Comments on: Bob Knight: ‘Big East Without Any Question Best Conference’

By: spjeepter17

spjeepter17 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:56:36 +0000

First off it is hard to compare a conference with 10 teams to a conference with 16 teams, but here are the average team records-
Big East= 18.9 - 13.0 Pac10=19.8 - 12.5
Occording to my calculations this would mean that the average Pac 10 team is better than the average Big East team. Like I said, sometimes your perspective can be effected by the shear number of teams that are in the Big East. Sure they have a few more good teams, but they also have a few more bad teams. Also it is important to note that the Pac 10 is one of a few conferences that actually plays a balanced schedule, that’s right, each team has to face the other teams twice, once at home and once on the road. This means that you simply cannot get away with getting lucky one time at home against a top team and have your stock rise that high because undoubtedly you will play them on their court. Ask Stanford, ASU, Arizona, WSU, and Cal how hard it is to suffer 2 losses to a team like UCLA instead of only one. Look at the tournament seedings, even the second place team in the Big East (Notre Dame) got past over by the number 3 team in the Pac 10 (WSU). Syracuse with 20 wins didn’t even make the tournament because the selection committee devalued those wins. The Big East has 8 teams in the tourney, while the Pac 10 has 6, whiel 6 is the lower amount, it is 60% of the Pac 10 whereas the Big East only has 50% of their conference int he tourney. The comparisons can go on forever, but when you look at simple fact the Pac 10 is just better. Oh yeah and did any Big East team get a number one seed? I didn’t think so!

By: Larry Brown

Larry Brown — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:10:36 +0000

Tecmo, I’ll see if I can find links … but without a doubt, I know when I heard analysis on TV and radio, almost always the analysts were saying the Pac-10 was the top conference. Perhaps people changed as the season went on, but I know for sure that at the beginning of the year, it was the consensus top conference. One for sure is Mike Decourcy at Sporting News — I know that because I hear him each week. I’m almost certain another was Gottlieb, as well as Lavin at ESPN. As for objectivity, I left the discussion open saying it’s a close call, unlike Knight who says there’s no question.

By: tecmo

tecmo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:06:50 +0000

LB,

Not hating, but do you have any link to the “most experts claimed Pac-10 was the best this year” fact? I know they have 2 of the top 3 freshmen, and 2 teams in the top 10, but I can’t remember experts saying that. It might be because I’m a blind Big East homer

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:50:06 +0000

All you have to do is consider last year that Syracuse could not make the NCAA tournament despite being a 20-game winner.

Injuries did us in this year, but even so, we were NINTH in the conference and still had a legitimate shot at the tournament, until we lost to Villanova.

By: Dewey

Dewey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:01:28 +0000

South Florida and Rutgers > Oregon State (0-18)

When the bottom-two teams in a 16-team conference could beat the worst team in a 10-team conference…

The Big East is the best, hands down. The Pac-10 is pretty weak outside of UCLA and Stanford, and even so I don’t think Stanford stands a chance against G’town, Pittsburgh, Louisville, or even Connecticut. Hell, I think Marquette could beat ‘em, too.

By: tecmo

tecmo — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:34:25 +0000

6 top 25 teams is hard to argue with. Now, I know you’re a Pac-10 homer (and I’m a Big East homer), but I think Knight is dead on. The Pac-10 has two “really good teams” (using Knight’s terms), but there’s a gap between them and teams like Washington State and USC. Pitt won the tourament by beating 3 top-25 Big East schools (2 of which were ranked higher, and one that they lost to just a few weeks prior). You can argue that any of the Big East schools in the top 25 are “really good teams,” based on the fact that the top seed didn’t win the conference tourney (unlike the Pac-10). The Big East has a stockpile of teams that could make a run, while the Pac has 2 definite contenders, followed by some ok teams.