Big East 2024 Offseason

[wadesworld]

Clingan only played 7 minutes? If there’s ever a time to play double bigs it’s against Xavier.

[MuggsyB]

Clingan only played 7 minutes? If there’s ever a time to play double bigs it’s against Xavier.

That's bizarre. 

[1318WWells]

hopkins/uconn reminds me a lot of greg elliott, no?

  *hawkins

+1

[StillAWarrior]

Saw that - nice gesture. And it explains the jerseys, but not the logo (which still confuses me). Xavier hoops on Twitter also used the logo, so it's not like it's was a FS1 thing.  Must go along with the uniform stuff, just no explanation.

The logo was also on all the coaches’ shirts. Definitely not an FS1 thing.

[wisblue]

The gap between the top 5 in the BE and the bottom 6 is on full display tonight.

[PGsHeroes32]

The gap between the top 5 in the BE and the bottom 6 is on full display tonight.

Especially in home games.

We should not expect to get any help from the bottom 6 in games where they are the road team forsure. So we best keep winning ours against them as well.

Still 4 of those left

[Carl]

Top of the league showing out tonight. In the end UConn dug too big of a hole but they looked pretty impressive in the 2nd half. Can’t believe there was a ball in the air to force OT after those first 20 minutes

[Herman Cain]

Cooley & Company with a solid win over The Bulldogs . The Friars seem very comfortable in their home arena .

Creighton puts up 104 in a 28 point win over The Johnnies .  Blue Jays starters putting up a lot of production tonight

[wisblue]

Maybe a small one, but with so many games left who knows.

I think Xavier’s win over UConn was a significant development that makes X the clear favorite.

Until last night none of the top 5 teams had won a home game against any of the other top 5 teams. With that win, and its  home win over MU in the bank, MU has to win the rematch with X and win at UConn to keep pace.

X cracked the door open with their loss to DePaul but if they also win at Creighton on Saturday they will be throwing down the gauntlet for MU and Providence.

[PGsHeroes32]

I think Xavier’s win over UConn was a significant development that makes X the clear favorite.

Until last night none of the top 5 teams had won a home game against any of the other top 5 teams. With that win, and its  home win over MU in the bank, MU has to win the rematch with X and win at UConn to keep pace.

X cracked the door open with their loss to DePaul but if they also win at Creighton on Saturday they will be throwing down the gauntlet for MU and Providence.

No we don't.

We have to win at DePaul where X lost

[MuggsyB]

No we don't.

We have to win at DePaul where X lost

True.  Also, there are ni guarantees UCONN will be "top 5".  MU controls its own destiny.  Obviously beating Xavier at home is critical in our overall quest. 

[wisblue]

True.  Also, there are ni guarantees UCONN will be "top 5".  MU controls its own destiny.  Obviously beating Xavier at home is critical in our overall quest.

Xavier controls its own destiny and has a leg up.

Whether UConn ends up top 5 or not does remain to be seen, but they are likely to be in the NCAA tournament, and they are going to be very hard for MU to beat on the road. They present matchup problems for MU that are much less of a problem for X with their size and experience.

I still hold on to my expectation that MU is not going to go 7-0 in their remaining games against non contenders. I can’t single out where the clunker or clunkers will fall, but when you roll dice snake eyes come up occasionally like they did for Xavier at DePaul.

I’m not saying that they have wrapped up the league by any means, but the probability of them winning the conference went up significantly with last night’s win.

[Scoop Snoop]

Xavier controls its own destiny and has a leg up.

Whether UConn ends up top 5 or not does remain to be seen, but they are likely to be in the NCAA tournament, and they are going to be very hard for MU to beat on the road. They present matchup problems for MU that are much less of a problem for X with their size and experience.

I still hold on to my expectation that MU is not going to go 7-0 in their remaining games against non contenders. I can’t single out where the clunker or clunkers will fall, but when you roll dice snake eyes come up occasionally like they did for Xavier at DePaul.

I’m not saying that they have wrapped up the league by any means, but the probability of them winning the conference went up significantly with last night’s win.

Yep. Both Marquette and UCONN took it on the chin last night. Xavier is in the driver's seat for now.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Yep. Both Marquette and UCONN took it on the chin last night. Xavier is in the driver's seat for now.

Both Marquette and Xavier have an equal chance of winning the conference outright per Torvik. X is 5-1 in conference games decided by five points or less (MU is 1-2).  That's 60% of their games so far that have gone down to the wire and could have gone either way (certainly credit their experience and coaching staff but Lady Luck needs to catch up).

#believe

[MU82]

Interesting last 9 seconds of the X-UConn game.

X was up 3, and during a time-out Brando and Spanarkel made it a major point to say that Miller likes to foul in that situation.

But when the ball was inbounded, Miller clearly had told his guys to defend the 3-point line and NOT foul. They did a great job, and none of UConn's shooters could get a good look. When Claude bumped a non-shooting Newton with about 2 seconds left, Claude's reaction made it clear that Miller definitely did not want a foul there.

Newton made the first FT and tried to miss the second ... but ended up swishing it, much to his dismay. X was able to inbound the ball cleanly, sealing the win.

[tower912]

This is heretical, I know, but if MU goes 15-5 and X goes 16-4 (for example) tip your hat and look back on a really good season.

