There is no question the Big East enhanced its football profile when it added TCU to the mix. The Horned Frogs join in 2012 and should give the league a little more national credibility. After all, TCU is ranked in the preseason USA Today coaches poll. No Big East team is ranked. Whether the Horned Frogs can come into the league and compete for a league championship immediately remains to be seen. But does the addition of TCU help the league’s chances of getting into a BCS national championship game? That also is unclear. The Big East has never had a team in the BCS national championship game.. In 2009, Cincinnati went undefeated but the Bearcats finished No. 3 in the final BCS standings behind Alabama and Texas. Had Texas lost to Nebraska in the Big 12 championship game, many believe undefeated TCU would have leapfrogged Cincinnati into the BCS title game. What the Horned Frogs have going for them is something that has eluded Big East teams of late — sustained success. TCU has gone to two straight BCS bowl games and had two straight unbeaten regular seasons. This is a team that has dropped one game in two years, and has won 11-plus games in three straight seasons. No Big East team can say the same. That success has allowed the program to build up credibility and a national profile. The Big East might have legacy programs like West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, but TCU has overtaken them of late. So does that mean adding TCU helps overall league strength of schedule? Yes. Does it mean an undefeated Big East team can get into the BCS national championship game ahead of teams from other conferences? ESPN BCS guru Brad Edwards weighs in: “Having TCU would theoretically help the schedule strength of all other teams in the Big East and give an opportunity for a quality win, but I’m not sure it will make a big difference in terms of the BCS pecking order,” Edwards said. “The most important thing about TCU’s addition is attempting to preserve the AQ status of the conference for the next BCS contract (if there is one).” Indeed, the Big East is not in danger of losing its AQ status for this cycle. But when it ends in 2014, then all leagues will be reviewed to determine whether they deserve to remain automatic qualifiers. There was much outrage last season when UConn made it into a BCS game with an 8-4 record as the Big East representative. Adding TCU is not going to avoid something like that happening in the future, but it does strengthen the league. There also is the possibility the Big East is not done expanding. With its new media rights deal up for renegotiation in September 2012, the league is still looking at future possibilities. But for now, the Big East is a nine-team league that still has an outside shot at the national championship game, even with TCU.
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How did expansion affect title hopes?
Filed under Football by on Aug 8th, 2011. Comment. 
Saddle Up is our semi-daily look at the night’s best basketball action. On paper, Temple’s late-season trip to Duke is our best game of the night. It will feature two top 25 teams, a Temple squad playing well despite tons of injury issues, and a worthy player of the year candidate in Duke guard Nolan Smith . But let’s be real: The Owls’ chances of knocking off Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium are slim, and either way, neither team will be helped or hurt (barring seeding ramifications, of course) by the outcome. Instead, let’s hop through the most intriguing games of the night, all of which come on or around the bubble: Baylor at No. 21 Missouri , 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2: What team can help itself more than the Baylor Bears tonight? (OK, so maybe Colorado State, but we’ll get to the Rams in a minute.) We left the Bears for dead in the bubble conversation weeks ago, but that was before a road win at Texas A&M — now a tourney lock in their own right — got Baylor back in the at-large picture. Saturday, in a game emblematic of this team’s maddening inconsistencies, the Bears committed 16 turnovers en route to a home loss to Texas Tech
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Saddle Up: Much at stake on bubble tonight
Filed under Basketball by on Feb 23rd, 2011. Comment.
