The Asterisk... Lol...

[billyjack]

The Asterisk... many of you are really wanting to vomit up your thoughts on this, the topic is still being nibbled at 6 days after the nets being cut, keeps being dropped in on other threads... here's an opoortunity to go crazy on it...

Quick hitters...

1. I forgot the backstory on why Gtmo dislikes the Friars. Is this like Indiana Jones hating snakes, or Gloria Bunker Stivic disliking lima beans? I realize in these questions i'm comparing PC to snakes and beans, but i am here to learn.

2. A reminder that several years ago we had a 942 page thread determining that the BE Tourney winner was the true BE champion. So what's with this ongoing griping about the 1-seed this year? You know, look, here Villanova, take the 1-seed, just take it, just take it, if it'll make you happy, you can have the 1-seed... i dont even *want* it anymore, lol...!!! [throws the 1-seed at Jay Wright's head, runs down the hallway and slams the door].

3. Why is the biggest pushback on the 1-seed discussion coming from fans at *Seton Hall and Creighton*...? Lol. Why are you two guys fighting for the honor of Villanova? Lol again. This is confusing to me, maybe it's me, maybe i'm a little f-cked up like Joe Pesci. [ edit: why is there acceptance and tips-of-their-hats to Cooley and Friar fans of PC's 1-seed on the Marquette board (muscoop, after regularly surfing around there), for example? I mean, they beat us by 77 points. ]

4. There is no #4.

5. Like, ok, literally last year, repeat, *last year*, Villanova played 15 games, and went 11-4... Creighton played 20 games and went 14-6. Why was there absolutely no question and gnashing of teeth with Villanova's 1-seed *last year*...?

6. Repeat question-- PC beat shorthanded Seton Hall by 5 on December 29th. *Three days later* on January 1st, Villanova beat shorthanded Seton Hall by 6, with the Pirates using *the same exact roster*. Please explain to a dimwitted Friars fan like me, why every Seton Hall fan, from Cranberry Bog NJ, to Snooki Hollow NJ, isn't freaking out over that Villanova loss?

7. PC and UConn were set to play at the Dunk on the first day or two of February... Cooley agreed to waive the six-games-in-two-weeks league rule... Hurley did not agree to waive the rule, so the game wasn't played. The game was originally scheduled for mid-December at the Dunk, but *UConn got Covid*, right?

8. Follow up to #8... this UConn at PC game has been something the Friars have been looking forward to for 8 years. The atmosphere would have been absolutely incredible. I set my calendar to make sure my son and i would be there. Tickets would have been insanely difficult to find, would've been the event of the year. There's no reason why PC would want to avoid this game.

9. Reminder that the Friars beat Texas Tech without Bynum. You're welcome.

10. Reminder that the Friars lost to Virginia without Reeves.

11. Reminder that i just want to win another NCAA game this year, and will be in heaven to just get a simple Sweet-16.

12. Reminder that whatever seed we get, there's a 93% chance the committee will line us up versus Pitino and Iona, cuz they're a-ssholes and will think it's cute, and they'll plead that it's just a coincidence.

13. Ken Pom, BPI, Special Sauce, hidden formulas (formulae?)... this is the most dangerous development in college hoops... anyone defending it, or using it to justify a 24-4 (14-3) Big East team not being in the Top-10, is really doing ESPN's and the future ACC's work. The PR job of Johnny Davis being out, and the PR job of Providence being lucky, and the lack of discussion of the Bynum Texas Tech thing... and again for *any Big East team* to be 24-4, but sit at #11, looking up at the as-ses of the jokers at f-ckin Purdue or whoever the F else is above us is a freakin joke... i would feel this way for ANY Big East team in this situation.

Ok that's all for now, haha.

[sju88grad]

All good points Billyjack…..congrats on the regular season title…..well-deserved!!

[jfan]

Yes, congrats to PC. They won based on the parameters that were set. We won last year, but Nova won't give us our trophy! I'm happy for Ed and his players and hope you get a number of wins in the Dance!

[Wizard of Westroads]

Creighton fan, and I don't have a problem with PC's title, 1 seed or Big Ed as COY. Congratulations on all!

I admire Ed's coaching style, have loved watching a number of Friars over the years. Cotton, Dunn, Hinton come to mind. One of my favorite teams in the league, maybe because they're always overlooked.

That being said, I've had the worst BET experiences over the years with vile PC fans. Some of them don't even seem to enjoy the games, they just want to shout obscenities at other fans. And it's not just when the Jays have played them, have had to listen to them with other teams too, and ever effin year. Obnoxious doesn't begin to describe it. The only reason I don't hold it against PC is most of they guys don't look or act like they've ever stepped foot on a college campus. I pity PC if they're alums. Have never had an issue with another fan base, tbh.

