Packer, Knight: 7 Big 10 teams too many in tourney

[IE]

Former Indiana coach Bob Knight doesn?t think Big Ten basketball stacks up with the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference this season.

Knight told sportscaster Billy Packer during the taping of ?Survive and Advance? that he doesn?t think seven Big Ten teams should have received bids to the NCAA tournament.

?There are a lot of times when I thought the Big Ten deserved six, seven, eight teams but this certainly isn?t one of them,? Knight said. ?As I?ve watched Big Ten basketball this year I don?t think they?anywhere close to the Big East or the Atlantic Coast Conference. I think they?re a long way from both of those conferences.?

Packer said in an interview that the quality of the Big East and ACC compared with the Big Ten is shown by the low seeds of the Big Ten teams.

?There?s a tremendous disparity between the value of those leagues,? Packer told The Associated Press after the taping at the sports book of the Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Knight told the AP the seedings show that if the Big East and ACC each have seven teams in the tournament, there?s ?no way? that the Big Ten should have seven as well.

Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota were not considered locks to make the 65-team field.

Knight, the winningest coach in Division I history, and Packer, the former CBS analyst, also said they believe the West regional is the toughest draw, with Connecticut, Memphis and Missouri among the 16 teams.

?That has to happen somewhere. If you?ve got five or six really good teams, there are going to be two very good teams in the regional,? Knight said. ?But this one?s got four or five of them.?

Packer said he liked North Carolina before the season started, but now believes Pittsburgh is the better team.

Knight said he would be rooting for Duke, but believes any of the Big East teams or Memphis could win it all.

 

[CWood97]

Packer and Knight are making a shallow, idiots argument here. It's very easy to fire from the hip and say "the Big 10 got too many teams." It's very hard to make a reasonable case for any of the other bubble teams to have gotten in over Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin. The Kentucky's, Florida's, Virginia Tech's, Miami's, St Mary's and Creightons simply don't have the resumes to stack up with the three Big Ten teams mentioned above.

 

[3 Seconds]

Packer and Knight are making a shallow, idiots argument here. It's very easy to fire from the hip and say "the Big 10 got too many teams." It's very hard to make a reasonable case for any of the other bubble teams to have gotten in over Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin. The Kentucky's, Florida's, Virginia Tech's, Miami's, St Mary's and Creightons simply don't have the resumes to stack up with the three Big Ten teams mentioned above.

Wisconsin making it over some of those teams in a joke.

You are obviously BIG 10 biased, but come on have a little objectivity.

Please let me hear your case for crappy ass Wisconsin making it in.

 

[CWood97]

Wisky went 19-12 against the RPI #16 ranked schedule. They had an RPI of 45, went 10-8 in the #2 RPI ranked conference and won 7 of their last 10 games. They also had 4 wins against the RPI top 50.

Now go find me a bubble team's resume (who didn't get in) that is better than Wisconsin's.

Good luck.

 

[bake2252]

3 Seconds:

I have a Big Ten bias and I agree that Wisconsin sucks and didn't deserve to make the tourney. I actually thought Nortwestern had a better case than them with wins over MSU, Purdue, and Florida st. The arguement that seven team didn't deserve to get in by Knight and Packrat is probably legit, but certainly 6 of them deserved it. As far as the toughest bracket, I would argue that the Midwest is loaded moreso than the West as it by far deeper from 1-16. Just to rile everyone up I have listed the top two non-conference wins (in my opinion for the Mighty Big east tourney teams)
Pitt- Florida St.- nice win, Tx tech
Louisville- Kentucky, UAB ... wow! with losses against Minny and W. KY jelly.. .nice
Marquette- Wisconsin, Nc State... double wow!
Uconn- Gonzaga- nice win, Wisconsin
Cuse- best wins in the conference.. Kansas, Memphis
Nova- St. joe, temple... amazing!
WVU- ohio st., duquesne

Point is, it's tough to judge these teams based on what seems to be a very pedestrian non-conference slate and then watching them beat each other while the talking heads tell us how great they are. Please note, I am not even trying to make a statement that the Big Ten is better as that would be assanine, but what do we really have to judge them on?

good luck to all.

 

[CWood97]

The arguement that seven team didn't deserve to get in by Knight and Packrat is probably legit, but certainly 6 of them deserved it.

It is not a legit argument because they aren't making an argument that another bubble team (that didn't get in) that has a better resume than Minny, Wisky or Michigan. I haven't heard anyone make that case yet. All I've heard is "the Big Ten is overrated and shouldn't get 7 teams".

The Big Ten played more non-conference games against top 50 RPI teams than any other conference. They also won more games vs OOC top 50 teams, and won a higher percentage of those OOC games than any other conference. That's why the computer numbers are good, and that's why the Big Ten bubble teams have better resumes. It's all about the records and the numbers. Raw data, nothing else.

It's not about conferences or perception of conferences. It's about teams and resumes. The committee has said that hundreds of times over the years. The B10 teams simply had better resumes on paper than the bubble teams I mentioned above.

 

[bake2252]

CWood:

I'm on your side brother... I think you and I are the only people on here that attempt to back the Big Ten. Let's hope they do us proud.
good luck to you