It has nothing to do with anything regarding the Pitt-St. John’s game. I’ll get to a media round-up later.
This story on Big East scheduling complaints is the story of the day. It rips Calhoun and Boeheim’s whining about the schedules:
No one has registered more complaints than Boeheim and Calhoun. The two Hall of Fame coaches want every advantage. They tend to forget the fact that all the television exposure their teams have received has paid benefits in terms of recruiting.
Nevertheless, Calhoun has repeatedly complained about what he perceives to be Big East leader West Virginia’s weaker conference schedule compared to UConn’s opponents, especially the three home-and-home opponents.
“I look at the schedule and I was trying to find some down teams that we play twice,” Calhoun said. “I couldn’t find them. So we’re going to have to fight for everything we possibly can to get ourselves a chance to win a championship.”
Calhoun is just plain wrong about West Virginia. The two schedules are about the same.
Prior to Saturday, the Huskies split a pair on the road, beating Syracuse and losing at Marquette, and won at home against Georgetown and Cincinnati. The Mountaineers beat Marquette, Georgetown and Providence at home and won at Villanova and at South Florida.
As far as double opponents, UConn faces Villanova, Syracuse and Louisville twice. West Virginia takes on Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati twice. Not much difference there.
Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova and Pittsburgh are all NCAA Tournament quality teams. Louisville and Cincinnati are struggling due to injuries.
Neither UConn or West Virginia plays DePaul or Rutgers.
So Calhoun’s argument holds little weight.
[Emphasis added.]
Keep in mind that this is from a Connecticut paper, so give the writer props for knowing that Calhoun will likely abuse him next press conference.
Villanova coach Jay Wright and West Virginia’s John Beilein have a different perspective than Boeheim and Calhoun. They’ll play as many nationally-televised games as possible. The tradeoff is well worth the payoff.
“At this point right now we’re enjoying it,” Wright said. “When you’re in (Jim Boeheim’s) position and you’ve been through it every year it’s a little difficult. I hope that it benefits us in terms of exposure for our conference and exposure for our university and program, and it prepares us for the NCAA Tournament if we’re lucky enough to get there.
“Television interests dictates that you have quick turnarounds and some tough games. But that’s what the NCAA Tournament is and that’s what the Big East tournament is.”
Up until last year’s surprising postseason run during the Big East and NCAA Tournaments, West Virginia was starving for attention. Now, even as the first-place team in the nation’s best conference, the Moutaineers are just starting to gain notoriety. They played their first CBS television game in over 20 years Saturday when they visited UCLA.
“We’re in a different situation than Syracuse and UConn,” Beilein said. “Every opportunity that we can be on TV is very good. In the long run, I’ll have to see if it runs down our team or does whatever. Jim (Boeheim) has got a point. On the other hand, exposure for college basketball is everywhere. We want the Big East to be a part of that.”
And that is where Pitt is, trying to maintain the attention. Cinci was looking at a fringe top-25 season before Huggins got fired, but because of the years of success, attention and following they have accumulated they were still going to be featured on TV quite a bit (9 times like ‘Cuse, L-Ville and UConn). Pitt, by contrast was looking at the same situation without the track record so they were given only 4 national appearances.
As the article said, the whining is about trying to get every advantage — that doesn’t just mean the schedule. It also means keeping the higher TV profile so competition with the other BE schools for recruits still benefits them.
