Big East Primer, Part 3: Tournament Capsules

Can Marquette overcome the disappointing non-conference season to secure an at-large bid? (Getty Images/CollegeBasketballTalk.NBCSports.com)

In the last two installments of this three-part series, I covered first the high-upside teams and then the low-upside teams in the Big East.  Now I turn to each team’s current tournament resume, going in order of their projected RPI (I’ll list the three most likely).  In a true round-robin format, the projected RPI is important to keep in mind, as every team will have multiple opportunities for good or decent wins, but the teams that have already had success in the non-conference don’t have to worry as much about it (I’m looking at you, Villanova).  For the purpose of labeling the quality of wins, I will also use projected RPI, not current RPI, as mid-season RPI numbers are often not the best.  Only one game in, conference records aren’t that helpful yet, so I will list teams’ projected record.

When I mention opponents’ ranks, there will be some duplicates, as the ranks are projections that I rounded to the nearest whole number.  Also, keep in mind that projected RPIs are based off probabilities and thus subject to fluctuation.  Finally, I will mark particularly good qualities of a resume in green and particularly bad qualities in red, with everything else being left normal.

7/11/15                    VILLANOVA

Current Record:  12-1
Projected Conference Record:  14-4
Expected OOC SOS:  55 (11-1, projected 12-1 with game vs. Big 5 rival #115 Temple)

Kenpom Rank:  8
Sagarin Rank:  7

Record vs. 1-25:  2-1 (2 neutral wins, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-0
Record vs. 51-100:  3-0 (1 home win, 2 road wins)
Record vs. 101-200:  4-0 (3 home wins, 1 neutral win)
Record vs. 201+:  3-0 (3 home wins)

2 good wins, 0 bad losses

Villanova is as close to a lock for the NCAA tournament as you can get, after going nearly undefeated against a good schedule that involved three top 25 opponents.  They notched top 25 victories on a neutral court against #7 Kansas and #19 Iowa, and the loss to #18 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome is understandable.  That being said, they are still poised to do more.  Projected 14-4 overall in the conference (escaping with an overtime win at Butler helped), they are favored to win every individual game against conference foes except @Creighton.  With the Wildcats’ impressive non-conference performance, other teams with reasonable tournament hopes could really benefit from a win against them, but Villanova will be disinclined to offer charity while in pursuit of one of the top seeds.

19/24/30                    CREIGHTON

Current Record:  11-2
Projected Conference Record:  13-5
Expected OOC SOS:  156 (10-2)

Kenpom Rank:  14
Sagarin Rank:  14

Record vs. 1-25:  0-0
Record vs. 26-50:  0-1 (1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  4-1 (2 home wins, 1 neutral win, 1 road win, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 101-200:  3-0 (2 home wins, 1 road win)
Record vs. 201+:  4-0 (4 home wins)

0 good wins, 0 bad losses (Note:  They have two wins and a loss against opponents with a good chance of breaking into the top 50)

Creighton’s SOS in the non-conference impresses no one, though a 10-2 record involving 5 top 100 non-conference opponents is pretty good.  They have notched some solid wins so far, headlined by a neutral court victory over #55 Arizona State and a home court victory over #52 California.  Plus, the conference schedule should improve their SOS to a level of respectability.  Where they really stand out is advanced metrics.  These contribute to a team’s resume, but more importantly, they signify a good probability of future success.   The Big East has plenty of opportunities for strong competition, and if Creighton comes close to their projected record, they will have collected some good wins for the tournament resume by the end.

29/36/45                    GEORGETOWN

Current Record:  9-3
Projected Conference Record:  11-7
Expected OOC SOS:  25 (8-3, projected 8-4 with neutral game vs. #16 Michigan State)

Kenpom Rank:  33
Sagarin Rank:  32

Record vs. 1-25:  0-2 (1 neutral loss, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  1-0 (1 neutral win)
Record vs. 51-100:  1-0 (1 neutral win)
Record vs. 101-200:  3-1 (3 home wins, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 201+:  4-0 (4 home wins)

1 good win, 1 bad loss

Georgetown has played a pretty tough non-conference SOS, and it has not gone that well.  They aren’t in as bad of shape as some perceive it, but they definitely haven’t met expectations (and the loss to #180 Northeastern will not help their resume).  They got outplayed by their two top 25 opponents, #16 Oregon and #7 Kansas, but they did manage to notch a good win against #26 VCU.  Their efficiency statistics are also solid, suggesting that they might be able to gather some more good wins in the second half of the season.  The 11-7 finish projected for them would be a good mark, and they do still have a great opportunity against Michigan State in their future.  All in all, they have a pretty good chance at an at-large bid.

