Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez on difficulty of the Big East

Jeremy D Cothran By Jeremy D Cothran The Star-Ledger
on October 22, 2008 at 2:06 PM, updated October 22, 2008 at 6:38 PM

All 16 coaches would acknowledge how treacherous the Big East conference is. There's the chance to beat a Pitt or UConn one night, and then lose to Rutgers or Providence the next. Essentially, according to Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez, it's like a gambler trying to take on Vegas.

"To move up, overall, in the standings, with an 18-game league schedule, to give you an analogy, it would like being the house in gambling in Vegas," Gonzalez said. "You may win some money on a given day, but to go overall on daily basis and win consistently, it's not in anyone's best interest. That's why they keep building new casinos... At the end of the day, the house wins overall. Seriously. I'm just being honest. In order to upset the order of things, the odds are against you. They're against the Seton Halls and the Providences."

Whew. Now I understand why everyone at media day makes sure to congregate around Gonzalez's table. He points out that in this league, there are just too many good coaches to fool everyone on a nightly basis.

"It's not that they're not necessarily bad teams at the end of the year -- they're just teams with bad records," Gonzalez said.

So how do the teams like Seton Hall get better? Well, Gonzalez said he's already making the inroads in recruiting. He also has two highly-regarded transfer players coming in next year. So his goal is to start beating some of the upper-echelon teams in the conference, making the NCAA Tournament, and then he can start convincing more top recruits in the NJ/NYC region to stay at home.

"It's the chicken and egg thing," Gonzalez said. "You have to get players and win. And if you win, you might be able to convince one of those (top) players to take a chance on you. But you also have to get your players to win."

Gonzalez said the NYC recruiting landscape has changed since the Big East has spread into the Midwest. Now teams like Marquette and Louisville can swoop into the city and convince the prep stars in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx to play hours from home. The pitch is that they can get out of the city, yet still play local teams in conference and the Big East Tournament (at Madison Square Garden).

"You have to make somebody believe in something they can't see, tangibly," Gonzalez said.

So Gonzalez's spiel to recruits now is that he can give them minutes or exposure, which will help them land a professional job. But he wants to be able to sell them on a winning program as well.