College Basketball Countdown

[R to the OB]

Hooper, I think people in the media have to actually care about St Johns in order for them to conspire against you.

R to the ob, people are taking about the death of Creighton because even with the greatest player in your history you still never did anything with it. Why should anyone expect this team to be any more productive without him?

Skip your coffee this morning?

Nah, Bulldog here is always bitter.

[Professor_Bulldog]

R to the ob, people are taking about the death of Creighton because even with the greatest player in your history you still never did anything with it. Why should anyone expect this team to be any more productive without him?

McBuckets covered up a lot of deficiencies in terms of porous defense, lack of athleticism, lack of height on the wings, and rebounding difficulties. Coach Mac has brought in players to address these problems. Last year Creighton was essentially a MVC team in terms of personnel playing in the Big East. Now Creighton has a Big East team playing in the Big East. The team this year will be much deeper and more athletic. Plus, Creighton is still Shooter U. That's why people should expect Creighton to be more productive without him (maybe not this coming year due to lack of experience, but certainly the following year and definitely well into the future). That's why the "death of Creighton" is completely ridiculous.

Fair enough, I for one don't think anyone is in danger of dying for what its worth.

Hooper, I think people in the media have to actually care about St Johns in order for them to conspire against you.

R to the ob, people are taking about the death of Creighton because even with the greatest player in your history you still never did anything with it. Why should anyone expect this team to be any more productive without him?

Skip your coffee this morning?

Nah, Bulldog here is always bitter.

I actually did skip my coffee and am facing the uncomfortable realization that I can no longer drink like a fish and start my day running the next morning

But yes I am generally condescending and bitter toward Creighton and St Johns for really no good reason. Something about their faces I guess

[stever20]

well, up to #68 now, and still no more Big East schools....

68-73 had 2 one bid champions- and 4 at large schools....

So with 67 to go...
P12- most recent Cal #68 8th
ACC- most recent NC State #70 10th
WCC- most recent San Francisco #71 3rd
AAC- most recent Temple #72 6th
MVC- most recent Illinois St #74 3rd
A10- most recent Davidson #75 7th
MWC- most recent Colorado St #78 4th
B12- most recent Kansas St #79 8th
SEC- most recent LSU #80 8th
BE- most recent Creighton #85 7th
B10- most recent Purdue #105 11th

add to that the conference champs from Ivy, CUSA, and WAC- and you have 14 auto bids left and 36 at large schools. So next team mentioned is the 17th team out.

pretty solid for the Big East I'd say so far.

on a seperate note:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc ... /14912477/

USA Today's countdown is down to the lowest at large schools. Seton Hall #48 and in the tourney at large. Think one thing they say in their pick is pretty accurate about their schedule :The Pirates play on the road at Georgia and Wichita State, while hosting Rutgers and George Washington. Not bad, but they'll need to win three of those games to keep the selection committee happy.

I think maybe 3 is a bit overboard- but definitely would need to go 2-2 in those 4 games(and avoid the bad losses) to keep the committee happy.

One thing interesting with the Big East is their predictions:
CONFERENCE OUTLOOK (BIG EAST): 1. Villanova, 2. Xavier, 3. Georgetown, 4. Seton Hall, 5. Butler

so looks like they have us with 4(with a PIG team)- just like last year. Don't think you can ask for much more than that.

[stever20]

countdown down to 66 now and getting better and better for the big east.

67 was New Mexico #3 in the MWC
66 was Charlotte #2 in CUSA

So next team mentioned is the 15th team out.

In terms of the Big East- that seems pretty fair- 6 teams in the top 65- with probably 4-5 listed as in and 1-2 in the 1st 15 out. To me, the difference between 1st 15 out and last 15 in is pretty negligible- if you get in- you win 1-2 games that if you are out- you would have lost. Often times, the difference is that razor thin. I mean like last year, if Xavier had lost one of the games to St John's- St John's very possibly gets in, while Xavier is out. Pretty much you know the next 25-30 teams in the countdown- that's the bubble.

I think it's actually pretty good that they think there is a fairly big gap between the top 6 and everyone else as well.

[SJHooper]

Bulldog, shots fired. Strange coming from a team that made SJU look like the 1985 team with Mullin even though we weren't good. Butler is in the danger zone as possibly not being able to keep up with the Big East. St. John's is located in NYC aka the capital of earth. There will always be buzz here.

Now that I got that off my chest, if anyone thinks Creighton will be "business as usual" while losing one of the best college basketball players ever in the history of the sport, and some of the best role players in the country, you are just blind. McDermott single handedly won games for Creighton. Who do they have who can rattle off 30 or 40 points in his sleep? The guy almost never missed a shot. He was absolutely central to Creighton's success. Wragge helped a lot as well as did Gibbs. Artino is a good player but no McDermott. Creighton was beat by teams they should have beaten easily even with McDermott. Without him they may have a Butler-esque season.

