Standings as of Monday

[stever20]

Def tough scheduling for both Butler and SHU but it's a marathon not a sprint. Creighton is going to be interesting to watch this year. They have the biggest home court advantage in the league IMO. I expect them to get at least 6 or 7 home wins in conf. If they can beat DePaul away and steal 1 or 2 others, they could finish .500 or better. That gets them on the bubble.

.500 for Creighton doesn't get them even close to the bubble unless they win 2 games in the conference tourney. They are 9-4 right now, you add 9-9 and that's 18-13. Even 2 wins in the tourney and they're only 20-14 and even that's difficult to get in the tourney with a record that mediocre. Creighton really needs 11 wins in conference play to get in the tourney IMO. That gets them to 20-11 going into the BET and should get them in.

As St John's showed last year, a bad start can be fatal. They were 7-2 2nd half of the conference season(2nd best) but because of the hole they dug early, they were out. Or a team like Butler who never recovered from their slow start. It can get real late real quickly. Given how most every team needs 10 conference wins, you go 0-3, and you are faced with going 10-5 the rest of the way to get in. That's tough in a league with as much parity as we have.

[hoops22]

Surprised St. John's is only a 1 point favorite against Seton Hall. I guess if Whitehead were healthy the Hall would have been favored.

[hoyahooligan]

It'll be interesting to see how much Creighton's home court is really worth. I thought it was overblown going into the season. After the Oklahoma win, I thought there might be something to it. But after watching St. Mary's win there, and South Dakota take them to 2OT I'm back to thinking the whole thing is a little overblown. I don't think Creighton's home court is really worth more than the 4pts everyone elses is and I think Creighton is more than 4pts worse than most of the other BE teams. The crowd and noise level really cause a miniscule effect. Most of road games being harder is just the fact that it's a different environment.

[stever20]

It'll be interesting to see how much Creighton's home court is really worth. I thought it was overblown going into the season. After the Oklahoma win, I thought there might be something to it. But after watching St. Mary's win there, and South Dakota take them to 2OT I'm back to thinking the whole thing is a little overblown. I don't think Creighton's home court is really worth more than the 4pts everyone elses is and I think Creighton is more than 4pts worse than most of the other BE teams. The crowd and noise level really cause a miniscule effect. Most of road games being harder is just the fact that it's a different environment.

What is interesting about Creighton is pretty much all their tough confernece games are in the 2nd half of the season. St John's, Georgetown, Marquette, Butler, Villanova, and Xavier all in the last 10 games of the season at home. They have only 2 teams not in the RPI top 40 in the first 8 games- DePaul at home and Marquette on the road- with 5 of those games on the road.

[R Jay]

It'll be interesting to see how much Creighton's home court is really worth. I thought it was overblown going into the season. After the Oklahoma win, I thought there might be something to it. But after watching St. Mary's win there, and South Dakota take them to 2OT I'm back to thinking the whole thing is a little overblown. I don't think Creighton's home court is really worth more than the 4pts everyone elses is and I think Creighton is more than 4pts worse than most of the other BE teams. The crowd and noise level really cause a miniscule effect. Most of road games being harder is just the fact that it's a different environment.

Not that I disagree completely, but we did have a 24 game winning streak coming into the St. Mary's game. The truth was that it was going to end at some point. We are still 168-26 at CenturyLink Center. And around 110-120 of those wins aren't because of Dougie and friends...
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Maybe if we win this year you'll finally give credit where credit is due.

[stever20]

It'll be interesting to see how much Creighton's home court is really worth. I thought it was overblown going into the season. After the Oklahoma win, I thought there might be something to it. But after watching St. Mary's win there, and South Dakota take them to 2OT I'm back to thinking the whole thing is a little overblown. I don't think Creighton's home court is really worth more than the 4pts everyone elses is and I think Creighton is more than 4pts worse than most of the other BE teams. The crowd and noise level really cause a miniscule effect. Most of road games being harder is just the fact that it's a different environment.

Not that I disagree completely, but we did have a 24 game winning streak coming into the St. Mary's game. The truth was that it was going to end at some point. We are still 168-26 at CenturyLink Center. And around 110 of those wins aren't because of Dougie and friends...

actually 103-19 w/o Dougie and friends now(65-7 with him).

