That's nothing to get thrilled about . Get back to me when they win a National championship like they did in 1977 with AL Mcguire as the coach. These days the country doesn't really get into college basketball until March madness. Jesuit should stick to academics.
If they get a tourney bid half of the time, that's a nice payout to the AD. Does the Big East still regularly get at large selections or are they a single-bid conference now like the Sun Belt or Big West?
The Big East is a power conference in basketball. Since realignment (2013-2014), they've been getting in ~half of their teams into the tournament each season. Villanova won two national championships & went to the Final 4 last year. Providence/Creighton/Xavier have all been terrific. They led conference RPI in 2019-2020 & have roughly been the 2nd/3rd best basketball conference the last decade. B12 is 1. B10 & BE for 2/3. BE has been better than the ACC/SEC/PAC12. They're still selling out MSG for the BET. Four teams in the top-25 rn. Another receiving votes. 5 or 6 bids this year.
Part of this sentiment is probably because of the tv deals. Most casuals are getting their sports info from ESPN. BE is on Fox Sports. You have to seek it out a little bit more. ESPN doesn't mention their teams. Must have been a surprise for some people to see Villanova cut the nets down twice. The conference is a lot of fun in its current state. The football schools chased the money and it's all basketball centric sports schools left.
With an 86% acceptance rate, Marquette is most people's 3rd choice safety school, at best. UW-Milwaukee has a slightly higher acceptance rate, at 89%, but an abysmal graduation rate in comparison. As mu alum pointed out, it became a landing spot for wealthy kids who couldn't get into the Ivies, UCs, Northwestern, Michigan, Notre Dame, UW-Madison, or even Grinnell.
One of those pay your fees and get your B's kind of schools. Ever hear of Tulane Harvard on the bayou.
I'm relatively sure MU would rarely, if ever, win the WIAC, even with scholarships... it's not that big of a draw for even talent within the state. Last year, UW-Whitewater had 3 guys that would've made MU's top 10 all-time list in every distance event from 3k-10k.
It's got a name that makes people feel good about saying they ran D1 as the basketball team is recognizable and gives false credence that the track team/cross teams must be of similar caliber.
If people enjoy running there, that's great and I hope they would continue to do so, but I doubt removing scholarships will somehow dent the programs current ability to content for conference titles and regional standings.
Doc - that was the profile from my high school in very far N. Illinois - wed did send quite a few to Marquette and frankly those students generally had good outcomes. The town was well off, so paying for it was generally not an issue. I would add University of Illinois to your list - still a very good value and an excellent school.
Whitewater is a terrible school. The average ACT is 22 and the cost is very low. Of course they are better than Marquette which is a solid school that costs 3 times as much as Whitewater.
Whitewater is a terrible school. The average ACT is 22 and the cost is very low. Of course they are better than Marquette which is a solid school that costs 3 times as much as Whitewater.
So a mid-major D1 school with scholarships and a roster filled with people from across the country that's maybe the 3rd or 4th best team in the UW d3 conference made up of mostly all Wisconsinites is expected, because of ACT scores and tuition cost?
The point was that their probably the same team without scholarships as they are with them... mediocre at best.