(4) Big East - Opening Night Conference Games

[butlerway]

I wouldn't say Hall looked like a pretender. Creighton just looked damn good. It's going to be very tough to knock them off at home.

[stever20]

so Providence/Xavier last night. Was that Xavier looking incredible, or Providence looking like what a lot of us thought preseason- a 7th or 8th place team?

PC now played 3 Ken Pom A level teams and 0-3 in those 3 with a MOD of 14.7 PPG.

And look at some offensive ratings for players-
Bullock- overall 100.8, vs A 78.6
Cartwright- overall 100.2 vs A 105.0
Holt- Overall 115.8 vs A 97.5
Lindsey- Overall 129.8 vs A 109
Young- Overall 94.9 vs A 70.3
Jackson- Overall 96.4 vs A 114.6
Diallo- Overall 85.7 vs A 31.8
White- Overall 78.5 vs A 39.3
Fazekus- Overall 115.2 vs A 129.4

so huge drops for some key guys- Bullock, Holt, and Lindsey. 3 of the 4 guys with the most playing time on the team.

[sciencejay]

No way is SH a pretender. They started the second half on a 10-1 run and looked like they might walk away from us. And that's with Delgado/Sunogo in foul trouble. Too many turnovers for the Hall, and they only outrebounded CU by 3. I still see the Hall competing for the conference throne this year, but you can see that the margin for error for all teams is small. There won't be any gimmees this season.

I was surprised that McD shortened the bench so much. We had double digit leads for a good portion of the game, but Clement and Krampelj didn't see the court. And that's with Patton's sore knee. There's no way we can make it successfully through the conference season if we play so few guys. Games are too tough and will have to be hard fought.

I didn't like the way Foster showed little energy when his shots weren't dropping in the first half. He needs to pick it up and play harder in the other facets of the game--D Rod was going off on him in the second half, and MF ended up with one rebound. That can't continue. I do think that we should run plays to get him into the lane early and often. His 6-10' floater shot is beautiful, and he almost never misses it. Getting him some of those looks should help his effort level (not that that should be necessary).

Good start by the Jays. Aggressive rebounding and terrific ball movement at times.

[Hall2012]

Seton Hall's sloppy play finally caught up to them in the form a deficit they couldn't overturn. Countless unforced turnovers seems to be a staple of the team this year, especially in 1st halves. They have potential, but we've yet to see this team put a full 40 minutes together. That being said, they kept battling and did make a second half run, which was good to see although they couldn't sustain it.

The other thing I didn't really like was selling out on defending the three. It could've worked in a loosely called game, but with both SHU bigs in early foul trouble, it just made things way too easy for Creighton inside. I get the importance of taking Creighton's 3's away to beat them, but SHU did so at the expense of their own biggest advantage and CU made them pay.

Overall, well played by Creighton. They have a balanced, well coached team. Seton Hall did a nice job holding them below their 3pt average, but they took advantage of their opportunities and found other ways to win. I can't imagine many teams win 3 straight over the Jays at CLink, so I figured we were due to drop this one.

[milksteak]

so Providence/Xavier last night. Was that Xavier looking incredible, or Providence looking like what a lot of us thought preseason- a 7th or 8th place team?

Bullock is the heart and soul of that team. Xavier shut him down last night. Providence's success moving forward will be largely dependent on Bullock. I still think they're the 6th team in this league.

[stever20]

so Providence/Xavier last night. Was that Xavier looking incredible, or Providence looking like what a lot of us thought preseason- a 7th or 8th place team?

Bullock is the heart and soul of that team. Xavier shut him down last night. Providence's success moving forward will be largely dependent on Bullock. I still think they're the 6th team in this league.

Bullock though against the 5 teams with a pulse just hasn't shown up.... Ohio St, Memphis, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Xavier-
15-41 shooting 2 pointers. 36.6% 24-68 overall 35.3%
vs everyone else- 47-83. 56.6% 60-124 overall 48.3%

And with that loss to BC, I just don't see them getting in with 9 conference wins(and I really don't see them getting even 9 wins).

[billyjack]

Some things:

- Xavier is a legitimate Final Four and National Championship type team. They're stacked.
- Bullock has a tendency to get frustrated and disappear at times.
- Bullock's numbers vs "teams with a pulse" are misrepresented by stever.

Ohio State: 27 points, 8 boards.
Memphis: 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting.
Virginia: 16 points, 6 rebounds.
Rhody: 17 points, 5 boards, 5-for-11 shooting.
UMass: 26 points, 10 boards, 7-for-14 shooting.
BC loss: 23 points, 6 boards, 4 steals.
Xavier: 2 points, 1-for-11 shooting.

- Last night, Bullock was frustrated by Xavier's lockdown defense, and it hurt his game.
- Every other game against a "pulse team" other than Xavier, he's scored 16 pts or more.
- UMass has a pulse.
- in the loss to BC, he put up numbers though was getting frustrated... he was the reason we were up 7 with 14 to play.
- vs Virginia, he kept us close as our only option in the first half, and we had the VA lead down to 5 with under 10 to play... his floor numbers look bad at 3-for-13, but he got to the line and went 8-for-8.

If anything, Bullock sleepwalks through the games against dregs:
Wagner: 8 points on 3-for-10, though had 9 boards.
Maine: 8 points on 2-for-11, with 5 boards.

Anyway, what I took from last night's loss was that Xavier is a serious candidate for a National Championship... Sweet 16 is basically a lock... Final Four is a good possibility.

[billyjack]

Xavier's only weakness:
The lighting at Cintas while watching from my couch is weak. Has the appearance of grayness and is shadowy. So every year my eyes have difficulty watching the Friars get hammered at Xavier.

Courts with excellent lighting for TV:
- Villanova at the Pavilion.
- St John's at Carnesecca and MSG.
- Providence at the Dunk.
- Butler at Hinkle.
- Marquette at Bradley.
- Seton Hall at Prudential.

Shadowy gray courts on TV:
- Xavier at Cintas.
- Georgetown at Verizon.

Neutral or no opinion:
- DePaul at Allstate and McGrath Phillips.
- Creighton at C-Link.

[stever20]

so lets look at the Ken Pom Offensive rating for the A+B level games(considered top 100 level team on a neutral court)

Ohio St 108
Memphis 137
Virginia 94
Rhode Island 88
Xavier 22

UMass is not good. Yes, they're 10-3. But that's against #286 OOC SOS in Ken Pom, #139 current OOC SOS in RPI, and projected 166 OOC in RPI Forecast. They may finish top 100 RPI, but being a home game- that's not considered an a or b level game.

I think looking at it- and taking into account billyjacks comments about Maine Wagner- fatigue may be coming into play....

in November- he played 7 games. His average offensive rating game was 112.7. Avg opponent in November in Ken Pom was 151.9.
In December he played 7 games. His average offensive rating game was 80.7. Avg opponent in December in Ken Pom was 171.3.

and more so- look at the shooting....
in November he shot 52-105. 49.5%
in December he shot 32-87. 36.8%

And it's been much more just these last 4 games....
1st 10 games- avg opp 149.3 Avg off rating 111.6. shooting 71-142 overall 50%
last 4 games- avg opp 192.3. Avg off rating 59.5(with 3 of 4 worst games) shooting 13-50 26%.

[Bill Marsh]

so Providence/Xavier last night. Was that Xavier looking incredible, or Providence looking like what a lot of us thought preseason- a 7th or 8th place team?

Bullock is the heart and soul of that team. Xavier shut him down last night. Providence's success moving forward will be largely dependent on Bullock. I still think they're the 6th team in this league.

Could be 8th.