Thu 11/21 BE Game Thread (2 Games)

[stever20]

I think I saw some folks saying that Indiana St might be a tourney team this year. Looking at Joe Lunardi, he had them as the 6th team out. That's hardly in the same class as a loss to Mercer or Northeastern.

Here is the SOS of our 5 undefeated teams:
Villanova 309
Xavier 280
Creighton 337
Providence 294
Butler 284

With those SOS, they better be undefeated!!!

We are 1-4 vs top 50 teams so far(add in DePaul losing to So Miss). And, 2 of the 3 key wins you're talking about are against 1-4 BC and 2-1 Vandy- both of whom finished sub .500 last year.

[billyjack]

I think I saw some folks saying that Indiana St might be a tourney team this year. Looking at Joe Lunardi, he had them as the 6th team out. That's hardly in the same class as a loss to Mercer or Northeastern.

Here is the SOS of our 5 undefeated teams:
Villanova 309
Xavier 280
Creighton 337
Providence 294
Butler 284

With those SOS, they better be undefeated!!!

We are 1-4 vs top 50 teams so far(add in DePaul losing to So Miss). And, 2 of the 3 key wins you're talking about are against 1-4 BC and 2-1 Vandy- both of whom finished sub .500 last year.

Ok, so a Sycamore dunkfest at Notre Dame (a ranked ACC team), at Notre Dame, is no big deal...? By the way, BC got Top 25 votes going into the game at Providence. What is the ACC's record vs Top-25 or vs Top-50 or vs Top-100... I actually don't know...?

[stever20]

It's not anywhere near as big of a deal losing to a team by 13 points that could easily make the tourney as losing by any margin against a team that won't come close to sniffing the NIT even.

Also the thing about the ACC compared to us- they have a whole lot more chances to make noise than we do. I mean case in point is 12 games in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. We don't have that at all.

BC getting top 25 votes- come March that is completely meaningless. That's more a pox on the voter(s) who gave them votes than anything else.

[Bluejay]

For many conferences - excluding teams that played in made for a TV events - the best non-con games come in the MTE tourney. Not having great league wins at this point isn't my concern. It's having bad losses that is.

I think this sums up my sentiment best. While we don't have any real big wins, there haven't been a lot of opportunities yet either. Now, I suppose I can see the argument through that the two opportunities we did have Oregon and Ohio St, resulted in losses by what were supposed to be two of our best squads. That could cause one to say that "if our top teams can't do it, who can", but I believe it is too early to make that call. We could certainly use some wins against ranked teams though.

We do have two bad losses though in Northeastern and Mercer. Unfortunately, those aren't going away.

(PS- I still haven't seen anyone explain why Seton Hall was playing at Mercer in the first place...)

[stever20]

For many conferences - excluding teams that played in made for a TV events - the best non-con games come in the MTE tourney. Not having great league wins at this point isn't my concern. It's having bad losses that is.

I think this sums up my sentiment best. While we don't have any real big wins, there haven't been a lot of opportunities yet either. Now, I suppose I can see the argument through that the two opportunities we did have Oregon and Ohio St, resulted in losses by what were supposed to be two of our best squads. That could cause one to say that "if our top teams can't do it, who can", but I believe it is too early to make that call. We could certainly use some wins against ranked teams though.

We do have two bad losses though in Northeastern and Mercer. Unfortunately, those aren't going away.

(PS- I still haven't seen anyone explain why Seton Hall was playing at Mercer in the first place...)

I agree with your e-mail a lot. I think my point is we aren''t going to get anywhere near as many oppurtunities as we got before(heck, just losing the SEC/BE challenge is one place)- so we have to take advantage when we get them!

And I totally was wondering about your PS. @ Mercer?

[TheHall]

...(PS- I still haven't seen anyone explain why Seton Hall was playing at Mercer in the first place...)

This was from a poster on a SHU board.

"b/c two seasons ago we apparently were having a really hard time getting a schedule together, so we got desperate. I'd imagine they also saw this as a nice gesture towards Mobley so his family could watch him play close to home."

From Mobley after the game:

"S/O to all my family and friends who came to support and watch the game. I love you'll! It was good seeing @_TINYtweets and her crew today. Only ppl missing was pops and the grand folks"

Brandon got his only start of the season that game.

[admin]

(PS- I still haven't seen anyone explain why Seton Hall was playing at Mercer in the first place...)

I tweeted out a similar question and one of the SHU women's assistant coaches replied to me that the series was set up by the former coach as a 2-1.

[stever20]

broke down our conference schedule thru 1st game today-
we're 30-6
using Ken Pom
1-50 1-3
51-100 5-1
101-200 11-2
201-300 7-0
301-351 6-0

24 of our 30 wins teams ranked 101 or worse(and actually 121 or worse).

Right now- the 4th best win is Georgetown today vs Kansas St. Our best win- Tennessee is #40 right now. The top 50 is kind of a big designation for me- because that's tourney bound normally- once you get to #51 it's real touch and go with all the auto bids.

[XUFan09]

I think I saw some folks saying that Indiana St might be a tourney team this year. Looking at Joe Lunardi, he had them as the 6th team out. That's hardly in the same class as a loss to Mercer or Northeastern.

Here is the SOS of our 5 undefeated teams:
Villanova 309
Xavier 280
Creighton 337
Providence 294
Butler 284

With those SOS, they better be undefeated!!!

We are 1-4 vs top 50 teams so far(add in DePaul losing to So Miss). And, 2 of the 3 key wins you're talking about are against 1-4 BC and 2-1 Vandy- both of whom finished sub .500 last year.

Waaaay too early to reference RPI or SOS. Even Kenpom isn't that good of a metric until another few games are played.

[stever20]

I think I saw some folks saying that Indiana St might be a tourney team this year. Looking at Joe Lunardi, he had them as the 6th team out. That's hardly in the same class as a loss to Mercer or Northeastern.

Here is the SOS of our 5 undefeated teams:
Villanova 309
Xavier 280
Creighton 337
Providence 294
Butler 284

With those SOS, they better be undefeated!!!

We are 1-4 vs top 50 teams so far(add in DePaul losing to So Miss). And, 2 of the 3 key wins you're talking about are against 1-4 BC and 2-1 Vandy- both of whom finished sub .500 last year.

Waaaay too early to reference RPI or SOS. Even Kenpom isn't that good of a metric until another few games are played.

It's getting more and more accurate. Also- of the I guess 17 teams that those 5 have beaten- I can see Tennessee, St Joe's, and BC as the only ones in the top 100. That won't change. Of the 17 only 1 is a win away from home. It would be frankly more of a problem had any of them lost a game(with the 2-3 exceptions) than it is awesome that they won.