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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Arguments With Friends

Well guys I am not allowed to talk about the Wisconsin Badger basketball. I have not said one bad thing all year and I make one small comment about their coach, the world goes crazy.  I stand by my comments about Bo Ryan and I really didn't want to make this a pissing match between Marquette/Wisconsin, Big East/Big Ten, Bo Ryan/Buzz Williams debate.  I just pointed out something that needed to be mentioned by someone and was planning to answer a few comments then move on.  But nope, I have to keep writing about it.  This is my last post regarding it, I will not comment nor write about anything about said topic.  But before I let this die, I am going to do a rapid response with a comment left from one of the biggest Badger fans I know. 

Hey good choice picking Syracuse as National Champion... maybe you should write a column about how Big East fans should expect more out of their conference instead of worrying about what Badger fans expect. Face the facts...

Well Doz thanks for joining us!  Great friend of mine, never has said anything on this blog until the Badgers and my supposed inabilities as a blogger were needed to be called out.  The world picked Kansas, didn't like Kentucky enough with their young guys, and couldn't trust Duke, so I wound up with Syracuse. Honestly, I wanted to ride Ohio State the whole way but I worried that Kansas might win so I didn't have the balls to do it.  I said it before and will say it again, it was an outsider's perspective and began questioning things. I got curious, and I guess that kills that cat sometimes. I couldn't figure out why especially in the UNLV/Cornell defeats maybe even Davidson, why the Badgers looked so tired out there. It's mindboggling to me. I have called this year the Big East Massacre many of times and hold to that title, we sucked as a conference, simple as that. 

Since the Big East expanded they havn't had a team even appear in a National Championship game. Oh and out of the 37 teams that they have sent to the tournament, only two have made the Final 4 since expansion(That includes 6 #1 seeds and numerous other teams that were seeded higher than 4 btw.) Talk about a conference underachieving as a whole

Let me remind you before they did expand, they won National Championships in 2003 and 2004 (UConn's second in five years).  I believe the Big East has three notorious underachievers in the NCAA Tournament with Georgetown, Syracuse, and UConn.  Honestly looking at the careers of John Thompson, Jim Boeheim, and Jim Calhoun, they should have more than 3 titles between them. The worst offender had to be 2006 Husky team that seemed unstoppable at the beginning of the year and lost to George Mason.  But if we all feel that Elite 8 is a successful accomplishment, then... (UConn 2006, Georgetown 2007, Louisville 2008, Pittsburgh/Villanova/UConn/Louisville 2009 that's half of the field, 2010 West Virginia). In addition, I am criticizing a nine-year period rather than a four year window, to me that seems unfair.

you had 8 teams in the tournament this year who were given 6 seeds or better and only one team is still in the tournament. Argue that all you want, but you know it's a huge embarrassment as much as I do. Big East fans are just too ignorant to face the facts, that their super-conference hasn't lived up to the hype in the NCAA tournament. Great regular season conference I have ever seen for sure though. So focus on something that you actually follow, know your facts, and don't write about a team you really don't know that much about.

A point I would like to make is the Big East is so brutal during the regular season that teams get beat up come tournament time. I realize that same argument could probably be made for the Badgers. This year probably was one of the worst to date for the Big East and to be honest, no conference has really flexed their muscles in the NCAA Tournament.  I mean the SEC could look the best if Tennessee and Kentucky both make the Final Four.  Our best team losing to a Horizon team Butler who is now in the Final Four doesn't seem as bad of a loss. The Bulldogs I think could play in any conference in America and come close to making the tournament.

Take care America.

-Charlie.

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