The Holy Land of Hoops

A number of early games Monday, with the MLK Day holiday.

The Big East, however, has a late game... 1 game... at 9pm on FS1... should be a classic...

9pm, #5 Villanova at Georgetown, FS1.

Villanova, who at 1pm tomorrow should be ranked #4, handled Xavier comfortably at home midweek... then beat the Penn Quakers at the Palestra on Saturday in a Big Five matchup.

The Hoyas pulled out a thriller on Saturday in a noisy Phone Booth... after Roosevelt Jones swept a lay-up in for a 1 pount Butler lead with under 20 seconds to play, Isaac Copeland dropped a three, for a 2 point lead. Rosey Jones's last second shot i think got blocked for the Georgetown win.

Really looking forward to this Hoya-Villanova game. Great talent on each team. Tons of depth. Tons of attitude.

9 pm weeknight start is a bit odd, but should be a good atmosphere.

Really impressed with the atmospheres in general this season. College hoops attendance is down through most of the country but thriving in the big east.

Really excited for this game. Should be highly competitive just like the Georgetown v. Butler game.

Will be interesting to see how Ochefu does against Joshua Smith. Ochefu has been great this year but Nova has only played a few teams with legitimate back to the basket post threats: Syracuse : Christmas 18pts Ochefu 6; Xavier: Stainbrook 17pts Ochefu 6. If the match up is similarly disproportionate for Smith then I like our chances.

It'll be interesting because these are two teams that pretty much get every teams best shot every night. No one is looking past a game against either team. No one ever doesn't have energy going against these teams. These teams no matter what are the hunted because of the name on the front of their shirt. Creighton, Xavier, and Butler know what this is like from when they were in their former conferences.

Wish it was a Saturday game rather than a Monday night at 9pm. That'll hurt attendance.

Tim Brando and Bill Raftety

Love Gtwn time. It's a fun rivalry. Both teams play good D and can beat you inside and out. Gtwn seems to go through stretches every game where it can't buy a bucket. For that reason I like Nova in a squeaker 67-63.

Hope Georgetown can pull this out.

Big game for the standings. A win and Nova is 2 clear in the loss column of every team other than Providence and DePaul. And no offense to DePaul, but that won't last. And three of the tougher road games would be out of the way in Seton Hall, St. John's and Georgetown.

But if Georgetown wins, suddenly it's a lot more interesting from a conference perspective. Georgetown might be favored every game after this until the rematch against Villanova.

Curious to see how Nova attacks Josh Smith. Do they push tempo, do they go small and try to attack Smith's lack of quickness and stamina?

I'm saying Nova 70, GTown 64

Great to hear Jay Bilas talking about the best conferences and talking about the Big 12 and Big East playing true round robins. He said "I don't know why people don't call it a power conference, it is a power conference".

MUPanther wrote:Great to hear Jay Bilas talking about the best conferences and talking about the Big 12 and Big East playing true round robins. He said "I don't know why people don't call it a power conference, it is a power conference".

I don't always agree with the guy, but you can tell bilas is a true college basketball enthusiast. And any guy out there who truly loves college basketball, is going to appreciate what the big east is doing as a conference.

He is one guy that doesn't care about espn bias and he also doesn't care that the big east isn't what it used to be, all he cares about is the big east conference the way it is now is good for the game.

MUPanther wrote:Great to hear Jay Bilas talking about the best conferences and talking about the Big 12 and Big East playing true round robins. He said "I don't know why people don't call it a power conference, it is a power conference".

Uh, Bilas himself was one of the a-hole "people" who has been ignoring us.

His quote should read "I don't know why "I, Jay Bilas", don't call it a power conference, it is a power conference".

The guy is a clown. I could never stand him.