So why am I doing this post? On Thursday night, I went with Vin for the fourth time in five years (he sat out in 2013 because he got sick). After watching what I could of Notre Dame's awesome win over Duke on my iPad, I got to Madison Square Garden shortly after the start of the first game (thanks to the other middle school teachers at my school who let me skip our last parent-teacher conference because she was running late and I had a train to catch) and Vin got there maybe ten minutes after I did. We were sitting in the same section as last year, just one row closer. Xavier beat Marquette pretty easily in the first game. Seton Hall won a more competitive game over Creighton. We actually stayed for the entirety of the two games. That doesn't often happen (especially when I go on the Thursday night and I have work the next day). Cole Huff had 35 points of Creighton. Isaiah Whitehead had 24 points and 12 rebounds and Khadeen Carrington had 27 points for Seton Hall. Staying for the whole thing turned out to be perfect timing because we ended up walking out of Madison Square Garden right as Bill Murray was walking out of the Garden. His son is an assistant coach with Xavier. Vin caught up to him and was talking to him as I walked behind. Bill wouldn't stop for pictures, but he allowed Vin to take pictures as they walked. And you can see me in the background of one of the pictures. I ended up missing my train as a result and had to take one about a half hour later. I got home around 1:45 and got to sleep around 2:00.
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| My view for the Big East Tournament |
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| Phil? Phil Connors? |
The other reason I wanted to blog about the Big East Tournament is that although I couldn't do a Saturday triple-header, I was able to do a Saturday double-header. Stony Brook was playing in the America East Championship Game for the fifth time in six years. They had never made it to the NCAA Tournament before. They were hosting the game on campus at 11:00. Their website explained how they were selling tickets. Season ticket holders got tickets first and a certain amount were allotted for students. Then I think university employees could buy tickets. If there were any left, they would go on sale to the public on Thursday, but you had to buy them in person. If there were any left after that, anybody could buy them on Friday. They didn't even get to the public sale on Thursday, but you could send an email to be put on a waiting list. I figured I wasn't likely to get tickets, but it was worth a shot. On Friday morning, I got a call from Stony Brook. I got another teacher to watch my class so I could call and get tickets. So I went to Stony Brook on Saturday morning. I've mentioned it before on the blog, but I spent a year as a student at Stony Brook. Look, I have no allegiance to Stony Brook because of that. Not only did I never attend a Stony Brook sporting event as a student, I had no idea what was going on with Stony Brook sports other than the fact that they were Division I. The only reason I wanted Stony Brook to win was because I wanted a local team in the tournament (sadly, Hofstra blew a 12 point lead in the second half of their championship game).
So my dad was going to come to Stony Brook and the Big East Championship with me, but he got sick. So I went to Stony Brook by myself. Unlike the Big East Championship, this was a game that actually meant something (Villanova and Seton Hall were both going to the tournament either way). Stony Brook's arena was recently renovated and it only holds a little over 4,000. It was nice and it was a great atmosphere. Besides the game actually meaning something, everybody there really cared. Stony Brook was taking on Vermont. I wanted to see Jameel Warney and he didn't disappoint. Also, Stony Brook's starting point guard went to Harborfields (Lucas Woodhouse), but he only scored two points. Early on, Warney was the only one doing anything for Stony Brook. Vermont led by 15 in the second half, but Stony Brook battled back. Carson Puriefoy started helping out Warney and he finished with 23 points. But Warney couldn't be stopped. He had 43 points (18 for 22 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Stony Brook ended up winning by six. I took a video of the last couple of seconds and the aftermath because I knew the students would storm the court. It was really cool.
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| My view for the Stony Brook game |
As for the Big East, my dad was still hoping to go, but by the time I got back from Stony Brook, he had decided not to go. I had to run out quickly for my train, so I quickly listed my other ticket on Stubhub. My plan was to text a few of my friends in the city once I got on the train to see if they wanted to join and then delete the listing on Stubhub if I could find somebody, but it sold before I even made it to the train station (fortunately I made a profit). So after going to mass at St. Francis right by Penn Station, I headed back to Madison Square Garden. It was nice having two old Big East teams playing for the championship. The game was announced as a sellout (the first in the Big East Tournament since all the football schools left) and the crowd was into it. It seemed to me like there were more Villanova fans, but Seton Hall was well represented also. Seton Hall played a great first half. Villanova came back and took the lead late. But Isaiah Whitehead had a three-point play to give Seton Hall the lead again with 18 seconds left. Whitehead finished with 26 points.
For Seton Hall, it was there first Big East Championship in 23 years. It was nice to have the Garden really excited. There are five teams in the Big East that will bring a lot of fans to the Garden (the old teams: St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Providence), and five teams that won't (the new teams: Xavier, Butler, DePaul, Marquette, and Creighton). So I always prefer to see the old teams because that will get the Garden excited. What we really need is for St. John's to be good. St. John's now has the longest Big East Championship drought (2000 was their last one). And the new teams haven't won any yet (and Marquette and DePaul have been in the conference for a while now). I would still love to see the Big East add two more teams to improve the Wednesday night of the tournament (it was a dreadful pair of games this year). Ideally, they'd add teams that would draw to the Garden. Holy Cross would be great if they committed to basketball again (they could make up for their mistake of not joining in 1979). They probably could take anybody they wanted from the Atlantic 10, but they only school that would bring fans to the Garden share markets with teams already in the Big East. Dayton and St. Louis make some sense for financial reasons, but they probably won't bring too many fans to the Garden.
