(09-27-2013 08:17 AM)stever20 Wrote:  I don't see them better than Georgetown/Villanova/Creighton/Marquette. Definitely not Georgetown/Creigton/Marquette.

For Providence to be 10-8 even- They would have to sweep Xavier, Butler, Seton Hall, and DePaul- and then win 2 games against Georgetown/Villanova/Creighton/Marquette/St John's. I sure don't see a sweep of those other 4 teams, so probably would have to be getting 4-5 wins against the top 5. That's a lot.

Bottom line as well, there will be a 6th place team that is 9-9. The teams that it's possible for- St John's, Providence,Villanova- their OOC schedules aren't great. Even Villanova. ESPN had them at 8/10- but in their blurb about it- that's more about how tough mentally the games are than how tough they are on paper. Computers won't care that St Joe's or Penn are Big 5 teams. To me, the St John's schedule is at least as tough in reality, and they gave them only a 6. Think that's more realistic for what the impact on the RPI would be. Esp if Temple and La Salle fall some this season.

What has you in love with Marquette? They lost 4 of their top 6 players including one who was their leading scorer, another who was their leading rebounder, and a 3rd who was their assists and steals leader. They have a good recruiting class but not a single top 25 player who's going to step right in and be an instant star.

I think that Georgetown will be very good, may win the league. But they're going to have to do it without a guy whom some thought was the best player in the country. Replacing him leaves a big question mark. And there's now no Whittington.

For Creighton, it's not the MVC any more. I think they'll be top 3 in the BE. But I may be wrong. They're going to have to prove that they can step up a level in competition and still be as good as they were.

PC finished ahead of St. John's last year and they may again. I don't think so, but I don't see how you can be so sure about any of this. There will be lots of close games and upsets along the way.

Marquette is the weakest candidate in the bunch. They're facing a serious rebuilding year.

Notre Dame showed up today at #30.

CBS had their predictions today and all of their panelists have Marquette winning the conference...

they all have Providence in that 7-8 range, except for Jon Rothstein who has them #5(he has Creighton #7).

doing a 10-1 vote total
Marquette 60
Georgetown 49
Creighton 46
Nova 40
St John's 40
Xavier 36
Providence 25
Butler 19
Seton Hall 14
DePaul 10

Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  CBS had their predictions today and all of their panelists have Marquette winning the conference...

they all have Providence in that 7-8 range, except for Jon Rothstein who has them #5(he has Creighton #7).

doing a 10-1 vote total
Marquette 60
Georgetown 49
Creighton 46
Nova 40
St John's 40
Xavier 36
Providence 25
Butler 19
Seton Hall 14
DePaul 10

Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I don't get the love for Marquette. They lost 3 starters including their leading scorer, their leading rebounder, and their assists & steals leader. They're bringing in a very good recruiting class, but there are no McDonald's All Americans in the group, mo one who is likely to step up as a freshman and make a major impact.

Help me out with this one, Steve, what a, I missing here?

Georgetown loses Porter but everyone else is back and their roster is full of 4-5 star recruits. Same with Villanova and St. John's. It's not like Marquette has more or better talent than those guys. In fact, they don't. And a number of their best players are new recruits.

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I like Providence better than Xavier. Everyone's back except PG Victor Council. That's a big chip to lose except that they have former 5-star recruit, sophomore Kris Dunn ready to step up and take his place. They have also upgraded their talent quotient by adding 4-star recruit Brandon Austin and transfer Carson Desrosiers, another 4-star recruit when he came out of high school.

Providence proved themselves against Big East competition by winning 9 games & tying Cincinnati for 9th place despite losing twice to UConn in OT. If their added experience can turn losses like those into wins, their 9-9 conference record goes to 11-7 or better.

Xavier OTOH is taking a step up in class and this could be an adjustment year for them as they get used to facing an opponent that can beat them just about every night in conference play.

(09-30-2013 08:21 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I like Providence better than Xavier. Everyone's back except PG Victor Council. That's a big chip to lose except that they have former 5-star recruit, sophomore Kris Dunn ready to step up and take his place. They have also upgraded their talent quotient by adding 4-star recruit Brandon Austin and transfer Carson Desrosiers, another 4-star recruit when he came out of high school.

