottom line is the Big East has not lived up to expectations in this year’s NCAA tournament and it appears the conference was overrated.
For my (TheSportsKraze’s) opinion on this subject matter, please check my post from about 3 weeks ago (https://sportskraze.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/give-the-big-east-a-break/).
Stay tuned for the next edition of TheSportsKraze.
-TheSportsKraze
TheSportsKraze 
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come on guys…this isn’t even close. you can’t really say any team or conference is better by using the results of a one and out. several of the teams left in the dance wouldn’t be there in best of series. let’s realize that marquette was 11th in the big east …can you think of any team in the bottom part of a major conference as good as marquette? duke, texas,….got beat by big east teams (the list is longer but my mind is a bit weak)…who did the big ten teams beat? osu, wisconsin, purdue, michigan state, michigan…maybe half of the conference is strong. usually i go with the acc but this year the depth of the big east is unparalleled.
Mike Prof,
I completely agree with you and know there are more wins out there. The numbers do not lie in that the Big East had by far the best aggregate record versus the other major conferences. That is the most telling stat. But this was my guest blogger’s opinion. My thoughts lie in a post from 3 weeks ago:
https://sportskraze.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/edition-61-buckeyes-look-prime-for-2010-2011/
-TheSportsKraze
Here’s a few theories:
1) As discussed previously, the Big East is like the Big Ten in football – they beat the crap out of each other all season long, and are spent by the time the get to the tournament.
2) This year, the Big East just happened to corner the market on over-rated teams (Notre Dame…I’m looking at you…)
3) The conference as a whole has historically been over-rated.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
JW,
I agree with you. This article reflects the opinion of my guest blogger. You can get my opinions on this subject matter from
https://sportskraze.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/edition-61-buckeyes-look-prime-for-2010-2011/
-TheSportsKraze
This is completely ridiculous. Best conference is ConferenceUSA for sure. I like boiled water and steroids. Do me.
Prof,
I do not disagree the Big East was the deepest and best conference this year in college basketball. I just do not think they were as good as what the experts on ESPN and other networks made them out to be. The Big East lacked an elite team this year and other than Kemba Walker, a superstar type player that is usually required to make a deep tourney run. You can make the argument that these teams would win a series but we only have a one and done tournament to go off of. If real life results can’t be used to judge teams than nothing can. We can argue hypothetical situations all day, but we can’t argue results.