The Holy Land of Hoops

Yeah, I know it`s still a week away, and there`s still some big games to be played.
I`m just starting to get pumped now that it`s getting close.
So here it is

Tuesday, Dec 31 all on FS1
SJU @ Xavier Noon
SHU @ PC 2:30
DePaul @ G-Town 5pm
Nova @ Butler 7:30
Marq @ Creighton 10pm

Saturday, Jan 4
SJU @ G-Town 1pm FS1
Butler @ Xavier 2pm FSN
DePaul @ Marq 2pm CBSSN
Creighton @ SHU 3pm FS1

Sunday, Jan 5
PC @ Nova 7pm FS1

I`ll take at the worst 1-1 with 2 road game, cannot go 0-2 to start the season.

IT'S ALMOST HERE! IT'S ALMOST HERE!!!!

Might I suggest posting your predictions and keeping your tally throughout the year to see how everyone does?

On the 31st I'll take:

Xavier
Providence
Georgetown
Butler
Creighton

Two extremely difficult games to pick IMHO with 'Nova at Hinkle and SJU at Xavier.

NewBigEastConf wrote:Might I suggest posting your predictions and keeping your tally throughout the year to see how everyone does?

Great idea I was thinking of doing this myself.

Dec 31st:
Xavier
Providence
Georgetown
Villanova
Creighton

Jan 4/5:
St. John's
Xavier
Marquette
Creighton
Villanova

I suggest doing this a week at a time, JMO.


Dec. 31

Xavier
Prov.
G'Town
Nova
Creighton


Jan. 4/5

G'Town
Xavier
Marq.
Creighton
Nova

Like most others, going mostly with home court. Hoping Creighton can get SHU on the road but not expecting it to be easy. The Butler/Nova game intrigues me the most, outside of Creighton's games of course. That should be a good battle. Hopefully Nova can knock off Syracuse to build the hype even more.

12/31

X
PC
G'Town
Butler
Creighton

1/4-5

G'Town
X
Marquette
Creighton
Nova

SJU I expect to be 1-1 after this week. Rather get the X game to get that W over and @ G-Town would be playing with house money
But here`s my predictions

SJU
PC
G-Town
Villanova (Nothing against Butler, I just want Nova undefeated coming to MSG for another shot at a top5 team and yes that would mean a win at cuse)
Creighton

G-Town
Xavier (they wouldn`t start the season 0-2 while being home for both)
Marq
Creighton
Nova

Standings would be

Villanova 2-0
Creighton 2-0
Georgetown 2-0
ST. John`s 1-1
Providence 1-1
Marquette 1-1
Xavier 1-1
Butler 0-2
Seton Hall 0-2
DePaul 0-2

If Marquette loses to Creighton they will not make the tournament. Only other shot would be sweeping Nova.

My thoughts:

Great opportunities for butler, creighton and georgetown to enter the national trankings conversation.
I think butler beats nova (giving nova 2 consecutive road losses before they win against providence). Butler will probably be underdogs at xavier, but a win there would show they are a real tourney team.
Creighton has the easy game against the hall, but must beat marquette.
Georgetown has the easy game against depaul, but must beat marquette.

At this point I am looking for teams to distinguish themselves rather than be top to bottom strong. I want butler and creighton to beat xavier and marquette. Butler and creighton have a chance to be ranked, marquette and xavier are already considered mediocre and their beating of our better teams doesn't help.

The johnnies and providence need to split their games to stay in the discussion. Each has a game they should win, but each has a game they should lose.

We should all be rooting for depaul and seton hall to lose every game. A win against anybody else hurts the conference. We want more top 50 and top 100 teams in the conference, and the hall and depaul can be our sacrificial lambs.

Nova is probably going to drop 2 straight, and slip to 15'ish in the polls. They will bounce back though.

So Marquette is in a must win situation in their first league game? Cause I don't see them sweeping Nova.