Saddle Up is our semi-daily preview of the night’s best basketball action. If you’ll allow this brief bit of seriousness, I ask that you consider making a contribution to your cancer charity of choice in honor of a family friend who lost his battle with the disease in Bettendorf, Iowa, this week. Thanks. No. 10 Texas A&M at No. 11 Texas , 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2: College hoops picked a pretty great week to be awesome. After all, this game — a huge, ranked in-state rivalry with hoops bragging rights on the line — isn’t even the biggest of the week thus far. (That honor would go to Syracuse-Pittsburgh, followed closely by UConn-Villanova, and on down the line .) Now that college football is really, finally behind us, the college sports fans of the world can unite. When the offerings are this consistently good, casual hoops heads won’t need much convincing. Why is this game so great? Let’s count the ways: It features two highly ranked teams buoyed by a host of impressive performances to date. It pits in-state rivals with similarly gigantic mid-court Texas logos in a battle for hoops superiority. It has major implications for the Big 12’s title race, including the three-team chase (between Texas, Texas A&M and Missouri) to dethrone Kansas at the top of the league for the first time in six years. It’s the first time Texas A&M will be truly tested on the road. Of those four, I think the latter is, at least in the short term, the most intriguing. If there’s one hole you can poke in A&M’s 16-1 start, it’s that the Aggies have yet to notch a truly marquee win on the road. Their biggest wins of the season came against Temple, Washington and Missouri. Two of those (Missouri and Washington) came in the comforts of College Station, while the Temple win came in late November on a neutral floor. To be sure, there is very little reason to dislike Mark Turgeon’s team. The Aggies defend well, rebound the ball on both ends of the floor as well as any team in the nation , and have a bonafide star in forward Khris Middleton . Middleton’s sophomore leap has given Mark Turgeon a deadly scoring option when the rest of the good-but-not-great Aggies offense stalls. In other words, this Texas A&M team has been impressive in nearly every regard, and last Saturday’s win over Missouri — led by Middleton’s 28-point outburst — propelled A&M into the national spotlight so frequently denied this perpetually underrated program
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Saddle Up: Lone Star superiority on the line
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Jan 19th, 2011. Comment.
With college football officially behind us and conference play just beginning to heat up, what better time to catch you up on the power-six conference picture? This week, your humble ESPN.com writers are doing just that. ESPN Insider’s Doug Gottlieb kicked off the festivities yesterday with some Big Ten rankings . Today, we continue with a look at the Big East, arguably the country’s best league and one that features a handful of potential Final Four squads and 11 plausible NCAA tournament teams. In other words, it’s just another season in the Big East. 1. Syracuse Orange The No. 1 spot in the Big East is an ongoing dispute, and since these rankings are supposed to be more projection than appraisal, Pittsburgh could just as easily be listed here. But it’s hard to argue with what Syracuse has done thus far, not to mention where it can go from here. Jim Boeheim’s team is as athletic as any in the country. It uses his trademark 2-3 zone as well as any of his teams in recent seasons. The Orange force opponents into bad shots without fouling frequently because they’re so long and so athletic that they cover more of the court than any 2-3 zone ever should. (If you haven’t seen it in action yet, you’re missing out. At its best, this defense is a thing of beauty.) If Syracuse has a flaw, it’s outside shooting; it shoots just 33.9 percent from the field. But this team is so tough elsewhere that so-so mark barely matters. 2. Pittsburgh Panthers Jamie Dixon’s teams have long been characterized by their toughness, their defense, and their rebounding. This year, only two of those things are true. The Panthers aren’t an elite defensive team — they rank in the mid-50s in defensive efficiency, according to Ken Pomeroy — and they don’t force their opponents into turnovers the way you’d expect from a team with Pitt’s defensive reputation. The good news? Pittsburgh is currently the best offensive team in the country. The Panthers aren’t creating offense through high-flying, up-tempo acrobatics. Instead, perhaps counter-intuitively, they’re grinding it out. The Panthers shoot well from inside the arc and beyond it, and they grab more of their available offensive rebounds than any team in the nation.
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Big East Power Rankings: From 1 to 16
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Jan 12th, 2011. Comment.
