Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

3 Villanova (-9.5) @ Providence, 7:00PM
TV: FS1- Gus Johnson & Bill Raftery

St. John's (-2.5) at DePaul, 9:05PM
TV: CBSSN- Carter Blackburn & Pete Gillen

Seton Hall @ 4 Xavier (-5), 9:15PM
TV: FS1- Tim Brando & Jim Jackson

With the Pirates sitting at a surprising 6-6 in 6th place I don't want to use the word desperate, but maybe hungry for a road W over the 4th ranked team in the country?

DanofXav76 wrote:With the Pirates sitting at a surprising 6-6 in 6th place I don't want to use the word desperate, but maybe hungry for a road W over the 4th ranked team in the country?

Yeah definitely time for Pirates fans to get nervous. This isn't the desperate game- but a loss here and Sunday is pretty close to a must win- as with 2 losses this week after that they would need probably 3 of 4 from @ Providence, @ St John's, Nova, and Butler.

One thing that I think could be really good- with this year there looking like there could be like 3-4 teams straggling the bubble line, it could make the BET the most important one it's been since the league reformed. Especially with Xavier probably going into the tourney flirting with a 1 seed.

The opponent for Seton Hall is irrelevant. They just need to beat anybody to get their confidence back. Just find 3 wins in these last 6 games - doesn't matter who - to finish .500 and hit the reset button for the postseason. As X fans found out last year - a March reset can go a long way towards making up for another otherwise letdown season.

Oh - and they should make sure to be very nice to JP tonight. Maybe send him some flowers before the game, congratulate him on all his good plays, and shake his hand when he fouls them lol.

Hall2012 wrote:Oh - and they should make sure to be very nice to JP tonight. Maybe send him some flowers before the game, congratulate him on all his good plays, and shake his hand when he fouls them lol.

This is why Hall 2012 is one of my favorite posters on here . Should be a heck of a dogfight tonight, can't wait...

Hall2012 wrote:Oh - and they should make sure to be very nice to JP tonight. Maybe send him some flowers before the game, congratulate him on all his good plays, and shake his hand when he fouls them lol.

Yeah, a couple of our fans (students) were getting on him during the silence before the National Anthem. Finally, and thankfully, someone, (maybe an X fan) told them to be quiet. I don't know why opposing fans think that harassing him will be helpful. It just makes him play harder. I told my wife he will probably go off for 20 against us. He didn't shoot great from 3, but played a solid game!

Hall2012 wrote:The opponent for Seton Hall is irrelevant. They just need to beat anybody to get their confidence back. Just find 3 wins in these last 6 games - doesn't matter who - to finish .500 and hit the reset button for the postseason. As X fans found out last year - a March reset can go a long way towards making up for another otherwise letdown season.

I think the difference between the 2 is if Seton Hall goes 3-3 they're looking at a RPI of 30.6. Unless they can do really well in the BET, they'd be a 8 or 9 seed which is infinitely worse than being a 11 seed. It would be seeing in rd 2 someone like a Purdue in Detroit or a Virginia in Charlotte. After having a tough 1st round game.

jfan wrote:

Hall2012 wrote:Oh - and they should make sure to be very nice to JP tonight. Maybe send him some flowers before the game, congratulate him on all his good plays, and shake his hand when he fouls them lol.

Yeah, a couple of our fans (students) were getting on him during the silence before the National Anthem. Finally, and thankfully, someone, (maybe an X fan) told them to be quiet. I don't know why opposing fans think that harassing him will be helpful. It just makes him play harder. I told my wife he will probably go off for 20 against us. He didn't shoot great from 3, but played a solid game!

I mean I got it at first - JP is clearly a very emotional player and it's not uncommon for someone's play to be negatively affected when he gets mad - so try to get under his skin. However, at this point JP has shown time and again that he actually plays better when you get him mad. The best JP an opponent can get is a nonchalant JP and pissing him off pretty much guarantees you won't get that.

I haven't been this excited for a DePaul/SJU game in..........thinking.......still thinking......