(5) Sat. BE Games 2/11/17

[MUPanther]

11:30AM- Marquette at Georgetown, FOX -Tim Brando, Stephen Bardo, Lisa Byington (reporter)

12pm- Seton Hall @ St. John's, CBSSN-- Rich Waltz, Doug Gottlieb and sideline reporter Jon Rothstein

2PM- Creighton @ DePaul, FS1- Jeff Levering, Dickey Simpkins

2:30PM- Villanova @ Xavier, FOX- Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson, Shannon Spake

4:00PM- Butler @ Providence, CBSSN- Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas & Jamie Erdahl

[stever20]

The Georgetown game is a noon start, not 11:30.

close to must wins for Marquette, Georgetown, Seton Hall, and Providence.

And a huge game with Nova and Xavier. Xavier needs to get themselves out of that 6-7 range. Nova needs to keep winning to stay up as a 1 seed(and possibly 1 overall).

[GumbyDamnit!]

Marq - G'town huge with tournament bubble implications.

Nova - X game is huge with regular season league championship implications. I think a VU win more or less clinches the league title for Nova IMO. I think it might be tough to expect Creighton or Butler to make up 2 games with each of them still having to come to the Pavillion. I expect the Cintas to be a-rockin'. Expect to see Mikal Bridges draped all over Trevon Blueitt. Should be a lot of fun.

My prediction:
David West's Team - 71
Doug West's Crew - 73

Expecting Butler and Creighton to hold serve. SHU needs this one badly but I fear SJU might bite them.

[xavierfano8]

My biggest worry is Villanova's pressure defense. Obviously the whole world saw the struggles at the end of the Creighton game, and even in the Depaul game they struggled at times. Macura and Bernard combined for 9 turnovers against Depaul and if that happens Saturday I don't think the game will be all that close.

[stever20]

so kind of a 1.a to the games tomorrow is where do folks think BE teams will be in the bracket pre-reveal?

I'd probably say Nova as a 1 seed obviously.

the others will be very telling as to how this committee will be....
Creighton- 17 RPI 24 KP
Butler- 8 RPI 23 KP
Xavier- 12 RPI 29 KP

It's possible none of the 3 are top 4 seeds if they are looking heavily at advanced metrics. The more they use the RPI the better it is for the BE teams(even Nova who is #5 in KP).

[Hall2012]

Seton Hall's in a really tough spot right now and I'm unfortunately expecting St. John's to take advantage and kill their NCAA Tournament hopes. With the Thomas transfer and Ish injury, the Pirates have a very short bench with only 9 scholarship players and 6 rotation players (though they'll stretch the rotation to 7 with Gordon) available. On top of that, several players (including Desi) are battling the flu and they're coming off of back to back overtime games. Their opponent, meanwhile, is generally healthy, seeking revenge from the first meeting, and should be full of confidence as they're currently playing their best ball of the year.

Hopefully the Pirates can dig deep and pull this one out, but they're really going to have to battle to do so.

[stever20]

Seton Hall's in a really tough spot right now and I'm unfortunately expecting St. John's to take advantage and kill their NCAA Tournament hopes. With the Thomas transfer and Ish injury, the Pirates have a very short bench with only 9 scholarship players and 6 rotation players (though they'll stretch the rotation to 7 with Gordon) available. On top of that, several players (including Desi) are battling the flu and they're coming off of back to back overtime games. Their opponent, meanwhile, is generally healthy, seeking revenge from the first meeting, and should be full of confidence as they're currently playing their best ball of the year.

Hopefully the Pirates can dig deep and pull this one out, but they're really going to have to battle to do so.

everything you said but there is also the fact that St John's has been off since last Saturday, so they're going to be really fresh.

[NJRedman]

Goooooo Johnnies!!!

[scoscox]

I generally like how we match up with Nova. Can't have our perimeter players get dominated like they did @ Nova. Need much better games from JP, Tre, and Q obviously needs to hold his own against Brunson. The Brunson-Goodin matchup will be fun. Hope we really attack the paint.

[NJRedman]

I'm calling a SJU upset tomorrow. 89-75