The Holy Land of Hoops

The story of the night is that Seton Hall just punched their NCAA ticket.
Congrats to the Pirates and all their fans. Great team and great future.
And this means, amazingly, that in the last three years, 8 of us have earned NCAA bids. 80%...!!!

I'd guess if they would somehow lose out, and then lose their first game in NYC they could be in nervous territory, but I'd put their odds at about 95% right now. The only thing that makes me nervous is that they have 2 games where they will be underdogs, and then DePaul on the road. DePaul is such a landmine. If they lose to X, and then to Butler in Indy, a loss at DePaul would definitely have them nervous going into NYC. Butler is interesting. I think they really need to win at Georgetown. If they lose that game, they'll really need to win the next 2, and maybe, at least one in NYC. If they somehow lose 2 of the next 3, they'll need to make a run in NYC to get in. Creighton is pretty much dead unless they win out, and then beat either X, or Nova in NYC.

Yeah, we've been there before, just win @DePaul on the last day of the season and we're in. Last time the Hall was in that position (11-12 season) they got their doors blown off in Chicago and with only 1 BET win, ended up with the #1 overall seed in the NIT.

Hall2012 wrote:Yeah, we've been there before, just win @DePaul on the last day of the season and we're in. Last time the Hall was in that position (11-12 season) they got their doors blown off in Chicago and with only 1 BET win, ended up with the #1 overall seed in the NIT.

While I still have nightmares about that game and Jamie Crockett, we hadn't gotten 20 regular season wins yet. We already have 20 now and 3 games plus the BE tourney to get one and be a lock. This team is red hot not limping to the finish line, cant see us implode again.

billyjack wrote:The story of the night is that Seton Hall just punched their NCAA ticket.
Congrats to the Pirates and all their fans. Great team and great future.
And this means, amazingly, that in the last three years, 8 of us have earned NCAA bids. 80%...!!!

Who would've thought Marquette wouldn't be part of this group of 8... geez

ecasadoSBU wrote:

billyjack wrote:The story of the night is that Seton Hall just punched their NCAA ticket.
Congrats to the Pirates and all their fans. Great team and great future.
And this means, amazingly, that in the last three years, 8 of us have earned NCAA bids. 80%...!!!

Who would've thought Marquette wouldn't be part of this group of 8... geez

Exactly what I was thinking. If this was a question when the Big East realigned I think DePaul would have been a decent bet, but Marquette may have been the last team guessed by most people.

Anyways great job by the Hall, and happy to see Whitehead turn into someone that can be a wrecking ball in NCAA Tournament brackets.

herodotus wrote:I'd guess if they would somehow lose out, and then lose their first game in NYC they could be in nervous territory, but I'd put their odds at about 95% right now. The only thing that makes me nervous is that they have 2 games where they will be underdogs, and then DePaul on the road. DePaul is such a landmine. If they lose to X, and then to Butler in Indy, a loss at DePaul would definitely have them nervous going into NYC. Butler is interesting. I think they really need to win at Georgetown. If they lose that game, they'll really need to win the next 2, and maybe, at least one in NYC. If they somehow lose 2 of the next 3, they'll need to make a run in NYC to get in. Creighton is pretty much dead unless they win out, and then beat either X, or Nova in NYC.

All Seton Hall needs is to win vs DePaul. That's it.

Butler is really interesting. They need 2 wins for sure between Georgetown/Seton Hall/Marquette. They could do something if they go 1-2, but that would put them playing on Wednesday night almost guaranteed, and then they would need to beat Nova/X to make the tourney.

Buzz's last few years of recruiting and then bailing on the program really screwed us. The talent level on last year's team was just awful, the kids played their asses off but the talent level was not acceptable for high division 1 basketball. Wojo did a great job of bringing talent in, and this team has all the looks of a bubble team except the scheduling killed the RPI. The top 50 wins are there. The top 100 wins are there. Only one bad loss (DePaul). But the RPI is not.

I do think if Marquette wins their next 5 and loses in the BET final that they would probably get into the NCAA Tournament at 23-11, 10-8 and an RPI around 60. But that's obviously highly unlikely to happen. I will say though that it's great to be excited about the direction of the program again. Already 5 more wins than last year and more wins than 2014 with a minimum of 4 more games to play.

Win tomorrow (again, highly unlikely) and there's a remote shot at a tournament berth.