38/47/57                    XAVIER

Current Record:  11-3
Projected Conference Record:  10-8
Expected OOC SOS:  80 (10-3)

Kenpom Rank:  35
Sagarin Rank:  38

Record vs. 1-25:  0-1 (1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  2-1 (1 home win, 1 neutral win, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  1-0 (1 road win)
Record vs. 101-200:  4-1 (4 home wins, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs 201:  3-0 (3 home wins)

2 good wins, 1 bad loss

Xavier is undefeated on shore.  You heard that right.  They lost all three of their games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, falling to #19 Iowa, #40 Tennessee, and #109 USC.  Before making that trip, though, they did secure a good home win against Tennessee, and after returning, they claimed another against #41 Cincinnati on a neutral court.  The Musketeers have encountered some bad luck when it comes to their SOS, as none of their Kenpom top 100 opponents are projected to finish in the RPI as well as their Kenpom ranking would suggest (#85 Wake Forest being projected 115.7 in the RPI being the most notorious example).  It is what it is, though, and their non-conference SOS is still mildly respectable.  The Musketeers have set themselves up well for the conference schedules despite the Atlantis Catastrophe.  They are projected 10-8, which, in a league of a bunch of solid-to-good teams, would lead to a number of resume-worthy wins and probably enough for a tournament bid.

56/67/79                    BUTLER

Current Record:  9-3
Projected Conference Record:  8-10
Expected OOC SOS:  175 (9-2)

Kenpom Rank:  52
Sagarin Rank:  58

Record vs. 1-25:  0-2 (1 neutral loss, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-1 (1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  1-0 (1 home win)
Record vs. 101-200:  4-0 (1 home win, 2 neutral wins, 1 road win)
Record vs. 201+:  4-0 (3 home wins, 1 road win)

0 good wins, 0 bad loss

Butler has what no one wants:  missed opportunities against every good team they have played.  They also have what everyone wants:  no bad losses.  They lost by two in regulation to #8 Oklahoma State on a neutral court.  They followed that up the next night by losing in overtime to #41 LSU on the same neutral floor.  And just a few days ago, they dealt with another missed opportunity after an overtime home loss to #11 Villanova.  The only team worth mentioning that they have beat is #76 Princeton at home, hardly the win you want to hang your hat on, though the Bulldogs will definitely have more opportunities in their conference schedule.  People often praise Butler for playing these good teams close, but they’ve also let some bad teams keep it interesting through to the end.  They needed overtime to beat #121 Vanderbilt at home.   They went on the road to play #268 Ball State and won by only one.  They needed free throws on a neutral court to seal the deal against #143 Washington State.  I don’t dislike Butler in any way (like some Xavier fans do).  I only mention these to give perspective to what Butler has done this year.  They’ve been just as lucky in avoiding bad losses as they’ve been unlucky in missing good wins.  There’s a reason they’re only ranked #52 by Kenpom, despite losing by only seven points combined to Kenpom’s 4th, 8th, and 36th best teams.  They play to their competition, whether good, bad, or mediocre, which honestly should make for some really interesting basketball in this conference schedule.  They’re projected 8-10, which won’t be good enough to make the tournament.  With their ability to keep any game close, who knows what will actually happen?  At this point, though, they haven’t really done anything for their tournament resume, and the weak non-conference SOS and the poor advanced metrics rankings by Kenpom and Sagarin will not help them much at all.

64/76/88                    ST. JOHN’S

Current Record:  9-4
Projected Conference Record:  8-10
Expected OOC SOS:  104 (9-3, projected 10-3 with home game vs. #210 Dartmouth)

Kenpom Rank:  61
Sagarin Rank:  69

Record vs. 1-25:  0-2 (neutral loss, home loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-1 (road loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  0-0
Record vs. 101-200:  6-1 (4 home wins, 2 neutral wins, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 201+:  3-0 (3 home wins)

0 good wins, 1 bad loss (Note:  Penn State has a decent chance of breaking into the top 100)

