Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

The 2016 Big East Tourney Final tips off tonight at 5pm.

Seton Hall vs Villanova, 5pm, FOX.

A meeting between an immovable object and an unstoppable force. Villanova is looking to defend their belt. Seton Hall has advanced to their first BET Final since 1993, the days of PJ Carlesimo, Terry Dehere, Arturas Karnishovas, Jerry Walker, Danny Hurley, Luther Wright... The Hall in 93 was towards the end of a 7 year run of a National Final, Elite-8, Sweet 16, a total of 12 overall NCAA wins, and 6 NCAA bids in 7 years.

Last night they jumped out early to a double-digit lead on X, at 29-17 and 36-20. Most of the second half it was around 10 or so, until a furious run by X in the final minute cut it to 4... great sequence with a crazy steal under basket with 18 seconds left, down 4 i think, but then an immediate strip and a 10 second half court ball scrum til Derrek Gordon secured the rock.

Villanova played great in their win over Friars, with Kris Jenkins doing the most damage. The guy is money from anywhere on the court. Arch had a memorable crowd dive. Bentil fouled out early. Dunn was a little off. After losing Bentil with 10 minutes left, PC went on a 15-3 run to cut it to 2... and a patented Dunn steal looked underway before Arch made a great save running it down, and VU immediately converted an old fashioned 3 point play.

Ochefu was a gamer, limping on a bad ankle, but Darryl Reynolds had another great game underneath for Villanova. Well deserved win for the Cats. Arcidiacono became the first Villanova player ever to record 1500 points and 500 assists, according to graphic FS1 put up.

Just my opinion, but if I could point out one honest flaw in Villanova's game, maybe the only one, it's that Jay Wright again (like in last year's semis) went into unnecessary freak out mode late when PC cut it to 6 or so... not yelling at the refs, but just his composure on the sideline became panicky. Why get so nervous, with the game well at hand. Just chill.

I think he got the team jittery and it had to have given PC some extra giddy-up. It fell on the veterans to steady the ship. I mean, at the time of freak out we had no Bentil, we were down 6 or 8, and had a huge uphill climb, and i thought we were cooked.

Looking forward to tonight's game. "Old time hockey Eddie Shore".

Jenkins has been on fire for Villanova over the last month or so.

The one thing I worry about is Ochefu's injury status. Clearly not close to 100% right now. He usually puts up huge numbers against Seton Hall - I don't think he can tonight. We need Reynolds to have a big game.

The Villanova-SHU games away from the Pavilion on Villanova's campus have all been very close.

Would expect MSG to be packed considering the teams proximity to MSG.

STONY BROOK IS DANCING. I repeat. STONY BROOK is dancing. What a victory. Too excited right now. Going to MSG with my SBU Gear. We are finally playing the tourney. Our man Warney did it for us. What a performance by Jameel Warney

ecasadoSBU wrote:STONY BROOK IS DANCING. I repeat. STONY BROOK is dancing. What a victory. Too excited right now. Going to MSG with my SBU Gear. We are finally playing the tourney. Our man Warney did it for us. What a performance by Jameel Warney

dude you've had one hell of a weekend, and it's only 1:30 on Saturday....

If its not a sellout then its pretty darn close. I couldnt get seats below 300 level today. Had to settle for the bridge which has a pretty cool view from above. Even the bridge is packed. Today is Pirate day!!!

Awesome first half for the Hall. Settling for jumpers a little too much though. They nearly blew double digit leads in the first 2 games, so they're gonna need to do a better job keeping their focus if they're gonna hold on tonight.

Nova's gonna make a run- everyone knows that. This game is gonna be decided by how the Hall responds to it.

I don't think anyone wants to see Seton Hall in their Pod! Nova is making a run, but they could have blown this wide open a couple of times with just a little lapse from Nova.

3rd game in a row Seton Hall came sleepwalking out of halftime and gifted away a double digit lead. Chalk it up to a young team perhaps, but it's a frustrating trend.

What a game!