I don't really know what I'm going to do next year. The ACC is coming to Brooklyn at the same time as the Big East Tournament. I think my plan is to try to get tickets for both and then decide what I want to go to (hopefully getting to at least one session at both, but it could really depend on what Notre Dame's schedule is) and sell the rest.
So let's get to my annual tournament rankings (here are 2014 and 2015). This has very little to do with how good I think the teams are. It is entirely based on what I want to see happen. You know who's number one and you should know who's number 70 (yes, I know, it's a 68 team tournament). Here we go:
70. Michigan
The worst case scenario.
69. Michigan makes the championship game and some catastrophic event prevents the game from being played without anybody dying.
68. Michigan makes the championship game and it's determined before the game that all of their players are ineligible and so the game is never played.
Definitely better than Michigan winning.
67. Syracuse
66. Kentucky
Boeheim or Calipari. Which is worse? Tough call.
65. USC
Notre Dame's one true rival in football. I don't hate them the way I hate Michigan, but I don't want to see them win either.
64. North Carolina
63. Duke
I hate both of these teams. Duke gets the edge for caring about academics and because Notre Dame owns them, so they can win a championship, but Coach K knows that his former assistant owns him. We're 5-1 against Duke since joining the ACC (3-3 against North Carolina, not bad).
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| That's right. |
62. Indiana
61. Wisconsin
60. Purdue
59. Maryland
58. Iowa
57. Michigan State
I had the Big Ten teams ranked behind Duke and North Carolina last year, but that was wrong. I was rooting for Wisconsin to beat Duke in the championship game. But I do still hate the Big Ten.
56. Oregon
55. West Virginia
Ugly uniforms and Bob Huggins.
54. Pittsburgh
Notre Dame had a solid year in basketball, but we lost to them on my birthday. And they're usually annoying when we play them in football.
53. Tulsa
52. Chattanooga
51. Stephen F. Austin
50. Weber State
Tulsa would be in a much different spot because they do play Michigan in the first round and I would love to see them beat Michigan, but winning the championship would mean that they would beat Notre Dame also. These teams are only really here because they're in the same bracket as Notre Dame.
49. Cal
Dirty smelly hippies.
48. Miami
Convicts.
47. Connecticut
I used to hate Connecticut a lot more, but Jim Calhoun isn't there anymore. I have nothing against Kevin Ollie. Their women's team is as detestable as a women's basketball team could be.
46. Cincinnati
A non-Catholic school from the old Big East.
45. Colorado
A state with terrible drug laws.
44. Oklahoma
Their football program has no academic standards. I imagine the basketball team doesn't either.
43. Iowa State
42. Vanderbilt
41. Oregon State
40. Utah
39. Arizona
A bunch of power conference teams that I have no thoughts about.
38. Temple
Whatever.
37. Kansas
Paul Pierce went to Kansas.
36. Fresno State
We're getting into teams that don't play in major conferences.
35. Hawaii
It would be pretty cool if a team from one of three states in the entire country without a professional baseball team (Alaska and Wyoming are the others) did anything and they're playing the dirty smelly hippies from Cal.
34. Middle Tennessee
33. Buffalo
More teams that don't play in major conferences.
32. Virginia
Thomas Jefferson's school and a school that cares about academics.
31. Texas Tech
30. Baylor
29. Texas A&M
28. Texas
Don't mess with Texas.
27. UNC Ashville
26. Northern Iowa
25. Little Rock
24. Wichita State
23. VCU
22. South Dakota State
21. Cal State Bakersfield
20. Green Bay
19. UNC Wilmington
Now we're getting into schools that don't play major college football. We haven't had a team like that win a National Championship in basketball since Villanova in 1984.
18. Yale
They haven't been to the tournament since 1962. I'm not much of a fan of the Ivy League, but they do care about educating their athletes.
17. Southern
16. Fairleigh Dickinson
15. Austin Peay
14. Hampton
13. Florida Gulf Coast
I would love to see a 16 seed win a game.
12. Butler
The non-Catholic Big East school (I used to root against those teams, but not Butler) and the team that Brad Stevens used to coach.
11. Stony Brook
I already covered them.
10. Gonzaga
9. St. Joseph's
8. Dayton
7. Iona
6. Holy Cross
We're getting into the Catholic schools. I know some people who went to Holy Cross. Iona is a somewhat local team. Dayton plays Syracuse in the first round, which puts them ahead of the other two. Gonzaga has been in the tournament plenty over the years and they haven't done much in the tournament recently, so they're behind St. Joseph's.
5. Xavier
4. Villanova
3. Providence
2. Seton Hall
The Big East Catholic schools. Seton Hall won the Big East Tournament (that might be my new determining factor for who gets number two on the list or number one if Notre Dame isn't in the tournament). Xavier is last of the four because they're a new Big East team. Providence goes ahead of Villanova because Providence plays USC in the first round and Villanova has been disappointing recently in the tournament.
1. Notre Dame
Of course.
I was planning on seeing Notre Dame play next year at the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, but the NCAA took care of me. We play on Friday night in Brooklyn. Of course, it's my policy that I don't work on the first Friday of the tournament (this will be seven straight years), so I could have gone if we were playing Friday afternoon, but I like this better. I'll watch the afternoon games at home and then I'll head to Brooklyn for the night session with Kyle. It will be my second trip to the NCAA Tournament (I went in Philadelphia in 2013), but my first with Notre Dame playing. Go Irish!
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