http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/bilas_jay/id/7655880/marquette-final-four-chances-more-big-east-questions-ncb (http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/bilas_jay/id/7655880/marquette-final-four-chances-more-big-east-questions-ncb)
1. Are the Marquette Golden Eagles a Final Four-caliber team?
Yes, with a good draw. Marquette does not have great size, but Buzz Williams has two star-caliber players who can take over a game in Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom, and Marquette does a great job of punching the lane off the bounce and getting to the foul line. This is a dangerous team that is capable of beating anyone.
Well, there you go. I mean, if St. Jay (Dukie but he likes Marq) Bilas says it, it must be true.
What say you to that Digger (How I got a gig at ESPN I'll never know) Phelps? (Ans: he was hired for comic relief)
DREAM BIG!!! Seasons like this do not happen often. BE tourney is nice but the real games are a week away.
Its kinda cool that Jay Bilas has liked every MU team for like 7 years now. Its about time we make him look smart!
Quote from: Goose on March 07, 2012, 04:00:22 PM
DREAM BIG!!! Seasons like this do not happen often. BE tourney is nice but the real games are a week away.
Seriously...I'm trying to keep my hopes in/down but it's just so incredibly difficult to do so, especially considering how much Jae and Wilson have stepped up since Gardner went out. I really think everything is coming together for this to be our year. And the fact it's in NOLA again only further helps cement that thought in my head and make me want it more...it's almost like a redo for 2003.
Quote from: Warriors 79 on March 07, 2012, 03:56:33 PM
Well, there you go. I mean, if St. Jay (Dukie but he likes Marq) Bilas says it, it must be true.
What say you to that Digger (How I got a gig at ESPN I'll never know) Phelps? (Ans: he was hired for comic relief)
My plan to hit it big and retire is to develop a line of pinstripe highlighters and get Digger to endorse them.
Team from 2003 got a 3 seed and finished as 16th in Kenpom rankings.
2012: in line for 3 seed and 16th right now.
Coincidence?
Yes.
What I've always liked about Bilas is what I like about Buzz. They're both "You gotta earn everything" guys.
Quote from: gmhfordham1015 on March 07, 2012, 05:35:23 PM
Team from 2003 got a 3 seed and finished as 16th in Kenpom rankings.
2012: in line for 3 seed and 16th right now.
Coincidence?
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't that final four in New Orleans? Hmmmm......
Bilas is the best.
While the rest of the ESPNers shill for "their schools" and kiss every coach's ass, you'd really never know Bilas was a Dukie if his broadcast partners didn't mention it to him. And he gives coaches credit for good work but doesn't automatically think they're all wonderful.
His analysis, whether in games or in the studio, is always intelligent and insightful. As is the case with everybody who is asked to make predictions, his prognostications will be wrong fairly often, but that doesn't mean he lacks knowledge.
If only they all were as good as Bilas.
Quote from: MU82 on March 07, 2012, 07:22:23 PM
His analysis, whether in games or in the studio, is always intelligent and insightful.
When it comes to basketball analysis, I totally agree.
However, I hate it when he goes off on an NCAA critique/rant, which he does far too often, and with too narrow a lens.
Quote from: NCAARules on March 07, 2012, 07:50:50 PM
When it comes to basketball analysis, I totally agree.
However, I hate it when he goes off on an NCAA critique/rant, which he does far too often, and with too narrow a lens.
Don't always agree with Bilas on his NCAA rants, but these rants are always well thought out.
Quote from: MU82 on March 07, 2012, 07:22:23 PM
Bilas is the best.
While the rest of the ESPNers shill for "their schools" and kiss every coach's ass, you'd really never know Bilas was a Dukie if his broadcast partners didn't mention it to him. And he gives coaches credit for good work but doesn't automatically think they're all wonderful.
His analysis, whether in games or in the studio, is always intelligent and insightful. As is the case with everybody who is asked to make predictions, his prognostications will be wrong fairly often, but that doesn't mean he lacks knowledge.
If only they all were as good as Bilas.
Couldn't agree with this more. Especially when it comes to his NCAA rants.
Quote from: Goose on March 07, 2012, 04:00:22 PM
DREAM BIG!!! Seasons like this do not happen often. BE tourney is nice but the real games are a week away.
Dream Big... no way this the pleasant reality that we face.. Sweet 16 or better!! For years to come.... Go Warriors!!!
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PMWe are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
Cincy has a good team. They're a tourney lock. Are they much worse than the Miami team that beat Duke, or the Davidson team that beat Kansas, or the Oklahoma State team that beat Missouri, or the Illinois team that beat Michigan State and Ohio State?
