The sky isn't falling

[stever20]

well for one- compared to the other 3 teams- Marquette doesn't have the good win... Saw a tweet last night that said that for Marquette it's hard for them because their best player is Gardner, a post player(wish I could find it this morning to get the exact words, but I can't).

Creighton doesn't have a good win either but, they post come March. Again history unless proven otherwise.

We'll see about Arizona St or St Joe's(both away from home, where it counts more). Marquette doesn't even have those.

[FriarJ]

From what I have seen so far and this goes back with many many years of history with many of these teams, Creighton better right the ship defensively or the BE season is going to be a long one for them. Marquette, Pitt, UConn, Cuse, all thrived in the BE because of the great defense they played. This is not the MVC were you can just run by people. The National Coach of the year from Drake proved this point.

Creighton can really score the ball and the offensive talent is impressive but just like in the NCAA's defensive teams win games, it ill be the same in this conference.

[JOPO]

Seton Hall: No good OOC games left. Just have to avoid embarrassing themselves any further.

We didn't have any to begin with. Horrible OOC schedule and even more abysmal results, which I didn't even think was possible.

[OutlawWales]

From what I have seen so far and this goes back with many many years of history with many of these teams, Creighton better right the ship defensively or the BE season is going to be a long one for them. Marquette, Pitt, UConn, Cuse, all thrived in the BE because of the great defense they played. This is not the MVC were you can just run by people. The National Coach of the year from Drake proved this point.

Creighton can really score the ball and the offensive talent is impressive but just like in the NCAA's defensive teams win games, it ill be the same in this conference.

San Diego State's defense is currently ranked higher than pretty much every team in the Big East. Despite that, and despite Creighton having an off night, Creighton's offense was almost enough to overcome that defense anyway. Creighton's defense is good enough most nights that its offense will overcome the other team's defense. And the national coach of the year from Drake didn't come into the conference with an offense anywhere near Creighton's -- maybe a similar mentality, but hard to really compare when the personnel wasn't comparable.

[FriarJ]

All true and for any one game they can beat anybody in the country, the offense is that impressive. I have seen them multiple times now and the interior defense is quite frankly poor, they get that fixed and they will be right at the top of the league. Just my opinion but, the defense right now is not adequate enough to win the league. The coach is excellent though and my bet is they fix it. They are adjusting obviously to not having Echenique there.

[stever20]

All true and for any one game they can beat anybody in the country, the offense is that impressive. I have seen them multiple times now and the interior defense is quite frankly poor, they get that fixed and they will be right at the top of the league. Just my opinion but, the defense right now is not adequate enough to win the league. The coach is excellent though and my bet is they fix it. They are adjusting obviously to not having Echenique there.

I think the thing I was amazed at watching Creighton a few times this weekend was how unglued McDermott became on the floor. He got frustrated beyond belief.

And you know with Marquette opening with them in conference play, Buzz took notice of that(and everything). The fact that they had 2 common opponents there helps both of them out a lot.

[hoyahooligan]

Seton Hall: No good OOC games left. Just have to avoid embarrassing themselves any further.

We didn't have any to begin with. Horrible OOC schedule and even more abysmal results, which I didn't even think was possible.

Well in theory Oklahoma and a win there would've given you Michigan St. So you had a potential for 2 good OOC games instead of just 1.

[hoyahooligan]

From what I have seen so far and this goes back with many many years of history with many of these teams, Creighton better right the ship defensively or the BE season is going to be a long one for them. Marquette, Pitt, UConn, Cuse, all thrived in the BE because of the great defense they played. This is not the MVC were you can just run by people. The National Coach of the year from Drake proved this point.

Creighton can really score the ball and the offensive talent is impressive but just like in the NCAA's defensive teams win games, it ill be the same in this conference.

San Diego State's defense is currently ranked higher than pretty much every team in the Big East. Despite that, and despite Creighton having an off night, Creighton's offense was almost enough to overcome that defense anyway. Creighton's defense is good enough most nights that its offense will overcome the other team's defense. And the national coach of the year from Drake didn't come into the conference with an offense anywhere near Creighton's -- maybe a similar mentality, but hard to really compare when the personnel wasn't comparable.

Yeah watching Creighton this weekend the teams they struggled with SDSU and GW. They're going to see similar teams in Marquette, Villanova, Xavier, St. John's, Providence, Butler.

San Diego St's D is rated 26th. Villanova 6th, Georgetown 20th, Marquette 21st, Providence 34th, Xavier 41, St. John's 42, Butler 51. So 7/10 of the league has a top 50 defense (+/-1)

Last year MVC only had 2 Wichita St and Indiana St.

[stever20]

One thing i'm going to be curious to watch and see here in the next few weeks- it seemed like the games this weekend started going less and less by the new rules on contact etc. It'll be interesting to see if the referees are reminded about this again, or if it's just going to evolve(devolve) back to what we had before.

[cr8onbb]

I noticed that too. I think it particularly hurt Creighton. SDSU and GW did a lot of hand checking that didn't get called like it had been earlier in the year. They also seemed to be more lenient calling charges than previously. I wonder too if it was just a blip or if the rules will end up being enforced just like previous years.