Not exactly sure why it is being reported like it is new information. The home-and-home and even road-home games for all teams were announced at the end of June., but the Big East home-and-homes were reannounced (or announced according to ESPN). I suppose there is some tidbits, like the possibly syphilitic induced dickery of Rick Pitino.
Pitt and Villanova received 13 of the 16 first-place votes. One of the three first-place votes went to St. John’s. Louisville coach Rick Pitino admitted he gave the Red Storm and new coach Steve Lavin a first-place vote May 14. “I was debating between St. John’s, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Cincinnati, but I didn’t want to put that on Mick [Cronin, Pitino’s former assistant] so I went with St. John’s.”
Pitino told ESPN.com Wednesday that he was sticking with St. John’s, saying in a text: “Nine seniors. Everyone but Pitt and Villanova lost key players.”
St. John’s was picked in the ballot to finish anywhere from first to 13th while Cincinnati’s range spread from fourth to 13th. Coaches couldn’t vote for their own teams.
Also worth noting that Providence mafia/Big East nepotistic associate commish Dan Gavitt’s comments about the tiers that go into setting the home-and-homes.
Gavitt said the Big East has been fortunate that some of the league’s notable rivalries, such as Pitt-West Virginia and Rutgers-Seton Hall, have been in tiers that allow the teams to play each other twice.
“If you’re in one of the bottom [tiers] then you generally get one very difficult repeat and two repeats against your peers,” Gavitt said. “If you are picked in the middle, then you don’t end up playing one of the top-tier teams. But you don’t get a bottom-tier team either. It hasn’t happened yet where a rival is way down away from the other team.”
Either that is bull with relation to rivalry games, or potentially stupid to not have them be annual home-and-homes. You make the call.
There’s also a blind item claiming that the Big East coaches want to continue the SEC/Big East Invitational, but make it more like, you know, a challenge.
The event is in its final year of its current format of playing at neutral sites, which it has struggled to schedule and fill. The Big East has been fortunate with the home run of Kentucky-Connecticut last December at MSG but even Syracuse-Florida in Tampa wasn’t a sellout. Coaches would like to see the event continue but on campus sites with all 12 SEC schools going against 12 of the 16 Big East schools. There would be a three-year rotation for the 16 Big East schools of home/road and off (out of the event) over an eight-year time frame.
Not sure I believe that spin. The Big East coaches have a long history of not liking the idea of controlled scheduling. Especially being forced to do a potentially tough road game. Still, I would like to see this happen.
Also, in case you didn’t hear. The Big East Tournament’s double-bye (that has been less than ideal for Pitt) will continue. This despite a unanimous vote by the coaches to ditch it. The ADs and Big East’s board of directors disagreed.
“I never thought it was a done deal,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Coaches are looking at the basketball part of it but the Big East is looking at a number of other different issues like financial issues [of having all 16 teams in New York on Monday].”
A number of schools are on spring break during the tournament, making loss of class time not as much of an issue.
“I think we have a very unique situation,” Dixon said. “The strength of our conference means you’re going to have upsets in our conference because you’re playing top 25 teams in the final eight [of the Big East tournament].”
Dixon said Pitt’s losses in the quarterfinals the last two years were to West Virginia and Notre Dame, two hot teams coming into the tournament.
“The separation from the No. 4 team to the No. 8 can be just a one-game difference,” Dixon said. “And the unbalanced schedule means there isn’t equity in the final standings.”
Dixon said he liked that every team could get there at the same time so the teams and fans could book travel early. Teams, he said, would know they were playing Tuesday every year under a more traditional format, but in the current format a team doesn’t know early in the year if it’s playing on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. And Dixon said there are some instances, like his team last season, when a team didn’t know if it was going to play on Tuesday or Thursday since it could have finished anywhere from four to nine.
