(3) Wednesday BE Games - 01/04/2017

[stever20]

Just saw this from Lunardi:
Villanova, despite loss, will remain No. 1 overall in Thursday's bracket. Wildcats came in with a significant edge on the other No. 1 seeds.

[XUFan09]

Eh, when you are also a ranked team, it's not as momentous. I get the celebration, but this isn't a huge upset on Butler's home court.

Personally, I agree. I was hoping the students wouldn't storm the court - but they let me down. Had the Dawgs hit a buzzer-beater, sure storm the court. But running the clock down, up by 8 - it just seems forced.

I was also a little embarrassed to hear the students chanting "Jay Wright Sucks." Not only is it bush league, but it's just inaccurate.

Yeah, the latter is what I really don't like. The court rushing is something where I could take it or leave it.

Great, gutsy win by the team, though.

[Bill Marsh]

Congrats to Butler! Good win! This is not a knock on Butler, they are a great team and deserved the win, and it is not an excuse, it is more about the reality of the situation that most people aren't realizing, and that reality is Villanova has been, and will be playing with a 7 man rotation probably for the rest of the year. The fact Villanova won this many games and was ranked #1 is because they have toughed it out every game. I know Villanova will continue to play well the rest of the way but they still have a few more games to lose in the Big East this season.

I thought the same thing. When I saw Holtmann lining up 3 subs on the sidelines early in the first half, I thought, "Jay, just can't do that. Holtmann is going to try to wear Villanova down." In the end, that's just what happened - especially in a game that was called so tightly.

[SJUBBALL]

Proud of St. John's. down by 24 could've given up. Didn't. Really like this young team

[JohnW22]

Jay Wright sucks? So clever.

I wonder what they'll say about JT3 if Wright sucks

[BluejaysForThree]

This win sure wasn't pretty for CU, the Johnnies fought hard even when they were down by 24, however the Jays ended up staying composed in the end of this one (looks like they might have learned a thing or two from the Villanova loss). Kudos to St. John's for sticking with it and not letting this game get completely out of hand when the shots weren't falling for them, the Red Storm is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the Big East in the next year or two.

One thing is for certain, ANY road win is big this season in the Big East.

What can you say about Justin Patton, the sky is the limit for this kid, literally after all those dunks tonight. He played at a high level tonight.

[SJHooper]

What a weird game. First half Creighton just dominated. Ridiculously good defense, Patton played like Wilt Chamberlain, the guards ran the entire court in about 3 seconds no way to stay in front. Killed us inside.

Then in the 2nd half we made it a real game. I don't care who you root for...the refs were the most biased I've ever seen them since a Duke game. When the impartial announcers say "wow another one they got away with" every few minutes you know it's awful. We would've lost either way of course, but man if this was evenly officiated and we didn't miss about 8 layups this would have been interesting. Things got chippy with Ponds and Foster and LoVett as well. LoVett flopped and rightfully did not get the call. Foster flopped right after and he got the call throwing himself in the air on a phantom trip. Announcers were laughing. That was a microcosm of the 2nd half. I know, I know. Weak man! Don't bring the refs into it, just sour grapes! False...any honest fan knows this was the case today. One thing that really boggles my mind is why McDermott leaves his starters out so long. You are up nearly 20 with 2 minutes left and you leave them out there? If one of your big guys gets hurt at that point McDermott looks like an idiot.

Simply put, this game came down to Patton and our missed bunnies all game. If we had a real big to put on Patton, the paint would not have been dominated so easily. One thing I'm happy about is that we fought back. It was pretty funny watching Creighton out there...the McDermott team a few years back was quiet, conservative, and not really in your face. Just silent fundamentals. This year's Creighton team is full of guys dunking in your face and screaming then getting chippy with opponents. Not saying it's wrong, we were like that with the Harrison teams but it's just funny to see the huge transformation.

Credit Creighton...I couldn't even get mad at the lack of scoring in the first half. I literally could not find any good shots or open lanes myself watching on TV. Any kick out to one of our guys loaded up for a 3 and they were immediately right in their face before they could think about shooting. Anything that went to the hoop was contested and altered. Patton knew we had no answer for him and he took advantage. The 2nd half we had our chances. Can't be mad, Creighton is a great team but I'm also a St. John's fan and I know never to get too excited too early. The good news is that there will be 3 Big East teams in the top 10 now. Really hope next year is our year we break out but if Mullin can't get us on the right track I'm taking a long break from my Johnnies.

[SJUBBALL]

This win sure wasn't pretty for CU, the Johnnies fought hard even when they were down by 24, however the Jays ended up staying composed in the end of this one (looks like they might have learned a thing or two from the Villanova loss). Kudos to St. John's for sticking with it and not letting this game get completely out of hand when the shots weren't falling for them, the Red Storm is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the Big East in the next year or two.

One thing is for certain, ANY road win is big this season in the Big East.

What can you say about Justin Patton, the sky is the limit for this kid, literally after all those dunks tonight. He played at a high level tonight.

Patton is very talented. More performances like that and this might be his only year in colleges

[sju88grad]

Congrats Creighton on the win. Clearly the better team but I did like the fact that we didn't fold. Hopefully, we can put up a good fight against Xavier. I can't believe we're not going 18-0!!

[cu blujs]

Apparently, sjhooper, you weren't paying attention when our bench was on the floor during several of the little runs your guys had tonight, including the one that got you back within a dozen points. And you probably missed that GT game last year when we blew a 14 point lead in the last 2:30. If you have your starters in the game and are still playing to win, don't expect McDermott to put our bench in -- Particularly given the difference in athleticism between our 1-5 and our 6-10.