Big East Bracket
- Thread starter Halldan
- Start date
Possibility of St. John’s/Providence could be interesting Thursday afternoon.
It is going to be interesting tournament. I would not be surprised to see one team no one expected in the Final.
Putting aside that Prov has the talent to knock out anyone in a single elimination scenario, I worry if I am SJU about my guys getting deliberately injured. English has no control of that team and is a dead man walking.
OK we just need to beat Creigton, St Johns and UConn on consecutive nights.
If we shoot 40% from 3 each night, we may be able to do it!
If we shoot 40% from 3 each night, we may be able to do it!
A final four of Seton Hall, St Johns, UConn, Nova would be electric
Vegas odds no doubt favor this scenario as the most likely. I think there are two impediments to this happening:
1. Creighton can definitely beat us. We played two close games with them. Mac has been very good historically in this tournament. When the 3s start to fall early, they are incredibly dangerous. And if this is indeed his "swan song", as has been rumored by some, that team will play for him. On the other hand, I think we matchup well with Creighton, and the last time they faced a team like us defensively (St. John's), they were absolutely obliterated at MSG.
2. Call it law of averages, matchups, or whatever, but I don't see SJU winning the BE tourney title again. Especially since they somehow outright won the regular season with Uconn inexplicably losing at MQ yesterday and them beating us in Newark. The only negative of this weekend's results -- and I'm sure St. John's would take this all day long because it meant winning the regular season title alone -- is that if they tied with Uconn, or finished a game behind, I think they would have been setup as a 2 seed to "cruise" to the BE final. They handled Nova at their place and destroyed them at MSG.
Now, if Providence beats Butler, that is the absolute last game SJU wants to see in this tournament. It could get out of hand with English walking dead as a coach and having no control over those players, leading to injury-risk because of what transpired last time. Plus Providence has the individual talent and 3-point ability to compete with anyone in a one-game scenario. And Friar fans will show up because they are Friars fans. If they get past Providence, they have to deal with us, who have played them tough twice. And then, if they get to Saturday night, they have to deal with an extremely motivated Uconn group who beat them badly last game (although that should motivate SJU too) and will desperately want to win this after what's happened the last 2 seasons.
They are the clear Vegas favorites to get there. Uconn is -125 to win the conference tournament, so the definite favorite. St. John's is +210 to win it.
Next closest is Nova at +650. And after that, it's +5000 for Creighton (you read that right) and other teams behind them. Note, I can't see what our odds are to win the Big East tourney because I'm checking in NJ right now and you cannot bet on NJ college teams while located within the state.
But while everyone agrees with you that this matchup is the "default" presumption, I'd only be shocked if Uconn didn't get to the final. Wouldn't be shocked if SJU got picked off for the reasons I already posted about.