THE BIG EAST CONFERENCE

[GannonFan]

Wow. Rutgers upset over Purdue at the RAC was totally unexpected. It is a tough venue though. It will be interesting to see if they are as poor on the road as last year, or if they are really improved.

Purdue, Gonzaga, UCLA, Kansas, Baylor are the best teams I have seen so far. Might be a short list of real contenders this year. Haven't seen Arizona.

Gotta put Duke in that list too, they did beat Gonzaga after all.

Agree with dback, we'll find out about Arizona one way or the other. Mathurin looks like the real deal, though, he's a stud.

And actually, don't sleep on Houston. Combined two losses by 3 points total, have played a tough schedule, and their kenpom has them top 10 in both offense and defense - that's normally a statistical recipe for a long tourney run. They've been good in recent years, too, so they're no fluke.