Cincy's better than any of those teams, honestly, it's not even close. Good teams can beat great ones. Just because we lost a game doesn't make us any less of a contender than those other top-ten teams.
The comment before the previous one sounds like it's coming from one of those guys who has his "I-told-you-so" locked, loaded and ready to fire.
Thing is, when that gun jams, the would be marksman often goes mute. "Hey, I was wrong," just isn't in their vocabulary.
I'd rather be overly optimistic-especially about this team, and then feel miserable if things go south. I'd take that any day over a smug statement predicting doom that I can somehow feel good about if it comes to fruition.
Quote from: the eagle on March 07, 2012, 06:53:45 PM
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't that final four in New Orleans? Hmmmm......
In the immortal words of Steven Wright, "24 beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not."
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PM
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
Or, you could look at it as we are 72 hours away from a 25-6 regular season with no 'bad' losses. 5-6 losses to shoo-in tourney teams, 5-6 losses away from home. Sorry, bilsu, but this is a season to celebrate, not lament the fact that we lost on the road to a tourney team on their senior night. This is a good team. If things fall into place and they continue to perform.......
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PM
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
And even more recently we looked very good against Georgetown. If you're silly enough to base your assessment on one game, why not that one?
Sometimes you lose, and they may well do so tonight, but that doesn't suddenly make you a bad team, it means you lost. Just as an impressive win over Georgetown doesn't guarantee them a spot in the Final Four. Marquette is a very good team that is more than capable of winning this tournament, and as I said earlier, if they win tonight, I believe they will win this tournament.
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PM
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
Some choose the outlier as the norm, others view it for what it was ... an outlier.
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PM
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
And we are only 24 years removed from being 10-18 under Bob Dukiet.
About as relevant.
The Cincy game showed Marquette that .. a solid team that comes out and plays with their hair on fire can beat Marquette if they don't match the intensity.
The season as a whole shows that MU can come out flat, get down early (and triumph) .. that formula may or may not work when the loser gets on a bus and is done for the year.
#3 seeds have lost 16 times since they went to 64 teams. It happens.
Play 40 minutes, play hard, no injuries = optimistic. Don't do that, and the chances go down.
Quote from: MUMac on March 08, 2012, 07:46:17 AM
Some choose the outlier as the norm, others view it for what it was ... an outlier.
How about both of you are right? In my view you both are.
Consider the following. All NCAA games are on neutral or semi-neutral courts. Not home games for MU. In the last 5 games MU played away from the Bradley Center against sure fire NCAA teams, we lost four and won one.
At Georgetown lost 73-70
At Syracuse lost 73-66
At Notre Dame lost 76-59
At Cincinnati lost 72-61
At UCONN won 79-64 (honestly, would anyone have said they were a sure fire NCAA team as of last week?)
If we believe West Virginia is a sure fire selection to the dance, then we would be 2-4 with a win 61-60.
So that data lends to Bilsu's concern. He's not saying we are going to lose, in my opinion.
On the other hand, if you don't view things from a home vs away perspective, then the confidence should be soaring after MU's wins over a number of NCAA teams
Louisville at the BC
Georgetown at the BC
South Florida at the BC (assuming USF gets in)
Wisconsin at the Kohl
Washington at a neutral site (assuming they get in)
I say you're both right, and there are arguments to support both positions.
Or you can say that we are 9-5 on the road/neutral. 5-4 on the road in-conference. I would take that every single year.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 08, 2012, 11:15:19 AM
How about both of you are right? In my view you both are.
Consider the following. All NCAA games are on neutral or semi-neutral courts. Not home games for MU. In the last 5 games MU played away from the Bradley Center against sure fire NCAA teams, we lost four and won one.
At Georgetown lost 73-70
At Syracuse lost 73-66
At Notre Dame lost 76-59
At Cincinnati lost 72-61
At UCONN won 79-64 (honestly, would anyone have said they were a sure fire NCAA team as of last week?)
If we believe West Virginia is a sure fire selection to the dance, then we would be 2-4 with a win 61-60.
So that data lends to Bilsu's concern. He's not saying we are going to lose, in my opinion.
On the other hand, if you don't view things from a home vs away perspective, then the confidence should be soaring after MU's wins over a number of NCAA teams
Louisville at the BC
Georgetown at the BC
South Florida at the BC (assuming USF gets in)
Wisconsin at the Kohl
Washington at a neutral site (assuming they get in)
I say you're both right, and there are arguments to support both positions.
