F'ing G'Town

[sciencejay]

Novaball,

You seem upset about teams who don't play well early in the year but then play better later. As if the teams that play well OOC (~40% of a team's games during the season) should be fast-forwarded to some rightful position in the tourney. This is college basketball--a game played by 18-22 year olds on teams whose rosters change (sometimes very significantly) year to year. It can't be novel that teams improve over the course of the year? Certainly teams build chemistry during the course of the season. Coaches spend the OOC trying to identify lineups that perform well together and a set of lineups that gives the team its best chance to win games. Sometimes starters get benched, not because they are playing poorly, but because coming off the bench makes the second unit more productive and therefore the team can have more success. Scrimmaging against yourselves in October with several new players in the mix doesn't frequently provide all the answers to a successful season.

Teams that improve during the season are doing what every coach says he/she wants out of his/her team--to get better each and every game. Why is that so upsetting? And other than seeding (that obviously drops off with random losses during the conference season for teams that excelled during OOC), what evidence is there that losing a game or two affects a team's performance in March? Usually coaches say retrospectively that a loss or two helped them re-sell their team on a commitment to working hard and focusing on the team's strategies and goals, making them better in the long run.

Teams that excel during OOC also need to get better each and every game. If they don't, they risk getting beat. It's not on Creighton, Marquette or G'Town that they've won games recently against teams "they shouldn't have". It's on P, X and SH.

[handdownmandown]

Novaball has appointed himself as the oracle of what is good and what's bad for the conference. Two weeks ago he was throttling PC for losing to Marquette, and was on the Hall board during the Creighton game, where beginning when CU went on their first half run he had like 7 posts, all of which were essentially 'holy hell, what is wrong with you people? You realize you are ruining everything and you haven't changed a bit, don't you'? On their own board! Now he has done a 180 and decided that the best thing for the league is to get two 1 seeds, even if it cannibalizes two bids and we only wind up with 4.

For the life of me I don't understand why a Hall poster didn't verbally stuff him in a cannon and fire him into orbit for that stunt. He wouldn't have gotten past one post on the Underground.

The thing is this: whether it is better for the conference to get two 1 seeds or six (or seven) teams in will all depend on what those teams did once they got there, so making a decision like he has and browbeating everyone for failing to follow the script is both silly and tiresome.

For those reasons I hope like hell SHU wins and Hall fans come from hither and yon to remind him how Nova is screwing the pooch for the conference by losing games like that.

[ChestRockwell85]

Novaball has appointed himself as the oracle of what is good and what's bad for the conference. Two weeks ago he was throttling PC for losing to Marquette, and was on the Hall board during the Creighton game, where beginning when CU went on their first half run he had like 7 posts, all of which were essentially 'holy hell, what is wrong with you people? You realize you are ruining everything and you haven't changed a bit, don't you'? On their own board! Now he has done a 180 and decided that the best thing for the league is to get two 1 seeds, even if it cannibalizes two bids and we only wind up with 4.

For the life of me I don't understand why a Hall poster didn't verbally stuff him in a cannon and fire him into orbit for that stunt. He wouldn't have gotten past one post on the Underground.

The thing is this: whether it is better for the conference to get two 1 seeds or six (or seven) teams in will all depend on what those teams did once they got there, so making a decision like he has and browbeating everyone for failing to follow the script is both silly and tiresome.

For those reasons I hope like hell SHU wins and Hall fans come from hither and yon to remind him how Nova is screwing the pooch for the conference by losing games like that.

Villanova's board is VUSports.com. Our free message board (Bench Warmers) has become a little ridiculous in recent years, but back a few years ago it really was good. You really had some intelligent conversations going on there. With that being said, the moderators on VUSports.com, unless you are posting something that was completely off the wall would never ban posters. I love the board because of that.

