DePaul Locker Room Problems?

[NJRedman]

Well we are both in the mix for an NCAA spot and fighting for that #3 spot in the league. Seems pretty good to me.

So that suddenly erases the past decade or so?

Why the shots at SJU and Providence? Yeah, SJU has been down for most of the decade, thats why it's called a down period. Jarvis flamed out and Roberts never got it going. Sure seems to me that Lavin has things turning around. I'd worry about your own program right now. From first to one of the worst is a pretty big drop. Buzz might be looking for the door by the end of the season. He'll have offers.

[NJRedman]

It's pretty amazing that Larry Brown was hired at SMU a little over a year ago and they are ranked this week. Maybe it doesn't take 7 years to turn around a program.

Helps when you play in a conference with half the teams with an RPI worse than 150 and an SOS north of 125. Just look at Wichita.

[MUBoxer]

Well we are both in the mix for an NCAA spot and fighting for that #3 spot in the league. Seems pretty good to me.

So that suddenly erases the past decade or so?

Why the shots at SJU and Providence? Yeah, SJU has been down for most of the decade, thats why it's called a down period. Jarvis flamed out and Roberts never got it going. Sure seems to me that Lavin has things turning around. I'd worry about your own program right now. From first to one of the worst is a pretty big drop. Buzz might be looking for the door by the end of the season. He'll have offers.

Because you went on that tirade about recruits and why they aren't flocking to Depaul. I pointed out that they did in fact flock to SJU and Providence with the coaching change despite those two programs having just a small amount more success. If Lavin's working for you then congrats. I'm not really concerned about the program after 5 seasons of getting top 25 rankings, hitting the second weekend of the tournament, getting players into the NBA, etc I think Buzz deserves the benefit of the doubt when our star SG declares early, our starting PG gets injured, and our 6th man off the bench at PF leaves before the season. In regaurds to Buzz leaving I'll just laugh that off since Texas is back on track. Did you question if Jay Wright was going to leave after Nova's crappy season? What about JTIII after GTown's last crappy season?

[RedStormNation]

PC and SJU really are not all that comparable overall. PC has about 15 NCAA appearances. SJU has almost double at 28. The last time PC was nationally relevant was 1997 in the Elite 8. In that time SJ had good to great teams in 1999, 2003, 2011. SJ has been to 2 Final Four's and some Elite 8's. Also the #7 winningest program of all time. That's nationally. I know a lot of you will try to discount it because most of the success was in the past, but it still counts. I read something yesterday that shocked me...Seton Hall only has 9 (NINE!) tourney appearances. That is like a decent mid major program level. I honestly thought they had more like 15 like PC. The only reason I bring this up is because people tend to lump SJU in with PC and SHU and it's just not fair. It's not even close really. Overall SJU has had much more success over a much longer time. And this is not a shot at all to PC or SHU even though I'm sure someone will take it that way. Both are definitely programs back on the upswing for sure. They are both attracting good recruits and their fans should be excited.

I've never understood DePaul...they have damn good players...it's not a lack of talent. I feel like they have Mets syndrome...no matter how much talent they have there just seems to be a negative feeling around the program. I truly feel like some teams whether pro or college get so used to losing that they subconsciously lower their expectations and it messes with them psychologically.

[Burrito]

It's pretty amazing that Larry Brown was hired at SMU a little over a year ago and they are ranked this week. Maybe it doesn't take 7 years to turn around a program.

Helps when you play in a conference with half the teams with an RPI worse than 150 and an SOS north of 125. Just look at Wichita.

SMU isn't ranked because they've beaten UCF, Tulane and Temple. They are ranked because they have beaten other ranked teams (Cincinnati and UConn). and they've been able to beat the crappy teams in the league which feeds the total wins count.

