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1. THE Nova. Still doing their thing. Stanford on thanksgiving followed by eithe Georgia Tech or Arkansas, then a pair of top 10 teams in Oklahoma (in Hawaii) and Virginia to follow.

2. Xavier. Got the big win atthe basketball big house. Looked real good handling Tom Brady's alma mater. Good win at Missouri as well. Why do they keep playing Alabama every yr? Who cares, they keep winning. Real complete team.

3. Butler. Can't get too upset over the Miami loss. Beat up on the temple Bill Cosby sex offenders. Playing SIUE next. No clue what those letters represent.

4. Hoyas. The record says 1-3, but they are playing well since the radford disaster. Next test is Syracuse in a couple weeks

5. Friars. Looked good against Harvard and brown. Got a little lucky against a weak Illinois team. They have enough pieces to compliment Dunn that we should be expecting them to dance. Cupcake city for a couple weeks. They should be able to beat uri and BC this year.

6. Seton Hall. Bad first half against long beach, but has come together since. Real weak ooc provides little room for error, so they just need to keep winning. Georgia, George Washington and Rutgers on tap. GW is probable decent, but if seton hall can run their next three then we can start talking about the big east landing 6 bids.

7. St John's. Mullin took over a pretty empty cupboard, but they seem to be buying in. Haven't played a good team yet, and struggled to beat Rutgers. But at least they won. Heading out to hawaii this week and Syracuse in tap when they return. Can't expect them to go undefeated, but let's hope they keep playing hard.

The other three teams are struggling. Definitely rebuilding year at Marquette and creighton. DePaul is DePaul.

Creighton struggled on the road against a Top 10 team. Many of the BE teams would have. And we destroyed our lesser competition. I'm not sure I would lump us into the bottom of the barrel just yet.

NovaBall wrote:
2. Xavier. Got the big win atthe basketball big house. Looked real good handling Tom Brady's alma mater. Good win at Missouri as well. Why do they keep playing Alabama every yr? Who cares, they keep winning. Real complete team.

Played Mizzou at home, third year in a row of playing Alabama, but this is part of the Advocare event, not directly scheduled by Xavier so to speak

Nova
Xavier
Butler
Georgetown
Providence
Seton Hall
Creighton
St. John's
Marquette
DePaul

The bottom four are very fluid.

NovaBall wrote:
5. Friars. Looked good against Harvard and brown. Got a little lucky against a weak Illinois team. They have enough pieces to compliment Dunn that we should be expecting them to dance. Cupcake city for a couple weeks. They should be able to beat uri and BC this year.

Might get Arizona on Friday if we manage to beat Evansville on Thanksgiving.

Xavier - two quality wins against tough competition
Butler - best win against Temple, but looked vulnerable against Miami (which is a legit Final Four contender)
Villanova - best win is Akron (?) or E. TN State(?) Play someone before you claim the top spot.
Providence - best win against Illinois, (who hasn't looked good in subsequent games).
Georgetown - stubbed toe against Radford, but has played tough v Maryland, Wisconsin, and Duke. Hard to put a 1 win team in top half of league, but Hoya's have played the toughest BE schedule to date.
St. Johns - interchangeable with SH, with Rutgers only notable win. Beat Vandy today and then we will talk!
Seton Hall - best win against Mississippi(?). Interchangeable on this list with St. Johns.
Creighton - unprepared for what they encountered at Bloomington.
Marquette - Wojo can do better than what team has shown to date.
DePaul - no comments needed.

NovaBall wrote:1. THE Nova. Still doing their thing. Stanford on thanksgiving followed by eithe Georgia Tech or Arkansas, then a pair of top 10 teams in Oklahoma (in Hawaii) and Virginia to follow.

2. Xavier. Got the big win atthe basketball big house. Looked real good handling Tom Brady's alma mater. Good win at Missouri as well. Why do they keep playing Alabama every yr? Who cares, they keep winning. Real complete team.

3. Butler. Can't get too upset over the Miami loss. Beat up on the temple Bill Cosby sex offenders. Playing SIUE next. No clue what those letters represent.

4. Hoyas. The record says 1-3, but they are playing well since the radford disaster. Next test is Syracuse in a couple weeks

5. Friars. Looked good against Harvard and brown. Got a little lucky against a weak Illinois team. They have enough pieces to compliment Dunn that we should be expecting them to dance. Cupcake city for a couple weeks. They should be able to beat uri and BC this year.

6. Seton Hall. Bad first half against long beach, but has come together since. Real weak ooc provides little room for error, so they just need to keep winning. Georgia, George Washington and Rutgers on tap. GW is probable decent, but if seton hall can run their next three then we can start talking about the big east landing 6 bids.

7. St John's. Mullin took over a pretty empty cupboard, but they seem to be buying in. Haven't played a good team yet, and struggled to beat Rutgers. But at least they won. Heading out to hawaii this week and Syracuse in tap when they return. Can't expect them to go undefeated, but let's hope they keep playing hard.

The other three teams are struggling. Definitely rebuilding year at Marquette and creighton. DePaul is DePaul.

You go to the trouble to rank the teams and then you say something like this and I wonder if you pay attention to college basketball outside of the BE at all. PC plays a very good NJIT team tonight, then they have Evansville a team that is expected to challenge Wichita State and Northern Iowa in the MVC, and if they get past them they have Arizona on Friday. Hardly cupcake city.

HoosierPal wrote:Xavier - two quality wins against tough competition
Butler - best win against Temple, but looked vulnerable against Miami (which is a legit Final Four contender)
Villanova - best win is Akron (?) or E. TN State(?) Play someone before you claim the top spot.
Providence - best win against Illinois, (who hasn't looked good in subsequent games).
Georgetown - stubbed toe against Radford, but has played tough v Maryland, Wisconsin, and Duke. Hard to put a 1 win team in top half of league, but Hoya's have played the toughest BE schedule to date.
St. Johns - interchangeable with SH, with Rutgers only notable win. Beat Vandy today and then we will talk!
Seton Hall - best win against Mississippi(?). Interchangeable on this list with St. Johns.
Creighton - unprepared for what they encountered at Bloomington.
Marquette - Wojo can do better than what team has shown to date.
DePaul - no comments needed.

I don't think it's fair to put a team lower just because they haven't beaten a top 25 team. If you watch Villanova, it's clear they are more talented than any of the BE teams... and they're the defending champs by a mile last season. They haven't done anything to deserve the demotion. They have beaten every team by 20+ (well Akron by 19 - who is 55th according to KenPom).

I didn't realize the Friars had Arizona as a potential opponent. I used the ESPN.com schedule that doesn't list the future opponents.

That would be a great win.

Friars should handle Evansville. Let's not make them out to be more than they are. Not a total cupcake, but a team they should handle (similar to Akron).

Akron is okay. They beat Arkansas.
East Tennessee looked like a div 2 team versus nova, but just beat Georgia tech.

The top 3 are pretty tight. I could see a case for either Xavier or nova for the top spot with butler not far behind.