The New Big East

With the likes of Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, and West Virginia all jumping ship (amongst others before), the Big East was completely falling apart.  The thought of Boise State, Navy, Houston, etc. joining was an absolute joke, but a desperate attempt to keep the league together.  Well, inevitably the 7 Catholic School have formed their own basketball conference and they have reached out to 2 or perhaps 3 more schools.  This what we could be looking at...

BIG EAST (Fall 2013-)

Georgetown
St. John's
Villanova
Marquette
DePaul
Providence
Seton Hall
+
Xavier
Butler
(Creighton)

I'll tell you what, it's not UConn vs. Syracuse at MSG, and they will miss the days of sending 10 teams to the tourny, but I still am a fan.  This is my favorite basketball conference, and I hope they get great players and dump on the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, and all the other "power" conferences. 

Give 'em Hell Catholic 7 and Friends.


Keefe

Where did they come from?

With the NBA Draft now just a few weeks away, I wanted to take a closer look at where these guys are coming from. It shows where the best NBA players were before getting drafted. Obviously now you can't jump from high school to the pros (that list is far and away the best), but check out the best 12 man rosters from the 6 major conferences, a mid-major squad, high school, and foreign. I would ask which team would win, but it's clearly the high school team. Some conferences, on the other hand, barely put out 12 quality players. Will these trends continue this year?

Results are below: (I based it off of what conference the schools are in now, maybe not when these players were there, example; Marquette in Big East not Conf. USA, etc.)

ACC

Chris Paul, Wake Forest

Vince Carter, North Carolina

Antawn Jamison, North Carolina

Tim Duncan, Wake Forest

Chris Bosh, Georgia Tech

Carlos Boozer, Duke

Al Thornton, Florida State

John Salmons, Miami

Grant Hill, Duke

Mike Dunleavy, Duke

Raymond Felton, North Carolina

Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina

Note: Good mix of veterans and young players. I'd put the ACC against any other conference, no surprise.

Big 10

Deron Williams, Illinois

Jason Richardson, Michigan State

Michael Redd, Ohio State

Zach Randolph, Michigan State

Joel Przybilla, Minnesota

Devin Harris, Wisconsin

Brad Miller, Purdue

Jamal Crawford, Michigan

Eric Gordon, Indiana

Greg Oden, Ohio State

Mike Conley, Ohio State

Carl Landry, Purdue

Note: Not that impressive. Deron Williams, Michael Redd, and Devis Harris far and away the best players here. Randolph can fill up a box score, but he may tare the All- Big 10 team apart.

Big 12

Chauncey Billups, Colorado

Paul Pierce, Kansas

Kevin Durant, Texas

Michael Beasley, Kansas State

LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas

Mario Chalmers, Kansas

T.J. Ford, Texas

D.J. Augustin, Texas

Kirk Hinrich, Kansas

Nick Collison, Kansas

Antoine Wright, Texas A&M

Linas Kleiza, Missouri

Note: Very solid starting 5, but then the talent completely falls off. A lot of young guys on there, might as well put Blake Griffin on the list too.

Big East

Allen Iverson, Georgetown

Dwyane Wade, Marquette

Carmelo Anthony, Syracuse

Caron Butler, UConn

Emeka Okafor, UConn

Ron Artest, St. John’s

Ben Gordon, UConn

Rudy Gay, UConn

Richard Hamilton, UConn

Ray Allen, UConn

Troy Murphy, Notre Dame

Kyle Lowry, Villanova

Note: Not as good as I expected. Plus I gave them a gift in D-Wade who actually played in Conference USA, Marquette joined the Big East in 2005, 2 years post Wade. Their 2 best players (Wade and Carmelo) played a combined 1 year in the Big East... I'm still going to count it. (Side note: a team like Pitt makes the Big East look good in college, but does not pump out pros like UConn. Will DeJuan Blair and Sam Young be different?)

Pac-10

Jason Kidd, California

Gilbert Arenas, Arizona

Brandon Roy, Washington

Richard Jefferson, Arizona

Brook Lopez, Stanford

Jason Terry, Arizona

Mike Bibby, Arizona

Andre Iguodala, Arizona

O.J. Mayo, USC

Kevin Love, UCLA

Aaron Brooks, Oregon

Baron Davis, UCLA

Note: Anyone need a point guard? If this team was coached by Don Nelson or Mike D'Antoni they'd be a lot of fun to watch. Zona keeps turning out the pros. And Arizona States James Harden could crack this tough list before long.

SEC

Rajon Rondo, Kentucky

Joe Johnson, Arkansas

Gerald Wallace, Alabama

David Lee, Florida

Shaquille O’Neal, LSU

Mike Miller, Florida

Mo Williams, Alabama

Al Horford, Florida

Tyrus Thomas, LSU

Udonis Haslem, Florida

Tayshaun Prince, Kentucky

Ronnie Brewer, Arkansas

Note: A conference that really struggled last year, really much more of a football conference then hoops. I left Jo Noah off, he could be there. Coach Cal will help the SEC's NBA Alumni in the near future. He could have 4 lottery picks in 2010, if Jodie Meeks comes back, Patrick Patterson, John Wall, and DeMarcus Cousins. Look out!

