The Ball talks Big East basketball

[TheBall]

Merry Christmas fellow BIG EAST fans. TheBall here to talk big east hoops.

First, I love this new conference. I think it is a fantastic platform for the ten member schools. The conference might not be what it once was, but for the ten schools involved it is as good or better. Schools like georgetown, nova and marquette had it good in the old big east, but St. John's, PC and shu really got lost in the crowd. The new version of the big east is a better place for them. And it is a great place for the three new schools. A conference is all about opportunity to succeed, competitive pay, media exposure, and a common goal among the members. This conference has it all. Play well and you will get rewarded with a good tourney seed. The exposure and money is phenomenal. And all the schools (except one) seem to have a real commitment to basketball, strong fan bases, and a goal of putting a quality product in the floor.

On the new schools, huge fan of all three. Creighton, we will all be forever grateful for your inaugural season. Xavier is a school that should have been added a decade ago and is a huge upgrade over cincy. And butler has strong fans, a great venue, and solid brand recognition due to their recent success. And I a, glad to see butler has righted the ship with their new coach.

The big east tournament is only going to become a more impressive event. I am confident of this because three schools, st johns, seton hall, and providence (who has a strong nyc alumni base) are going to be more involved. The past decade, these schools had no involvement in the event, so their fan base involvement dwindled. Now that they have a chance to play on Friday and Saturday night they should pick it up a bit and help keep the garden at capacity for the event.

Love fox sports' commitment to the league. Every game on TV? That's amazing. Some of these games really should not be televised, but I'm not complaining, I am just soaking as much of it up as I can. I can't believe I was able to watch nova v NJIT the other day. But that's just the tip. Their marketing has been great. Watch NFL on fox and you get bombed with big east basketball promotions. That is going to be huge for recruiting. And not to mention nine games in their main network station this yr. That pre-game show before the nova v cuse game was like a half hour tribute to Jay wright. That type of exposure goes beyond dollars.

Cannot wait for the New Years marathon. What a great event. Sure it might go up against some college football games some years, but who cares? Every team has to play 18 conference games, doesn't hurt to run one of those games for each school in this format. I will certainly be glued to these games all night (thank you TiVo).

On to my analysis of this year's conference

Over/under for bids: 4.5
Conference started hot, but too many of the teams that will end up in the bubble finished with some slip ups. I think 3 is locked up, and we should get a 4th, but I'm not sure about a 5th and would be very surprised with a 6th

Coach of the year: Steve Lavin.
This really could be wide open though. If butler, marquette Creighton or seton hall or providence make the dance, I could see their guys winning. If nova runs away with the league then jay could win. If georgetown makes a run then maybe jt3

Best NBA prospects
Kris Dunn. Kid looks real good from what I have seen. Size and athleticism.
Obekpa. With his size, he should make a team
Ochefu. Again, with his size I think he will find himself in the league
Josh hart. Has the athleticism for the NBA
Some of georgetown's freshmen. Not going to bother sorting them out now, but they look good.

Player of the year:
Harrison, sju.

On to the teams:

1. Villanova. We all know what we have here.

2. Johnnies. If this were a video game, I'm taking the johnnies. Just a great combination of pieces for their top 6. Lavin's offense is more street ball, but he has the pieces to run it, and defensively they work very well together.

These are the only two teams I feel real comfortable about making the dance.

3. Hoyas. No bad losses, but no good wins either. Huge game at the garden Saturday against the Hoosiers. Have the pieces to be a top 25 team, but need to put it together. Hopefully Florida puts it together and looks like a good win in March. I expect them to make the dance. Saturday's game is huge.

The following teams are alive, but each have enough hiccups whereby they have put themselves in jeopardy

4. Providence. Cleaned up in the ACc this year. Looked real sluggish at Boston college and then laid an egg against brown, but otherwise have done enough to enter conference play thinking they have a shot at an at large bid. They looked real good against Miami.

5. Seton Hall. I have been impressed. Delgado is real nice, he will be a complete beast and player of the yr candidate by sr year. Loss of whitehead stings, and I hope they don't bring him back too soon. Next yr this could be the team to beat in the big east. I think they can still withstand the loss of whitehead a bit too (maybe stay .500'ish and then win a couple more when he returns). That Georgia game was ridiculous.