[Savannah Jay]

The Asterisk... many of you are really wanting to vomit up your thoughts on this, the topic is still being nibbled at 6 days after the nets being cut, keeps being dropped in on other threads... here's an opoortunity to go crazy on it...

Quick hitters...

1. I forgot the backstory on why Gtmo dislikes the Friars. Is this like Indiana Jones hating snakes, or Gloria Bunker Stivic disliking lima beans? I realize in these questions i'm comparing PC to snakes and beans, but i am here to learn.

2. A reminder that several years ago we had a 942 page thread determining that the BE Tourney winner was the true BE champion. So what's with this ongoing griping about the 1-seed this year? You know, look, here Villanova, take the 1-seed, just take it, just take it, if it'll make you happy, you can have the 1-seed... i dont even *want* it anymore, lol...!!! [throws the 1-seed at Jay Wright's head, runs down the hallway and slams the door].

3. Why is the biggest pushback on the 1-seed discussion coming from fans at *Seton Hall and Creighton*...? Lol. Why are you two guys fighting for the honor of Villanova? Lol again. This is confusing to me, maybe it's me, maybe i'm a little f-cked up like Joe Pesci. [ edit: why is there acceptance and tips-of-their-hats to Cooley and Friar fans of PC's 1-seed on the Marquette board (muscoop, after regularly surfing around there), for example? I mean, they beat us by 77 points. ]

4. There is no #4.

5. Like, ok, literally last year, repeat, *last year*, Villanova played 15 games, and went 11-4... Creighton played 20 games and went 14-6. Why was there absolutely no question and gnashing of teeth with Villanova's 1-seed *last year*...?

6. Repeat question-- PC beat shorthanded Seton Hall by 5 on December 29th. *Three days later* on January 1st, Villanova beat shorthanded Seton Hall by 6, with the Pirates using *the same exact roster*. Please explain to a dimwitted Friars fan like me, why every Seton Hall fan, from Cranberry Bog NJ, to Snooki Hollow NJ, isn't freaking out over that Villanova loss?

7. PC and UConn were set to play at the Dunk on the first day or two of February... Cooley agreed to waive the six-games-in-two-weeks league rule... Hurley did not agree to waive the rule, so the game wasn't played. The game was originally scheduled for mid-December at the Dunk, but *UConn got Covid*, right?

8. Follow up to #8... this UConn at PC game has been something the Friars have been looking forward to for 8 years. The atmosphere would have been absolutely incredible. I set my calendar to make sure my son and i would be there. Tickets would have been insanely difficult to find, would've been the event of the year. There's no reason why PC would want to avoid this game.

9. Reminder that the Friars beat Texas Tech without Bynum. You're welcome.

10. Reminder that the Friars lost to Virginia without Reeves.

11. Reminder that i just want to win another NCAA game this year, and will be in heaven to just get a simple Sweet-16.

12. Reminder that whatever seed we get, there's a 93% chance the committee will line us up versus Pitino and Iona, cuz they're a-ssholes and will think it's cute, and they'll plead that it's just a coincidence.

13. Ken Pom, BPI, Special Sauce, hidden formulas (formulae?)... this is the most dangerous development in college hoops... anyone defending it, or using it to justify a 24-4 (14-3) Big East team not being in the Top-10, is really doing ESPN's and the future ACC's work. The PR job of Johnny Davis being out, and the PR job of Providence being lucky, and the lack of discussion of the Bynum Texas Tech thing... and again for *any Big East team* to be 24-4, but sit at #11, looking up at the as-ses of the jokers at f-ckin Purdue or whoever the F else is above us is a freakin joke... i would feel this way for ANY Big East team in this situation.

Ok that's all for now, haha.

Without a #4, i'm putting an asterisk on this whole post.

[stever20]

gee, I wonder how you really feel?

What is funny now is with the Creighton beating UConn, Providence could easily have the tougher path in the BET.... Could very possibly be Providence/UConn in 1 semi final and Nova/Creighton or Seton Hall in the other semifinal. If that happens, I'd rather be on the Nova side of things for sure(not even mentioning QF where Providence may face a desperate Xavier team)

As far as the ratings- they really don't matter but the seedings do. Right now, most have PC as a 4 seed. Some of that is only 5 Q1 wins, which only UCLA is lower than them this year for the projected top 16 seeds right now. Some of that is because of the struggles of Seton Hall, Marquette, and Xavier- those 3 are 33/36/37 right now so just out of Q1 land. In some way's that's just bad luck. And it would have been worse with RPI as St John's would have been a Q2 road win instead of a Q1 one(and this still could happen in the NET- St John's is only 72 so only 4 spot drop needed). I think that is hurting Providence TBH more than the NET rating itself.

