Sun Jan 31st Game - Villanova at St John's...

[NovaBall]

Nova should be able to handle pressure if other teams want to go that route. They have very good ball handlers. And I would prefer they get the opportunity for broken press plays rather than the half court offense they currently run.

[mpwalsh8]

No shit talking meant- personally Nova is my second favorite team because they've represented the new Big East better than anyone.

I thought it was a very ugly game all around. Nova had 20 turnovers. 20. And all it took was some pressure from SJU. Would be interesting if other Big East teams start pressuring Nova (if they haven't been already).

Villanova seemed out of sync the entire game. How muych of their performance can be attributed to missing Ochefu is unknown. I wonder when the players found out? Although it was under very different circumstances, Villanova's performance today was similar to Xavier's after Sumner went down. Now before anyone says Sumner's injury was scary because of how it happened in the game, my point is how Villanova played today was similar to how Xavier played after Sumner left the game.

[stever20]

No shit talking meant- personally Nova is my second favorite team because they've represented the new Big East better than anyone.

I thought it was a very ugly game all around. Nova had 20 turnovers. 20. And all it took was some pressure from SJU. Would be interesting if other Big East teams start pressuring Nova (if they haven't been already).

Villanova seemed out of sync the entire game. How muych of their performance can be attributed to missing Ochefu is unknown. I wonder when the players found out? Although it was under very different circumstances, Villanova's performance today was similar to Xavier's after Sumner went down. Now before anyone says Sumner's injury was scary because of how it happened in the game, my point is how Villanova played today was similar to how Xavier played after Sumner left the game.

I saw the injury happened on Friday at practice. So they probably had to have known yesterday he wasn't going to play.

[GumbyDamnit!]

IMO the expectation level for Nova in this conference is unrealistic. Not a pretty game but a 15 pt win on the road. Take it, remain in first place, and turn your focus to CU.

When X has a bad conf game it loses to Nova by 30, but they get a pass b/c of the Sumner injury. When PC has a clunker they lose at home to Marq., people give credit to Marq for playing a good game. If Nova's conf clunker is a 15 pt win on the road, without their Sr big man, I'll take it. And stop with the "a preview of March crap." That's a douchey comment.

23-1 in conf the last 24 games. I'll take that too.

[ChestRockwell85]

Should be a good crowd. Lots of villanova alumni live in New York. A sea of blue at Madison square garden today.

Didn't see much blue. Didn't hear much blue. And on the court, looks like Villanova is rounding into March form a little earlier than usual this year. Hope Xavier has it in them for a deep run come tournament time.

Not going to get into it but hoops22, you can't continue to throw comments like this out there and then get all bent out of shape when you get backlash from Villanova fans.

I was at the game. It was a very boring game. Happy Villanova won but not thrilled by their performance by any means. I guess not having Ochefu hurts more than we expected. St. John's gets a pass from me this year, and should from anybody who knows their situation. They are only going to get better.

[adoraz]

As I've said in other threads Nova doesn't deserve March shit talking from Big East fans for the simple fact that Nova carried this league in year 1 and did a lot of the lifting in year 2. Without Nova year 1 would've been a disaster.

That said, the reality is that everyone is looking towards March for Nova, regardless of how fair that is. That goes along with being an elite team. A 2 seed followed by a 1 seed is a pretty big deal and with our bracketology culture people are going to call out Nova when they don't live up to their ranking. I'm sure Nova fans are sick of it and I want nothing more than a solid March performance so it shuts people up. The perception around Nova is directly tied to the perception of the Big East.

Would also help immensely if another team can make a run.

[EMT]

BE needs Nova, X and PC to all be Top 4 teams and they need those teams to win their games as the higher seeds.

[hoops22]

Should be a good crowd. Lots of villanova alumni live in New York. A sea of blue at Madison square garden today.

Didn't see much blue. Didn't hear much blue. And on the court, looks like Villanova is rounding into March form a little earlier than usual this year. Hope Xavier has it in them for a deep run come tournament time.

Not going to get into it but hoops22, you can't continue to throw comments like this out there and then get all bent out of shape when you get backlash from Villanova fans.

I was at the game. It was a very boring game. Happy Villanova won but not thrilled by their performance by any means. I guess not having Ochefu hurts more than we expected. St. John's gets a pass from me this year, and should from anybody who knows their situation. They are only going to get better.

Then why don't you read all the comments from Nova ball the past few days. This is how it got going last time. We're not going to read this crap day after day without eventually responding. Shouldn't be hard for you to understand, since you don't seem to like it yourself when it comes your way.

[ChestRockwell85]

Fair enough, but before your comment I didn't see NovaBall post anything that I would consider negative towards St. John's, it was more complimentary of Villanova with some observations mixed in, "Nova driving and mid range shots = good results, Nova shooting threes = bad results". I didn't see him post anything that warranted the response you gave him.

Not looking to police the board. You can say what you want. I just didn't think it was necessary especially if you don't want Villanova fans firing back with something negative about St. John's.

[hoops22]

Fair enough, but before your comment I didn't see NovaBall post anything that I would consider negative towards St. John's, it was more complimentary of Villanova with some observations mixed in, "Nova driving and mid range shots = good results, Nova shooting threes = bad results". I didn't see him post anything that warranted the response you gave him.

Not looking to police the board. You can say what you want. I just didn't think it was necessary especially if you don't want Villanova fans firing back with something negative about St. John's.

Well just today he started a thread with the first line "St. John's isn't even pretending Mullin is coaching the team" because an assistant was speaking during a time out. This after the earlier nonsense we heard him say about Mullin last week. Then a few days ago he goes on with Nova is the biggest road favorite in BE history. Obviously no one has a spread sheet detailing point spreads for the past 30 years. He just throws that out there, pretending it's fact and looking to instigate. Then he says no casual fan will watch on TV to see Nova win by two dozen in an empty arena filled with the opposing teams fans. which once again he was wrong about I don't have the time to go back and read all his stuff but you get the idea.

Quite honestly, I don't think you guys will see the second weekend again this year. Normally i would keep that thought to myself on a BE board and not deliberately look to aggravate and incite Nova fans. But if Nova people choose to keep stirring the pot, then what the hell, I'll play along and join in too.