Should All College Basketball Teams Be Held To Same Standard?

Four teams in the top 10, seven teams in the top 25. No I am not describing the SEC football rankings; I am describing how Big East schools stand in the Coaches Poll. The same argument that is brought up with SEC football competition should be brought up with Big East basketball. Should the teams who come from weaker divisions, who play one or two tough games a year, be held to the same standard as teams (in the Big East) who play seven or eight tough games a year? Not too mention the Big East is so strong top to bottom that every single night could be a loss even against the bottom of the conference, unlike the ACC where Duke is the only ranked team. Duke's strongest win this whole season will be against Michigan St. who at this point in the season has seven losses but is still ranked 25th in the country. So shame on Duke for not being able to go undefeated with the schedule they have. You can't even compare Duke's schedule to that of Boise St.and TCU in college football because at least these two teams play one or two tough games in a 12 game season.  Other than in the NCAA tournament, Duke will not be challenged from now until the end of the season. But I don't care how well Duke does in the NCAA tournament, they have had all season to rest up while teams in the Big East get battled and bruised all year long and by the time they get through their conference tournament and into the NCAA tournament, it is as if they are in the 12th round of a fight against Mike Tyson. I just don't think that Big East teams should be penalized as much as teams like Duke, San Diego St., and BYU for losing.  These teams’ schedules are ridiculously easy and only have to get fired up for a few games a year and can afford to have an off-game and still pull off a victory.  But if a Big East school has an off night they are going to end up losing to Providence or Seton Hall just like Villanova and Syracuse did. These two teams are not in the spotlight of the Big East but can still pull of impressive victories against highly ranked team. This should just back my theory of how strong the Big East. And "tiss tiss" San Diego St. for losing to BYU last night. The Aztecs are ranked fourth in the country and are playing the biggest game in school history and yet they can not beat ninth ranked BYU to prove all the spectators wrong and show why they should be so highly ranked. Overall I believe three Big East or a Big Ten losses should be equaled to any other conference's team losing one game.

Syracuse Defense, most PITTiful thing around

The beloved Syracuse 2-3 zone defense, the one in which ESPN flaunts every time they are covering Syracuse Basketball, seems to have been figured out by the rest of the Big East. After back-to-back 50% shooting performances by Villanova and Pitt, it seems as though all the oranges are out of the box for Syracuse's defense. The Cuse entered the Pitt game with one of the top defenses in the league, but after the Panthers started the game with 19 unanswered points, Pitt was on their way to a decisive victory.. Nasir Robinson helped pace the victory for Pitt, with 21 points. It appears as though all that is left for the Orange is their peels.  The only fair point of the game for Syracuse was freshman C.J. Fair who had a career high 16 points.   In the next game the Orange entered a home game vs. Villanova with more than 34,000 fans in the crowd, enough fans to have Wade Phillips even show emotion. Well the Cuse showed zero emotion. After 8 three's in the first half, it appeared as though Syracuse had no answers.  It is great to have what is known as the "simplest-complicated" defense in the NCAA, and even better if it works, but what is the point if you can't move into a man-to-man defense when the zone is clearly not working.  The way to beat the zone is shoot 3's, there is no way around it, and the sooner Boeheim realizes a 5 ft. space between the shooter and the defender is not going to have good results for the defense, the sooner the Orange will be back on top.  It appears as though the "Big East Gang" has finally caught onto "Old Jimmy's" tricks as the Orange have been sliced through in the last two meetings.  One last point to make, the only person who should ever be able to wear the #3 jersey for Syracuse is Gerry McNamara, not freshman Dion Waiters who thinks his Philly street style game will result in success. Waiters was clearly the weak point on a very saturated day for the Orange.  His costly misses hurt the Cuse.  It appears as though Waiters took a page from Wes Johnson's chapter on when not to shoot.  Hopefully the Cuse will turn it around before they get squeezed out of the Big East race.