St. John’s hasn’t defeated a team in the top 106.  That makes a tournament bid to be a bit of a challenge.  The close loss against #18 Syracuse at Madison Square Gardens still has to sting for fans, and the overtime loss to #106 Penn State could hurt on the tournament resume.  Their struggles to put away bad teams efficiently haven’t helped either, leading to their advanced metrics rankings in the 60s, and unlike Butler above them and Marquette below them, they can’t claim even a decent win in the RPI 51 to 100 range.  The underwhelming non-conference strength of schedule isn’t helpful for a potential bubble team either.  Add that all together, and an 8-10 finish is far under what is needed to make the tournament.  As I said in the first part of this series, though, St. John’s is the model for “upside.”  If their impressive collection of talent becomes more cohesive, they have the ability to go on a tear through part of the conference schedule and potentially change their destiny.

67/78/90                    MARQUETTE

Current Record:  8-6
Projected Conference Record:  9-9
Expected OOC SOS:  133 (8-5)

Kenpom Rank:  48
Sagarin Rank:  57

Record vs. 1-25:  0-2 (1 home loss, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-3 (2 neutral losses, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  1-1 (1 neutral win, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 101-200:  0-0 (Seriously, you couldn’t at least schedule better bad teams?)
Record vs. 201+:  7-0 (6 home wins, 1 road win)

0 good wins, 0 bad losses (Note:  George Washington has a decent shot of making the top 50 and could be counted as a good win)

Like Butler, Marquette lost to all the good teams they played (except for a neutral win over a solid #53 George Washington squad).  Unlike Butler, some of those games weren’t even close.  Being blown out by #6 Ohio State is an early season game that Big East fans remember fairly well.  The loss to #6 Wisconsin wasn’t as close as it appears by the score.  Then we just saw them lose big on the road to #26 Creighton.  There have been some close games though.  The Golden Eagles weren’t quite able to catch up to #55 Arizona State on the road after the Sun Devils built an early lead.  They made it back into the game on a neutral floor against #27 San Diego State, only to falter toward the end.  They built a decent lead on #39 New Mexico, only to give it up, then regain it, then fade down the stretch.  This Marquette squad certainly had opportunities, like Butler, but they also had twice as many losses total.  To their credit, though, they more easily put away bad teams (like the Wisconsin game, some games weren’t as close as they appeared).  Still, it’s difficult to build a resume with that many losses, metric rankings only a shade better than Butler’s, and a single solid win.  A 9-9 conference record just won’t be enough, most likely.  They will probably have to win a couple more.

81/94/107                    PROVIDENCE

Current Record:  10-4
Projected Conference Record:  7-11
Expected OOC SOS:  223 (10-3)

Kenpom Rank:  78
Sagarin Rank:  79

Record vs. 1-25:  0-2 (neutral loss, road loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-0
Record vs. 51-100:  0-1 (neutral loss)
Record vs. 101-200:  6-1 (3 home wins, 2 neutral wins, 1 road win, 1 home loss)
Record vs. 201+:  4-0 (4 home wins)

0 good wins, 1 bad loss

Providence’s best non-conference win is going to end up being #119 La Salle or #121 Vanderbilt, both on a neutral court.  The home loss to #133 Seton Hall to start the conference schedule was also certainly a big blow to their tournament chances.  A non-conference SOS in the 200s is also a serious negative on their resume.  Underwhelming efficiency rankings just contribute to the tale of woe, both as resume lines and as predictors of their chances of boosting their resume.  Obviously, a 7-11 finish in conference won’t be enough to make the tournament (for any team really), but the Friars really have to do much better than that in order to attain a good enough record against top 50 teams.  Most likely, though, their hopes lie in setting up the best possible seeding for the conference tournament, where they can make a desperate run at the automatic bid.

122/138/155                    SETON HALL

Current Record:  10-4
Projected Conference Record:  6-12
Expected OOC SOS:  284 (9-4)

Kenpom Rank:  114
Sagarin Rank:  95

Record vs. 1-25:  0-0
Record vs. 26-50:  0-0
Record vs. 51-100:  1-2 (1 road win, 1 neutral loss, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 101-200:  3-0 (2 home wins, 1 neutral win)
Record vs. 201+:  6-2 (5 home wins, 1 road win, 2 home losses)

