Let's go Big East

It struck me as I was filling out my bracket this week: I don't hate the Big East teams the way I hated the Atlantic 10. When someone - anyone - from the A10 got into the tournament, I was hoping they would get demolished in the first round. I would hope Dayton would get run off the court. I wanted to see St. Joseph's embarrassed on national TV. I'd look forward to watching La Salle play one game and go home.

I don't feel that way about our Big East opponents.

Maybe it's just because we haven't been playing them for as long. Maybe it's because I'm tired of hearing ESPN crap on them (and us) on TV, radio, and the internet. Maybe it's because everyone and his mom is picking Georgetown to lose to EWU and Villanova to be the first one seed eliminated.

Whatever it is, I'm pulling for our conference brothers. I want to see Georgetown win by 40. I want to see Villanova make a monster run deep. I want to see St. John's beat Duke. Xavier is in the second-best league in the entire country and we somehow have gotten no respect as a team or a conference, to the point that Doug Gottlieb had X "on the bubble" when they were actually a six seed. I'm hoping to see the entire league make a storming run that will (at least temporarily) shut up the myriad haters.

Except for Butler. Screw those guys.