Big East 2024

Conference Matchday 6 of 8

Saturday, October 19

Marquette 2 @ DePaul 2 (Marquette a bit of an enigma this season. Will be interested in seeing how they do in the BET)
Georgetown 3 @ Villanova 3 (An extremely disappointing result in isolation, but coming back from 2-0 down and 3-2 down late hopefully provides a little bit of a morale silver lining. Still, this may be Villanova's only point in the standings all season. They don't play the games on paper for a reason, boys!)
St. John's 1 @ Seton Hall 0 (Tuned in right at the very end of the broadcast, and what do I see but Andreas Lindberg berating the refs after the game. Give it a rest, loser. Meanwhile, Johnnies and Hoyas regular season finale in Queens may well be for the East Division title. The schedule-makers were onto something!)
Xavier 1 @ Butler 5 (What in the world has happened to Xavier? These are Butler's first Big East points of the season!)
Providence 2 @ UConn 1 (UConn scored a great side bicycle kick goal, but the Friars come away with the points and the likely better seeding in the BET)
Creighton 0 @ Akron 3 (Zips firing on all cylinders, a remarkable turnaround from the start of the year)

 

Has to be unanimous Offensive Player of the Year.

 

Obviously, that should read "Wednesday, October 23." It's been a long week...

 

Conference Matchday 7 of 8

Saturday, October 26

Providence 1 @ Villanova 0 (And just like that, Providence surges into the #3 seed)
DePaul 0 @ Georgetown 4 (Lesson learned from the midweek disappointment at Nova, I guess. A comprehensive performance)
UConn 1 @ St. John's 1 (And just like that, St. John's likely plays themselves out of the #3 seed. A whole week to prepare for the finale with Georgetown, though)
Butler 1 @ Creighton 6 (Yeesh)
Seton Hall 1 @ Xavier 0 (Seton Hall gets Villanova at home last, so they'll likely finish on 13 points. Will be interesting to see what seed they end up claiming)
Akron 3 @ Marquette 0 (If Akron finishes 8-0, honestly, just give them all the all-conference awards. They will have more than deserved it).

 

Conference Matchday 8 of 8

Saturday, November 2

Georgetown 0 @ St. John's 2 (I'd love to blame it on St. John's Turf-on-Parking-Garage field, but it was just a flat performance by the Hoyas and a really good, opportunistic burst by the Johnnies to take a 1-0 PK deficit and quickly turn it into a 2-0 mountain. Hoyas have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament of dropping from #2 to #4 - maybe don't drop two points to league doormat Villanova!)
Xavier 0 @ Providence 1 (Friars take the East Division trophy... assuming they hand out trophies for that? I have no idea. Anyway, they beat UConn in Storrs, I expect them to take care of business at home)
Villanova 0 @ Seton Hall 1 (A 6-seed for the Pirates. Considering they were picked to finish 9th in the preseason poll, you have to consider that a strong regular season for them. Hard to see them winning at St. John's, but anything's possible)
DePaul 5 @ Butler 3 (The Chicagoans were picked to finish next to last in the preseason poll, just a single vote ahead of Villanova, so getting into the BET counts as a significant win for them. The clock strikes midnight on their season next Saturday in Akron, but they can take some pride in the progress)
Seton Hall 1 @ Xavier 0 (Seton Hall gets Villanova at home last, so they'll likely finish on 13 points. Will be interesting to see what seed they end up claiming)
Akron 0 @ UConn 0 (A tractor pull, by all accounts. Akron had nothing left to play for, and while I'm sure UConn would have loved to leapfrog Seton Hall and Creighton in the standings, beating the Zips was going to take a superlative performance from them).

Big East Tournament Pairings:

#8 DePaul at #1 Akron
#5 Creighton at #4 Georgetown
#6 Seton Hall at #3 St. John's
#7 UConn at #2 Providence

 

Big East Tournament Quarterfinals

November 9, 2024

#8 DePaul 1 at #1 Akron 3 (The Zip Express continues barreling down the tracks, with DePaul serving as little more than the proverbial flattened penny on the rails. Now a rematch with Georgetown awaits in the Hoyas' backyard. It could make for a classic!)
#5 Creighton 0 at #4 Georgetown 1 (A great and hotly contested battle here, decided by a goal scored with less than a second left on the first half clock. I can't recall the last time I saw a player get a yellow and then immediate a straight red for saying some 'magic words' to the ref... but Chico Grajeda is That Guy)
#6 Seton Hall 0 at #3 St. John's 2 (It's been a long time since the Johnnies were in the final four, so they'll be making their first trip out to Boyds. Kind of shocked there were only 4 cautions in this one, given how these teams play, although the 25 total fouls sounds about right)
#7 UConn 0 at #2 Providence 2 (The Friars look like their typical hardboiled selves, ready to cause problems for people when the calendar turns to November)