0 good wins, 2 really bad losses

Seton Hall is the only team in the Big East who did not have a single non-conference game against a projected top 50 RPI opponent.  #57 Oklahoma is at least close enough to potentially break into the top 50, but the Pirates would still have only one, fewer than any other Big East team.  They also put eight RPI 200+ teams on the docket, more than any of their conference mates (and Marquette, the only team that’s close in numbers, balanced their schedule out with five top 50 opponents).  When a team schedules like this, they’re really taking a chance.  If you only play one decent team, you’re going to have a tough time building a tournament resume.  If you schedule eight RPI 200+ teams (ten RPI 150+ teams), you really increase your chances of a really bad loss.  For starters, your non-conference SOS is going to be in the toilet.  And that doesn’t even take into account how well you now have to perform.  And how did Seton Hall perform?  They lost against the only decent team on their schedule in devastating fashion.  It was an astounding amount of bad luck and choking combined, but still, when you put you put all your eggs in one basket, you make the job really tough.  They then went out and lost to two of those awful teams they had scheduled.  Beat up by injuries, their efficiency statistics aren’t that good either, and a 6-12 conference record projection is pretty fair, considering.  With player coming back from injury, this conference season could be really interesting (especially after they already snagged a road win against Providence), but at this point, the Pirates are looking to position themselves as well as they can seeding-wise in preparation for the conference tournament.

146/163/180                    DEPAUL

Current Record:  8-6
Projected Conference Record:  4-14
Expected OOC SOS:  206 (8-5)

Kenpom Rank:  133
Sagarin Rank:  135

Record vs. 1-25:  0-1 (1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 26-50:  0-2 (1 home loss, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 51-100:  0-2 (1 home loss, 1 neutral loss)
Record vs. 101-200:  3-1 (1 home win, 2 road wins, 1 road loss)
Record vs. 201+:  5-0 (5 home wins)

0 good wins, 1 bad loss

DePaul has performed better than in recent years, and they did schedule some top 50 and top 100 teams, but they’re still the worst team in the conference.  I can’t even imagine them making a desperate run in the Big East Tournament.

The Skip Prosser Classic

Hopefully this game can honor such a great man for the sport! (Camel City Dispatch)

Another week gone by, another long layover between Xavier games.  From here on out, though, the games start coming quickly, beginning with the nonconference finale, where the Musketeers will face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Cintas Center as part of the Skip Prosser Classic.  There are some good articles about the great man behind the series – Gregg Doyel’s take and the preview from the Cincinnati Enquirer are good reads – but I would like to focus on this specific matchup.

Where are they coming from?

There were serious questions about how much one could draw from the Crosstown Blowout (as impressive as it was), considering the trip to Atlantis wasn’t exactly good and the home wins over Kenpom #203 Bowling Green and #186 Evansville were too close for comfort.  Many of those concerns were alleviated after a road win over a decent (#59) Alabama team, one which tested the team’s resolve up against a double-digit deficit early in the second half.  The Atlantis Implosion is looking more and more like an anomaly that occurred because of this new team first encountering adversity.  They have since learned from that experience, and their talent is beginning to show against some solid opponents.  Ranked #45 by Kenpom and riding a four-game win streak, the Musketeers are starting to look really good and are hoping to finish the non-conference portion of the schedule on a good note at a respectable 10-3.

Wake Forest is also riding a four-game win streak, though their slate was a little less impressive:  #293 Tulane, #70 Richmond (in overtime), #105 St. Bonaventure, and #310 UNC-Greensboro, all at home.  The Demon Deacons (#84) have some real challenges ahead of them:  Xavier on the road, #19 UNC at home, and #23 Virginia and #9 Pittsburgh on the road, and they’ll have to start answering questions against their first quality competition after their own underwhelming performance in Atlantis.  Robert Reinhard over at SB Nation’s Blogger So Dear isn’t too optimistic:  “It’s quite possible I could have skipped that entire analysis and just pointed out that Wake Forest is playing a road game and Jeff Bzdelik is the coach. Wake Forest has won just three road games under Jeff Bzdelik, and one of those was against High Point.”  I definitely sympathize with him on Bzdelik; still a mind-boggling hire, only explainable by the AD’s friendship with the former leader of some mediocre Colorado teams.

How do they match up?