College hoops polls might be inconsequential noise, but that doesn’t mean they’re not fun to argue about. In that spirit, I present the creatively named “Poll Thoughts,” which you can expect every Monday until the season is over, or until the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll voters stop being so dumb. (In other words, expect it until the season is over.) It’s the week everyone got thrown for a loop. A top 25 ballot is never easy to assemble, especially if you don’t take the process at least somewhat seriously in the first place. ( Right, Kevin O’Neill? ) But when so many ranked teams lose to unranked teams on the road, as they did Saturday, you know you’re going to get a jumbled mess of a poll on Monday. Naturally, that’s exactly what happened this week . Three previously unranked teams jumped into the poll, three ranked teams fell out, and there are a handful of questionable collective decisions up and down the poll. Let’s take a gander, shall we? People are finally paying attention to Washington. Last week, Huskies fans were openly lamenting their absence from the top 25, and they were right to do so. Washington had three losses, sure, but they were all good losses — two to ranked teams in Maui, one to a ranked team (Texas A&M) on the road — and the Huskies’ lack of ranking belied their thoroughly impressive statistical performance thus far. This week? The Huskies not only made it into the polls, they jumped all the way to to No. 18. And you know what? I have absolutely no problem with that. When you look at the teams from Nos. 19-25, there aren’t many you’d pick to beat the Huskies on a neutral court, and there aren’t many who have been as impressive as Washington to date this season. The other teams that went from unranked to ranked? Wisconsin and Temple. No qualms there. The three teams that fell out of the poll were Memphis, Vanderbilt, and Cincinnati. Let’s take Memphis first: Despite their utter lack of quality wins and last week’s brutal blowout to a Tennessee team that turned around and lost to Arkansas on Saturday, the Tigers still managed to notch 36 votes. How? I have no idea. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, was punished sorely for its loss to South Carolina, but since the Commodores were only ranked No. 24 last week, I suppose you can see why they fell far enough to miss out on the poll. (Though I have no idea why they got four votes less than Memphis. That’s just strange.) Of the three, Cincinnati has the most legitimate gripe. All the Bearcats did last week was handle Xavier easily at home and lose to No. 7 Villanova at Villanova. Is that worth losing a poll spot over? Really? If the Bearcats thought they were being disrespected before, they’ll certainly feel that today. Cincinnati’s omission makes even less sense when you consider the teams that lost to unranked teams but managed to avoid much poll punishment themselves. Among them: No. 22 UCF, which lost at Houston; No. 24 Michigan State, which lost at Penn State; No. 20 Kansas State, which lost at Oklahoma State; 15 Kentucky, which lost at Georgia; No. 14 Texas, which lost to Connecticut at home; No. 12 Missouri, which lost at Colorado; and No. 19 Georgetown, which lost at home to West Virginia. I’m not arguing that all, or any, of those teams should suffer all that much for their losses. But all of those losses were obviously worse than Cincinnati’s. The poll voters didn’t seem to mind that a bunch of ranked teams lost on the road to unranked teams. That’s fine.
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Poll Thoughts: Fallout from a wild weekend
Filed under Basketball by on Jan 10th, 2011. Comment.
The fast-talking Skip Holtz came up with perhaps the best description of this year’s Big East race on Monday’s coaches teleconference. “Most leagues you get into, there’s a top and a bottom, but in this league everybody is in the middle,” the South Florida coach said. “It’s kind of like NASCAR. Everybody has the same engine — it’s who does the best job of driving it that weekend.” This race is like an eight-car pileup. Technically, none of the eight teams has been eliminated with three weeks left, and five teams have to be considered major contenders at this point. Pitt owns the lead car but is hardly in the driver’s seat with a one-game advantage and a tough schedule remaining. Every team in the league can still qualify for a bowl this season. Just how evenly matched is this league? Consider that of the 18 conference games played so far, 11 of them have been decided by eight points or fewer. Seven of those contests were decided by four points or fewer. The Big East’s favorite show is ABC’s “The Middle.” Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” is on constant loop over its stereo system. It’s a torso league — all midsection and no head or feet. Rutgers and Cincinnati will play this week with last place on the line, but neither is truly awful. The Scarlet Knights have lost four games by a total of 11 points, and while the Bearcats are struggling lately, they did very nearly beat Oklahoma earlier this year. Every other major league has a clear doormat, whether it’s the ACC (2-8 Wake Forest), the Big Ten (2-9 Minnesota), the Big 12 (Kansas 3-7), the SEC (2-8 Vanderbilt) or the Pac-10 (2-9 Washington State). The improvements of Syracuse and Louisville have helped raise the floor for the Big East. But the other AQ leagues all have at least one team in the Top 25. The top Big East team, according to the BCS standings, is Syracuse at No.