I veiw it from how MU has been playing. The Cincy game is the outlier, because MU had it handed to them early and often. Never in the game. That is the only game in the BE that can be said.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 08, 2012, 11:15:19 AM
How about both of you are right? In my view you both are.
Consider the following. All NCAA games are on neutral or semi-neutral courts. Not home games for MU. In the last 5 games MU played away from the Bradley Center against sure fire NCAA teams, we lost four and won one.
At Georgetown lost 73-70
At Syracuse lost 73-66
At Notre Dame lost 76-59
At Cincinnati lost 72-61
At UCONN won 79-64 (honestly, would anyone have said they were a sure fire NCAA team as of last week?)
If we believe West Virginia is a sure fire selection to the dance, then we would be 2-4 with a win 61-60.
So that data lends to Bilsu's concern. He's not saying we are going to lose, in my opinion.
On the other hand, if you don't view things from a home vs away perspective, then the confidence should be soaring after MU's wins over a number of NCAA teams
Louisville at the BC
Georgetown at the BC
South Florida at the BC (assuming USF gets in)
Wisconsin at the Kohl
Washington at a neutral site (assuming they get in)
I say you're both right, and there are arguments to support both positions.
But those were all away, and our record on neutral courts is pretty good this year, a couple of those games against bubble or tourney teams.
Quote from: tower912 on March 08, 2012, 11:23:00 AM
Or you can say that we are 9-5 on the road/neutral. 5-4 on the road in-conference. I would take that every single year.
That includes games played in Nov, Dec. I'm more interested in what we've done lately and against good teams. We've lost 4 of 5 on the road.
Quote from: statnik
But those were all away, and our record on neutral courts is pretty good this year, a couple of those games against bubble or tourney teams.
Yes, but some NCAA games are less neutral than they appear. When we played Washington in New York, that was a true neutral game. Playing the Paradise Jam, those were truly neutral games. We've seen over the years playing Stanford in So. Cal or Utah State in Boise that they were anything but neutral court games.
Quote from: bilsu on March 07, 2012, 11:18:35 PM
We are one game away from looking very bad against Cincy. I do not know where your confidence comes from.
You were omniscient.
We're now 1-5 in our last 6 games away from the BC against NCAA caliber teams. 2-5 if we think the Mountaineers are going to get in.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 04:28:41 PM
You were omniscient.
We're now 1-5 in our last 6 games away from the BC against NCAA caliber teams. 2-5 if we think the Mountaineers are going to get in.
Outside of the top 3 or 4 teams in the country, I guess I'm curious who isn't.
Quote from: NavinRJohnson on March 09, 2012, 04:35:04 PM
Outside of the top 3 or 4 teams in the country, I guess I'm curious who isn't.
Wisconsin is 3-2 in their last 5 against NCAA teams away from the Kohl
Would have to look up the others. I'm a bit more concerned that we got smoked in three of the last four. ND, UL, UC. We have a big drop off after our two studs.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 04:46:44 PM
Wisconsin is 3-2 in their last 5 against NCAA teams away from the Kohl
Yippy Skippy. They also lost @Iowa, lost at home to Iowa, OSU, and MSU. how is that better?
Quote from: NavinRJohnson on March 09, 2012, 04:53:24 PM
Yippy Skippy. They also lost @Iowa, lost at home to Iowa, OSU, and MSU. how is that better?
The NCAA tournament is about playing on neutral or semi-neutral courts. How have they done lately in those conditions? Fairly well. We haven't.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 04:54:47 PM
The NCAA tournament is about playing on neutral or semi-neutral courts. How have they done lately in those conditions? Fairly well. We haven't.
Lol! They're 3-2. MU is 2-3. That one game difference is staggering.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 04:46:44 PM
Wisconsin is 3-2 in their last 5 against NCAA teams away from the Kohl
Would have to look up the others. I'm a bit more concerned that we got smoked in three of the last four. ND, UL, UC. We have a big drop off after our two studs.
Uhh...they beat Indiana (minus a very important player, as you have pointed out here) on a neutral court. They beat Ohio State. Lost at Michigan State. 2-1 overall, 1-1 true road, 1-0 neutral. Then how far back are we counting? At Iowa, at Minnesota, at Penn State, at Illinois are the 4 previous to those games. None of them are going to the NCAA. Then win at Purdue, loss at Michigan. Those were early January. So you're not interested in December, but you're interested in early January? It's March. If you don't want to look at December, then early January is probably just as irrelevant in terms of how a team is playing.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 04:28:41 PM
You were omniscient.
