Weekend of 2/15 and 2/16, 4 Gs (DeP-PC, X-MU, V-CU, GU-SJ).

[aughnanure]

We are approaching the final bend in the Big East track. The weather forecast is calling for about 8-inches of snow, due to start falling Saturday afternoon here in the northeast. Luckily, pitchers and catchers should start arriving in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. There are 4 games scheduled on Presidents Day weekend:

Saturday:
DePaul at Providence, 2pm.
Xavier at Marquette, 4pm, Fox (main channel).

Sunday:
#6 Villanova at #18 Creighton, 5pm, FS1.
Georgetown at St John's, at MSG, 7pm, FS1.

PC really needs to win this DePaul game. Hopefully the Friars come out loose and sharp. Two weeks ago in Chicago, this matchup was decided in the last 2 minutes. That game featured the break out party for RJ Curington.

Xavier vs Marquette will be a tight game. Marquette trying to make a final push at the end, and currently hold 4th place. Xavier has pretty much locked up an NCAA bid. Solid win at Butler earlier this week. Christon is worth the price of admission.

Villanova will be in front of a packed C-Link crowd, looking to avenge a blowout loss to Creighton. This game is so cool, it earned its own thread...! All eyes will be on the Lumberjack...

Finally, on Sunday night at 7pm, red-hot Georgetown faces white-hot St John's, in the World's Most Famous Arena**. This game has huge, huge NCAA implications. Both teams have RPI's in the mid 50's. St John's seemed out of sync at Seton Hall last night, kinda like they were playing not to lose, rather than trying to run the Pirates off the court aggressively. I'm pretty sure that both the Hoyas and Johnnies will come out with high octane... leave it all on the table... and any other cliche you can think of.

** How "famous" is Madison Square Garden...? As one small example, reportedly, near the end of WW2, Mussolini said he didn't want to be captured by the Allies and carted around Madison Square Garden like a circus performer... pretty famous arena... pretty bad ending for Mussolini... he would've been better off at MSG...! Unless I have it wrong, and Mussolini didn't want to be carted around the Greensboro Denny's...!

How famous ? The Nazi's held rallies at MSG in the late 1930's. Imagine a Nazi rally in the heart of NYC today ? The whole arena was packed with Nazi's wearing German uniforms and waving Swastiga flags .

Well, actually that is FALSE. That is the 1925 MSG. The current one broke ground in 1964. Still pretty crazy though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Square_Garden

[NJRedman]

Can't they just end this game so we can watch the next one?

GO JOHNNIES!!!

[Jet915]

Georgetown making this a game, down only 10 now.

[marquette]

Still a lot of time left in this game.

[gosports1]

Do any SJ fans know if I can buy a student ticket at the MSG ticket office in person? No one at the Queens campus is answering the box office even though someone told me that they are open Sundays if there is a game that day. They really don't make it easy to get tickets…now I'm getting nervous because my friend got 1 already but I still need to get mine. The MSG site said the box office there opens at 12 PM if there is a game Sunday. So I was going to call and ask to reserve a student ticket at will call. Not sure if they can even do that or if there will be any left if they can.

may be a stupid question, but did you try online?

[marquette]

Nice win Johnnies.

[NJRedman]

Good game Hoyas.

Look out Big East, the Johnnies are finally starting to play to their potential!

[RedStormNation]

Was at the game tonight. Just a GREAT atmosphere over 10K in attendance and 90% SJ fans! That's rare. In the past I've seen a 50/50 G'Town crowd. I think the fact that they don't have another given top 15 team this year, the fans stayed away. The only clump of G'Town fans sitting together was about 20 of them and they were drowned out when they tried to get vocal. So, so, so nice to finally see SJ fans coming out, getting loud, and put the city on notice. I had guys on the train giving me fist bumps, people yelling "Let's go Johnnies!" at me in public, and went to Stout (SJ's alumni bar) for celebratory drinks.

Just so proud of this team. FINALLY we are becoming the team we knew we should have been out of the gate. It was so refreshing to be on the other side of the slaughter vs. G'Town. Our teams were very physical and at one point I thought G'Town would come back since the momentum was sucked out of SJ when 2-3 hard fouls with SJ players slamming onto the floor were not called and G'Town converted the easy layups as SJ players were dumbfounded and looked back at the refs instead of defending. Thankfully, that didn't change the momentum for long. I was drinking with some G'Town fans and discussed the Big East and our mutual hatred for Cuse. Good times!

Man, this team is not even ranked and it has taken the city by storm (pun intended). Just imagine this team as a top 15 squad. With the Knicks going back to sucking, SJ is the darling in town. Our scalp list is becoming very intriguing…#12 Creighton, Georgetown, PC, Marquette. With DePaul and Butler as 2 of the games in the final stretch, you start to feel there is a real chance here. It's not a crazy dream anymore. Beating DePaul and Butler would put us at 19 wins. Then we find a way vs. Nova, Xavier, or Marquette (X game is at MSG) and that's 20-11 (10-8) with signature wins, 20 wins, and an above .500 conference record in the 3rd RPI conference. I'm not looking past anyone but suddenly I like our chances. 3 more wins…if 1 of those is Nova, book your tourney trip. I think there's a chance we can get 5 teams in (CU, VU, G'Town, SJU, Xavier) if G'Town rebounds and really cleans house the rest of the way.

[stever20]

going to be really tough for Georgetown. If we beat Seton Hall that's 16 wins. We'd need to win likely 2/4 from Xavier, Marquette, Creighton, and Villanova- with Marquette and Nova on the road. I don't even think 1/4 with 1 being either Creighton or Nova would be enough quite frankly 17-13 I just don't see cutting it entering the BET.

[SJUREDMEN85]

From 0-5 to 7-6 with more to come.
Butler up next.

Was great to see MSG dominantly red again.

Nation, I heard the line to get into Stout was outside, just like the old days.
It`s time to bring back those days.