Big East Tournament 2012: Cincinnati and Teams with the Most to Lose

The Big East is loaded yet again and will be entering the NCAA tournament as a conference that will likely land 10 bids in the big dance.

Key word here is “likely."

There is work to be done for the following three teams. A loss in their first Big East tournament game and the NIT will be calling, not the NCAA.

(Full bracket can be found here.)

Cincinnati Bearcats (22-9, 12-6 Big East)

The Bearcats have been a big surprise in conference play after an awful non-conference slate (320 SOS rank).

This is a team that lost to Presbyterian (245 RPI) and has played nine teams with an RPI worse than 200. Yet a strong record in the deepest conference in America has raised their RPI all the way up to 67.

With signature victories against Marquette (RPI 7) and Georgetown (10), the heavy lifting is almost done.

Almost.

A loss in the third round of the Big East tournament could be a death wish. They need one more win to officially get in after enjoying two byes.

Seton Hall (19-11, 8-10 Big East)

The Pirates currently have a better RPI than Cincy (60), but have that incredibly ugly six-game losing streak in the middle of the season that is hard to ignore. Their out-of-conference SOS of 48 is NCAA-worthy, but a loss to DePaul (196 RPI) is not.

The Pirates play Providence in the opening round of the Big East tournament and will have to not only beat the Friars, but also Louisville (29) in the second round to have a shot.

A third-round win against Marquette would seal the deal. I don’t like their chances to make it by all three.

West Virginia (19-12, 9-9 Big East)

Forward Kevin Jones was named Big East Player of the Week as he helped the Mountaineers record victories in two must-win games to keep their tournament hopes alive. Yet even with the two wins, they have gone 4-7 in their last 11 and hold only one win of note (Georgetown).

Their resume is very shaky and WVU needs a big week to land a ticket into the dance.

The Mountaineers were able to land the last first-round bye, which means they’ll need to beat the UConn/DePaul winner, then Syracuse to get a bid.

Beating the Huskies is one thing, but beating Syracuse on the other hand...

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