Non-BIG EAST NCAA tournament game discussion

[kayako]

I refuse to accept choking loudly every March while they thrive when it matters most. Yes, I’d rather be them than us.

I say this from the bottom of my heart, there is no mid-major school more deserving to be in this league over Creighton. Coach Mac always has Creighton looking sharp and ready right out of the gate, which is great for the conference. Your system is producing NBA players, which will attract high quality recruits. Remember, most current juniors and maybe even sophomores were starting to get recruited when Creighton was still in MVC.

[stever20]

I refuse to accept choking loudly every March while they thrive when it matters most. Yes, I’d rather be them than us.

I say this from the bottom of my heart, there is no mid-major school more deserving to be in this league over Creighton. Coach Mac always has Creighton looking sharp and ready right out of the gate, which is great for the conference. Your system is producing NBA players, which will attract high quality recruits. Remember, most current juniors and maybe even sophomores were starting to get recruited when Creighton was still in MVC.

not really for your last statement.. Creighton got into the Big East 5 years ago. So current juniors would have been in 6th grade, sophomores 5th grade. AT that point in the recruiting process, it's really fringe getting noticed by anyone. I mean most exposure tournaments where kids start to get seen really are in 7th and 8th grade. So can't really use the MVC excuse any longer....

I would say though that Creighton like this year really didn't start great out of the gate. look at the schedule now in the prism of what happened. They played 3 NCAA tourney teams in the early season and went 1-2(beating UCLA) Struggled to beat Northwestern. Yeah they went 11-2 OOC, but in that 1 was a d2 team and then 6 group 4 home games(including 3 of the 8 worst RPI teams in the country). I get a schedule like that if you aren't expecting much, but if you are expecting to be pretty good, I'd like to think you would schedule stronger. It's tough to give credit for starting off strongly, when the schedule is so poor. It's total fluff.

They played 15 games vs NCAA tourney teams this year(to include Kansas St) and went only 5-10 in those 15 games. And went 1-9 in those games away from home- with only win away from home being .... UCLA.

[kayako]

not really for your last statement.. Creighton got into the Big East 5 years ago. So current juniors would have been in 6th grade, sophomores 5th grade.

I would say though that Creighton like this year really didn't start great out of the gate.

I am assuming you've made an arithmetic error... The current juniors were sophomores in HS when Creighton joined the BE. As you've mentioned, recruiters build relationships with these guys way before that. If we're factoring in seniors and redshirts, it's reasonable to expect some "mid-major" lingering in Creighton.

[billyjack]

Creighton had a question mark at center with Patton having gone pro. Since he was redshirted, McDermott probably didb't prioritize signing another center, or, centers were hard to recruit when it was expected that Patton would be filling that position for a couple of years minimum.

Patton exploding shows that Creighton and McDermott can develop talent. With Foster and Thomas on the brink of the NBA, they've had 3 NBA'ers in 2 years.

Anyway, the Patton thing mirrors the Bentil situation. Bentil blew up as a sophomore and left unexpectedly (PF wasn't a high priority for 2017 HS'ers, so Cooley scrambled to get transfer Emmitt Holt).

Also, kayako's math is correct. Current Juniors in college (college Class of 2019) graduated from HS in 2015. So they were HS juniors during 2014, our first year in the 10-team Bug East. College Class of 2018 would've been HS seniors in 2014.

[gosports1]

As a PC fan I all too well understand the frustration some Creighton fans are feeling about going out in first round. However there is no comparison between Creighton and Loyola in terms of BB success. The MVC is worse off for having lost Creighton to the BE, not even debatable IMO.

[kayako]

Duke is so winning the midwest.

[Omaha1]

Duke is so winning the midwest.

I've got my tickets and just said the same thing.

[Westbrook#36]

This 'Cuse/MSU game is fuuuugly. Syracuse is horrid offensively, but that 2-3 zone is really really good, a shame they can't rebound for shit out of it though.

[kayako]

Talk about March Sadness, Michigan State hasn't escaped the 1st weekend for 3 years.

[Westbrook#36]

Well Syracuse to the S16, how many times are they going to do this last or 2nd to last team in and make a run?