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So DePaul +7 at halftime 40-33. DePaul has a chance to get off to a pretty good start- after today next 4 are @ Seton Hall, but then Providence, @ Marquette, and @ St John's.

The league needs to have competitive programs in both St. Johns (New York) and DePaul (Chicago). Glad to see a competitive game between them today.

The current Ken Pom projected standings would be brutal for the league trying to get a lot of bids...
Villanova 15-3
Xavier 12-6
Butler 11-7
Creighton 11-7
Marquette 9-9
Seton Hall 8-10
St John's 7-11
Georgetown 7-11
Providence 7-11
DePaul 2-16

Marquette at 9-9 would be extremely dicey. Only 18-13 record. And Seton Hall would be at 18-12 really in trouble as well.

as we enter now tonight- here's the standings and current RPI/Ken Pom rating for all 10 teams:
Villanova 2-0 14-0 #1/3
Xavier 2-0 12-2 #4/17
St John's 2-0 8-7 #157/90
Creighton 1-1 13-1 #7/23
Butler 1-1 12-2 #12/16
Seton Hall 1-1 11-3 #28/53
Marquette 1-1 10-4 #82/36
Providence 0-2 10-5 #53/69
Georgetown 0-2 8-6 #75/54
DePaul 0-2 7-8 #216/177

this week early schedule
Wed
6:30 Villanova @ Butler
7:00 Georgetown @ Providence
8:30 Creighton @ St John's
off- DePaul, Seton Hall, Xavier, Marquette

HUGE one for Providence IMO- pretty darn close to a must win.

well Xavier with a pretty disappointing loss to Cincy tonight. They're now only 14-6 and while they are still good rating wise, they're seeing their seed line drop continually.

It looks like the only 2 teams that will be the source of marquis wins will be Nova and Butler.

Following the Villanova/Virginia game, the Big East finishes up with a 28-18 record against the Power 5 football conferences.

The bad news. Creighton and Xavier have recently lost their starting point guards to season ending injuries.

to me a far more impressive thing is records vs top 10 RPI conferences right now
1 Big East 41-22 .651
2 Big 12 34-22 .607
3 ACC 47-31 .603
4 Big Ten 40-36 .526
5 Pac 12 36-33 .522
6 WCC 18-22 .450
7 SEC 33-43 .434
8 AAC 22-30 .423
9 MWC 16-28 .364
10 A10 18-38 .321

so with tonight over.....
top 4 teams losses to 4 bubble teams- 4 of them
Nova @ Marquette
Butler vs Georgetown
Creighton vs Marquette
Creighton @ Georgetown

2 teams that had no shot for at large- wins vs 4 bubble teams-3
DePaul vs Providence
St John's @ Providence
St Johns vs Marquette

so the bubble teams haven't gotten much at all from the top 4 teams, but have given up games to the teams that were out....

in another way of looking....
Marquette- 2 wins vs top 4 team(2-2), 2-2 vs bubble 4 teams, 1-1 vs bottom 2 teams
Georgetown- 2 wins vs top 4 teams(2-3), 0-3 vs bubble 4 teams, 2-0 vs bottom 2 teams
Seton Hall- 0 wins vs top 4 teams(0-4), 1-2 vs bubble 4 teams, 2-0 vs bottom 2 teams
Providence- 0 wins vs top 4 teams(0-5), 4-0 vs bubble 4 teams, 0-2 vs bottom 2 teams

you can't make up the Providence line now can you? it's a line perfect for killing bids for the conference.

I think PC does have the ability to be the spoiler I can see them having a win against someone like Creighton Butler or Xavier and then getting beat by DePaul again

Preseason Coaches Poll
1) Villanova
2) Xavier
3) Creighton
4) Georgetown
5) Seton Hall
6) Butler
7) Marquette
8) St. John's
9) Providence
10) DePaul

Final Standings
1) Villanova
2) Butler
3) Creighton
4) Seton Hall
5) Providence
6) Marquette
7) Xavier
8) St. John's
9) Georgetown
10) DePaul

The fall of Xavier this year is one of the more remarkable things I've seen in some time. I know injuries happen, but they have fallen totally off. And really even early, it never seemed like this year was going like how you would think(remember the Missouri game really early being a 1 point OT game).

Losing Sumner was huge. Between that and Watson from Creighton, some teams had it bad this year with injuries. However, those injuries probably allowed the probable seven teams from the Big East to make the tournament (which is absolutely amazing for the league).

Xavier will be fine. They have really strong recruiting class coming in, along with an experienced team coming back next year.

The conference is really proving to be better than I thought it would be. It has become a real grind every night. The injuries really hurt X and CU, probably helping MU the most (4-0 against X and CU after the injuries). To potentially have 70% of the conference in the tournament after everything that has happened is amazing.

I think the only question in getting 7 in is will the committee view those wins vs Xavier and Creighton in a really diminished way? If so, Marquette, Seton Hall, and Providence won't get the credit they otherwise would have-and that could prove devastating... And actually Xavier in their win over Creighton(which is probably keeping them in the tourney right now).

(03-06-2017 12:23 PM)stever20 Wrote: [ -> ]I think the only question in getting 7 in is will the committee view those wins vs Xavier and Creighton in a really diminished way? If so, Marquette, Seton Hall, and Providence won't get the credit they otherwise would have-and that could prove devastating... And actually Xavier in their win over Creighton(which is probably keeping them in the tourney right now).

If the committee views CU and XU as at large candidates as currently constructed, then the wins are should still be viewed as top 50 wins. CU does have a win over Butler after the injury, which should help them.