(5) Saturday Games - Dec 16th 2017...

[Demon22]

DePaul shoots 9-of-24 from the FT line, and loses by two.

My therapist is not gonna be happy about having to work the week before Christmas.

[ecasadoSBU]

DePaul doing DePaul things. Lose the game 62-60 on a missed layup. Like really. you can't get a layout in to send it to overtime? damn...

You could build 20 new areas for DePaul and they'll remain the same ole DePaul

Thank you Xavier for getting the only win of this Saturday slate

[thebigeXpress]

Not overjoyed about the games today but I'm glad we pulled this one out from the mouths of defeat. I just never understood teams trying to kill the clock and slow the game down when they're up big. I knew we had a chance when ETSU slowed the game and were trying to take the air out of the ball. Whatever happened to keep doing what got you there.

[Jet915]

Tough day for Big East, only consolation is that there were a lot of upsets today in general.

[stever20]

Not really sure but I think in normal years this is one of the biggest upset weekends with a lot of teams getting upset after finals are over.

Really for Big East I don't think it changes all that much quite frankly. Nova, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Creighton are still very well set up. Butler losing wasn't that much of a surprise. Their calculus still is 9 conference wins=NCAA trip. Georgetown loss hurts but realistically Georgetown wasn't going to do much. Same with DePaul.

[DudeAnon]

Ugh

[adoraz]

Not really sure but I think in normal years this is one of the biggest upset weekends with a lot of teams getting upset after finals are over.

Really for Big East I don't think it changes all that much quite frankly. Nova, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Creighton are still very well set up. Butler losing wasn't that much of a surprise. Their calculus still is 9 conference wins=NCAA trip. Georgetown loss hurts but realistically Georgetown wasn't going to do much. Same with DePaul.

Agree with Stever here. Good to get perspective from an outsider because it's not the tragedy many here make it out to be. Bad day but people here way overreacted.

*Butler, Georgetown and DePaul were all UNDERDOGS today and very unlikely to make the tournament (well, aside from Butler maybe but they were a major underdog today). They lost, as expected. Georgetown loss was frustrating but we've been on the right side of those games more often than not this year (see the Xavier game from today).
*Seton Hall should've won but most the Top 25 teams have at least 2 losses by now.... and yes they'll still be Top 25 next week and will still make the tournament. They're not going to drop over 10 spots just for losing an away game lol.
*Xavier won (even though that was pretty terrifying).

So in the BIG PICTURE, all today means is SHU will likely drop a line or two come selection Sunday. We may even have 4 ranked teams on Monday if Creighton can sneak in. I'm not happy with today's results but again, this doesn't make us mid major status just because we went 1-4 on a day we were projected to go 2-3.

[kayako]

*Seton Hall should've won but most the Top 25 teams have at least 2 losses by now.... and So in the BIG PICTURE, all today means is SHU will likely drop a line or two come selection Sunday. We may even have 4 ranked teams on Monday if Creighton can sneak in. I'm not happy with today's results but again, this doesn't make us mid major status just because we went 1-4 on a day we were projected to go 2-3.

I'd worry about Seton Hall. With Carrington running the offense, I just can't see them as a dominant force that's going to go 12+ wins in conference play. That may end up helping in terms of number of bids, maybe not, but it wasn't my intention to speculate on that.

[stever20]

lets look at teams 16-25 in rankings and what they did
16 Virginia- beat Davidson. Will pass Seton Hall easily.
17 Purdue- beat Butler. Will pass Seton Hall easily.
18 Notre Dame- lost to Indiana. SH should be ahead of them.
19 Florida St- lost to Oklahoma St by 1. I'd guess FSU will be ahead of SH.
20 Tennessee- plays UNC today.
21 Baylor- beat Texas Southern, plays Savannah St. Will pass Seton Hall likely.
22 Florida- lost to Clemson. SH should be ahead of them.
23 Arizona- beat New Mexico. Will pass Seton Hall.
24 Texas Tech- beat Kennesaw St, Rice. Will be close with SH.
25 Cincy- beat Miss St, UCLA. Will pass Seton Hall.
so 16-25 you see Seton Hall being ahead of only Notre Dame and Florida for sure. Tennessee hinges on todays game. And Texas Tech will be close.

For teams just out of top 25-
Oklahoma will pass Seton Hall for sure.
Creighton will be close with Seton Hall.

So I see of the 10 spots between Seton Hall and being out of the poll them losing 7 spots pretty much for sure. I think Texas Tech and Creighton will be close. Tennessee totally hinges on todays game.

I think polls this week will be Nova at 1, Xavier at 9 or 10(depends on that UNC/Tennessee game), and then one of Seton Hall or Creighton at 24 or 25.

[billyjack]

Biggest takeaway i think from yesterday is that both Georgetown and DePaul can compete against solid opponents. Both were in an excellent positon to win.

Assuming Syracuse is a mid-range ACC team, it shows that Ewing and the Hoyas can be solid.

DePaul once again played well against a good team. DePaul really hasn't played any stinkers this year.

Seton Hall on the road in a rivalry game. They've beaten Rutgers a bunch in a row, had a 9-point halftime lead. Sometimes these things happen. And as we all know, Steve Pikiell is a good coach (i'm glad he won't be in the bench with Stony Brook today).

Butler was matched up against a really good Purdue team.

Xavier is the only head-scratcher, but they still got the win anyway.

Trendlines are good. We're allowed to have an off day here and there. Seems like the conference had lost only like 2 games in the last 2 weeks. The world is an imperfect place, sometimes screws go missing.