(5) Tues BE Games - December 5th 2017...

[billyjack]

Five games tonight, all good matchups against tough or pesky teams. This is a dangerous night.

Tuesday December 5th 2017:
#4 Villanova vs #15 Gonzaga, 7pm, at MSG.
Vermont at Marquette, 7pm.
North Dakota at Creighton, 8pm.
Utah at Butler, 9pm.
St John's at Grand Canyon, 11:30pm.

Marquette should be careful and tighten up their defense, because Vermont is a really good team which can shoot from deep.

Villanova can get a huge crowd at MSG and take care of Gonzaga hopefully. This will be a fantastic game. Second straight Big East opponent for the Zags. Test run of a future conference game? Lol.

Creighton should handle North Dakota.

Butler has that great core of Martin, Wideman and Baldwin, so can beat anyone, especially at home. Utah is tough as always.

St John's plays late at Grand Canyon, which is actually in Phoenix. Weird, Cox cable here in Rhode Island has been televising Grand Canyon home games on our local interest station 1004. This is a little creepy, like why would people in RI want to watch this obscure for-profit on-line school out in Arizona play Robert Morris or Norfolk State. The crowd is always pretty raucous and packed to the gills in a shiny new arena, which has a purple that is hypnotic and distracting. Coached by former Suns star Dan Majerle. GCU is 5-1 (lost to the San Diego Toreros by 10) and has only played home games, and 4 of them were in the "Grand Canyon Classic". Tonight is apparently the one-game "Valley of the Sun Shootout". Why does this game worry me? Why was it scheduled? Wait, did you hear that noise? Let's get outta here!

[hoops22]

St. John's is a 3 point underdog. Need to win at least one out of two in Arizona this week

[MUPanther]

4 Villanova (-5) vs. 12 Gonzaga,
TV: ESPN -Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas, Holly Rowe
Jimmy V Classic (MSG)

Vermont @ Marquette (-3),
TV: FS1 -Jeff Levering, Stephen Bardo

North Dakota @ Creighton (-18.5),
TV: FS2 Steve Physioc, Nick Bahe

Utah @ Butler (-7.5),
TV:FS1 -Aaron Goldsmith, Steve Lavin

St. John's (-5) vs. Grand Canyon (Phoenix),
TV: ESPNU- Chuckie Kempf, Adrian Branch

[Jet915]

4-1 would be a good result. No Lovett for SJU though. A lot of these games are tossups imo.

[GumbyDamnit!]

So I only caught about 10 minutes of the first half of the CU vs. Gonzaga game and it looked like the Jays were in complete control and the Zags having trouble keeping up. Then I read the recap and it looks like the 2nd half was complete domination. So Jays fans, what happened? More a case of the Zags figuring things out and being really good, or nothing going right in the 2nd half and more self-inflicted? I'm curious as to how you envision these two teams matching up.

[Novachap]

I think the VU-Gonzaga game will be a very good game. I also think they are the type of team that could absolutely knock off the Cats and this will be the first REAL test. Arizona and Purdue losing in Atlantis sucked as those were really strong potential games. That said, Gonzaga is VERY good, extremely well coached and win or lose will expose the areas Nova needs to work on.

[stever20]

I think the VU-Gonzaga game will be a very good game. I also think they are the type of team that could absolutely knock off the Cats and this will be the first REAL test. Arizona and Purdue losing in Atlantis sucked as those were really strong potential games. That said, Gonzaga is VERY good, extremely well coached and win or lose will expose the areas Nova needs to work on.

Yeah Atlantis was so weird- 4 possible tourney teams (Nova, Arizona, Purdue, SMU) and 3 of the 4 lose in rd 1(all 3 of them in the top 21 in Ken Pom currently).

[stever20]

the St John's game is not a road game- it's neutral site. It's realistically a road game since it's in Phoenix, but because it's not in the normal home court for Grand Canyon, it's treated as neutral site. It'd be akin to George Mason playing someone at the Capital One arena(old Verizon Center).

It's pretty much semantics- except that the win values change for RPI purposes-
If St John's wins- it'll count 1.0 instead of 1.4
If St John's loses- it'll count 1.0 instead of 0.6

[Doge McDermott]

So I only caught about 10 minutes of the first half of the CU vs. Gonzaga game and it looked like the Jays were in complete control and the Zags having trouble keeping up. Then I read the recap and it looks like the 2nd half was complete domination. So Jays fans, what happened? More a case of the Zags figuring things out and being really good, or nothing going right in the 2nd half and more self-inflicted? I'm curious as to how you envision these two teams matching up.

It's starting to become a Big Mac signature: Dominate the first half because of great planning, and then make absolutely no adjustments at half after the opposing coach counters. Leaves timeouts in his back pocket and lets the kids struggle until well after the tide has turned.

#kyrifense shut down their top scorer (0-2), and Gonzaga's other players stepped up. We carved up their zone, so they switched defences, and we looked lost.

Happened with Baylor, happened at Gonzaga. Will certainly not be the last time it happens either.

[stever20]

So I only caught about 10 minutes of the first half of the CU vs. Gonzaga game and it looked like the Jays were in complete control and the Zags having trouble keeping up. Then I read the recap and it looks like the 2nd half was complete domination. So Jays fans, what happened? More a case of the Zags figuring things out and being really good, or nothing going right in the 2nd half and more self-inflicted? I'm curious as to how you envision these two teams matching up.

It's starting to become a Big Mac signature: Dominate the first half because of great planning, and then make absolutely no adjustments at half after the opposing coach counters. Leaves timeouts in his back pocket and lets the kids struggle until well after the tide has turned.

#kyrifense shut down their top scorer (0-2), and Gonzaga's other players stepped up. We carved up their zone, so they switched defences, and we looked lost.

Happened with Baylor, happened at Gonzaga. Will certainly not be the last time it happens either.

Ken Pom breaks down games by quarters.....

in the 4 real games (Northwestern, UCLA, Baylor, Gonzaga)
1st quarters Creighton has won those by a combined 89-60.
2nd quarters tied 82-82
3rd quarters(so 1st 10 minutes 2nd half)- Creighton has lost those by a combined 88-68.
4th quarters- Creighton has lost those by a combined 103-86

1st half- Crighton wins 171-142
2nd half- Creighton loses 191-154