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Big East: Stuck in the middle with you
Filed under Football by on Nov 16th, 2010. Comment.
The memory-wiping service featured in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is offering discounts to all Big East teams should they want to clear this September from their brains. Until then, let’s review what happened in another tough week for the league: Team of the week: Syracuse. Not much to choose from here, and all the Orange did was beat Colgate at home. But the Orange are 3-1 for the first time since 2003, and I don’t see any other Big East teams celebrating milestone victories right about now. Best game: Cincinnati’s 31-29 loss to Oklahoma. It was a game full of big plays and a stirring Bearcats comeback, in a unique atmosphere against a big-time opponent. Plus, it offered signs of what Cincinnati could become under Butch Jones. Biggest play: This is a four-way tie, and it’s all about kicking-game plays not properly executed. D.J. Woods ‘ fumbled punt for Cincinnati proved costly and maybe the turning point, along with a missed PAT that kept the Bearcats from being able to tie the score late with a two-point conversion. West Virginia allowed a punt return for a touchdown and missed two field goals (one of which was blocked) in a 20-14 loss at LSU. Rutgers, normally so good at special teams, had a punt blocked that set up North Carolina’s final field goal in a 17-13 loss. And Pitt’s Cam Saddler fumbled away a punt return just as Pitt cut Miami’s lead to 17-3 and finally appeared to have some momentum. The Panthers completely deflated after that. Never underestimate the kicking game. Best call: Randy Edsall’s decision to lift Zach Frazer for Cody Endres at quarterback in the Buffalo game. The Huskies seemed to gain almost immediate confidence on offense, and Endres led them down the field to several scores in a 31-point second half. Edsall couldn’t really have made the call any sooner since Endres was suspended until last week. But it was the right time to make a change. Big Man on Campus (Offense): Isaiah Pead , RB, Cincinnati. I totally blew it in my helmet stickers this week, giving a nod to Woods instead of Pead. I’d like to blame it on too many Abitas in Baton Rouge, but it was really a case of a bad internet connection in the LSU press box and no TV access. But no excuses. Throw the penalty flag on me. Pead was huge in the second-half comeback, running for 139 of his 169 yards after intermission. Cincinnati is a different team with a healthy Pead able to take pressure off the passing game. Big Man on Campus (Defense): Jerome Junior, S, Connecticut. Junior had a pair of interceptions, including one he returned 27 yards for the Huskies’ first score against Buffalo. Big Man on Campus (Special teams): Terrance Mitchell, South Florida. The true freshman had 94 yards on two punt returns, including a 64-yarder that set up a score against Western Kentucky. Worst hangover: Pittsburgh. Sure, West Virginia, Rutgers and Cincinnati all lost their marquee matchups, too . But the total margin of defeat against LSU, Oklahoma and North Carolina was 12 points, at least giving some hope that each team can get things going. Pitt offered no reason for optimism in a 31-3 home collapse against Miami
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Week 4 review/Week 5 preview
Filed under Football, News by on Sep 27th, 2010. Comment.