Both rely more on their defense (Xavier ranked #36 and Wake ranked #47), but Xavier’s offense (#69) is distinctly better than Wake’s (#161).  Xavier is pretty good on the defensive boards, but Wake Forest has been one of the best in the nation at holding teams to one shot per possession, although one should remember that these numbers are not adjusted for strength of schedule.  Since the teams are practically equal on the offensive glass, Xavier has a challenge in front of them.  They must show some of the same toughness and tenacity as they have in the past two games in order to win this battle on the glass, especially since Wake holds its opponents to a low percentage on their shots.

Another stat worth considering is FT rate.  The Demon Deacons are pretty awful when they get to the line, but they are still good at getting there in the first place, and Xavier isn’t good at preventing that.  Do Xavier fans really want to hope that their stellar free-throw defense holds up for another game?

Bzdelik also observed to the Winstom-Salem Journal that some of the team’s key players actually mirror each other.  He says, “Stainbrook is a lefty, and he’s physical, rugged and tough. He plays with passion, similar to a player we have. They’ve got a guy in Christon who is a one-man fast break, similar to a guy we have. They’ve got a guy [Myles Davis] who can shoot it very, very well, very similar to a guy we have.  He’s talking about the following players:

Devin Thomas – 11.8 ppg / 9.8 rpg (54.9% Effective FG Pct., 53.9% FT Rate, 3.4% Block Pct.)

Codi Miller-McIntye – Leading scorer, 17.5 ppg (ORtg 114.6, 25.2% Possessions, 24.8% Assist Rate)

Coron Williams – 43% from 3 (ORtg 131.9, 15.7% Poss., 3.7% TO Rate)

He’s right; it is like a mirror!  Frankly, though, it’s a blurry mirror overall that Xavier is looking into, and there isn’t enough glass cleaner (That’s right, I’m sticking with the mirror analogy) to disguise the fact that Xavier simply is a better team than Wake Forest.  Their defense is a notch above, and their offense is much better and on the rise as Christon’s stardom and the rest of the team’s notable contributions blend together more and more (1.10 and 1.20 points per possession in the last two games against two good defensive teams).  At Wake, I might still pick Xavier, but at home, this should be theirs for the taking, preferably by double digits.

Around the Conference

The Carrier Dome game between #8 Villanova and #2 Syracuse in the early afternoon is the headline game in college basketball tomorrow, except for maybe the Battle of the Bluegrass between Louisville and Kentucky.  It would be a huge win for Villanova, setting them up for 1-seed discussion throughout the conference schedule, and it would be fantastic for the Big East as a whole through the boost to conference prestige (Sorry, Villanova, we have to live vicariously through you to a degree).  Conference wins over the Wildcats would also be further augmented, as one can expect them to drop a couple games in the Big East schedule.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Syracuse has the ball.  They bring the #9 offense in the nation in adjusted efficiency, but they’ll be up against the #2 defense!  Who will blink first?  Their matchup on the other side of the court is also about even, just not elite (though not to be snobby, as Xavier can’t even claim a #28 defense or a #35 offense).

The other game to watch for tomorrow is the Providence game at #23 Massachusetts.  This is a really tough match-up for the Friars, especially with all they have lost to injury or suspension, but it would be a fantastic win over one of the hotter teams in the country.  Do I think Providence will win?  No, if I was betting even money.  But while the game is still uncertain, the matchup remains compelling, because Providence does have some serious talent still healthy and eligible (apparently a tough combo) in Bryce Cotton, LaDontae Henton, and Tyler Harris.

Why the Big East is Better than the A10, Part 2: This Season

In this post, I broke down why in team-to-team matchups, the Big East is clearly a better conference than the Atlantic 10 for Xavier (especially as it relates to tournament resume).  That’s even more true if you consider the prestige factor, which helps a lot with TV money and recruiting, but I didn’t even delve into that for the post back in March.

Now, however, there have been Xavier fans asserting that this season specifically, the Atlantic 10 is better than the Big East.  Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News also posed the question of which was better on the national media level, though he at least didn’t reach a conclusion, citing how early it was to really judge (Though the article title does say “Very Possibly.”  Way to go out on a limb, Decourcy).  Over on Xavier Hoops, some fans are expressing their (justified) frustration at how well the A10 is doing this year, right after Xavier leaves.  They are at least sensible enough to know that the Big East is still better, but the original poster in that thread, GoMuskies, aptly put how annoying it is:  “All these years we’re in the league, and the bottom feeders lost to low majors left and right and made us look like shit when it came time to start looking at the RPI. So what happens? We leave, and THIS is the year the A-10 decides to start off 12-1. ”  UMass (UMass!) got off to a 10-0 start, and even Fordham is statistically having their best season since 2008!

