A Guide to Cheering for the Best Georgetown BET Seeding

by Hire Esherick on Mar 3, 2010 2:40 PM EST in Previews and Predictions

All fans know that their respective rituals, superstitions and beliefs are the sole reason why their favorite teams win. If it were not for that fact that I pounded my head against a wall for the length of every timeout during the second half of the UNC game in 2007, or had taken three consecutive shots of tequila to show support for Jonathan Wallace taking three free throws to tie the game at Marquette in 2008, we would have absolutely lost those games. So with that in mind, I urge you, loyal Georgetown fans, to do whatever and whoever you normally do while watching the following Big East games to ensure Georgetown has the best possible scenario come Big East Tourney time.

via www.scrappyland.com

(More after the Jump)

There are eleven games left in the Big East season, one tonight, two tomorrow and eight on Sunday. There will be plenty of jockeying for seeds 6-11, and unfortunately Georgetown has played itself into this mess.

Big East Conference Standings

(updated 3.3.2010 at 2:08 AM EST)

	Conf		Overall
	W	L	W	L
Syracuse Orange	15	2	28	2
Villanova Wildcats	13	4	24	5
West Virginia Mountaineers	12	5	23	6
Pittsburgh Panthers	11	5	22	7
Marquette Golden Eagles	11	6	20	9
Louisville Cardinals	10	7	19	11
Georgetown Hoyas	9	8	19	9
Notre Dame Fighting Irish	8	8	19	10
South Florida Bulls	8	9	18	11
Connecticut Huskies	7	9	17	12
Seton Hall Pirates	7	9	16	11
Cincinnati Bearcats	7	10	16	13
Rutgers Scarlet Knights	5	11	15	14
St. John's Red Storm	5	12	15	14
Providence Friars	4	12	12	16
DePaul Blue Demons	1	16	8	21

The Hoyas are uncomfortably sitting in 7th place right now, with a half-game lead on the Fighting Irish who face the Huskies in a crucial game tonight. There are only two remaining first round byes available. Here are the five games that will determine Georgetown's seeding:

Connecticut @ Notre Dame, Wednesday, March 3rd, 7pm
A Huskies win will give Georgetown sole possession of 7th, an Irish win would push Georgetown to 8th.

Cincinnati @ Georgetown, Saturday, March 6th, 12pm
A win guarantees Georgetown a first round bye, a loss can push them out of the top 8.

Notre Dame @ Marquette, Saturday, March 6th, 2pm
Another opportunity to cheer against the Irish. If they lose both games, they will play themselves out of a first round bye. If they win both, they guarantee themselves the 7th seed.

Louisville @ Syracuse, Saturday, March 6th, 2pm
As much as this pains me to say, we want Syracuse to win. They have already clinched the top seed and regular season title, time to move past the rivalry and cheer for who puts Georgetown in the best position. A Syracuse win will drop Louisville into a tie with Georgetown (if Georgetown wins), and the Hoyas own the tie-breaker.

Connecticut @ South Florida, Saturday, March 6th, 2pm
This game only matters if Georgetown loses. A Georgetown loss and South Florida win will result in a tie between the teams, and the Bulls own the tie-breaker. Georgetown will drop out of top half of conference standings.

Best Case Scenario:
Georgetown wins, Connecticut or Marquette wins against Notre Dame, Syracuse wins. Georgetown will get the coveted 6 seed, which plays all games at 9pm. The Hoyas would face the 3-seed in the quarterfinals which would be either Villanova, West Virginia or Pittsburgh. This of course assumes they beat the winner of the 11 vs. 14 game, which could include South Florida and Rutgers.

Worst Case Scenario:
Georgetown loses, Notre Dame wins one of two games, South Florida wins. Georgetown will fall to the 9th spot, play on Tuesday and be in the same bracket as Syracuse.

There is also a scenario where Connecticut wins out, Notre Dame beats Marquette and Georgetown loses. That creates a three-way tie for 7th, 8th and 9th among Georgetown, Connecticut and Notre Dame. In this case, Georgetown will end up with the 8th seed thanks to a 1-1 record vs. the other two teams, while Connecticut will grab 7th because of its 2-1 record vs. Notre Dame and Georgetown. As per Big East tie-break rules, winning percentage against tied teams determines seeding if more than three teams are tied.

