Sat 11/30 BE Game Thread (4 Games)

[Lavinwood]

I'm still so mad the announcers took a shot at our conference and said "The new Big East doesn't really have many quality teams anymore". What they probably meant to say was we lost our real top-heavy top 10 teams, but saying we don't have many quality teams couldn't be further from the truth. Nova single handedly took out #2 Kansas and #23 Iowa in back to back days. Butler was an inch away from beating #5 Oklahoma State. St. John's hung tough with what is now the #10 team in the nation in Wisconsin. The 2nd half we outplayed them. We beat a mediocre but still dangerous Georgia Tech team. G'Town beat #10 VCU. Marquette lost a heartbreaker to ASU who is very good. Providence beat an always dangerous BC. Creighton demolished a very good ASU team.

We may not have the same national star power, but we have the most quality teams from 1-10 out of any conference. I expect G'Town and Marquette to get ranked in the coming weeks so we will have Nova, G'Town, Marquette, and Creighton ranked. If PC can get the big upset vs. UK, we have 5 ranked teams and suddenly the national scene will have to acknowledge we are still elite.

[Bill Marsh]

Well, the mystery is over. We have our frontrunner. As November ends, Villanova is clearly the team to beat in the Big East. Congratulations to the Wildcats on an undefeated start to the season!

[stever20]

what they said in the post game is during the conference season not going to have the top 25 teams that we used to have in conference play. Like someone told him about that. The way they phrased in the post game- right now it's a fair observation. Like I said earlier, Nova got in the tourney on the backs of 4 wins over top 18 schools in conference play last year. This year- we don't have anyone in the top 18 right now- though Nova should be top 15 after this weekend. It's a difference.

[stever20]

Well, the mystery is over. We have our frontrunner. As November ends, Villanova is clearly the team to beat in the Big East. Congratulations to the Wildcats on an undefeated start to the season!

yup. And think you could argue if Marquette beats San Diego St tomorrow, they could be the frontrunner for #2.

[Bill Marsh]

Well, the mystery is over. We have our frontrunner. As November ends, Villanova is clearly the team to beat in the Big East. Congratulations to the Wildcats on an undefeated start to the season!

yup. And think you could argue if Marquette beats San Diego St tomorrow, they could be the frontrunner for #2.

Unless Providence beats Kentucky.

[Lavinwood]

what they said in the post game is during the conference season not going to have the top 25 teams that we used to have in conference play. Like someone told him about that. The way they phrased in the post game- right now it's a fair observation. Like I said earlier, Nova got in the tourney on the backs of 4 wins over top 18 schools in conference play last year. This year- we don't have anyone in the top 18 right now- though Nova should be top 15 after this weekend. It's a difference.

Right, I know what he was trying to say during the game. He even corrected himself after saying we don't have many quality teams realizing how he sounded. But it's kind of a Freudian slip…clearly these big sports media guys don't think we are for real. They think we are an A-10 on steroids. We may not be able to argue with the people who say we don't have many ranked teams anymore, but we can argue that we have the deepest conference top to bottom. Beating any of our teams right now except possibly SHU (unless they surprise us) and DePaul is considered a good win by teams in most conferences and in the middle to bottom of the B1G and ACC.

I really hope we get our crap together. We were supposed to be an important part of the Big East prominence possibly even being ranked this year. The PSU loss stung badly, but thankfully we avoided a terrible collapse and beat GT. Our 2nd half vs. GT we outscored them something like 42-20. It was the best basketball I've seen us play in the Lavin era since we were beating 6 top 10 teams in 2011. If there was a way we could snip that 2nd half out and apply that to entire games, there is no doubt in my mind we can beat Cuse and maybe get ranked. But again, this team is so Helter Skelter that I wouldn't even be surprised if we go out and lose to Fordham next. We will see.

[admin]

Have to admit, I had written off Nova after the start to the second half. Great comeback and win for the Wildcats!

[Dave]

We have to win these OOC games. It's that simple. Butler, Xavier, St Johns... Need to beat some of these ranked opponents. Playing close isn't enough.

Especially true for GTown, Nova, Marquette, and Creighton. These 4 have to be consistently ranked so the top of the conference gets the exposure.

If we win like a power conference we will be one. If we lose like a mid major we will be one.