One of the best parts about February is that it means you can finally start playing (somewhat realistically) the "if the season ended today" game.
Admittedly, this is a game that I spent far too much of my adolescence playing. You see, I suck at drawing (think of the worst drawer you know, now picture them really drunk, not as smart, asleep with a pen in their hands, and just kind of flailing around in the general vicinity of a piece of paper) so instead of doodling little pictures I was always jotting down conference standings or brackets in the sides of my notebooks. This was pretty much a daily deal because, I'm sorry Mrs. Thompson, it's not like Isaac Newton is going to win the fucking Metro.
Of course during the offseason I would just scribble a bunch of obscure lines in various places and try to pass it off like I was really creative, a point of contention that surprisingly was not aided by my NPR lunchbox or Frasier backpack.
Anyhow, below is what the Big East tournament would look like if it were played today, of course it's unrealistic because not all teams have played the same number of games, but you've got to take the good with the bad when it comes to this game.
Wed., Mar. 7 | Thurs., Mar 8 | Fri., Mar 9 | Sat.,Mar 10 |
Noon 8) Villanova 9) Providence |
Noon 1) Pittsburgh |
Semifinals, 7pm | Finals, 8pm |
2 pm 5) Louisville 12) Connecticut |
2 pm 4) West Virginia |
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7 pm 7) Syracuse 10) Depaul |
7 pm 2) Georgetown |
Semifinals, 9pm | |
9 pm 6) Notre Dame 11) St. John's |
9 pm 3) Marquette |
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Out: Seton Hall, South Florida, Rutgers, Cincinnati |
I could definitely live with this bracket, although I'd rather see Depaul or Seton Hall in the first round, but any set of matchups that involves us avoiding the big three until the semifinals is something that I'm all for.
The thing is, and I've been saying this for weeks, we're going to play Depaul in the first round of the Big East Tournament. Now you might ask me how I could possibly know this, at which point I would lower my head, start to stutter and then throw up, but we're playing Depaul in the first round of the Big East Tournament.
Another cool little diddy for this time of the year is this Do-it-Yourself (Do you like to do it yourself?) Big East Prognosticator. All you have to do is pick a winner for each game and then at the end you'll see what the standings (and the tournament pairings if you can figure it out) would look like in your scenario.
I gave it a go and we were still the five seed (lost tie-break for fourth seed at 10-6), but we're playing St. John's in the opening round with four seed Notre Dame (winner of said tie-breaker) awaiting the winner. In my scenario we lost to both Marquette and Pitt, so two wins in this case would probably land us sqaurely on the bubble, and in my opinion we'd still be on the outside looking in. I think it's official, we have to get Pitt or Marquette or it's going to take a run to the championship game to get our name called on Selection Sunday.