THE Ball speaks - January 10, 2015

[TheBall]

Wild weekend of action. Good stuff. Here we go:

Nova - keep doing your thing. Good ball movement, excellent coaching, all class.

Big East player of the year is looking like a race between Sterling Gibbs and Daniel Ochefu right now. Kris Dunn and Henton splitting the votes and just on the outside. Right now I'm giving it to Gibbs. Yeah, he's a villain (you see him trash talking the creighton cheerleaders at the end of the game tonight?), but he is getting it done so far. He is what people were expecting out of Harrison.

Rookie of the year looks like it is Delgado's to loose.

Coach of the year is a 4 man race between GQ Jay, Willard, Cooley and Holtman. In reality, Jay deserves it (because you know, program building, recruiting, and player development do actually matter), but so much of coach of the year is about the guy who exceeds expectations, and Cooley, willard and holtman are doing a great job so far. JT3 has been the biggest bust thus far, but I still think the Hoyas put it together.

On to the teams:

Was a clusterf*ck between spots 2-7 for a while, but providence and seton hall are starting to separate. Some big wins and they look like they are only getting better.

I still have st john's up there with the hall and friars, but they are sliding a bit. I do think they will finish in the top 4. I also think georgetown will put it together and be dancing in march.

Butler taking care of business and keeping their tourney hopes alive. I thought they were smoke and mirrors and a bad shooting night from unc, but they are showing they are tough and play well together. I still put the big east tourney bid over/under at 5 (up from 4.5), but butler could make it 6?

Creighton - I am rooting against the jays when they play bubble teams or tourney contenders, but I am hoping for close losses. That home court is fantastic, I hope you keep packing it in, and games like tonight looked awesome. Just a rebuilding year, let's hope the fans keep the faith and it keeps rocking in omaha.

Marquette, red men, xavier, the world needs ditch diggers too, right? Not much to talk about this week. Xavier got it done against the hall. Johnnies looked lost again. And marquette is rebuilding. Nothing bad here, but nothing good either.

DePaul - when Steve lappas starts questioning your team's effort, as has been apparent to anybody watching this team, come on.... fire Mr Oliver Purnell already. sure, he won 3 games. He also took the month of December off. And today's game was one of the worst efforts I have ever seen from a big east team not named rutgers. It was the definition of gutless. Completely unacceptable. A fish rots from the head first, time to cut the head off.

These are the words of THE Ball.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Jimmy likes Elaine...Jimmy thinks Elaine is just his type.

[RedStormHoops]

Dangelo Harrison will win POTY. He's the best player in the big east. Only way he doesn't win it is if St. John's ends up having a terrible season like 7-11 or 6-12 in BE play or something

[MackNova]

Dangelo Harrison will win POTY. He's the best player in the big east. Only way he doesn't win it is if St. John's ends up having a terrible season like 7-11 or 6-12 in BE play or something

D'Angelo Harrison played for 3 years hoping to get individual awards, so it wouldn't surprise me if he finally won one in his senior year.

However, not sure if St. John's can climb above .500 in Big East play. If they do, Harrison might deserve POY because he'll have to carry the team to get there.

[TheBall]

If Seton Hall finishes ahead of St John's, why should Harrison win over Gibbs? From what I have seen, Gibbs is just as much the alpha dog taking control in crunch time that everyone expected Harrison to be. I think Ochefu and even Kris Dunn and Henton are ahead of Harrison at this point.

And it should be noted that entering conference play had Harrison as the pick, so I'm not against the idea of Harrison. But the johnnies have slipped, while others have stepped up.

And I'm not sure what makes Harrison "the best player in the big east.". I presumed he would be the scoring leaders on one of the best teams, which was the reason for the early praise, however that doesn't mean "best.". I don't think he has nba potential (the 3 guys I think we can all agree on that will play in the nba are Dunn, ochefu and obekpa). If given a choice of any player from an another team, he is not in my top 5 (we had a thread on this topic and few picked Harrison). Essentially, he is a prolific scorer in an offense that focuses on isolation sets and has experience to be a leader. That will put him in the running for player of the year, but he is not even a top 5 player in the league.

[Omaha1]

Creighton - I am rooting against the jays when they play bubble teams or tourney contenders, but I am hoping for close losses. That home court is fantastic, I hope you keep packing it in, and games like tonight looked awesome. Just a rebuilding year, let's hope the fans keep the faith and it keeps rocking in omaha.

I'd be rooting against us too for those reasons so we won't take it personally. If nothing, our wins over Oklahoma and Nebraska should be used to the Big East's advantage. You know, "the worst team in te Big East beat the best team in the Big12" argument.

And I do want to say something about the crowd. We had 17,000 there yesterday to support a team on a 4 game losing streak who was winless in conference play. This is what we bring to the league and although we might be down this year as most of us connected to the program expected, our commitment and support will be strong for many years to come.

[TheBall]

Trust me, creighton is all good with THE Ball. Last year's big east tourney bought creighton enough good will for half a decade. The continued support in rebuilding year is very impressive, and taking out two football 5 schools that had been ranked this season also did not go unnoticed. If our #9 team can do that out of conference every year, we are in very good shape moving forward.

#nothingbutloveforcreightonfromTHEball

[Jet915]

Thanks for the support ball. I'm a Creighton fan first but if we are gonna take this year off, I'm glad we could at least help the perception of the Big East by having the current last place team knocking off Oklahoma and Nebraska. There is hope by many Jays fans that next year will be much better.

[HoosierPal]

Dangelo Harrison will win POTY. He's the best player in the big east. Only way he doesn't win it is if St. John's ends up having a terrible season like 7-11 or 6-12 in BE play or something

Ah, I get what you are saying. Either Dangelo Harrison will win POTY or he won't. Good bet.

[NJRedman]

If Seton Hall finishes ahead of St John's, why should Harrison win over Gibbs? From what I have seen, Gibbs is just as much the alpha dog taking control in crunch time that everyone expected Harrison to be. I think Ochefu and even Kris Dunn and Henton are ahead of Harrison at this point.

And it should be noted that entering conference play had Harrison as the pick, so I'm not against the idea of Harrison. But the johnnies have slipped, while others have stepped up.

And I'm not sure what makes Harrison "the best player in the big east.". I presumed he would be the scoring leaders on one of the best teams, which was the reason for the early praise, however that doesn't mean "best.". I don't think he has nba potential (the 3 guys I think we can all agree on that will play in the nba are Dunn, ochefu and obekpa). If given a choice of any player from an another team, he is not in my top 5 (we had a thread on this topic and few picked Harrison). Essentially, he is a prolific scorer in an offense that focuses on isolation sets and has experience to be a leader. That will put him in the running for player of the year, but he is not even a top 5 player in the league.

Someone tell Harrison to shut it down, TheBall says he isn't going to win.