2018-19 Bracketology Thread

[Westbrook#36]

What is "the other board?"

https://csnbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=771

That's hilarious, so that's where stever goes when he doesn't want to get smacked repeatedly over the head for being a disingenuous tool and talking out both sides of his mouth.

Basically, it's just stever in his own little echo chamber with no one to disagree with him or offer an opposing point of view. How sad.

[jfan]

Yeah, I also went over there. You did have a typical shocker troll to respond to him. The perfect aaaaaack site. It's supposed to be a BE site, but all they do is tell each other how bad we are. They can tell each other how great the AAC is and how bad the NBE is (yes, even after 2 NC in the last 3 years we are still NBE to shocker fanboy) and no one will argue with them. Two peas in a stupid pod!

[kayako]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... acketology

Lunardi's latest has Butler first team out.

6 Marquette
7 Nova
8 Seton Hall
9 St. John's
9 Creighton

[MullinMayhem]

I really think it's funny how crazy people are going over SHU. Again, not crapping on them or disrespecting them...they are a solid team. But remember this was a team picked to be bottom half of the Big East and I still expect that. Pundits are talking about their winning streak, however it's been a pretty underwhelming one. They are not dominating teams or playing complete games. They literally got a game handed to them by refs and were getting blown out in several games recently until the other team took their foot off the gas and ended up losing. They're scrappy, but I don't think they will keep winning games like this all year consistently. Xavier literally gave the ball away every possession in the last 7-8 minutes last game after being up 10 not too much earlier. How many teams they play will do that? How many times will a ref award them a win in the last 3 seconds? I don't think I've seen a worse 7-8 minutes played by a Big East team in such a stretch in Xavier. Not a knock on Xavier, they're rebuilding and lost a ton. My point is that their record is inflated and misleading. If you actually watch the games, they are not a true Big East title contender. They squeak out wins in improbable fashion. The only player they have that is truly a bad man is Powell.

The top 5 IMO when all said and done will be:

1. Marquette
2. St. John's
3. Villanova
4. Butler
5. Creighton

The only games we've seen from Seton Hall in conference play so far have been: a loss vs. SJ that refs changed to a win and a come from behind win over a rebuilding Xavier team that coughed up the ball every possession late in the 2nd. Don't get me wrong...if they beat Marquette, Nova, etc. without them collapsing I'll be way more impressed.

[Hall2012]

I can't believe I'm wasting my time responding to this, but I really think it's funny how butthurt you are over SHU being good lol.

And if you're gonna keep whining about a call in the SHU game, at least acknowledge the refs gave you one just as bad if not worse against vcu. That was one of at least a dozen bad calls (both ways) throughout the game, any one of which being changed could have changed the result. Human error is part of the game and always will be until we fire all refs and have a computer officiate the game.

[sju88grad]

I can't believe I'm wasting my time responding to this, but I really think it's funny how butthurt you are over SHU being good lol.

And if you're gonna keep whining about a call in the SHU game, at least acknowledge the refs gave you one just as bad if not worse against vcu. That was one of at least a dozen bad calls (both ways) throughout the game, any one of which being changed could have changed the result. Human error is part of the game and always will be until we fire all refs and have a computer officiate the game.

Save your fingers....it’s not worth it.....

[hoops22]

Far more disappointing than the call at the end of the Hall game was the way St. John's played down the stretch. Give SH credit for capitalizing on it. It's over let it go, bad officiating is part of the game. Much more important was the way the team responded the following game against Marquette. Last years team would have had a hangover effect, and laid an egg. This years team was able to put it behind them and get back to business. Road wins against Georgetown and Nova, in the next two games, should send the message there's been a changing of the guard. It's a new dawn. Go Johnnies!!

[MullinMayhem]

Difference being that the VCU call was not nearly as obvious and even if they called the foul the VCU player may have missed FT's and still lost. As a team VCU shot 77% FT so not automatic.The VCU player's shot was not altered at all and there was no interruption in motion which they showed a lot in slow motion. Maybe he barely touched one of his arm hairs? The call against us robbed the game and was objective and clear as day. I'm not saying SJ is so amazing, I'm just saying that SHU is getting the royal treatment for really not proving much of anything. I will give them lots of credit for their OOC wins...ours should have been more like that. But SHU is far from a sure thing...their only great player is Powell. Other Big East teams have 3 or 4 great players. Just think the law of averages takes them back to earth soon. If they prove me wrong, I'll eat crow.

Also, I disagree completely...how was the SJ collapse in the 2nd half more disappointing than the call that literally stole the game from us? We still did enough to win even after that collapse...came down to ref call which was obviously wrong and became a national example of ref incompetence. Sure, we shouldn't have collapsed but obviously we still got through it and would've won. Getting a W turned to a L is a way more important thing than blowing a lead.

[billyjack]

Couple of thoughts...

- The VCU foul thing is a Stever concoction. It required 7 slow-mo replays to maybe kinda determine that contact was possibly made, and even then, the ball was out of the VCU guy's hand already. This is simply a muddy-the-waters attempt to minimize the fact that St John's is great and that they got hosed in Newark.

- Having said that, the Hall deserves credit for coming back down 12+ late, and drilling a three to win. Seton Hall is probably my favorite team to watch outside of PC.

- And having said that, i think the Johnnies have made their case, and will be rewarded in the next AP poll on Monday. Seton Hall will be ranked too. Win-win.

- And on top of that, pretty sure i'm tired of hearing about that Newark call and think it should be shelved until Selection Sunday in March, to jockey for a better seed for St John's. At this point it's been overplayed and you're going to lose sympathy. Move on..

- Following up on the VCU red herring... this last-second non-call argument can expand to countless other games... I'll take my Friars' win vs UMass for (1) the rolling pulling-guard block by Holloway for the go ahead layup, and (2) the non-foul-call 10 seconds later as Diallo was hammered on his final shot. Great, presto, PC was 11-2 in non-conference. I'll also take our win in the Big East tourney in 2016 on the bogus foul on Bentil vs Arcidiacono. Great! Another Big East Championship for Providence!

[Hall2012]

I disagree with the VCU call being a stever concoction - I saw complaints about that all over social media before I saw him mention it (though I wouldn't put it past him to create hundreds of twitter burner accounts just peddle his thoughts lol). It's all a matter of perspective. I think the VCU decision had a bigger impact because odds are a 75% free throw shooter hits 2 of 3 - or at least 1 to send it to OT.

In the SHU-SJU game, the odds still heavily favored SJU to win even after the bad whistle. The actual number obviously varies based on who's model you look at (and we should keep in mind that they are all imperfect), but ESPN's win probability model had St. John's at 93% odds to win after the bad whistle. They'd have certainly been at 99% without the whistle as SHU would have to foul and hit a half court shot, but they still had every chance to win in those last 3 seconds and were in fact heavy favorites to do so.

The VCU call is certainly more debatable as to whether it was right or wrong, but it also had a much bigger impact on the result.