[muskienick]

I believe the three "newbies" have a bit more to prove than the 7 holdovers from the Big East, especially Villanova, Georgetown, and Marquette. Those seven competed for years against the likes of very fine Louisville, UConn, Pitt, WVU, etc. teams. The newbies didn't have to face that level of competition during their Conference seasons for the most part.

So, in 2-3 more years, with consistently decent showings by the newbies (on the floor, in the polls, and in the post-season), Butler, Creighton, and Xavier will be given the respect they have earned.

[R Jay]

I believe the three "newbies" have a bit more to prove than the 7 holdovers from the Big East, especially Villanova, Georgetown, and Marquette. Those seven competed for years against the likes of very fine Louisville, UConn, Pitt, WVU, etc. teams. The newbies didn't have to face that level of competition during their Conference seasons for the most part.

So, in 2-3 more years, with consistently decent showings by the newbies (on the floor, in the polls, and in the post-season), Butler, Creighton, and Xavier will be given the respect they have earned.

Welcome to the Big East. We're in the same conference now, but you're still below us? OK. Good. Glad that's settled.
Do you realize that we weren't afforded the same opportunities to play major programs, particularly on our home courts, due to the fact that we were so strong as mid-majors, right?

[GumbyDamnit!]

Def tough scheduling for both Butler and SHU but it's a marathon not a sprint. Creighton is going to be interesting to watch this year. They have the biggest home court advantage in the league IMO. I expect them to get at least 6 or 7 home wins in conf. If they can beat DePaul away and steal 1 or 2 others, they could finish .500 or better. That gets them on the bubble.

.500 for Creighton doesn't get them even close to the bubble unless they win 2 games in the conference tourney. They are 9-4 right now, you add 9-9 and that's 18-13. Even 2 wins in the tourney and they're only 20-14 and even that's difficult to get in the tourney with a record that mediocre. Creighton really needs 11 wins in conference play to get in the tourney IMO. That gets them to 20-11 going into the BET and should get them in.

As St John's showed last year, a bad start can be fatal. They were 7-2 2nd half of the conference season(2nd best) but because of the hole they dug early, they were out. Or a team like Butler who never recovered from their slow start. It can get real late real quickly. Given how most every team needs 10 conference wins, you go 0-3, and you are faced with going 10-5 the rest of the way to get in. That's tough in a league with as much parity as we have.

I guess it all depnds on what your meaning of bubble is. Not saying CU would be in with a .500 record but they'd still be in the mix going into the BET. If they finished say 6th with wins over Nova and SJU or Gtwon or whoever else might be a Top team by years end, they'd be going into the BET with a chance. That would give them 3 Top 25 wins. Few bubble teams ccan usually tout something like that. Last year SJU had the same opportunity and then proceeded to lose to another bubble team in the BET. If CU and say Xavier are both on "the bubble" and face off in the BET first round I would imagine it would serve as an elimination game of sorts for both. You say they'd need 2 BET wins. Certainly with the parity in the league that isn't a huge ask. My point is that CU is certainly not dead in the water yet and if they do well at home (as they always have) they could surprise us all.

[GumbyDamnit!]

I believe the three "newbies" have a bit more to prove than the 7 holdovers from the Big East, especially Villanova, Georgetown, and Marquette. Those seven competed for years against the likes of very fine Louisville, UConn, Pitt, WVU, etc. teams. The newbies didn't have to face that level of competition during their Conference seasons for the most part.

So, in 2-3 more years, with consistently decent showings by the newbies (on the floor, in the polls, and in the post-season), Butler, Creighton, and Xavier will be given the respect they have earned.

I hate this mentality. It is centered in insecurity. I seldom see fans of Gtown or Nova making comments like this b/c we don't need to try to bring other programs down in order to trick ourselves into thinking we're superior. We just try to go out and prove we're a great program. All I know is that after year 1 the newbies produced 2 tourney bids and 3 tourney games, and the NPOY. The C7 only produced 2 bids and 3 games as well. So those NCAA games = credits or $ split between all schools. If anything Creighton and X should be applauded for contributing. If you're a fan of one of the other 6 teams you have some work to do in year 2+.