How big is November 8 for the Big East?

[Bill Marsh]

Prediction: Georgetown beats Oregon

Can someone please explain to me why Oregon is ranked #18? Is that what a run to the Sweet 16 does for you? They were taken so lightly by the committee that they were only seeded #12, which means that despite their Pac-12 championship, the committee ranked them in the 40's. Wins over Oklahoma State and St. Louis jumped them to #15 in the final coaches' poll and deservedly so. But they lost their entire front court from that team including one player who was their leading scorer, another who was their leading rebounder, and a 3rd who was their leader in blocked shots. They also lost one of their 2 top reserves; in total, they lost 4 of their top 7 players. That's a lot to lose. They are rebuilding mostly around transfers who played at lower levels (CUSA, Mountain West, 2 JC's).

Meanwhile, Georgetown has everyone back except Porter. They bring in an outstanding transfer of their own (Smith) + Reggie Cameron, a 4-star recruit, and they drop out of the top 25?! Maybe they just didn't lose enough from last year. Maybe if they had lost 3 or 4 players, they would have been ranked higher. All I know is that Georgetown was an outstanding team last year. Their new recruits only add to the outstanding talent base they already have. With 4 returning starters, they should be able to bring their team together much more quickly for opening day than a team that is rebuilding to replace 3 starters and a total of 4 players from their 7 man rotation.

Consider that Oregon went up against 2 Big East teams last year and lost to both of them. Their loss to Louisville wasn't a big surprise, but an 11-point loss to Cincinnati on a neutral court doesn't speak highly of their ability to match up against Georgetown, who was a much better team than Cincinnati last year. In contrast, Georgetown's only game against the Pac-12 was an 8-point win over regular season champion UCLA.

This one really wasn't a tough call unless you want to judge Georgetown on one tournament game upset.

[Bill Marsh]

USA Today has an article on its website today, listing the 5 toughest non conference schedules in the country. Georgetown's is #2.

[XtoDC]

Totally agreed that Georgetown is severly underrated this season. I thought I would be very lonely this year when I was predicting Marquette to win the league, I figured everyone would be strongly behind Creighton and Georgetown. All 3 of those teams should easily be in the top 25 all season.

[JohnT]

My hopes for St Johns in this game have diminished based on Saturday's game. Wisconsin is the opposite of the sort of team the Johnnies would like to see here I think.

[stever20]

My hopes for St Johns in this game have diminished based on Saturday's game. Wisconsin is the opposite of the sort of team the Johnnies would like to see here I think.

I think you could say that for a lot of teams in the country quite frankly. Maybe one of the 10 toughest style teams to prepare for.

[Lavinwood]

Nov. 8th is huge. Especially for my Johnnies. It will essentially either deem us as "the real deal" to look out for as serious competitors OR "typical Johnnies...tons of individual talent, but no gel to them, and they can't handle expectations". We will find out soon. It's about time SJ lived up to expectations for once. Would be huge to take this one, since we won't have another national headlining game until December vs. Cuse which we are likely to lose.

[stever20]

just saw an ad on ESPN for the game on Friday with Georgetown and Oregon.... Can't wait!

[SJUREDMEN85]

Would be huge to take this one, since we won't have another national headlining game until December vs. Cuse which we are likely to lose.

Why are we likely to lose? Because they`re big bad cuse?
If SJU is the team I expect them to be then we could beat them.

But go ahead and fear them, I don`t

[Lavinwood]

Would be huge to take this one, since we won't have another national headlining game until December vs. Cuse which we are likely to lose.

Why are we likely to lose? Because they`re big bad cuse?
If SJU is the team I expect them to be then we could beat them.

But go ahead and fear them, I don`t

Do I think we have a chance? Sure we do...especially with our deep lineup we finally have a chance. Do I think it's likely we beat them? No. It would be considered a huge upset if we win that game. Cuse is a top 10 team. They have also won something like 13 of the last contests against us...in a row. They use MSG as their home court so it's a home game for them. You don't fear them? That's a little odd, considering most of us fear Wisconsin and they are only #20. Cuse is a perennial top 10 team and always pounds us especially. I think most of us fear them knowing we haven't won against them in what a decade or so? We can absolutely win the game, but we just can't seem to keep up with them in all the recent matchups I remember. Hopefully the streak ends. If we can somehow take down Wisconsin, take care of business against our cupcakes, and somehow beat Cuse, we will head into Christmas time as a top 15 team. That would be the perfect Christmas gift, but I'm not sure this team is consistent enough to be a top 25 team all year. We will be ranked if we beat Wisconsin on Friday...just that simple. If not we probably won't be unless we beat Cuse. It's about time we start winning these national statement games.

[78 friar]

If God forbid we were to go 0 and 3 on Friday night, friggin' ESPN wouldn't have a field day, they'd have a field"Month" with those opening night results.