Okay, so the A10 is doing well this year, the very moment that it doesn’t help Xavier one iota.  Still, where does the perception come from that the conference is suddenly better than Xavier’s new one, just because they are having a good year?  My theory:  The A10 is doing better than the Big East relative to their respective expectations, so people are unconsciously translating that to doing better in the absolute sense.

Marquette came into the season as one of the headline teams of the conference, only to lose to every good opponent they’ve faced except Kenpom #63 George Washington (Hey, they beat an A10 team!).  This is why they have a Kenpom ranking of 44th but an RPI of 105th.  That’s right; at this moment, a loss to Marquette is a “bad loss.”  We’ve discovered that they can’t shoot the ball worth a damn, leading to a stagnant offense in many games that their good defense can’t always make up for.

Georgetown was another headline team, and the results have been mixed.  The season-opening loss to Oregon on a neutral court was a missed opportunity, but where they are still hurting in the perception department is the loss to Northeastern two games later.  The win over a decent Kansas State and a good VCU team are still a little shrouded in that loss, I think, as people’s opinion of them changed drastically after the Northeastern game (since apparently good teams don’t ever lose to bad teams).  Getting beat up by Kansas, even if they are a really good team, didn’t help, but the Hoyas are still ranked #32 in Kenpom and #54 in the RPI.

Seton Hall seems to be losing players left and right, not to mention two that never showed up on campus in the first place.  Providence is hurting from a season-ending injury to Kris Dunn (though at least he’ll be able to medically redshirt) and the once indefinite but now season-long suspensions of two talented freshmen.  St. John’s hasn’t been bad, but they haven’t looked as good as their talent suggests.  We won’t go over what happened in Atlantis with Xavier, but they’ve looked much better recently.

Meanwhile, UMass had that hot start that I mentioned.  Dayton got a really good win over Gonzaga (though overall they’ve only been okay).  George Washington has had a good season so far (10-1).  SLU hasn’t beat anyone worth mentioning, but they’ve played two really good teams close.  And, some of the bottom-feeders might not be as awful as they normally are.  VCU is the only team that might be failing to meet expectations.

Villanova and Butler are doing much better than preseason expectations, though, but apparently that doesn’t carry as much weight if preseason headliners aren’t doing well.  Never mind that Villanova is doing better than any BE team’s preseason expectations.  If Georgetown and Villanova switched uniforms, the Big East would appear much better, I suppose.  By appearances, then, the Big East seems a little weaker than expected, while the Atlantic 10 is surpising people.  But here in the real world, how good conferences actually are is not based off their performance relative to expectations.  And when you consider performance by itself, the Atlantic 10 just cannot match up to what the Big East has done, plain and simple.  Want data?  Of course you do!  Here we go:

RPI Conference Rank:  Big East 3rd vs. Atlantic Ten 7th

Kenpom:  BE 4th vs. A10 10th

Sagarin:  BE 3rd vs. A10 8th

The aggregate numbers fall overwhelmingly in the BIg East’s favor.  But, wait!  That’s not fair to the A10.  Everyone knows the basement of the conference sucks, but that shouldn’t detract from what the top and the core of the conference are doing.  And that’s true.  So let’s do Kenpom team-by-team matchups, like I did in the first article:

Kenpom:

#5 Villanova vs. #20 UMass – Significant edge BE
#16 Creighton vs. #24 SLU – Solid edge BE (Note: BE #2 is slightly better than A10 #1)
#32 Georgetown vs. #33 VCU – Even
#44 Marquette vs. #58 Dayton – Good edge BE
#46 Xavier vs. #63 – Good edge BE
#53 Butler vs. #70 RIchmond – Good edge BE
#55 St. John’s vs. #78 St. Joseph’s – SIgnificant edge BE (Note: BE #7 is better A10 #4)
#71 Providence vs. #105 St. Bonaventure – Okay, this is starting to get out of hand (Note: BE #8 is even with A10 #6)
#133 Seton Hall vs. #112 La Salle – Significant edge to A10 (You win this one, A10!)
#139 DePaul vs. #142 George Mason – Even (Victory was short-lived, I suppose)

So, the BIg East is clearly better than the A10.  Can we stop this foolishness?  I can’t believe I even had to do a post to prove this…