6. Butler. They have the big one against UNC and beat georgetown, but I was underwhelmed by what I saw from them against Tennessee and indiana.

The following teams are on the outside due to some bad losses, but still have a chance. It is tough to earn an at large bid with the number of losses these guys suffered ooc. However, if they come away with 11 conference wins they are in the picture.

7. Marquette. Only one bad loss, but not really anything good. They are playing well now though Long term this program is in great shape. I couldn't stand buzz williams and thought he was a clown making top 10 coaching salary but not even a top 25 coach. I like their upgrade on the sidelines.

8. Creighton. Oklahoma is a good one to have on your resume come March. But then some bad losses to north Texas, Tulsa, ole miss. St Mary's is not a bad team, but they need to win that game. 4 ooc losses will be tough to overcome. They have such a great home court advantage that I could see them putting up a nice conference record and having a shot at the dance.

9. Xavier. Only 3 losses, but all three are bad. I guess at auburn isn't terrible, but this was a weak ooc schedule and they underwhelmed. I think they have good pieces, but they put themselves in a hole this November/ December. Should have only lost one game against that schedule. They looked great at missouri.

I only talk about 9 teams because there is another team in the conference that I do not think is putting forth their best effort and is just leeching off the conference right now. Get a new coach already, the current guy obviously is not working.

[ChestRockwell85]

Is this THE ball?

[Jet915]

Whose THE ball? BTW, agree about your take on that team not pulling it's weight.

[Omaha1]

Best first post ever?

[R Jay]

Best first post ever?

Definitely the longest first post ever.

[billyjack]

What team does The Ball follow? Villanova?

[GumbyDamnit!]

What team does The Ball follow? Villanova?

"Ball" or "NCAABall" is a Nova alum who has spent half of his life getting under the skin of opposing fan bases. You can find him over on our Rivals board. He has mellowed over the years but is always good for a backhanded compliment here or some agenda-filled criticism there. He really enjoys the subtle jabs--especially at the expense of Temple, Rutgers, BC (aka Fredo) and especially St. Joe's(PA). His former tact was to either infiltrate or simply blitzkrieg an opposing team' board until they just couldn't take any more. He's somewhere between a genius and a 7 year old. Hoping it's not him as I'm not sure he'd be a good addition to a collaborative board like this. But he is at times amusing--especially if you are a die hard Nova fan, as he clearly is.

[billyjack]

What team does The Ball follow? Villanova?

"Ball" or "NCAABall" is a Nova alum who has spent half of his life getting under the skin of opposing fan bases. You can find him over on our Rivals board. He has mellowed over the years but is always good for a backhanded compliment here or some agenda-filled criticism there. He really enjoys the subtle jabs--especially at the expense of Temple, Rutgers, BC (aka Fredo) and especially St. Joe's(PA). His former tact was to either infiltrate or simply blitzkrieg an opposing team' board until they just couldn't take any more. He's somewhere between a genius and a 7 year old. Hoping it's not him as I'm not sure he'd be a good addition to a collaborative board like this. But he is at times amusing--especially if you are a die hard Nova fan, as he clearly is.

Thanks.
By the way, what is the best Villanova board? VU Hoops doesn't load half the time for me.

[ivet]

What team does The Ball follow? Villanova?

"Ball" or "NCAABall" is a Nova alum who has spent half of his life getting under the skin of opposing fan bases. You can find him over on our Rivals board. He has mellowed over the years but is always good for a backhanded compliment here or some agenda-filled criticism there. He really enjoys the subtle jabs--especially at the expense of Temple, Rutgers, BC (aka Fredo) and especially St. Joe's(PA). His former tact was to either infiltrate or simply blitzkrieg an opposing team' board until they just couldn't take any more. He's somewhere between a genius and a 7 year old. Hoping it's not him as I'm not sure he'd be a good addition to a collaborative board like this. But he is at times amusing--especially if you are a die hard Nova fan, as he clearly is.

So basically a troll? Hope admin fixes that. Would hate to see this board end up being like The CSNbbs board.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Scout board: Benchwarmers is where you can find some lively Nova Hoops discussion.
https://villanova.rivals.com/forum.asp?sid=&fid=1159