Good stuff from Andy Katz on this year's Big East schedule. He discusses the five tiers that the coaches poll were broken into and who has the toughest/easiest schedule.
The Tiers:
Tier 1: Pitt and Villanova
Tier 2: Syracuse, West Virginia, Georgetown.
Tier 3: Louisville, St. John's, Notre Dame, Connecticut.
Tier 4: Marquette, Cincinnati, Seton Hall.
Tier 5: South Florida, Providence, Rutgers, DePaul.
(More After the Jump)
Georgetown has home/home against Syracuse (Tier 2), St. John's (Tier 3) and Cincinnati (Tier 4) but as Rick Pitino states in the article, both St. John's and Cincinnati are sleepers in the league.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino admitted he gave the Red Storm and new coach Steve Lavin a first-place vote May 14.
"I was debating between St. John's, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Cincinnati, but I didn't want to put that on Mick [Cronin, Pitino's former assistant] so I went with St. John's."
Pitino told ESPN.com Wednesday that he was sticking with St. John's, saying in a text: "Nine seniors. Everyone but Pitt and Villanova lost key players."
Georgetown actually has a very good home schedule, playing three of the top five teams in the conference at Verizon.
Speaking of Verizon, commissioner Dave Gavitt admits that the Verizon Center is one of the venues delaying the release of the full Big East schedule, which is normally out by now. A delay in the release of professional sports' schedules (possibly due to the LeBron Decision Debacle) is delaying everything, including announcement of the Jonas Brothers concert in DC!!!
In another random tidbit, as Thompson the Third mentioned on the Andy Katz College Corner last week, Big East expansion is not over, and there was apparently a split among football and basketball-only schools over adding a 17th team. They seriously would have considered adding both Kansas and Kansas St., however, had the Big 12 dissolved.