In order to bring further attention to Syracuse's inconceivable exclusion from the NCAA Tournament, I think it would be awesome if all Big East teams wore an orange armband in their first round games. This would bring some public attention to the assramming our fellow conference member received and the crappy treatment of the conference as a whole.
ABC tickets is your source for all NFL Football tickets including Philadelphia Eagles tickets. Also check out their large supply of Phillies tickets, Flyers tickets and Sixers tickets
Enjoy the best cricket betting odds with William Hill! Find all the necessary information about cricket highlights, competitions, tips and popular bets.
AllianceTickets.com is your source for Nuggets Tickets. They carry all Denver Broncos Tickets and Seattle Seahawks Tickets at Great Prices. Don't forget to check out their Pittsburgh Steelers Tickets. It's always a Great buy with AllianceTickets.
Get out of your yellow chairs and onto some treadmills to train like a pro.
© Blogger template Webnolia by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
Posts
2 comments:
I'm admittedly not the bracket expert Zuch is, but just to play devil's advocate, let's examine Syracuse's schedule this year.
Their conference schedule looks like a pretty average-to-below-average Big East conference slate (St. John's, Villanova, UConn twice, don't play Seton Hall or West Virginia).
Their first game outside the state of New York was at Marquette on January 7th (neutral site loss against Oklahoma State at the Garden, Beat 12-19 Canisius in Buffalo).
They lost to Drexel (4th in Colonial) and Wichita State (6th in MVC). Both at home.
Their nonconference schedule is pecked with games against Colgate, Northeastern, Baylor, and St. Bonaventure, with their biggest nonconference scalp probably being Penn on Nov. 11th...at home.
When away from the Carrier Dome, 'Cuse posted a 4-4 Big East conference record. These 4 wins came against Marquette (6th place), Rutgers (15th place), USF (14th place), and Providence (10th place).
So aside from a narrow win at Marquette (game still in doubt with a minute to go), Syracuse did not notch a quality win on the road all season. I'm using "quality" win very generously here as MU did not have Jerel McNeal available for that game, and the crowd was rather sedate, even for a Christmas break game.
So while Boeheim might want to point fingers at the NCAA selection committee, perhaps he should point at least one finger at his own schedule, which whether intentionally or not, had a nonconference schedule packed with a bunch of patsies, that even 'Cuse couldn't run the table on.
I await the bracket people telling me how wrong I am, but like I said, I'm playing devil's advocate.
McNeal did play in the Cuse game Mike. He may not have been 100 percent, but then we're getting into a real dangerous territory since guys across the country continually play while not being fully healthy.
Numbers wise, there are every bit as deserving as Illinois, Stanford and Arkansas. Three top 25 RPI wins, a solid road-neutral record, and 10 wins in a major conference is plenty of qualifications among numbers.
Still, a lot of my outrage stems from the criteria that the selection committee selects the 34 best at large teams. There is no way on God's green earth you can convince me, after watching both play plenty of times, that Illinois stays within 10 points of Syracuse, let alone beats them. Of teams that got into in the field, I would pick Syracuse to beat Virginia, Butler, Purdue, Michigan State, Xavier, Stanford, Old Dominion, Illinois and Arkansas in a blink on eye. If they are in Arkansas's spot, I would pick them to beat USC in the 5-12 game.
This Syracuse team is better than the George Mason club that went to the Final Four last season. They would have been very capable of making a long run in the NCAA Tournament. Their 2-3 zone has been really solid this year, with Syracuse finishing at the top of the Big East in field goal and three point percentage against. Their offense has been coming on with the emergence of Andy Rautins and Paul Harris as solid scorers to complement Nichols and Devendorf. Watkins and Roberts do an excellent of patrolling the paint down low. Honestly, I think they would be more dangerous in the tournament than Marquette or Villanova.
Post a Comment