Gets even more fun if Seton Hall wins out and creates a four-way tie for the last two remaining byes. Georgetown can still sneak into the 8th spot in this scenario, but will be lined up to play #1 Syracuse in the quarterfinals. If you thought Verizon was Orange in DC on a weeknight, imagine what MSG will be like at noon on a Thursday. The Cuse delinquents stay purposefully unemployed for this very scenario. We have not beaten Syracuse in the Garden since 2000.

Moral of the story: Georgetown needs to win on Saturday.

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Comments

Morale of the story?

This is a post worthy of Bleacher Report!

No, seriously, this is a fun post to read. Can’t really cheer for ‘Cuse though…I just won’t watch.

I can have oodles of charm when I want to.

by aja32 on Mar 3, 2010 2:47 PM EST reply actions

i was too busy doing math to proof read

moral of the story about morale

Good talk.

by Hire Esherick on Mar 3, 2010 2:52 PM EST up reply actions

Great Article, but

I won’t be able to force myself to cheer for ‘Cuse either. I’m a loyal hoya and avoid all things orange. If you don’t believe me, just look at the scurvy on my skin; I haven’t had orange juice in 20 years and am running a sever Vitamin C deficiency.

No matter. I’ll be there on Saturday, and I will lead the army of hoya faithful (probably 20 students) in cheering on Henry Sims.

by Henry Sims Stole My Pizza on Mar 3, 2010 3:12 PM EST up reply actions

6th seed

Clearly the most casual option.

- Casual late game action on ESPN
- Casual 2nd round opponent and revenge game against either Mike Rosario or Dominique Jones
- Casual quarterfinal matchup with Scottie Reynolds (for the 100th time)

Casually.

by CasualHoya on Mar 3, 2010 2:50 PM EST reply actions

root for Syrcause?

No.

Sorry, the difference between the 6th and 7th seed doesn’t amount to much (basically reverses the order we’ll have to play Nova and WVU in). No way I can root for Syracuse, I hope DePaul gets the upset the second time around to knock them out of the BET.

It's not me, It's you

by SomebodyBuyAustinaSteak on Mar 3, 2010 3:08 PM EST reply actions

agree re hating cuse

but difference between 6th and 7th will allow me to get to ny in time to see the game

Good talk.

by Hire Esherick on Mar 3, 2010 3:38 PM EST up reply actions

but

with the 6 seed we can all enjoy an extra two hours of casual cocktails before the game.

"You switched the samples"

by team doctor on Mar 3, 2010 3:39 PM EST reply actions

nothings stopping you from starting the cocktails early

on the job, whose to know that your coke is really a rum & coke.

It's not me, It's you

by SomebodyBuyAustinaSteak on Mar 3, 2010 3:46 PM EST up reply actions

yum

I can have oodles of charm when I want to.

by aja32 on Mar 3, 2010 4:27 PM EST up reply actions

I knew that aGeorgetown education

would get me places. Sneaking in mixed drinks is practically a graduation requirement now.

by glue on Mar 4, 2010 2:36 AM EST up reply actions

Great Post

Seriously, well laid-out. Those of us who preserve a willful ignorance of math appreciate it. Thanks, H.E.

by eatthatbox09 on Mar 3, 2010 3:52 PM EST reply actions

What if ND wins out, Lou loses to Cuse, and we beat Cin

by Westendhoya on Mar 3, 2010 3:54 PM EST reply actions

WHOA, that WOULD be intense

Back to the the 3-way tie scenario and we’d each have one loss/one win against the others in that triangle…

by eatthatbox09 on Mar 3, 2010 4:05 PM EST up reply actions

hate you

Lot of moving pieces.

3 way tie for 6-7-8.

