Pssst....maybe you out-of-towners haven't noticed former (25-year) Purdue head coaching great Gene Keady on the St. John's staff (Lavin hired him last fall as an Executive Assistant). Ask Bobby Knight for example what he thinks of Keady's "x's & o's" acumen. Outside of his shoe-polish bad hair dyes, Keady's considered--without exception--a top flight tactician in coaching circles.
Brettolius, you wanna talk about media bias? Amigo, you're starting to sound like Billy "A.C.C." Packard (see: UNC-Nova, 2006) ;-)
Check out Big East's pre-conference performance this year. Whether they end up beating up each other (quite possibly the case given the shear number of good teams--no let up), the fact remains that their out-of-conference record to start the season dwarfed others. Yes, 'Nova's hitting the skids at present and G'town's injured and they may fall early but besides that, why does this bother you so much-lol? I mean, why should this 'basketball' conference that was made up in large part from little Catholic colleges from the old ECAC have fans from conferences made up of "Gazillion-Dollah-State-U-budgets" get their noses so bent outta joint? Hey, the A.C.C. is traditonally a great conference (even if this year it's "eh?") But why many A.C.C. types feel animus towards the Big East is perplexing to me....especially when you consider that the A.C.C.'s history is littered with "northeast" basketball coaches & players that helped make it what it is today--yup. Oh, and (just once) I would like you to see the BigEast tourney in person at the Garden--unbelievable atmosphere. Another gem: taking in an Atlantic 10 game at the "Cathedral of College basketball," the Palestra. Awesome vibe as well.
Lastly, imho put:
-Boston College back in the Big East
-USo.Carolina back in the ACC
-Louisville in the SEC
on-topic: Much as I hate to admit it, who outside of the Celtics are stopping the Heat in the East? And the Celts are long in the tooth and I could see them being 'dinged-up' and not at full strength come playoffs. Time will tell. Chicago? Rose is awesome, but I don't think so. Orlando presents a broader number of scoring threats but I still don't think so. Atlanta's record is misleading--paper tiger imho.