The Holy Land of Hoops

It's July, so OBVIOUSLY it's time for us to start our Big East basketball previews. We do one team a week and usually wrap up right around the time practice starts. This week was Butler, and we talked with Zak Keefer of the Indy Star. That interview starts around the 12-minute mark of the podcast, with our thoughts in the following segment. Our other guest, if anyone's interested, was Creighton transfer point guard Maurice Watson Jr.

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Never too early to start looking forward to the season. Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it.

Thanks for posting this, enjoyed the chat with Zak. Think he does a great job covering Butler as well as the Pacers once the college basketball season is over.

I don't necessarily enjoy folks predicting Butler to finish so low, but I can't say I strongly disagree with anything that was said. IMO, they'll have trouble scoring at times, and this year should be a little better, but I think next season is when they'll make a bigger jump in terms of quality of play (but then again, so will a lot of other Big East schools with this year's recruiting class).

Looking forward to coming out to Century Link Center and checking out some of the facilities this year. Going to try to hit up that, the Bradley Center and All State in late November.

Listened to the Podcast.

1) I wish Georgetown had something like this. Very impressive.

2) Don't really like the guys though, if they were for my team I'm sure I'd love them, because they're homers. Disagree with a lot of their opinions. Didn't like their attitude though. Very negative on the other BE teams and the conference in general. Really made me want Creighton to suffer this year so they can get some perspective.

hoyahooligan wrote:Listened to the Podcast.

1) I wish Georgetown had something like this. Very impressive.

2) Don't really like the guys though, if they were for my team I'm sure I'd love them, because they're homers. Disagree with a lot of their opinions. Didn't like their attitude though. Very negative on the other BE teams and the conference in general. Really made me want Creighton to suffer this year so they can get some perspective.

I agree with you on the negativity towards the league. I think Zak was honest in his assessment of Butler and their players, and for whatever reason that made these guys want to drop them down from wherever they originally had them. I can understand their optimism towards their team though. Regardless of not making the second weekend of the tournament despite having one of the best collegiate basketball players in history, they've been winning the last few years no matter what league they've been in, and regardless of what they lost from last year's team, I understand why they think that everything should be fine next year and going forward, and we'll all see how they do in the post-McBuckets era, but they have a ton of fan and financial support, so I don't expect them to stay down long in this league, if at all.

Last year Marquette and Georgetown were much worse than what they've been most years. I think once those two schools get back to doing what they do, everyone's opinion of the league (both inside and outside it) will improve immensely.

Yeah, obviously we get a little homerish. Just thought people might like to at least hear the interviews we'll do over the next couple months -- understand when others don't appreciate our personal opinions.

We each make our own personal predictions as we get close to the season, and then after the Final Four we always "go to the tape" and revisist those predictions. Inevitably one of us is always really close, and one of us is always way off (this year I think I predicted Villanova like fifth), with the other in between. We have fun making fun of each other and don't take things to seriously.

BluejayBanterDanny wrote:Yeah, obviously we get a little homerish. Just thought people might like to at least hear the interviews we'll do over the next couple months -- understand when others don't appreciate our personal opinions.

We each make our own personal predictions as we get close to the season, and then after the Final Four we always "go to the tape" and revisist those predictions. Inevitably one of us is always really close, and one of us is always way off (this year I think I predicted Villanova like fifth), with the other in between. We have fun making fun of each other and don't take things to seriously.

Right no worries keep doing your thing. Your show is for Creighton fans that's obviously who it should be catered to. I wish we had a people like you for the Hoyas on the Radio. Like I said, I'd love it if it was for my team. And I'm definitely interested in hearing other opinions. I personally disagree with most of what was said, Buzz (not a good coach), St. John's (2nd next year), Villanova (head and shoulders above everyone could go undefeated), Hilliard(3rd best player on Nova) but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Just didn't care for the whole the The "catholic 7 schools aren't impressive at all" and "the league is going to stink more than last year stuff". I just think Creighton was spoiled last year by Dougie and that crew and a couple teams being down last year and will be in for a rude awakening this year.

I agree Creighton must suffer.

Professor_Bulldog wrote:I agree Creighton must suffer.

lol, can we please get a new thread with that quote.

Zak is a straight shooter and summed up the Dawg's pretty well. As he said, we are a year away. Barlow and Woods will be the only two seniors on the team. Etherington is already hurt, so his contribution is questionable.

I expect my Dawg's, DePaul, Marquette and Creighton to be battling for 7 -10 this year.