A few thoughts on the BE.

* I am extremely impressed with Seton Hall. Powell is as good an all-round player as there is in the nation.

* Though it was a painful loss for Georgetown, Marquette earned it and I give full credit. Howard is a first-team AA. The Hoyas are battling but simply are missing a player or two to be .500 in BE play.

* Was (obviously) VERY relieved to see DePaul get its first league win. If (a major "if") the Demons can go 6-7 in the last 13 league games, that would give them a 19-12 (7-11) mark entering the tourney. DU would need at least two wins to have a decent shot at the Big Dance. That would make them 21-13. Not likely (particularly with a 7-11 BE record) but there would be hope for tourney invite.

* Marquette shows some potential to be 21-9 entering BE tourney play. This could be a strong team in time.

* The bottom is falling out for XU, which remains 44 in the RPI.

* Nova keeps winning — but in (on paper) a struggling manner. Still, with an elite coach, ... Final Four chance.

Some thoughts on other leagues not in the "conventional so-called comprehensive P5 leagues."

* The Atlantic 10 is having a damn good season. Duquesne is quietly fashioning an impressive record (though the overall schedule has been modest). Dayton (have seen highlights) seems Elite Eight material. And VCU, Richmond, Rhode Island and Saint Louis are all very good. I'm impressed.

* American. I can be very critical of the specific teams and leagues I follow. So maybe I'm being a bit harsh. But, bluntly, the AAC has underachieved a bit to date. But, and to GW11's point seemingly noting the A10 is a bit better than the AAC, every ranking system in the Massey Composite (for whatever it's worth) has the American ranked ahead of the A10. Could be, in large part, because the American's bottom third is not as bad as the A10s. I would not know. So the American is at No. 7 nationally in most ranking systems and Memphis, Houston and Wichita are all solid teams (though none looks Elite Eight-esque) and have a shot at the tourney. Don't sleep on Tulsa or SMU, either.

* The Mountain West is 10th in Massey Composite. San Diego State is carrying that league. MWC looks mediocre (at best).

* The WCC with four legitimate Top 100 team: Gonzaga, BYU, Saint Mary's and San Fran. Very impressive for a mid-major league (Note: I strongly consider Gonzaga a high-major program in a mid-major league).

* My Belmont Bruins (of the "powerful" OVC) are playing much better now but the level of competition they have faced has been horrid.

* Best team nobody knows is good: East Tennessee State?

And on a "power conference note": Big Ten has 12 legitimate Top 40-esque teams. Wow.

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

That is my hope.

The Hall is outstanding. And fun to watch.

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

Wednesday just a gigantic home game with Creighton. then St John's. Have to go 2-0 because next week @ Seton Hall and @ Marquette won't be easy at all...

(01-19-2020 06:22 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

That is my hope.

The Hall is outstanding. And fun to watch.

Yes, they are! It's unfortunate that our next game is at 8:30pm on Wednesday against Providence. Ticket sales seem to be lagging, but hopefully we have a big push this week to get folks to the game. I hope we make the top ten and our marketing folks blast out a barrage of emails and ads. Only a few limited opportunities in Newark to see a potential National POY candidate in person.

I thought yesterday was the kind of game that Seton Hall the last few years has lost- always leading to terrible seeds in the tourney....

(01-19-2020 06:25 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

Wednesday just a gigantic home game with Creighton. then St John's. Have to go 2-0 because next week @ Seton Hall and @ Marquette won't be easy at all...

Agree fully, S20.

(01-19-2020 06:28 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:22 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

That is my hope.

The Hall is outstanding. And fun to watch.

Yes, they are! It's unfortunate that our next game is at 8:30pm on Wednesday against Providence. Ticket sales seem to be lagging, but hopefully we have a big push this week to get folks to the game. I hope we make the top ten and our marketing folks blast out a barrage of emails and ads. Only a few limited opportunities in Newark to see a potential National POY candidate in person.

SH is clearly a Top 10 team.

And Powell...I've seen nobody any better this season.

(01-19-2020 07:00 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:28 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:22 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

That is my hope.

The Hall is outstanding. And fun to watch.

Yes, they are! It's unfortunate that our next game is at 8:30pm on Wednesday against Providence. Ticket sales seem to be lagging, but hopefully we have a big push this week to get folks to the game. I hope we make the top ten and our marketing folks blast out a barrage of emails and ads. Only a few limited opportunities in Newark to see a potential National POY candidate in person.

SH is clearly a Top 10 team.

And Powell...I've seen nobody any better this season.

I was just laughing at a few of his plays yesterday. That one where looked like he almost lost the ball and defender deflected it and he gets it back and drives in for the and one(the one where he flexed after the play).

