(NCAA-WEST/Providence) #10 Arkansas, Sat., Mar. 22, 2:40p, CBS

CBA69 said:
Man it shouldn't have been a one possession game under 3 minutes to go. We lost as a 2 seed and a top 5 rated team to a 13 loss team, pause and let that sink in, which couldn't shoot fouls, 2 point shots, three point shots and who couldn't defend our own basket. Think about that.
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One that that is plainly apparent as we finish up day 3 is that the BE was not a high major in talent this year.
 
Jack Williams said:
I don’t want to get into finger pointing, as I know we gotta own this loss. It’s our teams loss and no one else’s

But the big east was weak as hell this year. It’s not the conferences fault, but it is what it is

We lost to the two power conference tournament teams we played in non conference in Baylor and Georgia.

I had dreams of a deep March run. But I knew as soon as I saw the draw last Sunday that this second game was gonna be tough as hell.

As sad as I am today, I’m encouraged. We can be a better team. We can get more shooting. We can learn from what didn’t work today. We can schedule differently to better prepare us for postseason, in case the big east is lackluster (I hope it won’t be).

We will be back
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I may not agree with your opinion of fun, though I attribute that to you just getting old ;) , but your last two posts are spot on.
 
Yes disappointed. Yes I think we could have gone further. Yes the BE was down this year and perhaps the SEC IS that good.

BUT, thank you Coach Rick Pitino and the best StJ team in almost 4 decades for a season for posterity. Hardnose, never quit bunch. Regular season Big East Champs. Big East tourney champs. Most season wins in StJ history. #2 seed in NCAA. First NCAA win in decades. Round of 32. Great performances. Great comebacks. #1 ranked defense in nation. Gave us a season I didn’t think we’d ever see again from a StJ team. Can’t wait for next year.

Not going to dwell on the things that went wrong, the officiating, the subpar performances. Grateful to have seen these guys give us this year. Wish the non-returners well. Very hopeful Luis, Zuby and others return. Have highest faith in RP et al to restock.

Peace all. It’s ok and only 1 team goes all the way.
 
austour said:
One that that is plainly apparent as we finish up day 3 is that the BE was not a high major in talent this year.
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They got 5 teams into the tournament out of 11. How did the fabled ACC do?
What about all those former Big East teams that chased football money?
Syracuse, B.C., Pitt, VaTech, Miami, N.D., etc. The Big East is about great coaching, many who now coach in the "high majors".
No, we are not the billion dollar SEC or Big 10 but we also don't have 16 teams spread out from coast to coast making league names laughable. UC Berkeley in the Atlantic Coast Conference?
 
Rocket said:
They got 5 teams into the tournament out of 11. How did the fabled ACC do?
What about all those former Big East teams that chased football money?
Syracuse, B.C., Pitt, VaTech, Miami, N.D., etc. The Big East is about great coaching, many who now coach in the "high majors".
No, we are not the billion dollar SEC or Big 10 but we also don't have 16 teams spread out from coast to coast making league names laughable. UC Berkeley in the Atlantic Coast Conference?
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All of those points are irrelevant. Conference was not good this year. Just because the ACC sucked more doesn't make a fact a fable.
 
Listen, if at the beginning of the year you were told that they would go 31-5, win the Big East with an 18-2 record, win the Big East tournament, be ranked 5th in the final poll but lose to an underrated Arkansas team in the round of 32, would you have signed up for that or even believe it? For me, they exceeded all expectations and i couldn't be more proud of these young men. The future is bright and this will just feed the hunger of whoever comes back next year. Coach Pitino will get what he needs in the portal to get us further next year.
 
fordham96 said:
Jay Wright the first 2 years of the new configured BE 2013-14 and 2014-15 went 16-2 twice winning the regular season both times and winning BET in 2015.

They were a 2 seed in 2014 and a 1 seed in 2015. Neither team got out of the 2nd round.

Danny Hurley did not win an NCAA Tourney game in 2021 and 2022 losing in 1st round both times before he won it in 2023.

It happens.
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In fact here is a weird Jay Wright stat. First 6 years of the new BE Villanova went 16-2, 16-2, 16-2, 15-3. 14-4 and 13-5. Winning the regular season each year except for 14-4 season when they finished 2nd to Xavier and both them and Xavier got 1 seeds that year. Outside of the two NCAA title runs in 2016 and 2018 (obviously great runs) they lost in 2nd round in 14, 15, 17 and 19. Twice as a 1 seed 15 & 17 and once as a 2 seed 2014.
 
Just got back home, as much as I want to be upset with the result the emotion I have is gratitude. The program submitted Providence as their preferred geographical site and the fans showed up in a big way. That’s a testament to this team and this coach and this INCREDIBLE season.

As far as the game goes, we picked the worst time to have by far the worst performance of the year. All season we’ve beaten the piss out of opponents despite our shooting. Our FG% and 3 PT % would be abysmal often times and yet we still won because we had 15-25 more ATTEMPTS a game through turnovers and offensive rebounds.

We’d play terrible early in games and still would only be down 3-4 points because of our defense. It was always a matter of time before we kicked it into gear, except today even when we hung around, when it was time to get going the ignition failed. To me that was all due to Kadary’s foul woes. He makes everyone around him better and the foul trouble killed that asset.

I’ve been a fan by whole life and we’re finally reaping the benefits, now’s not the time to hang our heads or be critical. I try to have perspective in these moments and really am looking forward to the future with a great appreciation of this year.
 
austour said:
All of those points are irrelevant. Conference was not good this year. Just because the ACC sucked more doesn't make a fact a fable.
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What's relevant is that almost half the conference went to the Dance making your point irrelevant. You made it sound like we were on the A10 level.
 
As a fan since the early 60's I've lived and died with the team as so many of you have.
This has been one of our most enjoyable seasons.
Having said that, I thought, going in, we were the better team. Unfortunately, Arkansas played like the team they are and we played unlike the team we are.
We have a lot to look forward to next year. As Looie used to say, it's no fun putting the balls away for the season.
 
Rocket said:
What's relevant is that almost half the conference went to the Dance making your point irrelevant. You made it sound like we were on the A10 level.
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68 teams got to the dance. Only 1 BE team was in the top half of the bracket. if you think that's a power conference more credit to you.
 
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