Depaul = Bubble Burtser

[billyjack]

I don't think that 2 threads were needed on the same topic, but i understand the frustration in each.

DePaul i think has talent, which they've shown in their Stanford win this year, and the BET win over Georgetown. But as all of us watched them in November and December, they are poorly coached, and through that they play undisciplined ball, often extremely selfish, often boneheaded, and extremely frustrating to all of us on here, who have watched them play.

This is 4 years of the same product under Purnell... we've all lived this for years... it's not a first time thing, or

- the result of injuries (Seton Hall last year vs FDU, etc)... note that the loss of Stimage or Rysckboch doesn't count.
- one brain fart game (PC vs Brown),
- and it's not a coaching adjustment or new roster (Marquette with Wojo),
- or loss of a National Player of the year and roster turnover (Creighton).

This was a string of games where DePaul just didn't try, didn't show up, didn't care, mailed it in... where the players tuned out what little coaching remained.

- giving up 86 pts to Lehigh at home.
- making boneheaded plays to lose vs Illinois State at home.
- getting run off the court at George Washington is at least understandable.
- getting run off the court by 33 at Oregon State is inexcusable.
- giving up 99 points to Ohio U in Honolulu... a lay-up drill where Ohio shot 70 from 2 pt territory.
- following that with a loss to Loyola Marymount, finishing in 8th place at the Diamond Head.

So, this is an undisciplined team, with terrible coaching, which has talent (again, see Stanford), whose players are often extremely selfish. Again, their games vs Lehigh, Oregon State, Ohio U and Loyola Marymount were horrible. Purnell is an awful coach. Good guy, horrible coach. This is Keno Davis ball, but at least he won ooc. If someone said that the rival ACC planted Purnell in the Big East covertly to screw with us, I'd actually have to pause a second to think about it.

Because i'm so old, and my brain isn't completely fried, i can sometimes remember other similar unfuriating teams:

Miami (Fla) in 1993.

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sch ... edule.html

Miami was 1-6 ooc, including home losses to Florida International, Texas State, and UNC Wilmington. The team dogged it ooc, then decided to try in conference play, and their undisciplined play, stupid shot selection and not-give-a-shit attitude on the court at home often worked, leading to home wins vs UConn, Providence, Georgetown, Syracuse, Boston College and St John's.

Arguably, they popped the bubbles of UConn and Providence. PC in particular had only 1 ooc loss, to a good URI team in a rivalry game; the Friars also had an ooc win vs #5 Arizona. But it was easy for the committee to point to our Miami loss.

Anyway, Miami's players and fans didn't give a care about their hoops team. It was kind of a novelty for them, because they were a football school who was handed a spot in the BE.

That's where the similarities end between Miami and DePaul, because the Blue Demons have an excellent history, excellent tradition, passionate committed fanbase that has been beaten and neglected for 10 years, that deserves a winner!!!.

From the outside looking in, i think that wins vs MU and XU doesn't change anything as far as Purnell... he has to be replaced. Keno Davis teams would sometimes screw with PC fans' heads (beating ranked Louisville and Villanova teams, and #1 Pitt), but he had to go. Same with Purnell, who i officially bailed on probably after the Ohio U game.

[Piratefan]

Re: Depaul = Bubble Burtser
Postby Freshjive2103 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:12 pm

I am seriously hoping that DePaul goes 9-9 and the Big East conference is shown to be what it is; a strong but not elite conference. You people complaining, the losses by Nova, St. John's, and PC have more to do with the Big East coming back to Earth than DePaul going 2-0 to start off.
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Freshjive2103

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Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:10 pm

What do you mean not an elite conference? The BE RPI is #2. 3 teams in top 25. More top 100 wins than any conference. the BE is circa 7-1 with the "elite" acc. Give me a break. Only the B12 is better than the BE top to bottom. By tomorrow 70% of our conference will have been ranked in the top 25. The BE doesn't have a top 3 team but in every other respect is elite. No self-loathing on this board.

[DemonLS]

I agree that the Big East is as solid as most any other conference in America, except for maybe the ACC. But the lower half of the ACC is not strong. The Big East RPI speaks for itself.