And some of the # of Q1 wins also is losing out on 3 Q1 chances.

[Hall2012]

I can answer 3 & 6 for you.

3. Look at what Seton Hall and Creighton have in common - we're the two teams that got screwed out of home games against the Friars. It's not about fighting for the honor of Villanova, it's that we both feel we got a raw deal against you guys.

6. We're not happy about that either but at least Nova played us again at, well, closer to full strength. What we're stuck moving forward with at least. It's less about the part that we lost on the road while shorthanded than it is the circumstances of the return game. We were forced to play you on the road shorthanded but our home game when you would have been shorthanded got cancelled instead. And given how we played on the road with half our team in covid protocols, we'd have felt good about our odds at home even with both teams at 100%.

[GumbyDamnit!]

BJack, I think the nature of internet boards is that it is a open and free exchange of ideas. Everyone's got their own opinions and some are just wrong. PC won the regular season based on what was agreed upon ahead of time. That's it. Reg season banner belongs at the Dunk. If Nova fans want to complain than maybe we can inbound the ball better or hit the front end of a 1&1 (while being the top FT shooting team in the nation--vs. UConn. Do either of those and we're having a different conversation. A couple of things about your list, and a couple of things to think about that I'd like to respond to:
1. Uncle 'Git is a HLOH treasure. As you well know, he likes to stir the pot. That's what he does.
2. BET is the recognized BE Champ but the RS banner is a better indicator of program health. Exhibit A: G'town in (BET Champ '21) vs. Nova (RS Champ). Enough said.
3. ??? Not sure, but I would suspect if you polled ALL of their fans it would prob be a 50/50 on "asterisk or no asterisk." Also there is a dynamic that if PC were to do something they have not been able to do--unshared BE reg season title--then maybe it's a bit of jealousy.
4. Agree
5. Can we stop with the narrative that this is the "same thing?" Two of the games we didn't play were vs. DePaul. DePaul hasn't beaten us in conference since 2009. In normal years the round-robin is the ultimate arbiter. We didn't have that 2 years in a row. So IMO, the only thing you can look at is how both teams fared with the exact same schedule. So taking out how Nova did (H) vs. UConn, (a) vs SHU and @ vs Creighton, they were 13-3. PC was 13-3 vs the same schedule. If Nova beats Butler on Saturday, both would be 14-3. If they lose it's all a moot point. So that puts to rest (for me) any inkling that PC doesn't deserve a banner. In '20-'21, using this same exercise Nova was 11-4 to Creighton's 10-5 when looking at the same exact schedule. So there's that Jays fans who are still crying...
6. Just FYI, we were also short-handed @ SHU. Caleb Daniels was out due to Covid. So not exactly the same argument. And to be fair you did miss Sonogo when you visited Storrs.
7.-12. You're not wrong.
13. There are a lot of holes in KenPom and other metrics but there are some inconvenient trends that I'm sure are concerning for you PC fans--just as for Nova fans getting spanked in Omaha and @Baylor were for us. Going to overtime vs. DePaul, Butler and a struggling X--2 of which were on your home floor--raises an eye brow or two for a Top 10 team. PC's margin of victory in conference is +3.7 (if you count OT as +1). Against that same exact schedule Nova is +10.3. In conference that's +100 pts in those same games. So there might also be some questioning on why PC plays to the level of its competition and doesn't bury teams. But those OT games vs lesser competition is the sole reason PC's metrics arent' better. Does it really matter all that much. Probably not, but that's why you see what you see.

Either way PC is RS champs and they will be representing the conference in March. After next Saturday I'll proudly wear a Cooley World Order T-shirt during NCAA games.

[billyjack]

Great responses from everyone. When i get a chance later i'll try to touch on them (i lost 30 minutes writing the original post, haha).

Quick hits--

- Sorry about those sh-tty Friars fans at MSG. Definitely eeren't alums, and were probably from Burrillville (that will make sense to locals, haha).

- On Stever's Q1 thru Q4 points... those are based on NET though, right, with hidden numbers which are based on efficiency.. but we can only guess on other factors, the hidden special sauce factors (an ACC boost factor?). I made a point one time about how if say Duke or Kansas were in our situation with impressive but close wins, but NET at 48, then ESPN and Coach K would've eliminated the use of NET by the end of January.

Anyway, again, great responses.

[DeadHeadHoya]

It’s just some butthurt fans on Twitter … who cares at the end of the at. Great season for PC . Don’t let ‘em bring you down . Good luck in the tourney