13-9. Jeremy Ito. 48 straight points. Some losses are so painful that the mere mention of a name, phrase or score instantly brings back horrible memories. Today, as part of ESPN.com’s House of Pain series, I’m going to list my nominees for the most painful loss in school history for each Big East team. CINCINNATI: For years, Cincinnati wasn’t good enough to have many painful losses. But one sticks out: Ty King returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown with 19 seconds left as rival Miami (Ohio) beat the Bearcats 23-16 in 1995. CONNECTICUT: The 2009 season was full of heartache for the Huskies. No game hurt more than the loss to Rutgers. UConn had seemingly won the game in the final minute, but the Scarlet Knights scored on an 81-yard pass from Tom Savage to Tim Brown to ruin the Huskies’ first home game since Jasper Howard’ death. LOUISVILLE: Cardinals fans still rue the 2006 loss to Rutgers that kept their team from a possible BCS title game appearance. Louisville led 25-7 in the first half but would not score again. Ito drilled the 28-yard game winner with 17 seconds left after William Gay jumped offside on the kicker’s first, missed attempt. PITTSBURGH: Pitt has never had a more talented team than the 1981 edition. The Panthers were undefeated and ranked No. 1 when they took a 14-0 lead over Penn State in the season finale. But the Nittany Lions then scored the final 48 points in a loss that still perplexes Pittsburgh fans. RUTGERS: The Scarlet Knights just had to beat a Pat White-less West Virginia in the 2006 season finale to claim the Big East’s BCS bid. Instead, backup Jarrett Brown led the Mountaineers to a 41-39, triple-overtime win that sent Rutgers to the Texas Bowl. SOUTH FLORIDA: Bulls fans were beside themselves when the young program climbed to No. 2 in the polls in October 2007. It all came crashing down on a Thursday night in Piscataway, N.J., when Rutgers dashed South Florida’s dream season with a 30-27 win, aided by a fake field goal for a touchdown. SYRACUSE: The eighth-ranked Orange had a chance to knock off No. 1 Miami in 1992 for a Sugar Bowl berth. They trailed 16-10 and were threatening to score, but tight end Chris Gedney was tackled 2 yards short of the end zone as time expired. WEST VIRGINIA: Do we even need to explain? West Virginia fans were booking their tickets to the BCS title game before the 2007 season finale. One problem: Pitt — which entered the game with a 4-7 record — pulled off a shocking 13-9 upset in Morgantown that changed the course of both programs. Which losses are the most painful for you? Remember to send me your comments and memories to this link . I’ll highlight the best entries in a post on Friday.
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Most painful losses for Big East teams
Filed under Football by on Aug 5th, 2010. Comment.
It is not difficult to figure out how Connecticut could play so poorly against Cincinnati on Saturday and then come back to trounce potential No. 1 seed Villanova on the road. It comes down to two words: Talent and effort. Big East teams have them from numbers one to 16. Yes, that’s right. There is talent on Rutgers — Mike Rosario could play for any team. The Scarlet Knights performed well when they beat Georgetown in what has always been a tough home court, The RAC. Louisville has plenty of players coveted by other teams. The Cardinals were listless and played poorly in a road loss at St. John’s. So what did the Cardinals do? They turned around and won at Syracuse with a roster that played up to its potential in a win at the Carrier Dome Sunday. We shouldn’t be surprised
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Can Connecticut still earn a bid?
Filed under Basketball by on Feb 16th, 2010. Comment.
HARTFORD, Conn. – Prior to tipoff, Connecticut associate head coach George Blaney said it was as if Jim Calhoun never left. He returned for Thursday’s practice after missing seven games to treat a temporary medical issue that he has chosen not to disclose. AP Photo/Thomas Cain The return of Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun to the sidelines Saturday did little to help the reeling Huskies, who lost to Cincinnati, 60-48 Later Saturday afternoon, Calhoun would say that the players gave a “terrific effort” in the two days of practice prior to Saturday’s game against Cincinnati. Calhoun had no reason to believe that the Huskies would ultimately give him the worst performance and execution of the season — or for that matter, in years. But they did. And the 67-year old, two-time national championship winner and Hall of Fame coach was at a loss to explain the complete meltdown of a team that went from beating then top-ranked Texas three weeks ago to turning in an awful performance in a lackluster, feeble 60-48 loss to Cincinnati . The loss leaves the Huskies at 14-11 overall, 4-8 in the Big East and heading toward the NIT or CBI with six games remaining, starting with a road game at Villanova Monday. “I came back because I had a job to finish,” said Calhoun, who was as disgusted after a game as I’ve seen him in the past decade. “I came back because I want to coach. But this leaves me befuddled.” Calhoun said he never questioned the team’s heart, but had to challenge the effort. The Huskies went eight minutes in the second half with only three points. The 48 points was the lowest offensive output for the Huskies since scoring 46 in a six-point win over Villanova in 2002.
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Calhoun looks for answers after loss
Filed under Basketball by on Feb 13th, 2010. Comment.