[muskienick]

Congratulations, DePaul, for defeating Xavier to go 2-0 in the Conference.

It's every Big East member's job to win the games they play in Conference (and OOC as well). We should not be complaining about DePaul doing its job (and I say this even though they got the better of my Muskies yesterday). Likewise, it is the job of every member to protect their own home court (which DePaul has done so far) and to steal a few games in Conference on the road. Those who do will make the NCAA. Those who don't --- won't.

It's as simple as that. Don't complain about DePaul losing against directional teams, The Little Sisters of the Poor, or Lompoc State Paraplegics in the non-Con and then take your lickin's at All-State Arena. Just do what you have to do to make the Tourney and lay off the Demons!

[TheBall]

Likewise, it is the job of every member to protect their own home court (which DePaul has done so far) !

Wrong, you forgot about Lehigh and illinois state. We all wish depaul had protected their court on those nights.

[ivet]

It's as simple as that. Don't complain about DePaul losing against directional teams, The Little Sisters of the Poor, or Lompoc State Paraplegics in the non-Con and then take your lickin's at All-State Arena. Just do what you have to do to make the Tourney and lay off the Demons!

Honest question, why did you use Lompoc? Very few people outside of central California know about Lompoc. Was that the town you were referring to? Reason why I ask is that I lived there for a couple of years.

[muskienick]

No specific reason, Ivet. It just popped into my head as I was mentally searching for the name of a smallish city in hopes that it would not offend anybody. Since I am pretty darned sure there is no such institution named Lompoc State Paraplegics, I felt very sure than no one would think ill of me using it as an hyperbolic example of a crappy basketball program. I felt especially safe since Lompoc is in the far west of the Country and the Big East isn't. (It IS a small world, huh?)

[muskienick]

Likewise, it is the job of every member to protect their own home court (which DePaul has done so far) !

Wrong, you forgot about Lehigh and illinois state. We all wish depaul had protected their court on those nights.

At least they have done so during Conference play. That is more than can be said of at least one Big East program so far and more, including the one I root for, are likely to stumble at home along the way.

[Freshjive2103]

Ummm.. DePaul doesn't have some good players. DePaul has 1 decent player by BG jr. 4 star ranked player listed at like 92. Everyone else was a 3 star or less. The past few years DePaul has been at the bottom if not the bottom in the conference in recruiting. There are a few Chicago HS teams that could beat this team.

Kinda Wrong. You are looking at their HS recruiting rankings, which does not consider transfers. Myke henry is actually the highest rated guy. He had a rsci ranking of 67 (39 by rivals, 64 by scout, 94 by ESPN) Darrick Wood was in the 100-110 range in 2012. Tommy Hamilton was actually a top 50 guy going into his last AAU season, where he took much of the summer off for injury and academics and then transferred to IMG.

Talent is not the issue.

So you basically have 3 guys in the top 100...keep in mind tommy and BG are only sophomores .and tommy didn't even play against Marquette. That's not exactly a roster to go gags over.

I never said this roster was one to go gaga over... but if we look at the other Big East programs, could you list out their top 100 guys? Programs like Nova have multiple top 100 guys, but it is not like each and every BE team is filled for elite talents.

[Bill Marsh]

WTF

Last yr it was seton hall tanking all out of conference and then beatings isn't enough bubble teams to hurt the conference come March. Well, depaul tanked soooo much worse this out of conference, and they ended Marquette's season in Wednesday and they just took Savier off the s-curve.

Can we trim down to 9 teams for a couple of years while depaul gets their act together so that we can avoid this nonsense?

Xavier is now off the s-curve???

How did one bad loss do that to them? Only if you trust the current RPI, which is highly unreliable at this point in the season. Instead of the 54 ranking where they are sitting in RPI right now, RPI Forecast projects them to finish at 27, which is a far more likely neighborhood for them.

Even at 54, they'd still be on the bubble and not yet "off the s-curve" at this early point in the season. I'm sure there will be more upsets before the season is finished. And not just in the Big East.