NCAA predictions (LINK ADDED)

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

#38 and #48 not very bullish on MU


https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-07-23/64-fearless-predictions-2018-19-college-basketball-season

[Marquette4life]

Huh

[Silkk the Shaka]

"4. Loyola-Chicago hovers around the top 25 all season

The Ramblers have plenty coming back and should run through the Missouri Valley once again."

Loyola is grossly overrated this year. While they will likely win the MVC on the basis that the conference is absolute garbage, they would be about a 5th/6th place team if they played in this year's down Big East, which means nowhere near a top 25 team, and likely should not make the tournament without the auto-bid.

[Its DJOver]

Little to no analysis of anybody.  Saying Scruggs, who averaged less than 5 ppg last year, will be a star is more than a little bold.  I wouldn't read too much into anything here.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

#38 and #48 not very bullish on MU


https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2018-07-23/64-fearless-predictions-2018-19-college-basketball-season

For those wondering:

38. Marquette's Markus Howard averages at least 23 points per game

Marquette might not be that good, but Howard is a scoring machine who will have plenty of opportunities. He averaged 20.4 last season and Andrew Rowsey has moved on.

48. The Big East still sends half of its league to the NCAA tournament

Villanova, Xavier, Creighton, Providence, Butler and others lost key pieces. But these teams always seem to figure it out and have high-level coaches. A few unexpected squads will pop.

38. is funny.

48. I don't think says anything bad about Marquette. It says the Big East will send 5 teams to the dance (which I think is correct). It doesn't say who those teams will be.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Little to no analysis of anybody.  Saying Scruggs, who averaged less than 5 ppg last year, will be a star is more than a little bold.  I wouldn't read too much into anything here.

Scruggs will be good, that is a simple one.

[Its DJOver]

Scruggs will be good, that is a simple one.

There's a difference between good, and a star.  He may end up being a star. I don't know, but saying it now, based on what he has done this far is a very bold statement, that is a simple one.

[jsglow]

Meaningless offseason drivel.  Nothing to see here.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Two of these should be combined into "Hiroshima:  Wojo underachieves while Shaka makes the Final 4".

[Jay Bee]

Surprise, surprise, the author is a young Butler grad.

"7. Butler's Kamar Baldwin wins Big East Player of the Year"

This is essentially a Belcher Report slideshow article, just on ncaa.com

Doesn't pass the #eyetest

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Surprise, surprise, the author is a young Butler grad.

"7. Butler's Kamar Baldwin wins Big East Player of the Year"

This is essentially a Belcher Report slideshow article, just on ncaa.com

Doesn't pass the #eyetest

Explains his disdain for Marquette. We've played like crap the last few times we've played them.

[dgies9156]

Look, for the national media to show us some love, one of two things has to happen. First, we needed a five-star recruit which, candidly, we don't have. Second, we had to come off something inspirational, which we aren't.

Hence, the after-thought treatment.

Loyola was a great story. From Sister Jean to an also-ran making the Final Four, it was every writer's dream. They're in a conference that's been crappy since Wichita State left and, if they played us 10 times last year, we'd probably have beaten them eight times.

Nobody cared because everyone wanted to cheer for an underdog, which is what the media did with Loyola. Great story, good kids and hustle. Any chance it will happen again? Never say never, but DePaul has a better chance of making the NCAA than Loyola does of returning to the Final Four.

As for us, we were totally uninspiring last year. No defense. No big wins and certainly no wins against Villanova. We make the NIT and get eliminated in the round of eight by Penn State. Yeah, that Penn State. A football school! Our team coming in is very good, no doubt. But there's no five-stars and until we begin to play some defense, nobody will take Marquette seriously.

We'll sneak up on a lot of people, I do hope. But until we win a few we should lose, we're going to be an also-ran. Hopefully, that comes early in the season!

[Its DJOver]

Look, for the national media to show us some love, one of two things has to happen. First, we needed a five-star recruit which, candidly, we don't have. Second, we had to come off something inspirational, which we aren't.

Hence, the after-thought treatment.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/24186505/basketball-power-index-surprise-west-virginia-mountaineers-marquette-golden-eagles

We're getting more favorable coverage than almost any NIT team.  I have yet to see a "Way Too Early" Big East ranking that doesn't have us in the top half, and most have us in the top 3.  Despite what we all might think, a lot of these writers know a bit about college basketball too.  There will always be some biases (Butler being favored by a Butler grad here) but for the most part we've gotten more than our share of attention, and the majority of it has been both fair and positive.

[dgies9156]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/24186505/basketball-power-index-surprise-west-virginia-mountaineers-marquette-golden-eagles

We're getting more favorable coverage than almost any NIT team.  I have yet to see a "Way Too Early" Big East ranking that doesn't have us in the top half, and most have us in the top 3.  Despite what we all might think, a lot of these writers know a bit about college basketball too.  There will always be some biases (Butler being favored by a Butler grad here) but for the most part we've gotten more than our share of attention, and the majority of it has been both fair and positive.

I actually they continue to ignore us. We're going to be good, no doubt. But it will be an even better story when we come out of the cheesy hinterlands to defeat Kansas, Kansas Satte, Tennessee, Indiana and Wisconsin before we even get to the Big East!

[Silkk the Shaka]

Look, for the national media to show us some love, one of two things has to happen. First, we needed a five-star recruit which, candidly, we don't have. Second, we had to come off something inspirational, which we aren't.

Hence, the after-thought treatment.

Loyola was a great story. From Sister Jean to an also-ran making the Final Four, it was every writer's dream. They're in a conference that's been crappy since Wichita State left and, if they played us 10 times last year, we'd probably have beaten them eight times.

