Wed Feb 11th, 2g, Villanova-PC, DePaul-SJU...

[billyjack]

I haven't missed many Nova games and can see early in a game when the team is very focused. Tonight they had that look that they weren't going to lose. PC never quit and are a quality team. Just think Nova has more bullets in its chambers while PC really needs LH and KD to carry the load.

The Butler game on Saturday is going to be a lot of fun.

Good game tonight. Lot of fun to watch. Really hard fought. Chippy at times. Every possession was a grind. Old skool BE.

[Steve Lavin]

Another game where SJU totally outplays an opponent but keeps them in the game until the final seconds. Never easy, but it's a must win. We won the 2 games we should have. Now for Xavier. We need to at least split with them which I think we will. Rare that you go 4-0 against a team in conference in 2 seasons. We need to go 4-3 at a minimum from here on out to get a possible bid.

Xavier (W)
@Xavier (L)
SHU (W)
G'Town (W)
@G'Town (L)
@Marquette (W)
@Nova (L) (Even though we are way overdue for a win vs. them)

There's my best 4-3 scenario. Very doable. Just protect home court. That puts us at 20-11 (9-9) with OOC wins @Cuse (at full strength with McCollough), St. Mary's, Minnesota (who is underrated just ran into a buzz saw B1G). This would probably be 50/50 getting us in if we stop here. Win 1 BET game and we are in.

If one of those 4 wins is Nova then definitely in even with a BET loss right away.

[stever20]

Another game where SJU totally outplays an opponent but keeps them in the game until the final seconds. Never easy, but it's a must win. We won the 2 games we should have. Now for Xavier. We need to at least split with them which I think we will. Rare that you go 4-0 against a team in conference in 2 seasons. We need to go 4-3 at a minimum from here on out to get a possible bid.

Xavier (W)
@Xavier (L)
SHU (W)
G'Town (W)
@G'Town (L)
@Marquette (W)
@Nova (L) (Even though we are way overdue for a win vs. them)

There's my best 4-3 scenario. Very doable. Just protect home court. That puts us at 20-11 (9-9) with OOC wins @Cuse (at full strength with McCollough), St. Mary's, Minnesota (who is underrated just ran into a buzz saw B1G). This would probably be 50/50 getting us in if we stop here. Win 1 BET game and we are in.

If one of those 4 wins is Nova then definitely in even with a BET loss right away.

If you got 4 more wins to get to 19-11(remember the Franklin Pierce game doesn't count), you should be in.

[XUFan09]

Now for Xavier. We need to at least split with them which I think we will. Rare that you go 4-0 against a team in conference in 2 seasons.

I've been thinking about this too. It works both ways for Xavier; they are 2-0 against St. John's so far but 0-3 against Villanova. I would trade in a sweep of St. John's for a split against both teams!

It's strange that Xavier started off last conference season playing St. John's, but this season they have now played five teams twice before playing SJU for the first time. Just a scheduling oddity.

[RedStormHoops]

DePaul learned the hard way what's it like to play SJU with a healthy Harrison. 33 points and 10 rebounds, on to Xavier.

[ChestRockwell85]

Old School BE FO SHO!

Very impressed with PC. Cooley is one of the best coaches in the league, very good basketball players on that team and they just did not quit. Hoping PC will play as well as they did last night the rest of the way, get a decent seed for the dance, and win a few games in March.

[billyjack]

Old School BE FO SHO!

Very impressed with PC. Cooley is one of the best coaches in the league, very good basketball players on that team and they just did not quit. Hoping PC will play as well as they did last night the rest of the way, get a decent seed for the dance, and win a few games in March.

I think it's games like last night, and all the other nightly Big East slugfests, that will help our NCAA teams.
None of us get a night off vs Virginia Tech or Northwestern, Fordham, Central Florida, etc.
PC has 7 BE wins, and every one of them was a grind and exhausting.

The only team in the NCAA's that the BE needs to avoid is Kentucky. Any other opponent is very beatable.

[stever20]

Old School BE FO SHO!

Very impressed with PC. Cooley is one of the best coaches in the league, very good basketball players on that team and they just did not quit. Hoping PC will play as well as they did last night the rest of the way, get a decent seed for the dance, and win a few games in March.

I think it's games like last night, and all the other nightly Big East slugfests, that will help our NCAA teams.
None of us get a night off vs Virginia Tech or Northwestern, Fordham, Central Florida, etc.
PC has 7 BE wins, and every one of them was a grind and exhausting.

The only team in the NCAA's that the BE needs to avoid is Kentucky. Any other opponent is very beatable.

Sure didn't seem to hurt UConn last year. I think some would argue that converse to what you are saying- not expending a bunch of energy helps save you for March.

[Bill Marsh]

Old School BE FO SHO!

Very impressed with PC. Cooley is one of the best coaches in the league, very good basketball players on that team and they just did not quit. Hoping PC will play as well as they did last night the rest of the way, get a decent seed for the dance, and win a few games in March.

I think it's games like last night, and all the other nightly Big East slugfests, that will help our NCAA teams.
None of us get a night off vs Virginia Tech or Northwestern, Fordham, Central Florida, etc.
PC has 7 BE wins, and every one of them was a grind and exhausting.

The only team in the NCAA's that the BE needs to avoid is Kentucky. Any other opponent is very beatable.

Billy Jack, unfortunately I missed all but the last minute & a half of the game due to a conflict with an interminable meeting that went from 6:00-10:00. What happened???

Statistically it looked like Nova won with excellent shooting and a ton of free throws, but in terms of march ups, Ochefu seems to have dominated Desrosiers and Chukwu in the middle. Did those 2 guys just disappear. I had hoped that Desrosiers would neutralize Ochefu so that PC's other players could win the game but that clearly was not the case.

[BEhomer]

although Ochefu's stat says he was dominant, he was 5/5 at one point with all his shots being layup/dunks off of nice feed. he did have one nice move against chucku down low and was a force no doubt on the board and defense.

the game really was determined midway thru 2nd half when PC couldn't score against nova's D and nova started hitting their 3s.