Remaining Big East Schedules/Baseball

[JoeB]

Here are the remaining conference schedules for each team in the Big East.  This counts the USF victory tonight over Seton Hall.  It will be very interesting for some teams, especially the ones on the bubble for that 8 seed.  Currently Cincinnati is in 8th place, but they have the toughest schedule remaining.  The current 9 seed is WVU, but they have the easiest schedule left.  Behind them are two teams that need to make up 3 games from earlier in the season.  A possible Big East Tournament berth could be at stake so I'm not sure what the conference will do with those games.    

St. John's (16-5)

(3) Cincinnati

(3) @USF

Rutgers (16-5)

(3) @ Pitt

(3) @ Villanova

Louisville (14-7)

(3) Notre Dame

(3) @ Cincinnati

Pitt (13-7)

(3) Rutgers

(3) Seton Hall

Notre Dame (10-10)

(3) @ Louisville

(3) UConn

USF (11-11)

(2) @Seton Hall

(3) St. John's

Villanova (9-12)

(3) @ Georgetown

(3) Rutgers

Cincinnati (8-12), currently 8th Place

(3) @ St. John's

(3)  Louisville

West Virginia (7-13)

(3) @ UConn

(3) Georgetown

UConn (6-12)

(3) West Virginia

(3) @ Notre Dame

Seton Hall (6-13)

(2) USF

(3) @ Pitt

Georgetown (6-15)

(3) Villanova

(3) @West Virginia

[JoeB]

I think the best USF can honestly shoot for is finishing fourth.  Our main goal right now is to secure that number 5 spot.  As it stands right now Pitt is in fourth place at 13-7 in conference.  If they go 3-3, that gives them 16 conference wins.  We'd have to win our remaining five games to match it.  Even if we outplay them the rest of the way, we would only switch spots (#4 or #5) for tournament seedings.  Our main goal right now is to finish above Notre Dame for the fifth spot.  We took two out of three earlier in the year versus Pitt, so we match up well against that team.  Everyone else would be a tougher opponent in my opinion.  We haven't played SJU, but we were swept by Rutgers in three games, and Louisville already took two out of three from USF, so those would be tough opening round games.  

Notre Dame has three very tough games this weekend versus Louisville and then three easy games at home to UConn.  If they go 3-3 they'd finish 13-13 in conference.  The tiebreaker, which favors USF, most likely will not come into effect between USF and ND as we'll play all of the games on our schedule, and ND will have one other game not played.   Most likely, USF will finish 14-13 or 13-14, so the tiebreaker becomes unnecessary at that point.

Of the other teams, its unlikely any of them will be able to match that many wins to catch up to USF.  Villanova is really the only one with a shot, as they have 3 with doormat Georgetown, but another 3 with power Rutgers.    

[JoeB]

My guesses for the Tournament Seeds:

1.  St. John's (21-6)

2.  Rutgers  (20-7)

3.  Louisville  (18-9)

4.  Pitt  (16-10)

5.  USF  (14-13)

6.  Notre Dame  (13-13)

7.  Villanova  (12-15)

8.  West Virginia  (11-15)

So, the games would be as follows:

#1 SJU vs #8 WVU

#2 RU vs #7 Villanova

#3 UL vs #6 Notre Dame

#4 Pitt vs #5 USF

Again, this is best case scenario for that first round game against Pitt.  If we can't secure that spot, then it looks like we'll play Louisville, or if we really falter Rutgers (a team we don't want any part of).  ND can really screw us though if we don't take care of SHU and SJU.

[JoeB]

St. John's and Rutgers both won tonight so both of them are 17-5 in conference now. Pitt and Cincinnati were the losers, so that is good for us.