[RedStormNation]

Guys, mark my words...the AAC will be an afterthought next year. This is the only year they have L'Ville and Cincy will not repeat as a top 10 team. They are usually a team like Pitt that teeters in and out of the top 25. When Tulane, East Carolina, and Tulsa come they will slaughter the RPI even more. The AAC is very ugly. They have UConn, Cincy, Memphis then a crap load of terrible teams. So those few top teams get good and fat eating up the little guys and have inflated records and rankings. A more realistic long-term outlook for them is as a conference with 2-3 ranked teams each year. The Big East has much more talent top to bottom. I think we will have an advantage come tourney time because our teams will be battle tested. We have no days off. I think this is good for a team like Creighton especially transitioning from the MVC to a much more big, long, and athletic conference with much more talent. Think of it like building muscle...after time lifting heavier weights you get stronger. A Big East team will be much more battle tested come March than UConn, Cincy, or Memphis who can take days off against guys like Rutgers, UCF, and pretty soon Tulane, Tulsa, etc.

I'm proud of our conference, proud to have the new guys with us, and proud to have a conference dedicated to basketball. I hope UConn and Cincy rot. If they were smart they'd put football on the backburner and join us. If we could somehow get them and Memphis back, we'd be close to just as good as the old Big East IMO. Nova, G'Town, Marquette, Creighton, Memphis, UConn, Cincy, SJ, Butler, SHU, PC, Xavier, etc. that conference would be a monster! I know people say there is zero chance they come here, but I still ask, why? Why is it so impossible for them to store football somewhere else and finally get back to high powered hoops that made their schools famous?

[Demon22]

Yeah, SJU has been down for most of the decade, thats why it's called a down period. Jarvis flamed out and Roberts never got it going. Sure seems to me that Lavin has things turning around.

How is this possible? I've been told that after your school has a down period, a coach can't turn things around in four seasons or less.

[MUBoxer]

PC and SJU really are not all that comparable overall. PC has about 15 NCAA appearances. SJU has almost double at 28. The last time PC was nationally relevant was 1997 in the Elite 8. In that time SJ had good to great teams in 1999, 2003, 2011. SJ has been to 2 Final Four's and some Elite 8's. Also the #7 winningest program of all time. That's nationally. I know a lot of you will try to discount it because most of the success was in the past, but it still counts. I read something yesterday that shocked me...Seton Hall only has 9 (NINE!) tourney appearances. That is like a decent mid major program level. I honestly thought they had more like 15 like PC. The only reason I bring this up is because people tend to lump SJU in with PC and SHU and it's just not fair. It's not even close really. Overall SJU has had much more success over a much longer time. And this is not a shot at all to PC or SHU even though I'm sure someone will take it that way. Both are definitely programs back on the upswing for sure. They are both attracting good recruits and their fans should be excited.

I've never understood DePaul...they have damn good players...it's not a lack of talent. I feel like they have Mets syndrome...no matter how much talent they have there just seems to be a negative feeling around the program. I truly feel like some teams whether pro or college get so used to losing that they subconsciously lower their expectations and it messes with them psychologically.

I know in terms of program history they aren't similar but in terms of recent success they are pretty similar. And I was merely pointing out that with the coaching changes to SJU and PC suddenly huge recruits were coming in. Why not at Depaul? He was pointing out that rebuilding takes time but over night you two had some big recruits coming in.

Not to be nit picky but you guys didn't even crack the top 25 in 2003 so I'm not sure what nationally relevant is.

[NJRedman]

Yeah, SJU has been down for most of the decade, thats why it's called a down period. Jarvis flamed out and Roberts never got it going. Sure seems to me that Lavin has things turning around.

How is this possible? I've been told that after your school has a down period, a coach can't turn things around in four seasons or less.

You guys were a LOT farther down than SJU. We're talking perennial last place team, and not even close in 85% of your games. That come back takes time.

[RedStormNation]

Winning the NIT championship and beating #3 Duke...that's not nationally relevant? I know just making the NIT isn't a big deal but winning it is no joke.