Providence proved themselves against Big East competition by winning 9 games & tying Cincinnati for 9th place despite losing twice to UConn in OT. If their added experience can turn losses like those into wins, their 9-9 conference record goes to 11-7 or better.

Xavier OTOH is taking a step up in class and this could be an adjustment year for them as they get used to facing an opponent that can beat them just about every night in conference play.

losing a starting point guard is a huge difference. You can have someone who you think can handle it, but until the bullets fly for real deep in conference play, it's not a known quantity.

What I was saying about Xavier is with their OOC schedule, they would be a team that would have a real shot to make the tourney if they finished 6th.

(09-30-2013 08:56 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 08:21 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I like Providence better than Xavier. Everyone's back except PG Victor Council. That's a big chip to lose except that they have former 5-star recruit, sophomore Kris Dunn ready to step up and take his place. They have also upgraded their talent quotient by adding 4-star recruit Brandon Austin and transfer Carson Desrosiers, another 4-star recruit when he came out of high school.

Providence proved themselves against Big East competition by winning 9 games & tying Cincinnati for 9th place despite losing twice to UConn in OT. If their added experience can turn losses like those into wins, their 9-9 conference record goes to 11-7 or better.

Xavier OTOH is taking a step up in class and this could be an adjustment year for them as they get used to facing an opponent that can beat them just about every night in conference play.

losing a starting point guard is a huge difference. You can have someone who you think can handle it, but until the bullets fly for real deep in conference play, it's not a known quantity.

What I was saying about Xavier is with their OOC schedule, they would be a team that would have a real shot to make the tourney if they finished 6th.

I get your point on the OOC schedule.

I agree on the loss of a PG, which is huge in college basketball. That's a factor in my questioning the ability of Matquette to recover from their losses. In the case of PC, they have Kris Dunn, a 5 star recruit last year, with his rookie season now under his bel all ready to take over forCouncil.

(09-30-2013 08:03 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  CBS had their predictions today and all of their panelists have Marquette winning the conference...

they all have Providence in that 7-8 range, except for Jon Rothstein who has them #5(he has Creighton #7).

doing a 10-1 vote total
Marquette 60
Georgetown 49
Creighton 46
Nova 40
St John's 40
Xavier 36
Providence 25
Butler 19
Seton Hall 14
DePaul 10

Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I don't get the love for Marquette. They lost 3 starters including their leading scorer, their leading rebounder, and their assists & steals leader. They're bringing in a very good recruiting class, but there are no McDonald's All Americans in the group, mo one who is likely to step up as a freshman and make a major impact.

Help me out with this one, Steve, what a, I missing here?

Georgetown loses Porter but everyone else is back and their roster is full of 4-5 star recruits. Same with Villanova and St. John's. It's not like Marquette has more or better talent than those guys. In fact, they don't. And a number of their best players are new recruits.

Pretty sure they lost their two best players the year before with no McDonalds all americans and still won the regular season title. Buzz just does that with his teams.

(10-01-2013 01:14 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 08:03 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  CBS had their predictions today and all of their panelists have Marquette winning the conference...

they all have Providence in that 7-8 range, except for Jon Rothstein who has them #5(he has Creighton #7).

doing a 10-1 vote total
Marquette 60
Georgetown 49
Creighton 46
Nova 40
St John's 40
Xavier 36
Providence 25
Butler 19
Seton Hall 14
DePaul 10

Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I don't get the love for Marquette. They lost 3 starters including their leading scorer, their leading rebounder, and their assists & steals leader. They're bringing in a very good recruiting class, but there are no McDonald's All Americans in the group, mo one who is likely to step up as a freshman and make a major impact.

Help me out with this one, Steve, what a, I missing here?

Georgetown loses Porter but everyone else is back and their roster is full of 4-5 star recruits. Same with Villanova and St. John's. It's not like Marquette has more or better talent than those guys. In fact, they don't. And a number of their best players are new recruits.

Pretty sure they lost their two best players the year before with no McDonalds all americans and still won the regular season title. Buzz just does that with his teams.