 

The initial agreement was for 2022-24. We shall see if it is re-upped or if they decide to pick a different neutral venue in someone else's backyard.

https://www.bigeast.com/news/2022/9...big-east-mens-and-womens-soccer-championships

 

You betcha!

https://sportsfieldmanagementonline...rplex-completes-natural-grass-upgrades/16614/

 

Technically correct (the best kind of correct), in the same way that in basketball you can play up to three home games at a venue and it still count as a neutral location for NCAA Tournament purposes, meaning you can get placed there. See, e.g., Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center.

For another Big East example, the Big East baseball championship is hosted at Prasco Field in Xavier's backyard in Mason, OH. It is not Xavier's home field, that's Hayden Field.

If Akron wants to put in a bid to host the Big East Tournament at the new Cleveland soccer stadium if and when it's built, I'm sure Val Ackerman & Co. would entertain it (man do I wish we could fill a 12k seat stadium for Big East soccer!).

 

It was a cold and rainy night...

The Big East semis saw a pair of 2-1 matches decided by Golden Goal in the first overtime period.

#2 Providence 2, #3 St. John's 1 (Dr. Dave's men fought hard, and they have the athleticism to be a problem for just about anyone, but the talent and technicality fall in Provy's favor. One got the sense the Johnnies were playing for PKs by the end, while the Friars were on the hunt for a winner.)
#4 Georgetown 2, #1 Akron 1 (The first upset in the tournament was a classic. As has been said elsewhere, a highly entertaining affair with some great performances, despite the weather. The deciding factor was depth: even missing defender Lampman for the first time all year - the only true freshman on any All Big East Team this year - the Hoyas split their minutes more evenly across their 18 participants, ultimately exhausting and battering Akron's preferred contingent. For the second straight game, Brian Wiese employed a high-risk, high-reward substitution pattern that paid off.)

 

#4 Georgetown 2, #2 Providence 1

Not often do you see a team whose seed in the conference tournament is lower than their national RPI ranking. Yet here we were, with the RPI 3 Hoyas looking to win their first Big East tournament title at the Soccerplex as a #4 seed, after the first two seasons of the Boyds experiment resulted in title match disappointments. After Creighton won the inaugural neutral site championship in 2022 and Xavier took home the trophy in PKs last year, the winner was guaranteed to come from the East this time around.

Once again, some combination of necessity (no Blaine Mabie this game, though Tate Lampman returned to the back line) and strategy had Brian Wiese going deep into his bench and handing out extended minutes to players that were, ah, on the fresher side. And once again, as the game entered the final third of regulation, it felt like the Friars were chasing the game and the Hoyas were chasing the winner. That the two Georgetown goals came from players recording their first tally of the season only underscores the point.

The Friars struck first with the kind of goal that serves as a reminder to everyone that at this level, teams have players who will destroy you if given any space to shoot from the top of the 18. Providence has put together multi-win runs in the NCAA tournament before, and I would not at all be surprised if this edition repeats that. They have 7 shutouts on the year for a reason, and Craig Stewart teams are never timid, but also never stupid.

A down season overall for the conference, going off of RPI. Here's hoping Akron snags one of the last at-larges and all three teams are able to make some noise.

 

NCAA Tournament First Round

November 21, 2024

Bucknell 1 at Providence 2
Princeton 0 at Akron 1

 

I actually like Akron as a favorite over Indiana, assuming they're healthy. Just so dynamic on O and committed on D.

Providence is going to have a hell of a time winning at this edition of Clemson. They're going to need something good to happen early - they have a couple of playmakers who can do that - and then get in the Tigers' heads. Barring that, I think Clemson is just much too much across the board.

Hoyas still missing Blaine Manie, and it's never good to be down one of your captains. Hopefully they have everyone else match fit and can manage the game they way they should.

 

Ankle injury. Back but not starting.

 

Who was not back was Marlon Tabora, and I think that was the absence that might have really made a difference in the outcome. The Georgetown offense is just meaningfully more dangerous with him in it, given that no one else has his shot-making ability. His ability to strike at range doesn't just lead to his own goals, it forces defenses to stay close to him, which creates space elsewhere. That was sorely missing today.

Regardless, you go to battle with the players you have, not the players you wish you had. The Hoyas did generate chances - they just couldn't convert. Two headers off the post, a Mitch Baker look at a wide-open net that got deflected by a desperation slide, a free header that went wide. NC State was clinical with their opportunities and the Hoyas were not - end of story.