1991 Big East - 7 of 9 NCAA Teams...

[billyjack]

On posted this the other day on another site:
So I'm thinking about how many NCAA bids we should realistically earn this coming basketball season, and my mind keeps telling me minimum 5, but probably 6 and possibly 7. I don't think I'm being unrealistic, and I realize I'm basing my number on our conference in the pre-football days. I look at the 2014 Big East and I see similarities to the old Big East-- 2 or 3 excellent teams; 3 or 4 or 5 great, solid teams; the remainder very good, respectable teams... no horrible teams nor horrible losses OOC.

Miami (Fla) joined for the 1992 season, which brought us to 10 teams and an 18 game schedule. Prior to that year, from 1983 thru 1991, we had 9 schools in the Big East.

Our final 5 years with 9 teams included seasons:
1987: 5 NCAA's - 1 in NC, 2 in Final Four, 3 in Elite Eight.
1988: 6 NCAA's - 1 in Elite Eight.
1989: 5 NCAA's - 1 in NC, 3 in Elite Eight.
1990: 6 NCAA's - 1 in Elite Eight.
1991: 7 NCAA's - 2 in Elite Eight.

Each of our last 5 years, we had at least 55% of our teams in the NCAA's.
What did our conference do in 1991 to earn 7 spots for our 9 teams?

1991 BIG EAST STANDINGS:
y-Syracuse 12-4.
y-St John's 10-6.
y-Connecticut 9-7.
y-Seton Hall 9-7.
y-Pitt 9-7.
y-Georgetown 8-8.
n-Providence 7-9.
y-Villanova 7-9.
n-Boston College 1-15.

For starters:
-Each of the 7 NCAA teams finished no worse that 7-9 in conference.
-Only 1 team finished better than 10-6.
-Six were between 9-7 and 7-9.
-Our last place team really tanked in conference at 1-15.
-Each of the 7 NCAA teams were ranked at least 1 week.
-6 of the 7 were ranked a minimum of 5 weeks.
-5 were ranked in the Top-25 during the preseason.
-Those 5 teams remained ranked to open the Big East regular season.
-Villanova jumped in and out of the rankings in late November.
-Seton Hall popped in and out and in again starting in mid-January.

So I would think in 2014, our NCAA-possible teams will have to be at least 8-10 in-conference. A key is to be ranked in the pre-season at some point, and the key of course to that is how we perform out-of-conference.

So how did the 1991 Big East perform OOC...?
1991 BIG EAST OOC Results:
Syracuse: 13-0.
--> W vs Iowa State, Indiana, NC State, Notre Dame, Florida State.
St John's: 10-1.
--> W vs Georgia Tech, Notre Dame.
--> L vs DePaul.
Connecticut: 9-2.
--> W vs Rhode Island.
--> L vs UNC, NC State.
Seton Hall: 10-1.
--> W vs Oklahoma, Clemson, Rutgers; won Big East Tournament.
--> L vs Fordham.
Pitt: 9-3.
--> W vs West Virginia, Duquesne.
--> L vs Virginia, Hawaii, UCLA.
Georgetown: 4-3.
--> W vs Duke, Rice, Houston; Big East Tourney runner-up.
--> L vs UTEP, Ohio State, DePaul.
Providence: 9-2.
--> W vs Rhode Island.
--> L vs Arizona, Holy Cross; (Boston College).
Villanova: 7-4.
--> W vs LSU, Wake Forest, St Joe's, Auburn; Syracuse in BET.
--> L vs Temple, LaSalle, Georgia Tech, Arizona.
Boston College: 10-3.
--> W vs Memphis State, Maryland, Northwestern, Notre Dame.
--> L vs Duke, Holy Cross, UMass.