If that's their thinking and they assume that they can just dial it in every year, they're setting themselves up for a big let down

(10-01-2013 07:15 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(10-01-2013 01:14 PM)NJRedMan Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 08:03 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(09-30-2013 05:51 PM)stever20 Wrote:  CBS had their predictions today and all of their panelists have Marquette winning the conference...

they all have Providence in that 7-8 range, except for Jon Rothstein who has them #5(he has Creighton #7).

doing a 10-1 vote total
Marquette 60
Georgetown 49
Creighton 46
Nova 40
St John's 40
Xavier 36
Providence 25
Butler 19
Seton Hall 14
DePaul 10

Xavier would be a great team to finish 6th to have a shot at making the tourney. Maybe the best outside of Georgetown or Marquette...

I don't get the love for Marquette. They lost 3 starters including their leading scorer, their leading rebounder, and their assists & steals leader. They're bringing in a very good recruiting class, but there are no McDonald's All Americans in the group, mo one who is likely to step up as a freshman and make a major impact.

Help me out with this one, Steve, what a, I missing here?

Georgetown loses Porter but everyone else is back and their roster is full of 4-5 star recruits. Same with Villanova and St. John's. It's not like Marquette has more or better talent than those guys. In fact, they don't. And a number of their best players are new recruits.

Pretty sure they lost their two best players the year before with no McDonalds all americans and still won the regular season title. Buzz just does that with his teams.

If that's their thinking and they assume that they can just dial it in every year, they're setting themselves up for a big let down

No, they just do it that way. Next man up. People call for them to have a down year every year and under Buzz they just seem to keep chugging along at a high level. Before last season no one thought vander Blue would be good enough to replace the two NBA draft picks they lost and called for them to have a down year. They obviously didn't and Blue and the rest succeeded. A Marquette poster could give you more details but from an outsider they don't seem to miss a beat when star players leave even if they don't have any McD's all americans coming in.

St Louis showed up at #28 today. If they can live up to that billing, it will go a long way toward strengthening their candidacy for BE expansion.

Well, Billiken fans have something else to talk about now.

I'll be rooting for St Louis over the next couple years. If the Big East decides to expand, it'll make the #11 choice a pretty easy decision if St Louis is finishing near the top of the A10.

Indiana came in today at #26, which means that Georgetown, Creighton, and Marquette will all be in the top 25.

Georgetown in at #25. Gonzaga in at #22. Looks like VCU has a shot at the top 20. Wichita State is still on the boards also. Did Dayton or Richmond even make the list?

Also, FYI, VCU's 2014 recruiting class is currently listed in the top 10 by ESPN. So much for Shaka jumping ship any time soon.

This decision should really be a no-brainer for the Big East if you truly want the best basketball league possible.

(10-11-2013 09:03 AM)Wolfpack Ram Wrote:  Georgetown in at #25. Gonzaga in at #22. Looks like VCU has a shot at the top 20. Wichita State is still on the boards also. Did Dayton or Richmond even make the list?

Also, FYI, VCU's 2014 recruiting class is currently listed in the top 10 by ESPN. So much for Shaka jumping ship any time soon.

This decision should really be a no-brainer for the Big East if you truly want the best basketball league possible.

Neither Dayton nor Richmond made the list.

Completely agree that VCU is a no brainer.

(10-03-2013 05:34 PM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  St Louis showed up at #28 today. If they can live up to that billing, it will go a long way toward strengthening their candidacy for BE expansion.

I thought we'd be quite a bit better than that...but at least it's 28 and not 208.

Creighton came in today at #19, a 5 seed and 2nd in the Big East. This means that Marquette is being picked for the top spot in the conference.

Marquette comes in at #16 and VCU comes in at #15.

Too bad VCU's only shot at playing a Big East school this year is possibly in Puerto Rico against Georgetown. VCU would have to beat Florida State and Michigan to play Georgetown - assuming Georgetown even makes the finals. Otherwise, there is a possibility they could meet in the loser's bracket. Georgetown clearly has the easier road to the finals though with Northeastern, Charlotte and Kansas St. on their side of the bracket. It's unfortunate that the best two teams (VCU & Michigan) will probably end up playing each other in the semi-finals as they are both in the same bracket.

Hopefully we get the opportunity to go 3-0 all-time against Georgetown. FYI, both games previously were elimination games and VCU landed the punch both times.

Haha Wolfpack, you don't need to sell too hard here. No one on this board is making decisions when it comes to realignment.