Marshall and BigWinners, I respect the heck out of you guys and your posting, but I have to disagree with both of you on this one.
The ACC is the best conference, so your statement applies to ANY and ALL conferences, and not just the Big East. By the way, I'm an ACC fan, but the "P5" in football isn't remotely applicable to "P5" in basketball. Conferences like the Big East and AAC are always top 6, and the Big East is still an elite conference that like I wrote, is arguably the second best conference in basketball. I think it's the 5th best this year, but look back since 2010, the Big East in basketball has a strong argument as the second best conference in the country and for sure, is top 5. Now, when talking about Duke, UNC, and UVA, no question that's a different beast, but that applies to to 99% of other programs in America when comparing them to those 3 outside of course of Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Gonzaga, and that's about it.
The Big East is down THIS year, but isn't not way down because the depth of that conference even in 2018 is pretty good. Villanova is still a sweet 16 team and Marquette is legit. Even in 2018-19 which is a down year, no team in the conference has a losing record. Villanova, Marquette, Georgetown, Butler, St. Johns, Seton Hall, Creighton, Providence, Xavier, Depaul. Guys, that's a dam* good basketball conference. Agree though, down this year, but it certainly hasn't been down by any stretch recently or in recent history. Heck, Xavier, a recent number one seed and Marquette, Nova, Georgetown, all with a history of at least one "Nati" and every team in the conference has been to the final four and played for at least one national title other than Creighton, and St. Johns. Providence has been to the final four but not played for a title. But that's deep history there, even in recent history, Butler, Xavier, Nova, Marquette, and even Creighton. The conference has been actually elite and I will write it, it's actually been elite level. This year, it's down, but don't count it out. Marquette is good enough to get the final four. They are legit. I think St. Johns is definitely tougher than playing at Wake and I think playing at Marquette would be tougher than NC. State. Keep in mind, we are having to make comparisons about the toughness of the Big East by using the ACC. When using the ACC as a comparison, that argument will work on any other conference in the country.
I wrote this earlier this year and I will stick with it. I think McClung will be a college All-American in Basketball by the team he's a senior at Georgetown. Why? He's so incredibly gifted with the ball in one on one situations and has the ability to drive by the defender or shoot over team with his elevation and it's clearly showing at Georgetown. It's very clear to see that other players are having some difficulty guarding him. I don't think there's any question the ACC is the best conference year in and year out, and that includes this year, but I'm telling ya, the Big East is a top 3-4 conference year in and year out and sometimes, the second best conference and even this year with it being down, look at the depth or "bad team" in their conference. There really aren't many if any. It's always deep and the worst team in that conference still has an overall winning record. Even this year, it's a top 5 conference. The Big East has 10 teams, and even right now with the RPI (which is very much respected by the NCAA tournament committee and taken very serious in selection) the conference has 5 teams (50% of the conference) ranked in the top 50 and 7 of the 10 teams (70% of the entire conference) is ranked in the top 60 in the RPI. That's very, very, very good. 80% of the conference (8 out of 10 teams) are ranked in the RPI top 100. Only Providence and Depaul are ranked outside of the top 100 and both are ranked in the top 150 and have winning records. Guys, the Big East is dang good, and for sure it's down this year, but that speaks to its strength of how good it is even on a down year. There really isn't a "bad team" in the conference and look at the NBA players from the Big East and look at conference recruiting rankings. The Big East is right there. It's an elite conference and I think over the past 10 years, it's been the second best conference overall in the country. Close to them has been the AAC and Big 10. Both of those could be argued in my opinion as the second best. Top to bottom, I think it's the Big East.