Tie-Breaker #1 – Mini conference of UL, ND, GU:
UL: 1-1
GU: 1-1
ND: 1-1

Tie breaker#2 – Record against top team – Cuse:
UL: 1-1
ND: 0-1
GU: 0-2

UL has advantage on us, but nothing on ND and ND has no advantage on us because if they had played two games against Cuse, they could either tie us or UL record-wise. Not sure what happens, UL has advantage over us but not ND and ND has nothing over us. Can’t cancel anyone out.

Tie breaker #3 – Team(s) occupying next highest spot:
Depending on outcome of Nova/WVU game, it could either be only Nova occupying that spot if they win, and there will be no winner because we are 1-1 while the other two are 0-1 and can match our record if they play an equal amount of games.

If WVU wins, there will be three way tie for 2nd-3rd-4th (as long as Pitt wins out) and there will be no winner again because we would be 2-2, ND would be 2-1 and UL would be 0-3.

Even if Pitt were to lose one of their two remaining games it would still end in a tie.

Tie Breaker #4 – Record against Marquette
ND beat them, we did not. ND wins.

So… based on my read, which could be wrong because there are so many damn scenarios it would finish.

ND (they have tie breaker over UL from #3 and tie-breaker over us from #4)
UL (they have tie breaker over us from #1)
GU

If UL’s tie breaker over us didn’t carry from #1, the next tie breaker would be record against the #6 team – ND, which we lose.

We need ND to lose one.

Good talk.

by Hire Esherick on Mar 3, 2010 4:19 PM EST up reply actions

Well done.

Seriously, that’s crazy impressive.

And I really hope that I get to see a graphic of this on ESPN exactly as you laid it out, although I guess that would only happen if ND wins out, UL loses and they’re watching our game saying “If GU wins this, this giant shitshow happens.”

Why so Syracuse?

by HoyaJoker07 on Mar 3, 2010 4:29 PM EST up reply actions

Thanks! Well-Done Again, Sir

Now go do a few shots to cancel out all that gross thinking you just had to do. Yay, this is why you run a sports blog.

by eatthatbox09 on Mar 3, 2010 4:30 PM EST up reply actions

Different take from Louisville sit..

“The second one is comparing each team’s record against the top teams in the conference until one team has a clear advantage over the others. The Big East defines “clear advantage” to mean that one team’s record has to be so good that none of the other teams could match it if they all played the same number of games against a top team. So our 1-1 record against Syracuse would not trump ND’s 0-1 record, because if ND had the chance to play Syracuse again they might match our 1-1. Therefore we don’t have a clear advantage. You keep going down the standings until one team has a clear advantage, and that occurs with Marquette: ND would be 1-0, and UL and GTown would be 0-1. So ND gets the 6 seed. Then to determine the 7 seed you take the head-to-head of UL and GTown, which Georgetown won, so U of L gets the 8 seed."

by Westendhoya on Mar 3, 2010 11:57 PM EST up reply actions

Based on this language from the official BE seeding procedures…“After the top team in a mini-conference is determined, the next team is ranked by its record in the
original mini-conference. If there are any remaining teams tied by their record in the mini-conference, then head-to-head results will determine the higher seed.”

by Westendhoya on Mar 4, 2010 1:29 AM EST up reply actions

I'm assuming...

…that if instead of two teams remaining tied in mini conference (us and Louisville), there were three, it would still have to go down to the other tiebreakers?

Why so Syracuse?

by HoyaJoker07 on Mar 4, 2010 8:21 AM EST up reply actions

Doubt it.

Probably just goes to two-way tiebreakers, the first of which is head-to-head. Which means we’re golden.

If we win.

by Vee Sanford's Next-door Neighbor on Mar 4, 2010 10:14 AM EST up reply actions

works for me

Good talk.

by Hire Esherick on Mar 4, 2010 6:37 PM EST up reply actions

Enough with all this math already.....

the key issue is where will the CasualHoya headbands be distributed during the BET?

given the way the Hoyas are playing… I’d suggest St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street between 6th and 7th Aves (only about 200 yards from the entrance to the Garden)

by MerlinWilson'sSister on Mar 3, 2010 4:21 PM EST reply actions