I remember once on Rutgers board I was banned because a Rutgers fan asked did anybody who did anything great ever graduate from Villanova. I honestly did not flame AT ALL. All I did was post a list of people who graduated from Villanova who have made contributions (actors, military, CEOs, etc.) and I was banned. It was honestly the most bush league thing I have ever seen in my life. Moderators should certainly keep things under control, but to police the board to the point where anything that is posted that might upset somebody leads you to being banned is friggin' Kindergarten.

I don't go on the St. Joseph's (PA) Hawk board anymore because the "rivalry" has been so one-sided for so long, but that moderator used to shut the whole board down completely after a loss so that even St. Joe's (PA) fans weren't able to vent their frustrations.

I understand NovaBall stirs the pot, but at least he is backing up a lot of what he says with facts. He is clearly knowledgeable about the Big East and college hoops, but to call for him to be banned (and I know you aren't talking about banning him on this board), is a little ridiculous.

[NovaBall]

What's the Underground?

Might be worth a visit.

[Wizard of Westroads]

What's the Underground?

Might be worth a visit.

Oh, never mind.

[jfan]

What's the Underground?

Might be worth a visit.

Oh, never mind.

You're scaring us now. Do we have to promise to lose the rest of our games!? What will we tell gtmo

[NovaBall]

Hey, I'm a Creighton fan. When you okay DePaul and St. John's I root heavily for you.

If I thought you had a shot at the dance, I would root for you in other games too.

[XtoDC]

If you used NovaBall's logic of how team's perform OOC determining how well they deserve to do in conference and his other logic of attacking a poster's favorite team even if it has nothing to do with their post... Villanova's best OOC win is what, St. Joseph's?

To be clear, that would be insane to suggest. A big reason every team is so happy to be in the Big East is because you don't have to have a dynamite OOC in order to make or get a great seed in the tournament. You can earn good wins in the league that will propel you to the tourney, much more easily than would have been possible in the alternate universe where are our teams are in the A-10, MVC, and some bastardized Big East/ C-USA/ AAC hybrid league.

Everyone gets frustrated with Georgetown when they beat Xavier, not because they beat Xavier, but because of how well they played. Everyone is frustrated with Georgetown because Georgetown earned that win and it should have been a battle of top 25 teams, not something that could possibly be considered a bad loss. Georgetown can really start to change people's opinions about them and their season on this board if they go out and beat UConn, otherwise it is back to being a team fighting to get to the play in game hurting other team's tourney chances and seeds.

[gtmoBlue]

Some of youse folks may become frustrated with the "dinger teams"...G'twn and Creighton. I suspect that both will continue winning versus the BE field.

[stever20]

If you used NovaBall's logic of how team's perform OOC determining how well they deserve to do in conference and his other logic of attacking a poster's favorite team even if it has nothing to do with their post... Villanova's best OOC win is what, St. Joseph's?

To be clear, that would be insane to suggest. A big reason every team is so happy to be in the Big East is because you don't have to have a dynamite OOC in order to make or get a great seed in the tournament. You can earn good wins in the league that will propel you to the tourney, much more easily than would have been possible in the alternate universe where are our teams are in the A-10, MVC, and some bastardized Big East/ C-USA/ AAC hybrid league.

Everyone gets frustrated with Georgetown when they beat Xavier, not because they beat Xavier, but because of how well they played. Everyone is frustrated with Georgetown because Georgetown earned that win and it should have been a battle of top 25 teams, not something that could possibly be considered a bad loss. Georgetown can really start to change people's opinions about them and their season on this board if they go out and beat UConn, otherwise it is back to being a team fighting to get to the play in game hurting other team's tourney chances and seeds.

One thing to remember about Georgetown- by Ken Pom's ratings- UConn is the 3rd best team Georgetown has left on their schedule. Only Nova and Xavier are tougher by that measure. By Sagarin ratings, only Butler is added better than UConn. A loss on Saturday wouldn't be the death knell that you may think. Similarly a win on Saturday doesn't get us in the tourney(but it sure as heck helps!)