In a perfect world, when each Big East basketball season begins every team would have the same chance at a championship as every other - not from a talent standpoint, of course, but at least as far as scheduling is concerned.
MORGANTOWN - In a perfect world, when each Big East basketball season begins every team would have the same chance at a championship as every other - not from a talent standpoint, of course, but at least as far as scheduling is concerned.
The Big East, of course, is not perfect. Not with 16 schools playing 18-game schedules that include two variables that are impossible to reconcile - home vs. road and repeat opponents. This isn't a league that can balance its schedule so that every team plays every other home and away, which is the only way to guarantee an even playing field.
Nor is it even a conference that can purely and without regard to extraneous factors attempt to balance its schedule based simply on degree of difficulty; in other words, presenting each school with a slate that provides an even number of difficult home and road games, as well as fairness in the three repeat opponents. That's always the goal, but there are other factors that have to be taken into account, including traditional rivalries (West Virginia-Pitt and Syracuse-Georgetown, for instance, will always repeat and face each other twice) as well as television concerns.
All that having been said, it is at the very least interesting to see how West Virginia's Big East schedule turned out for this season. The Mountaineers, really for the first time since joining the league for the 1995-96 season, have a team that is expected to contend for the conference championship. And they've been given a 16-game to-do list that both reflects those expectations and makes them possible.
For instance, the top two Big East teams in many of the far-too-early preseason predictions are WVU and Villanova. And if that's true, neither has a head-to-head advantage because they play each other home and home. The Mountaineers' other two home-and-home opponents are rebuilding Pitt and Seton Hall, while Villanova drew rebuilding Marquette and Georgetown.
There may or may not be some inequities there, but it's nothing like last year when Connecticut, Louisville and Pitt went into the season as the top three teams in the preseason coaches' poll. Louisville drew one game each with the other two and both were at home. The Cardinals actually lost one of those two (to UConn), but in large part because there were no return trips Louisville ended up winning the regular-season championship.
Now, that might be an issue again this year because it's impossible to know which teams will be contending by season's end, but at least neither West Virginia nor Villanova will go into the season with a marked disadvantage in relation to the other as far as head-to-head matchups are concerned.
Perhaps even more interesting about the schedules of those two teams is how it breaks down as far as the non-repeat opponents are concerned. Throw out the other repeat opponents of the two (Pitt and Seton Hall for WVU and Georgetown and Marquette for Villanova) and each team plays 10 other teams once - Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Louisville, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, South Florida, St. John's and Syracuse. And in all but one of those matchups, the site is different for West Virginia and Villanova.
MORGANTOWN - In a perfect world, when each Big East basketball season begins every team would have the same chance at a championship as every other - not from a talent standpoint, of course, but at least as far as scheduling is concerned.
The Big East, of course, is not perfect. Not with 16 schools playing 18-game schedules that include two variables that are impossible to reconcile - home vs. road and repeat opponents. This isn't a league that can balance its schedule so that every team plays every other home and away, which is the only way to guarantee an even playing field.
Nor is it even a conference that can purely and without regard to extraneous factors attempt to balance its schedule based simply on degree of difficulty; in other words, presenting each school with a slate that provides an even number of difficult home and road games, as well as fairness in the three repeat opponents. That's always the goal, but there are other factors that have to be taken into account, including traditional rivalries (West Virginia-Pitt and Syracuse-Georgetown, for instance, will always repeat and face each other twice) as well as television concerns.
All that having been said, it is at the very least interesting to see how West Virginia's Big East schedule turned out for this season. The Mountaineers, really for the first time since joining the league for the 1995-96 season, have a team that is expected to contend for the conference championship. And they've been given a 16-game to-do list that both reflects those expectations and makes them possible.
For instance, the top two Big East teams in many of the far-too-early preseason predictions are WVU and Villanova. And if that's true, neither has a head-to-head advantage because they play each other home and home. The Mountaineers' other two home-and-home opponents are rebuilding Pitt and Seton Hall, while Villanova drew rebuilding Marquette and Georgetown.
There may or may not be some inequities there, but it's nothing like last year when Connecticut, Louisville and Pitt went into the season as the top three teams in the preseason coaches' poll. Louisville drew one game each with the other two and both were at home. The Cardinals actually lost one of those two (to UConn), but in large part because there were no return trips Louisville ended up winning the regular-season championship.
Now, that might be an issue again this year because it's impossible to know which teams will be contending by season's end, but at least neither West Virginia nor Villanova will go into the season with a marked disadvantage in relation to the other as far as head-to-head matchups are concerned.
Perhaps even more interesting about the schedules of those two teams is how it breaks down as far as the non-repeat opponents are concerned. Throw out the other repeat opponents of the two (Pitt and Seton Hall for WVU and Georgetown and Marquette for Villanova) and each team plays 10 other teams once - Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Louisville, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, South Florida, St. John's and Syracuse. And in all but one of those matchups, the site is different for West Virginia and Villanova.
That's right, the Mountaineers play Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers and Syracuse at home, while Villanova plays all four on the road. WVU plays at Connecticut, DePaul, Notre Dame, Providence and South Florida, while Villanova plays all five at home. Both teams play St. John's on the road.
West Virginia also gets both of Villanova's other repeat teams - Georgetown and Marquette - at home, while Villanova splits with WVU's other repeat foes - Pitt on the road and Seton Hall at home.
What does it all mean? Well, it's hard to tell. Georgetown figures to be a title contender, so West Virginia probably has a scheduling advantage playing the Hoyas only at home while Villanova plays them twice. Connecticut is going to be in the mix and WVU has to go there, while Villanova plays host to the Huskies. In addition to Villanova, Georgetown drew Syracuse and Rutgers as repeat opponents, while UConn has Louisville, Notre Dame and Cincinnati twice.
And, naturally, the title race isn't likely to be limited to only four teams, or even to those four teams.
But if West Virginia is indeed going to contend for a Big East title, it seems as if the Mountaineers' schedule won't be a detriment.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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