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While he can occasionally be a little over the top in his predictions, few east coast guys work harder/provide more than Rothstein IMO. Interesting new weekly feature of his is up on CBSSports.com, including some of his thoughts on X and 3 Big East games to look forward to this weekend

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... ity-for-uk

I really like Xavier's toughness. I think they will continue to be a very difficult W for anyone coming to the Cintas Center. With this roster, their path to 20 wins and a tournament bid doesn't look nearly as daunting as last season.

for those that said I was wrong about the a10...

talking about the American:
That league is now fighting tooth and nail with the Atlantic 10 and the Big East for extra bids, and it adds that much more importance to each non-league game that is played between those conferences in November and December.

Chalmers0 wrote:While he can occasionally be a little over the top in his predictions, few east coast guys work harder/provide more than Rothstein IMO.

He may work hard, but I don't know that he works smart. I think he is nothing more than a shill and cheerleader for east coast teams, regardless of conference or level. All he ever says is, " [insert random eastern team] is a really tough team. They have a very good player in [insert player name] and they really get after it."

I've never been a Rothstein fan and don't usually think much of his analysis. In this case, I do think he is right about X, but that is the exception that proves the rule.

stever20 wrote:for those that said I was wrong about the a10...

talking about the American:
That league is now fighting tooth and nail with the Atlantic 10 and the Big East for extra bids, and it adds that much more importance to each non-league game that is played between those conferences in November and December.

One observation 2 weeks into the season makes you right?

It's still not good, and several teams want to leave.

Bluejay wrote:

Chalmers0 wrote:While he can occasionally be a little over the top in his predictions, few east coast guys work harder/provide more than Rothstein IMO.

He may work hard, but I don't know that he works smart. I think he is nothing more than a shill and cheerleader for east coast teams, regardless of conference or level. All he ever says is, " [insert random eastern team] is a really tough team. They have a very good player in [insert player name] and they really get after it."

I've never been a Rothstein fan and don't usually think much of his analysis. In this case, I do think he is right about X, but that is the exception that proves the rule.

In fairness to Rothstein, in this instance, he was not offering a knee jerk reaction in favor of East Coast teams. In fact, he specifically said that going into this season, he did not expect much of the A10. He was specifically commenting on the facts of the UMass win over LSU and the VCU win over Virginia. His point was that unexpected wins like these over power conference opponents can overcome the doubts about the A10 losses of some of its premier programs like Temple, Xavier, and Butler.

stever20 wrote:for those that said I was wrong about the a10...

talking about the American:
That league is now fighting tooth and nail with the Atlantic 10 and the Big East for extra bids, and it adds that much more importance to each non-league game that is played between those conferences in November and December.

Of course boosting the A10 was not his point in that particular comment, Steve. He was simply saying that at large bids are going to be harder to come by than ever due to increased competition.

Not saying you're wrong, just saying that comment doesn't support your point.

xu1990 wrote:I really like Xavier's toughness. I think they will continue to be a very difficult W for anyone coming to the Cintas Center. With this roster, their path to 20 wins and a tournament bid doesn't look nearly as daunting as last season.

I didn't expect much of Stainbrook coming into this season, but I must say that I was impressed with him in this game. Rothstein raises an interesting point when he says that Xavier seems likely to benefit more from the new rules than most.

this writer's observations are nothing new and if anything bass ackwards, conferences don't compete for bids, teams within conferences do. He basically told you what I told you (in a different fashion) weeks ago though about the NBE, that being the ooc portion of NBE was now much, much more critical because the OBE league games against Cuse, ND, Pitt, L'ville, UCONN, Cincinnati are gone. That's the only competition the conferences are in re: bids, they are competing for a high conf rpi prior to league action.

I've been really really impressed with Stainbrook this year. He's been everything we've needed down low.