The Holy Land of Hoops

Friday 11/11/16:
6:30 - Vanderbilt vs. Marquette, CBSSN - Tom McCarthy, Steve Lappas, Jon Rothstein
Veterans Classic (Annapolis, MD)

6:30 - Lafayette @ 4 Villanova, FS2, Brian Custer, Donny Marshall

7:00 - Fairleigh Dickinson @ Seton Hall, FSN
FS Arizona, FS Det.+, FS Florida (some areas), FS North, FS Southeast, FS Wisconsin, MASN2, SportsTime Ohio, YES

7:00 - Lehigh @ 7 Xavier, Fox College, Alex Faust and Dickey Simpkins

9:00 - UMKC @ 22 Creighton, FSN Steve Physioc and Nick Bahe
FS Arizona, FS Det.+, FS MW+ (some areas), FS North+, FS Southeast, FS Wisconsin, MASN2, STO

9:00 - Bethune-Cookman @ St. John's, FSN Rich Ackerman & Jim Spanarkel
FS North, FS South, FS Sun, YES

just saw this from Jeff Goodman:
Xavier's Myles Davis remains suspended (indefinitely) and won't play in the Musketeers opener, Chris Mack told ESPN.

any word on how long folks think he'll be out?

Looking forward to a 6-0 start for the league! Marquette has a reasonably tough opponent and Seton Hall can't make the mistake of taking FDU lightly, but both should get the job done. The other 4 should be pushovers.

I think the SJ V. Bethune-Cookman game will be interesting...

We got handled by a ranked URI squad (not terrible, but handled) and we blew a D2 (or D3 I forget) school out of the gym. This game is interesting, because it will show us how we perform against a "blah" mid major school that isn't terrible but also isn't good...yet still D1. So far, what has been expected has happened...lost by 13 to a ranked D1 team and blew out a bad D2 team. This falls somewhere in the middle of opponents. One thing I will be looking for this year is fast starts. For some reason, we never seem to come out strong and other teams come out red hot the last few years. Under Lavin we would fall behind early...hope that isn't the case this year and beyond. Assuming we can keep Bethune-Cookman from shooting 40%+ from 3, we should be in good shape.

Oh how I have missed these threads

SJHooper wrote:I think the SJ V. Bethune-Cookman game will be interesting...

We got handled by a ranked URI squad (not terrible, but handled) and we blew a D2 (or D3 I forget) school out of the gym. This game is interesting, because it will show us how we perform against a "blah" mid major school that isn't terrible but also isn't good...yet still D1. So far, what has been expected has happened...lost by 13 to a ranked D1 team and blew out a bad D2 team. This falls somewhere in the middle of opponents. One thing I will be looking for this year is fast starts. For some reason, we never seem to come out strong and other teams come out red hot the last few years. Under Lavin we would fall behind early...hope that isn't the case this year and beyond. Assuming we can keep Bethune-Cookman from shooting 40%+ from 3, we should be in good shape.

Most St. John's fans doesn't know anything about Bethune-Cookman (you, included), other than they were picked to finish 6th in the MEAC (13-team conference). No one really knows, whether we were "handled" or not in the scrimmage versus Rhode Island. Frankly, I didn't take much out of that particular scrimmage nor the Baruch exhibition game. Baruch also was considered a good team a season ago in D-2 ball. I don't know who they brought back or had coming in this season, but they wasn't considered a "bad" D-2 team last season.

Nevertheless, neither game doesn't matter, IMO, going forward. We should win, going away, tomorrow. 20+ point win.

did hooper really call Bethune Cookman a mid major school?

this school in the last 5 years has won 14,11,7,14,18 games. With final KP ratings of 306,330,337,269,256. Their 256 that year in 2012 was their best KP year ever. Sorry but that's not mid-major at all.

Also, his analysis of Bethune Cookman with 3 point shooting is funny. last year they were 31.1% from 3. That's #311 in the country.

KenPom predicts the Big East to go 6-0 tomorrow.

Villanova 91 - Lafayette 59 (99.8%)
Seton Hall 85 - Farleigh Dickinson 64 (97.0%)
Creighton 83 - UMKC 64 (96.0%)
St. John's 80 - Bethune Cookman 61 (96.0%)
Xavier: 83 - Lehigh 66 (94.0%)
Marquette 73 - Vanderbilt 70 (60.0%)

EDIT: Also...worth noting that statistically, Marquette-Vanderbilt is the 3rd-best game in the country tomorrow.

stever20 wrote:did hooper really call Bethune Cookman a mid major school?

this school in the last 5 years has won 14,11,7,14,18 games. With final KP ratings of 306,330,337,269,256. Their 256 that year in 2012 was their best KP year ever. Sorry but that's not mid-major at all.

Also, his analysis of Bethune Cookman with 3 point shooting is funny. last year they were 31.1% from 3. That's #311 in the country.

Technically, Bethune-Cookman are a mid-major. You have high-end/tier, mid-tier, and lower-tier mid majors. Bethune-Cookman probably falls in line with the lower-tier mid major.