I’m so happy the tournament is here. You can’t help but be in a good mood today, even if the Huskies aren’t in it.

We all like upsets, and I love predictions. Some here’s some things to look for during the tournament.

My first round upset pick is VCU over Duke. Dukie V will be so sad. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ND go down to Winthrop either, but I think the Irish will pull out a close one. In the second round, I like UNLV over Wisconsin. I also believe the first 1-seed that will go down will be North Carolina, who’ll lose to Texas. I believe all the Big East teams will win their first game except for Marquette. Sorry Marquette fans, I know I’ve been hating on them a lot this year. I’ll jump on their bandwagon for next year though. My Sweet 16 are Florida, Maryland, Notre Dame, UNLV, Kansas, Va Tech, Pitt, UCLA, UNC, Texas, WSU, Gtown, Ohio St, Tennessee, A&M and Memphis. My Elite 8 are Florida, ND, Kansas, UCLA, Texas, Gtown, Ohio St and A&M. My final four are Florida, Kansas, Gtown and A&M. And I have Kansas beating our Hoyas in the final.

Anyway, I hope you all agree with my picks, because that is what is going to happen. Enjoy the games, this is a great weekend.

Categories: Big Willie Style, Postseason
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Before we get started with how badly we got screwed by the NCAA tournament selection committee, I’d like to make a couple other comments about the weekend previous.

1. Congrats to all the Gtown fans. They were fantastic all year, and they deserve this title. Also, Congrats to Coach O, you’re smarter than me. All in all, it was a pretty good tournament, not the best I’ve seen, but entertaining none the less. And for the first time since 2004, the best team in the conference won the tournament. Well, I guess you could make a case for the Cuse in ’05 as well. It was nice to see the tournament go to form though, and I was really excited for last night’s final. I thought it’d be a good game. I was wrong. Georgetown was incredible once again.

2. Building on that point of the conference tournament, I have a problem with continuous remarks that I heard from numerous commentators over the course of the past week. You may have noticed a few commentators on ESPN and CBS make remarks to the effect of, “these conference tournaments in the major conferences don’t mean much. They’re mostly about the seeding.” Well, I can assure you that that’s a bunch of horse dung. They don’t mean much? These commentators honestly feel that getting a 5 seed instead of a 6 is more important than winning your conference tournament? Try telling that to Russell Carter. Try telling that to Mike Nardi. Try telling that Aaron Gray. Try telling that to Jeff Green. The fact of the matter is, that most teams don’t win the National Championship. It’s hard, and it doesn’t happen to most of us. But, winning your conference championship is much more attainable. And 50 years from now, when Roy Hibbert is telling his story as a Hoya to his grandchildren, do you think he’s going to talk about how the Hoyas got a 2-seed? Of course not. Nobody’s going to care if Gtown is a 2, 3 or 4. He’ll tell the story of how he shut down one of the best centers in the Big East and helped his team coast to a championship on the nation’s biggest stage of Madison Square Garden. (assuming Gtown doesn’t make the Final Four, which I hope they do) And do you think Eric Devendorf will tell about how Syracuse earned a 5-seed in last year’s NCAA tournament instead of a 6 or 7? No! He’ll get to say that he played in the Big East final, and he played with Gerry McNamara, and won 4 games in dramatic fashion along the way, including an upset of the #1 team in the nation. I’ve heard too much recently about these major conference championships not meaning anything. Is winning the Big East as big as making a Final Four? No, of course not. But still, I believe commentators are minimizing just how great these conference tournaments are. We remember Ben Gordon, we remember Ron Rowan, we remember Gerry McNamara, we remember Ray Allen, we remember Oliver Taylor, and we’ll remember Jeff Green. While the national media minimizes these performances, I believe they are just the opposite, some of the greatest performances in college athletics that I have ever seen, and in our case in the Big East, they are performed on the grandest stage.

Before I go, one more thing. Big ups to the Big East. For the first time in years, I was not able to attend the Tournament this year, and it was nice to see a packed house from Thursday on, especially since there were so many empty seats at several other major conference tournaments. It’s the biggest, as always.

Categories: Big Willie Style, Commentary
3 Comments »

Okay everybody, prepare to get really excited. All of us here at BigEastHoops.com decided to try and host a Big East Pick ‘em tournament for the Big East Tournament. We just came up with this idea earlier this week and we weren’t able to put together any fancy format, or computer generated bracket or anything like that. Sorry, it has been a busy week for all of us. Still, I’m going to post the games and you can post your picks below.

Now, if you haven’t noticed already, we know what we’re talking about here. (= And many of our predictions have been right on, especially in the last month. Yea, yea, yea, I tanked on Syracuse. In fact, I had the Cuse and Providence pretty much reversed. But other than that, we’ve been right on, including the Irish finishing ahead of the Golden Eagles, and also Pitt’s fall to third place. So I challenge each and every one of you to try and beat all of us here at BigEastHoops.com. If you win, I’ll be sure to post on your site how much smarter you are than me. What????!!!! No cash reward???!!!! That’s right, there’s no money here, because it’s all about the pride.

OK, so here’s the format:

Correct picks on Wednesday’s games are worth 1 point. Thursday’s quarterfinal games are worth 2, Friday’s winners are worth 3, and if you can pick the winner, you get a whopping 5 points. That’s right! 5 massive points! Also, please list the score of the final as a tie-breaker.

Try and get as many of your people to make picks as possible, and be sure to list who your favorite team is as well. Once the games start on Wednesday, we’ll get a table up here with everyone’s predictions and updated standings.

I’ll post my picks as a response, that way everyone can use that as an example. Good luck!

Edit: Fellow bloggers at Marquette’s Cracked Sidewalks are also running a bracket challenge. Check it out.

Categories: Big Willie Style, Postseason
16 Comments »

We know you watch PTI. Of course you love it; we love it too. So here’s their game:

Naturally, since I’m setting the line, this is a push for me. He’ll be there two years, and then he’ll be gone. Those of you Nova fans hoping and praying he sticks around for four, sorry, that’s totally unrealistic. It’d be nice for Nova, and nice for the league, but no way. He’s clearly the rookie of the year and I think he’ll make a great pro, but I do think he comes back next year. But past that, no chance. He’ll be good enough to be a top first rounder by the end of the 2008 season.

Be sure to check back Sunday evening for Big East Tournament pick ‘em!!!

Categories: Big Willie Style, Commentary, Villanova
1 Comment »

Can’t wait for the NCAAs? Yea, neither can we.  Check back Sunday night for Big East Tourney pick ‘em.  It’s not going to be anything fancy, and it won’t even offer a cash reward!!!  Excited yet??

This year’s the first year we’re doing this, so it’s going to be all about the pride.  So tell you friends and neighbors, and maybe even your enemies to check back Sunday evening and we’ll have a bracket for you to make your picks. 

Categories: Big Willie Style, Postseason
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