Nobody cared because everyone wanted to cheer for an underdog, which is what the media did with Loyola. Great story, good kids and hustle. Any chance it will happen again? Never say never, but DePaul has a better chance of making the NCAA than Loyola does of returning to the Final Four.

As for us, we were totally uninspiring last year. No defense. No big wins and certainly no wins against Villanova. We make the NIT and get eliminated in the round of eight by Penn State. Yeah, that Penn State. A football school! Our team coming in is very good, no doubt. But there's no five-stars and until we begin to play some defense, nobody will take Marquette seriously.

We'll sneak up on a lot of people, I do hope. But until we win a few we should lose, we're going to be an also-ran. Hopefully, that comes early in the season!

Disagree with that. They were a quality team last year that yes, got some lucky bounces in a single-elimination tournament. They were better than us last year though, no doubt. They should be an average team this year that will beat up on a bad conference and be overrated all year as a result. We would beat them 8/10 or better this year, of that I'm confident.

[Its DJOver]

I actually they continue to ignore us. We're going to be good, no doubt. But it will be an even better story when we come out of the cheesy hinterlands to defeat Kansas, Kansas Satte, Tennessee, Indiana and Wisconsin before we even get to the Big East!

Don't get me wrong, if we had made the tourney and made a run, I think we'd be getting more Loyola-esque coverage, but what NIT quarter final team is getting more preseason respect than us?  Then general consensus that everyone seems to be saying about us, is that we have a lot of potential, but it means nothing until we learn to play defense.  I don't think there is a better one sentence analysis of our team than that.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Disagree with that. They were a quality team last year that yes, got some lucky bounces in a single-elimination tournament. They were better than us last year though, no doubt. They should be an average team this year that will beat up on a bad conference and be overrated all year as a result. We would beat them 8/10 or better this year, of that I'm confident.

We had very very few quality wins last year.  We gave up almost 90 points per game in BE play.  To say we beat a good team 8 out of 10 times is pure revisionist history or early onset Alzheimer's.

Apologies i meant to copy the quote that stated we would have beaten Loyola 8 of 10 last year.  I am in agreement with the above statement, except for the 8-10 this year guarantee.  Until we demonstrate we can guard our shadow i have no more than a coin toss confidence that we can beat above average teams

[Silkk the Shaka]

We had very very few quality wins last year.  We gave up almost 90 points per game in BE play.  To say we beat a good team 8 out of 10 times is pure revisionist history or early onset Alzheimer's.

Apologies i meant to copy the quote that stated we would have beaten Loyola 8 of 10 last year.  I am in agreement with the above statement, except for the 8-10 this year guarantee.  Until we demonstrate we can guard our shadow i have no more than a coin toss confidence that we can beat above average teams

Loyola has a pre-conference rematch with Nevada. I would put money down that they will lose it by 10+. They will be an average team at best this year.

[Galway Eagle]

We had very very few quality wins last year.  We gave up almost 90 points per game in BE play.  To say we beat a good team 8 out of 10 times is pure revisionist history or early onset Alzheimer's.

Apologies i meant to copy the quote that stated we would have beaten Loyola 8 of 10 last year.  I am in agreement with the above statement, except for the 8-10 this year guarantee.  Until we demonstrate we can guard our shadow i have no more than a coin toss confidence that we can beat above average teams

Loyola had ugly losses to Milwaukee, Indiana St, Bradley, Missouri state and Boise St. meanwhile we had bad losses to Depaul, Georgia and St. John's (a St. John's team that took down duke and Nova that week).

If we had the schedule Loyola had last year we would've cleaned up. It's the catch 22 of being in a power conference, there's years where you're only ok for a High major, like last year or the ellenson year, but likely would've been great in a mid major conference and made the tournament.

[Jay Bee]

I have yet to see a "Way Too Early" Big East ranking that doesn't have us in the top half, and most have us in the top 3.  Despite what we all might think, a lot of these writers know a bit about college basketball too.

NBC Sports had us at #8 in the BEast (lol).

https://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/05/22/big-east-conference-reset-perennial-powers-must-reload/

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

NBC Sports had us at #8 in the BEast (lol).

https://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/05/22/big-east-conference-reset-perennial-powers-must-reload/

https://twitter.com/PaintTouches/status/1031950507894562817


Paint Touches
‏

@PaintTouches
Following Following @PaintTouches
More
And because we haven't poked fun at NBC Sports (and BPI) in a while, here's an overview of #mubb Big East projections to date:

BPI: 1
ESPN: 2
SI: 2
Roth: 2
Katz: 2
TRank: 3
NBC: 8

[Its DJOver]

NBC Sports had us at #8 in the BEast (lol).

https://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/05/22/big-east-conference-reset-perennial-powers-must-reload/

Similar to how the NCAA article was written by a Butler grad, I did a quick Google search on one Travis Hines and you'll never guess what B14 rodent based education he got.

Also, only having one all conference player feature in the top 4 teams is a little peculiar, especially considering that Mr. Spellman is no longer at Villanova.

[Tha Hound]

NBC Sports had us at #8 in the BEast (lol).

https://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2018/05/22/big-east-conference-reset-perennial-powers-must-reload/

Holy crap this is an abomination

[THRILLHO]

Similar to how the NCAA article was written by a Butler grad, I did a quick Google search on one Travis Hines and you'll never guess what B14 rodent based education he got.

Minnesota Golden Gophers?

[Jay Bee]

Minnesota Golden Gophers?

Iowa st I thought... maybe becky