Interesting? Bubble Observation

As of today's bracketology from Lunardi, the big east has 5 teams in with Providence and St. John's the last two teams in, and Georgetown the 4th team out.

If Marquette is to attain an at-large big - they likely will have to beat those three teams (I am aware there are other scenarios). I find it interesting coming off of the discussion from the Inside the Al podcast of the Big East needing to get teams in to represent conference strength...but at the same time all of us are rooting for Marquette to eliminate 3 of those teams from the field.

Well, when it comes to March, my alliances are simple.

1) Marquette
2) Marquette
3) Other Big East Teams

While I hope to cheer as hard as possible for #3, I place far more priority on being able to cheer for numbers 1 & 2.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brewcity77

Well, when it comes to March, my alliances are simple.

1) Marquette
2) Marquette
3) Other Big East Teams

While I hope to cheer as hard as possible for #3, I place far more priority on being able to cheer for numbers 1 & 2.

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Oh yeah, for sure. I would assume everyone on the boards feels the same way. That just jumped out at me today.

If 4 make it and Marquette is one of those four, I can live with that. Providence and St. John's did not do enough out of conference, and Georgetown did not fare well enough in conference play to earn bids (assuming Marquette beats all 3 down the stretch). If Marquette goes 3-1 down the stretch, there is a good chance that we will finish two games clear of fifth. I think a 9-9 Georgetown could go ahead of 11-7 Marquette, but no way would a 9-9 Providence or St. John's get in ahead of us. More likely that Georgetown finishes 8-10 or 7-11 in this scenario, and an under .500 Georgetown would not go ahead of us. Now, this may just mean 3 Big East teams, but I would be surprised if a fourth team does not also make it in (deservedly or not).

Even with MU beating other bubble Big East teams, they (PC, G'town, St. John's) have other games to work them back in the field.

Even with only 4 games left there are too many different things that could play out that will affect this. Jerry Palm said this a few days ago on twitter:

@jppalmCBS: Getting a lot of tweets like "if BUBBLE TEAM finishes W-L are they in?" Only sure thing is win the conf. otherwise, it depends on other teams.

There are just too many teams still in the running with opportunities for big wins before selection Sunday to make any sort of definitive statements... Add to it that after the scheduled games that we already know of something crazy could happen in the conference tournaments and it's a whole new ball game. That's why you can't say if MU finishes 4-0 and wins one in the conference tourney and then they will be in, because what happens if all the teams that are ahead of them on the bubble finish 4-0 and win one in their conference tourney's?

If I remember correctly, people here have said the committee doesn't really look at conference standings.

For the most part I get that logic, because most conferences don't play a balanced schedule. Is the third place team in the ACC better than fifth place? Hard to tell, because the fifth place team may have had a tougher conference schedule.

Different for the Big 12 and Big East, who now play a full round robin. I think conference standings should mean more for these type leagues (first place is always a big deal in any conference).

If MU comes in third, that means for 18 of the games they played (in most cases the last 18), all teams played the same schedule as the others. If the bubble is Gtown, Providence, St. Johns, MU and Xavier, all of those teams played each other home and home, and the same number of games against the league's bottom teams.

Strenght of schedule and non conference are important. But in the Big East (like the Big 12) everyone in the conference has the same strength of over the last 18 games (ok, Gtown played Mich State). Doesn't the committee usually pay more attention to more recent games? I guess I'm trying to make the point that if we take care of business, and come in third in our conference (with sweeps over Prov and Gtown, and spilt with X and St. John's) it would be hard to see two or three of those teams get in before us.