We're now 1-5 in our last 6 games away from the BC against NCAA caliber teams. 2-5 if we think the Mountaineers are going to get in.
I was wondering last night what was the last time we beat a ranked team on the road. I'm not saying we haven't done it lately, maybe we have, but I can't remember...
Quote from: warrior07 on March 09, 2012, 05:40:58 PM
I was wondering last night what was the last time we beat a ranked team on the road. I'm not saying we haven't done it lately, maybe we have, but I can't remember...
Wisconsin.
Quote from: wadesworld on March 09, 2012, 05:35:26 PM
Uhh...they beat Indiana (minus a very important player, as you have pointed out here) on a neutral court. They beat Ohio State. Lost at Michigan State. 2-1 overall, 1-1 true road, 1-0 neutral. Then how far back are we counting? At Iowa, at Minnesota, at Penn State, at Illinois are the 4 previous to those games. None of them are going to the NCAA. Then win at Purdue, loss at Michigan. Those were early January. So you're not interested in December, but you're interested in early January? It's March. If you don't want to look at December, then early January is probably just as irrelevant in terms of how a team is playing.
Let's look at just February then. 2-1 for Wisconsin. MU 1-3 with all three being blowouts. The one win against a UCONN team in disarray. If you want to count WVU, then 2-3 but not sure they are in the tournament.
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 06:54:13 PM
Let's look at just February then. 2-1 for Wisconsin. MU 1-3 with all three being blowouts. The one win against a UCONN team in disarray. If you want to count WVU, then 2-3 but not sure they are in the tournament.
So your premise is all the NCAA looks at is Neutral/Road records? Solely against NCAA teams (and you arbitrarily determine WVU is out and UCONN was in disarray, but IU is fine without Jones? O K, that doesn't smack of a chico's agenda) Really? Hanging your hat on that one?
Quote from: MUMac on March 09, 2012, 07:35:53 PM
So your premise is all the NCAA looks at is Neutral/Road records? Solely against NCAA teams (and you arbitrarily determine WVU is out and UCONN was in disarray, but IU is fine without Jones? O K, that doesn't smack of a chico's agenda) Really? Hanging your hat on that one?
No doubt. What the heck is the point? If the argument is that MU is not going to win the NC or even go to the Final Four, I'm not sure many would disagree. In The last 6 weeks, they lost 3 road/neutral games - their only losses in that time period...@ND, @UC, and vs. UL. Frankly, I don't know why they should even bother to show up for their first round game. Meanwhile, Wisconsin also has 3 losses, but only one of those came on the road against NCAA teams, and somehow that's betters? In the odd and arbitrary hooplaloop basketball world, it's as if a loss to a bad team or at home didn't even happen. How stupid.
Oh BTW, Syracuse just lost on a neutral court to that same UC team that beat MU. Put a fork in 'em!
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 06:54:13 PM
Let's look at just February then. 2-1 for Wisconsin. MU 1-3 with all three being blowouts. The one win against a UCONN team in disarray. If you want to count WVU, then 2-3 but not sure they are in the tournament.
Maybe you should quit predicting who will be in and who will be out, you're awful at it.
Let's go OSU!!!!
Quote from: Hoopaloop on March 09, 2012, 06:54:13 PM
Let's look at just February then. 2-1 for Wisconsin. MU 1-3 with all three being blowouts. The one win against a UCONN team in disarray. If you want to count WVU, then 2-3 but not sure they are in the tournament.
You confuse me. A couple of weeks back, you were "hoopin" an old thread (I know, that's redundant), touting ND's win over WVU at ND. Throwing it in my face to prove that ND is an awesome team and I was wrong about them. Yet, you don't believe their next game against MU at WVU means anything. Is that because MU won?
Try to be consistent man.
BTW, why haven't you been "hoopin" that old thread as the ND losses mounted?
I've got MU at 9-6 road/neutral for the year. I will take that every single year.
Complaining about a 25-7 team that finished alone in 2nd place in the Big East is downright comical. When was the last time MU had as high as a 3 or even 4 seed in the NCAA's? Was it 2003?
Quote from: TedBaxter on March 10, 2012, 09:51:26 AM
Complaining about a 25-7 team that finished alone in 2nd place in the Big East is downright comical. When was the last time MU had as high as a 3 or even 4 seed in the NCAA's? Was it 2003?
Not that you don't already know, but the best seed we've had since Wade graced the hallowed halls of MU is 6. This year we're virtually assured a 3/4 seed yet we got a bunch of hairy wet cats in this joint menstruating up a storm before the real games are even played. High comedy indeed.