What you should root for today

Today is a sad day, as it's the last day of regular season basketball in the Big East as we know it.

I'll help you to distract yourself from the sentimental crap by giving you your rooting game plan for this afternoon.

Syracuse can wind up anywhere between 4th and 6th based on today's results.  Tiebreak scenarios can get complicated and I'm way too lazy to figure it all out, so I brought in friend and EXCEL spreadsheet extraordinaire Dan Theal to break it all down for you.

I have good news.

I just spent the last 45 minutes calculating the tiebreaker scenarios and there is still legitimate hope for a #4 seed.

Obviously if Cuse beats GTOWN, ND beats LVILLE, and PITT loses to DEP, Cuse would get the #4 seed.  That is the easy tiebreak.

But, according to my calculations, if Cuse, ND, and PITT all win and finish 12-6, it would start a series of tiebreaks of their records vs. other teams in the conference.

In order for Cuse to get the #4 seed, Providence would NEED to defeat UConn,  and Cincinnati would NEED to defeat USF.

That way, Villanova would finish tied for 7^th with Providence, and Cuse’s 3-1 record vs. that grouping bails them out.  Then, UConn would finish tied for 9^th with at least Cincy and perhaps St. John’s (St. John’s result doesn’t make a difference).  As Pitt lost to Cincy, Cuse is bailed out again.  Then we go down to Rutgers and/or Seton Hall, which may finish 12^th and 13^th, respectively, or tied for 12^th.  As Syracuse and ND were both 2-0 vs. that grouping and Pitt lost to Rutgers, Syracuse ND would “win” that tie-break with Pitt and Cuse would overtake ND on H2H.

Boom.

Assuming Pitt defeats DePaul, let’s hope for

Syracuse defeats Georgetown

Notre Dame defeats Louisville

Providence defeats UConn

Cincinnati defeats South Florida.

Thanks for that Dan.  Now lets all go root for a Hoya beatdown to start off March.