Key Take-aways:
-All of us had great (or respectable) records.
-Boston College (BE 1-15) was excellent OOC.
-Villanova finished 8th, but played an excellent OOC schedule.
-Providence finished 7-9, but had no big OOC wins.
-UConn had no big OOC wins, but had no bad loss.
-Syracuse was excellent OOC.
-Georgetown had few OOC games.
-The BE had no horrible losses, except maybe Holy Cross vs PC and BC.
-UTEP was ranked in early January, so the Hoyas didn't have a bad loss.

Thoughts:
-for 2014, the BE may match 1991 as far as regular season records...
-maybe 1 team 14-4 or 13-5, but many of us in the 8-10 thru 10-8 range...
-very balanced conference this year...
-our OOC schedules and results are of course key...
-we should call out our OOC schedules and circle the key matchups...
-St John's vs Wisconsin,
-Georgetown vs Oregon,
-Providence vs Boston College
-each of the previous 3 are scheduled for the weekend of November 8th.
-Creighton and Marquette are in a tourney together in Anaheim.
-Villanova and Xavier play in a tourney at Atlantis I think, in November.
-Providence plays Kentucky on December 1st at Barclays in Brooklyn.
-Except for PC vs Kentucky, the rest are very, very winnable games.
-I don't expect any of our teams to completely suck OOC. This year, I don't see DePaul losing to Gardner-Webb or Providence losing to Brown. If we can all avoid brain-farts like that then we'll be in great shape.

Anyway, just wanted to get this on paper. Not exactly sure what it gets us, but maybe looking at the numbers and results can be helpful in some way. Add your comments on what you think. Can't hurt!

Also, Miami (Fla) coming on the scene set us back for a few years, because at first they were horrible OOC, but occasionally managed to win games in conference ['92 at 3-6, L vs Eastern Kentucky, Howard, SMU; '93 at 1-5, L vs Texas State, Florida International, Unc-Wilmington]. Maybe I'll have to put that in another thread.

[JOPO]

The good old days! Hopefully in dropping the football dregs (those added to the Big East after the original seven plus Pitt and Nova) and adding Creighton, Butler and Xavier we will return to those days!

I am so excited about the upcoming season!

[shupirate98]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

[yorost]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

I think you nailed it.

[Hoya]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

If we can consistently get 5 bids out of 10 schools, we should all be very happy with the decision to create this league.

[Dew]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

If we can consistently get 5 bids out of 10 schools, we should all be very happy with the decision to create this league.

If we get 50% of our teams in shouldn't we expect that if we add two more teams that one of them needs to make the NCAA tournament every year to keep the per team payout. I don't think any combination of the teams being considered can provide that long term.

[Dave]

If we get 50% of our teams in shouldn't we expect that if we add two more teams that one of them needs to make the NCAA tournament every year to keep the per team payout. I don't think any combination of the teams being considered can provide that long term.

UConn

[SJU87]

St. John's was 4 minutes away from going to the final 4 that year. They had a 10 point lead and Duke came back and won. Seems like yesterday . St. John's almost went to the final 4 in 1999 as well. So close !

[Vill]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

If we can consistently get 5 bids out of 10 schools, we should all be very happy with the decision to create this league.

5 should be the goal this year. We need to set the bar high right out of the gate and solidify our position as a hoops power.

[Bill Marsh]

I long for the days of 1991. The last year before football started tearing the Big East apart. Let's be honest, as excited as we all are about this new Big East the league is not going to get the kind of respect right out of the box that the 1991 Big East had. No way we get a team with a losing conference record into the NCAAs. Absolutely no chance. 9-9 probably won't cut it either. I loved 1991. This isn't 1991. If we get 5 bids we've done great. Any more than that is dreamland.

If we can consistently get 5 bids out of 10 schools, we should all be very happy with the decision to create this league.

If we get 50% of our teams in shouldn't we expect that if we add two more teams that one of them needs to make the NCAA tournament every year to keep the per team payout. I don't think any combination of the teams being considered can provide that long term.

I think that VCU can provide that long term based on the track record they've already established i recent years. The only other team that can inspire that kind of faith in the future is of course Gonzaga, which of course has its pros and cons.