Don't confuse me for taking shots at Creighton. If we just had Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson leave, I would admit we would take a step back obviously. Probably a big one. The only schools who don't have to worry much about losing the best players in college hoops are the blue bloods i.e. Cuse, L'Ville, Kentucky, etc. Creighton has not proven it can recruit at that level where you can just replace Wooden award winners like it's nothing. It's like Yankees fans not knowing how good they have it with Jeter because they forgot what life was like without him. Sometimes fan bases are spoiled and get used to players being great so they expect it to keep up. Then they lose that great player and it hurts bad. Creighton fans loved McDermott but I don't think they realize just how good he was. Big, big players to lose in Doug, Wragge, and Gibbs. I'd be very impressed if they were even close to the bubble.

[Amase2]

Bulldog, shots fired. Strange coming from a team that made SJU look like the 1985 team with Mullin even though we weren't good. Butler is in the danger zone as possibly not being able to keep up with the Big East. St. John's is located in NYC aka the capital of earth. There will always be buzz here.

Now that I got that off my chest, if anyone thinks Creighton will be "business as usual" while losing one of the best college basketball players ever in the history of the sport, and some of the best role players in the country, you are just blind. McDermott single handedly won games for Creighton. Who do they have who can rattle off 30 or 40 points in his sleep? The guy almost never missed a shot. He was absolutely central to Creighton's success. Wragge helped a lot as well as did Gibbs. Artino is a good player but no McDermott. Creighton was beat by teams they should have beaten easily even with McDermott. Without him they may have a Butler-esque season.

Don't confuse me for taking shots at Creighton. If we just had Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson leave, I would admit we would take a step back obviously. Probably a big one. The only schools who don't have to worry much about losing the best players in college hoops are the blue bloods i.e. Cuse, L'Ville, Kentucky, etc. Creighton has not proven it can recruit at that level where you can just replace Wooden award winners like it's nothing. It's like Yankees fans not knowing how good they have it with Jeter because they forgot what life was like without him. Sometimes fan bases are spoiled and get used to players being great so they expect it to keep up. Then they lose that great player and it hurts bad. Creighton fans loved McDermott but I don't think they realize just how good he was. Big, big players to lose in Doug, Wragge, and Gibbs. I'd be very impressed if they were even close to the bubble.

If anyone knows just how good McDermott was im pretty sure its Creighton fans.

[handdownmandown]

Chastising for not taking a step back and then using the term 'Butleresque' - that's not even the same argument.

Every Jays fan expects a step back. Every. Single. One. To say otherwise is a statement of someone who didn't do any homework.

However few, if any, are picking us 9th. We are saying we will be better than that and better than most think.

[Hoops]

SJ.. Good points well taken. CU will be a young group, and the assembly of kids will be playing a lot of time, extended minutes and most of them for the first time on the floor for a full 40 minutes together as a team. And as you pointed out they lost scoring and a whole lot of senior leadership. A lot of basketball fans, for and against CU I think are curious (ok at least i am curious) and wondering -"what is going to happen at CU?".. Step up? Fall down? ..clearly the main offensive plays will no longer be "find Doug," "find wragge"..

i see this year as a great test year in a great major conference. Recruits, player committments, coaching, conditioning have to transition from a "mid"retool year to the major reload, and succeed year in and year out competatively in conference play and OOC play, and more important -The question of will CU ever be able to get beyond the first round and go deep in NCAA tourney play, as a more balanced team with good players.. It will be different and interesting to see the transition and how everyone adapts

Based on what was lost from last year, sure its easy enough to think there is no way CU will be able to reload that quickly.. But until the season tips off, going into the season CU will be an interesting group to watch without much expectation for many valid reasons. I simply say do not take CU too lightly this season for a lot reasons. I have seen it happen before with CU. Even when down, they have a knack to figure it out, put it back together and come back and compete. They seldom stay down. At least not for long.

[Wizard of Westroads]

Washington 65

[Bluejay]

How in the world is Creighton #85 and SJU is #98? SJU returns a ton of talent. Sampson was a wasted talent as someone said before. Great athlete, but actually hurt the team taking 20 foot shots instead of driving hard in the paint. We have Harrison (shooting threat from anywhere) and Jordan (can get to the rim almost at will) leading the guards and bring back 40% 3 PT shooting Greene who is sorely underrated IMO. Add to that the best shot blocker in college hoops coming back and now we bring in a 7 footer and the top JUCO rebounder who has been called an animal for his rebounding skills. We will have well-seasoned veterans with serious talent.

On the other hand Creighton loses basically everyone who mattered nationally. No Doug aka the best player in their history bar none. No Wragge who seemingly made 3's at will for most of the season. No Gibbs who was Doug's right hand man. Creighton loses basically everyone and they are 13 spots better than SJU with well seasoned 4 and 5 star veterans? I think the ranking has more to do with SJU's "cursed" perception than the actual talent. The only major advantage Creighton has over SJU is a coach who can get the most out of his players. If SJU is #98 Creighton should be in the 120's.

The authors must have considered coaching when doing their rankings.