The Holy Land of Hoops

Two great games Monday night. The first closes out the front nine of the BE schedule. The second kicks off the back nine.

Xavier at #9 Villanova, 7pm, FS1.
Georgetown at DePaul, 9pm, FS1.

Xavier hit a blip in the road Saturday vs Mr Hyde. XU is still in great shape, and tonite's game will be fantastic, athletic, and one of the BE's best matchups.

Villanova swept Big 5 play with a dismantling of Temple. Looking forward to see how much the Wildcats climb in the rankings today.

DePaul still is without 3 of their stars, Melvin, Garrett Jr, and defensive specialist McKinney... but they found a hidden gem in RJ Curington on Saturday, who lit up the Friars for 20+ in a close loss Saturday. Why wasn't he playing more this year?

GEORGETOWN turned in the game of the year Saturday, with a huge win vs #7 Michigan State on the national stage in front of a loud and packed Madison Square Garden... on Super Bowl weekend... the Hoyas showed some serious guts and have turned the Big East's season around.
THANKS GEORGETOWN...!
HOYA SAXA...!!!

How much longer is Garrett supposed to be out?

Bluejay wrote:How much longer is Garrett supposed to be out?

Garrett Jr has been sick with some kind of intestinal on stomach thing (unofficially).
McKinney has a severe ankle sprain.
Melvin violated team rules.
Last time I checked, none of the had a timetable of when they'd return.
Garrett I think is the toughest loss for them, because he's been steady with low turnovers lately, and they've been good with him running the point.

X could make everyone forget about the Seton Hall debacle and pretty much punch their ticket tonight if they could beat Villanova. Possible, but doubtful. Hopefully Georgetown can ride some momentum from the MSU win and beat a depleted DePaul team to make themselves a bubble team again.

The last time Nova played a top conference foe at home on a Monday night was Creighton. That week we also jumped several spots in the poll released that day. Our opponent that day also "overlooked" their conference foe they figured to beat 2 days earlier, while Nova 2 days earlier played a lackluster 1st half then poured it on in an impressive 2nd half display. Don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like what happened this past weekend to me. Guess Nova should brace for a A++++ performance from X tonight.

Big night for the Big East. Nova's chance at getting a 1-seed can be dashed with a loss, and winning the conference regular season title would become much, much more difficult. Xavier will be able to all but stamp a bid barring a collapse down the stretch. Xavier is still a bubble team IMO after that SHU loss, though they're clearly on the right side of the bubble for now.

Georgetown obviously can't lose.

After being outplayed at home by Seton Hall on Saturday, I expect X to want to bounce back and prove their worth. I am a little worried by how we played on Saturday, but we can't win them all and Seton Hall played their butts off. Its was a good wake up call for X before a big game. X usually tends to show up for big games so it should be a good one. We played Creighton tough at their place, so I would expect us to try and make it a great game at Nova. Really looking forward to the game and I would love a victory so we can take one step closer to punching our ticket to the tournament. Its gonna be really tough but I think we have a chance. Can't wait for the game.

Pretty Big snow in Philadelphia area today. On campus is always sold out, but expect a reduced crowd. Game in three hours and snow now just stopping. Students will all be there though, so it could still be a decent crowd...they were probably sitting around and drinking all day as there were no classes.

As a Nova fan, I think we win this game at home, but I have some serious concerns going into this one. Xavier has size that Nova will have to deal with, and I'm especially worried about Stainbrook moving Ochefu around the paint. I could see some foul trouble for Nova if Xavier is getting the ball inside. Also, Nova won't be able to finish much at the rim so hopefully they're hitting their outside shots. And then there's always Semaj who is aggressive as hell and will be trying to dribble penetrate constantly.

Nova has some advantages too, of course. After all, the line is Nova -10 and they really should take care of business at home, but those are just some of my concerns heading into tonight. Looking forward to a good game.

Huge game tonight in Philly - really looking forward to it.