(01-19-2020 07:24 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 07:00 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:28 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:22 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(01-19-2020 06:14 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  It will be interesting to see how DePaul fares after beating Butler. Maybe this will give them a morale and confidence boost.

That is my hope.

The Hall is outstanding. And fun to watch.

Yes, they are! It's unfortunate that our next game is at 8:30pm on Wednesday against Providence. Ticket sales seem to be lagging, but hopefully we have a big push this week to get folks to the game. I hope we make the top ten and our marketing folks blast out a barrage of emails and ads. Only a few limited opportunities in Newark to see a potential National POY candidate in person.

SH is clearly a Top 10 team.

And Powell...I've seen nobody any better this season.

I was just laughing at a few of his plays yesterday. That one where looked like he almost lost the ball and defender deflected it and he gets it back and drives in for the and one(the one where he flexed after the play).

That's just Myles Powell for you. Incredible player.

Just for the fun of it, I wanted to see how the teams' NET rankings changed since first release.

Team First release / Current / Change
Prov 146 / 79 / -67
SHU 55 / 12 / -43
MU 53 / 30 / -23
CU 56 / 33 / -23
Nova 24 / 17 / -7
XU 71 / 68 / -3
Butler 4 / 7 / +3
DePaul 43 / 51 / +8
SJU 65 / 76 / +11
GU 38 / 52 / +14

(01-20-2020 04:44 PM)MU in MKE Wrote:  Just for the fun of it, I wanted to see how the teams' NET rankings changed since first release.

Team First release / Current / Change
Prov 146 / 79 / -67
SHU 55 / 12 / -43
MU 53 / 30 / -23
CU 56 / 33 / -23
Nova 24 / 17 / -7
XU 71 / 68 / -3
Butler 4 / 7 / +3
DePaul 43 / 51 / +8
SJU 65 / 76 / +11
GU 38 / 52 / +14

Dramatic improvements for PC, SHU, MU, and CU. Great to see that.

The surprising thing to me is that Xavier hasn't fallen too much. X still has a chance to fashion a very good season but needs to improve quickly.

The Providence improvement is, indeed, dramatic.

My wildcard team at this point is Marquette. I could see the G-Eagles catching fire and doing some damage in the BE and NCAA tourneys.

(01-20-2020 09:19 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  The surprising thing to me is that Xavier hasn't fallen too much. X still has a chance to fashion a very good season but needs to improve quickly.

The Providence improvement is, indeed, dramatic.

My wildcard team at this point is Marquette. I could see the G-Eagles catching fire and doing some damage in the BE and NCAA tourneys.

Xavier had the big win @ TCU which helped them some prior to conference play after the NET got released....

They have fallen some from start of conference play. They were 53 so to be 68 now is down 15 from start of conference play.

here's the comp between Dec 28 and today
Butler 3/7 -4
Seton Hall 34/12 +22
Villanova 21/17 +4
Marquette 37/30 +7
Creighton 24/33 -9
Georgetown 31/52 -21
Xavier 53/68 -15
St John's 49/76 -27
DePaul 38/51 -13
Providence 123/79 +44
41.3 Dec 28
43.9 1/6
44.5 1/13
42.5 today

really big win for Marquette I think... Their projections for only 9 wins needed this one.

Should be able to keep top 30 even playing #76 tonight. St John's probably falls further back of top 75 though...

Some thoughts:

Congrats to Creighton on a convincing victory over DePaul.

The was the Blue Demons' worst game of the year — for many reasons (and not just the margin of defeat). Win and DU is at 2-4 in league play and still has an outside shot at a 9-9 BE record. Now DePaul is 1-5. Painful.

Though I didn't see the game, it seems Georgetown has run out of gas for this season. Congrats to Xavier (which critically needed that win).

The Hall remains in control.

Marquette at Butler on Friday ... big. The Bulldogs cannot afford a fourth straight BE loss.

Time to head the salt pit.

Enjoy your day, lads.

Butler lost 2nd/3rd guy off the bench to torn ACL. Going to change the rotation for them just a bit..... They've played the 2nd toughest SOS so far so a bit of a benefit as some of the tougher games done with.

(01-23-2020 10:04 AM)stever20 Wrote:  Butler lost 2nd/3rd guy off the bench to torn ACL. Going to change the rotation for them just a bit..... They've played the 2nd toughest SOS so far so a bit of a benefit as some of the tougher games done with.

I did not know so thanks for the update, S20.

Butler is facing a major "crossroads" of sorts.

Georgetown is officially toast

hopefully they can make it to the tourney in the next 2/3 years