[MU82]

This is heretical, I know, but if MU goes 15-5 and X goes 16-4 (for example) tip your hat and look back on a really good season.

It won't matter when we beat them in the Final Four.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Interesting last 9 seconds of the X-UConn game.

X was up 3, and during a time-out Brando and Spanarkel made it a major point to say that Miller likes to foul in that situation.

But when the ball was inbounded, Miller clearly had told his guys to defend the 3-point line and NOT foul. They did a great job, and none of UConn's shooters could get a good look. When Claude bumped a non-shooting Newton with about 2 seconds left, Claude's reaction made it clear that Miller definitely did not want a foul there.

Newton made the first FT and tried to miss the second ... but ended up swishing it, much to his dismay. X was able to inbound the ball cleanly, sealing the win.

The time out out of the last huddle was at 9 seconds and UCONN was in the double bonus. So Miller's strategy was not to foul and to defend to keep it simple (the rule, is to foul if under 5 seconds in that situation). As it was, as the announcer noted, the accidental foul was a good one as it came at 2 seconds.

Yet that debate will be ongoing as UCONN was still able to get a desperation heave off at the buzzer.

[MU82]

The time out out of the last huddle was at 9 seconds and UCONN was in the double bonus. So Miller's strategy was not to foul and to defend to keep it simple (the rule, is to foul if under 5 seconds in that situation). As it was, as the announcer noted, the accidental foul was a good one as it came at 2 seconds.

Yet that debate will be ongoing as UCONN was still able to get a desperation heave off at the buzzer.

One could argue that the accidental foul wasn't a very good one, as UConn had absolutely nothing cooking. If they were able to get any shot at all off, it would have been not that much better than the desperation heave they ended up with. But yes, the accidental foul turned out OK.

One thing that seems to have emerged as a universal truth is that while plenty of coaches do not automatically foul up 3, all announcers, both PBP guys and analysts, now call for doing so. I can't remember the last analyst on a game I was watching who didn't advocate for the strategy.

[wisblue]

The time out out of the last huddle was at 9 seconds and UCONN was in the double bonus. So Miller's strategy was not to foul and to defend to keep it simple (the rule, is to foul if under 5 seconds in that situation). As it was, as the announcer noted, the accidental foul was a good one as it came at 2 seconds.

Yet that debate will be ongoing as UCONN was still able to get a desperation heave off at the buzzer.

I heard the announcer say that Miller likes to foul when it’s between 4 and 11 seconds. (Though maybe my old ears heard 11 when he said 7). IMHO, with 9 seconds left, fouling intentionally before the opponent can get a shot off is going to leave too much time on the clock. So, I agree with what Xavier did.

Ask Rutgers how it worked for them when they fouled intentionally with a 3 point lead and 5 seconds left against Ohio State.

[CTWarrior]

The way I look at it, in simplest terms MU, UConn, PC, Creighton and X would finish at 16-4 (losing on the road to each other and winning all other games).

So far, deviations from that are

MU, PC, Creighton:  None, still on schedule to finish 16-4.
UConn:  Losses at SHU, home to StJ and X (3 bad) - projection 13-7
X:  Win at UConn, loss at DePaul (1 good, 1 bad), so still projected at 16-4

So I just look for deviations from first sentence to see how things are going.  Of course, not perfect, but of the five teams only UConn seems to have played their way out of title consideration.

[wisblue]

I guess I’m looking beyond pure numbers and the metric sites and concluding that Xavier’s veteran team will hold up better as the season gets into the “dog days” of February and March.

MU is saying the right things about avoiding a finish similar to last year that included some losses that nobody would have expected after they completed the sweep of Villanova. Time will tell if they can back that up.

[GoldenEagles03]

Both Marquette and Xavier have an equal chance of winning the conference outright per Torvik. X is 5-1 in conference games decided by five points or less (MU is 1-2).  That's 60% of their games so far that have gone down to the wire and could have gone either way (certainly credit their experience and coaching staff but Lady Luck needs to catch up).

#believe

Nope.  Marquette controls their own destiny.  They didn't take any hits last night.  If anything it makes it more clear on what they have to do.

Win. Win. Win. Win. Win.

[mugrad_89]

I guess I’m looking beyond pure numbers and the metric sites and concluding that Xavier’s veteran team will hold up better as the season gets into the “dog days” of February and March.

MU is saying the right things about avoiding a finish similar to last year that included some losses that nobody would have expected after they completed the sweep of Villanova. Time will tell if they can back that up.

Everyone except Chase, Sean and Ben experienced the grind of the Big East schedule last year, so I’m not worried about how they’ll handle it this year.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Nope.  Marquette controls their own destiny.  They didn't take any hits last night.  If anything it makes it more clear on what they have to do.

Win. Win. Win. Win. Win.

We actually don't know if MU controls its own destiny. Even if we win out, PC could win out or X could win out besides the game against us (they play each other twice so they can't both win out). With either we would be 1-1 in head to head so we have to move to the second tiebreaker, record against the third place team (or teams if there's a tie). We don't know who that third place team will be or how the tiebreakers would shake out. If X or Providence end up in that third spot, we would end up in second because X and Providence have yet to play each other (so if one of them is winning out, they would be 2-0 against the other).