Mid-Major

Steve Nash, Santa Clara

Danny Granger, New Mexico

Lamar Odom, Rhode Island

David West, Xavier

Marcus Camby, UMass

Derrick Rose, Memphis

Shawn Marion, UNLV

Andre Miller, Utah

Paul Millsap, Louisiana Tech

Kevin Martin, Western Carolina

Rafer Alston, Fresno State

Andrew Bogut, Utah

Note: No Adam Morrison? Way more schools to choose from, but of the smaller variety. Pretty good group here that includes a lot of big men.

High School

Kobe Bryant

Tracy McGrady

LeBron James

Kevin Garnett

Dwight Howard

Amare Stoudemire

Al Jefferson

Josh Smith

Rashard Lewis

J.R. Smith

Al Harrington

Monta Ellis

Note: Some of the high school point guards, (Sebastian Telfair and Shaun Livingston) have not panned out, so I'll throw out a bigger lineup with Kobe and T-Mac handling the ball. Just an insane team. Why 18 year old's can fight wars for America but not play in the NBA is beyond me, but not the point of this article.

International

Tony Parker, France

Manu Ginobili, Argentina

Dirk Nowitzki, Germany

Pau Gasol, Spain

Yao Ming, China

Mehmet Okur, Turkey

Hedo Turkoglu, Turkey

Nene, Brazil

Rudy Fernandez, Spain

Boris Diaw, France

Andrei Kirilenko, Russia

Jose Calderon, Spain

Note: The best from around the world should make up a good 12 man roster, and they do. If the NBA ever went to a USA vs. the World All-Star game gimmick like the NHL did (North America vs. the World), then this is what you'd be looking at. Really only half or so of those guys would be deserving, making it even more important they never use that idea. Don't think they would borrow ideas from the NHL anyway.

If I forgot anyone, and I'm sure I did, feel free to leave a comment.

-Keefe

Goodluck with all that... 2.0

Back by popular demand... well at least back, everyone's favorite, "Goodluck with all that," a sarcastic look at some of the major story lines in sports. If you're new to it, I'm sure you'll pick it up real quick. On to the encouragement.

To Josh McDaniels and the Broncos. Your Pro Bowl QB Jay Cutler is "shocked" that he was in trade talks. McDaniels tried bringing in Matt Cassel, and now will have to convince Cutler that he can work with him after all. The guy is shaken and still thinks he's on the trade block. And to make matters even easier for the 1st year head coach, their All-Pro stud WR Brandon Marshall got arrested, again, and could face another suspension. Goodluck with all that...

To Steve Kerr for convincing people he is a viable NBA GM. When Kerr took over, the Phoenix Suns were a top 2 seed in the Western Conference. In year 1 he traded Shawn Marion away for Shaq and made sure his team got out of the top 4 so they could lose in the 1st Round of the playoffs on the road. This year? Despite a rejuvinated Shaq, the Suns are in the 9th spot in the West. They openly tried trading both Amare Stoudemire and Shaq to no avail. Also, in less than 2 full seasons Kerr has employed 3 head coaches. Nice. Goodluck with all that...

To Alex Rodriguez for putting the steroid issue behind him. Great start for A-Rod as he still has his shady lookin cousin hanging out with him the 2nd week of spring training. Whether this guy is hitting .350 or .250 questions will surround him all year long. Goodluck with all that...

In a related note; to Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro on making Baseball's Hall of Fame. This is nothing new, but goodluck with all that...

To Thales Leites on fighting Anderson Silva at UFC 97 on April 18th. Silva had been completely dominant since joining the UFC, but in the Spider's last fight against Patrick Cote he looked lack luster. He's been hearing it ever since. He will use Leites to prove he hasn't lost a step. This may be the last we ever see of Thales Leites. Goodluck with all that...

To anyone trying to get 27 in a row in ESPN's Streak for the Cash. I mean come on. Besse peaked out at 10, I've only gone as high as 5. And talk about frustrating/ addicting. Cripes. But keep trying, it's $1,000,000. Goodluck with all that...

To the World Baseball Classic on being a success. I like the idea, but it can't work. You got top of the line guys pulling out of this thing left and right. Everyone is still in spring training mode. You got pitchers going 2.0 innings deep, etc. Look, I love Olympic basketball, and this is as close as we got to Olympic baseball, with a majority of stars from the around the world, but it just doesn't get me going. Goodluck with all that...

To the team that wins the Big East tournament this year. MSG will be the site for all 16 teams this year for the 1st time. By my count 5 are absolute lock, another 6 are still very much alive, and the conference as a whole only has 3 terrible teams. Let's say for example that Syracuse wins the tourny. In a 4 day span they would have to beat (as the bracket looks right now), Notre Dame, Louisville, Pitt, and UConn. Good lord. I don't like the Orange's chances. Whoever wins, they earned it, goodluck with all that.

To the LA Dodgers signing Manny Ramirez. Goodluck with all that...

To Manny Ramirez signing with the LA Dodgers. Goodluck with all that...

To Scott Boras on making this happen. Goodluck with all that...


What else ya got? Leave a comment.

-Keefe