Tue March 3rd, 2g, GU-Butler, VU-CU...

[RedStormHoops]

Jay is not a 'complainer' or a rider of the officials, but he was last night.

Jay is a big complainer. Look at the sidelines if nova is ever in a close game. I don't watch nova when they are blowing teams out, but if I see on my phone it's a close game second half I'll switch it on. He gets crazy in close games. Last year when SJU played nova at the Wells Fargo center jay was out of his mind. This year at MSG before nova pulled away late he was crazy too.

[stever20]

Too many knee jerk comments on this thread for my liking.

"Butler is playing like a borderline tourney team," Give me a break. Butler plays everyone tough and has not been blown out of any game this year. One of their starters is just coming back form injury and Gtwn made plays when they needed to. Why the need to cut teams down instead of building up others? Instead of using last night's result as possible validation that Gtwn is starting to hit its stride, you (surprise, surprise) use it an opportunity to try to knock another BE team down a rung. Your act is old Stever.

..."Nova is only as good as their 3 pt. shooting." Yeah, well when they shoot 45% in league play and you get 3 pts instead of 2 (67% eFG%), I think I would try to get my team looks from 3 if they had 6 guys who could all stroke it like Nova does. Nova is 28-2, 15-2 in the 2nd toughest conf in the land, is in the RPI and AP/USA Poll top 5 and may well be a #1 seed. But I guess that is in spite of their penchant to rely too much on the 3. Let's see, they didn't shoot as well as they normally do vs. CU so how'd they win last night then? Great input. Thanks.

Maybe, just maybe Nova is a little road weary and even they can't get up for every game. In the toughest stretch of their season they went 7-0 beating 3 Top 50 RPI teams on the road (BU, X & PC), and another 2 Top 25 RPI teams at home. So not having as much energy for Creighton seems more likely the reason for the close game then their offensive philosophy. And give CU some credit, they played with a LOT of energy last night.

I was the one that said that maybe butler was losing momentum they had in early February. I wouldn't say they are a fringe tournament team. But a month ago I really though butler would get a 4 seed and make the sweet 16, now I don't know what to expect. The Chrabascz point is a good one, he was playing his best ball right before he got injured. But to be fair, Xavier blew them out, and then they lost at home last night on senior night by making dumb mistakes and missing free throws. In my opinion they don't look as good as they did a month ago. Maybe they need time for Chrabascz to settle back into the rotation.

The problem with time is that there isn't much of that left. 1st rd NCAA tourney games are 2 weeks from Thu/Fri. And possibly for Butler only 2 games left as well if they fall 1st rd of the BET.

[cu blujs]

I don't know how Jay Wright is most nights, but last night he literally came out of the tunnel for warmups bitching about calls. He was complaining loudly about every call against VU almost from the opening bell. The referees told Wright a handful of times to cool it (in so many words), and finally gave him a bench warning after a particularly demonstrative rant just a few minutes before they T'd McDermott. That was what made the T against McDermott so laughable. McDermott does his share of arguing, but he is not normally very demonstrative when he does it, and he sure as hell was no where near Jay's performance last night. I did not once see any official tell him to simmer down prior to the T. When he got T'd, he was squatting in the coach's box watching Brooks get fouled on a lay-up on what should have been an and-one. I don't know what he said to the ref, but he didn't stand up or move at all - although I have no doubt he said something choice. I think they knew Mac should not have been T'd up (or at least two of the three refs did) and from that point they were just waiting for Jay to give them a chance to T him up. He obliged less than three minutes later. He was no where near as vocal when he got the T as he had been through most of the game. I am pretty sure that if the one guy hadn't T'd up McDermott for whatever he said, Jay would have never gotten his. And the funny thing is he continued to rant about a number of calls, but once they had evened the score, they had no intention of giving him another one.

[cu blujs]

The problem with time is that there isn't much of that left. 1st rd NCAA tourney games are 2 weeks from Thu/Fri. And possibly for Butler only 2 games left as well if they fall 1st rd of the BET.

I got my tickets - four games Friday and two games Sunday. As a nice coincidence, my kids have that Friday off from school so it will be a full day of NCAA basketball! Really hoping for a couple of BE teams to land in Omaha, as I am sure most CU fans will be. It should be a decided home court advantage for any fellow BE teams given that a majority of the lower bowl tickets outside of the corporate and team tickets will be possessed by CU season ticket holders.

[mpwalsh8]

I don't know how Jay Wright is most nights, but last night he literally came out of the tunnel for warmups bitching about calls. He was complaining loudly about every call against VU almost from the opening bell. The referees told Wright a handful of times to cool it (in so many words), and finally gave him a bench warning after a particularly demonstrative rant just a few minutes before they T'd McDermott. That was what made the T against McDermott so laughable. McDermott does his share of arguing, but he is not normally very demonstrative when he does it, and he sure as hell was no where near Jay's performance last night. I did not once see any official tell him to simmer down prior to the T. When he got T'd, he was squatting in the coach's box watching Brooks get fouled on a lay-up on what should have been an and-one. I don't know what he said to the ref, but he didn't stand up or move at all - although I have no doubt he said something choice. I think they knew Mac should not have been T'd up (or at least two of the three refs did) and from that point they were just waiting for Jay to give them a chance to T him up. He obliged less than three minutes later. He was no where near as vocal when he got the T as he had been through most of the game. I am pretty sure that if the one guy hadn't T'd up McDermott for whatever he said, Jay would have never gotten his. And the funny thing is he continued to rant about a number of calls, but once they had evened the score, they had no intention of giving him another one.

There were a number of questionable calls in the game last night for both teams but the one you mentioned above, was actually a good no-call. Brooks initiated the contact into Ochefu by jumping backward as he went up for the basket. They showed the replay a couple of times and Ochefu actually backed off a bit. Both announcers called it a good non-call.

I thought Creighton played a good game. Much like Xavier did, Creighton took Hilliard out of the offensive flow. It seemed to affect VU more last night than it did against Xavier. I was not surprised the game was as close as it was. I had actually picked VU to lose int he Bench Warmers Pickem' Pool. Happy to be wrong again but was definitely nervous. I think Creighton is far better than their record and will likely upset a team in NYC next week. Just hope it isn't VU!

[stever20]

I don't know how Jay Wright is most nights, but last night he literally came out of the tunnel for warmups bitching about calls. He was complaining loudly about every call against VU almost from the opening bell. The referees told Wright a handful of times to cool it (in so many words), and finally gave him a bench warning after a particularly demonstrative rant just a few minutes before they T'd McDermott. That was what made the T against McDermott so laughable. McDermott does his share of arguing, but he is not normally very demonstrative when he does it, and he sure as hell was no where near Jay's performance last night. I did not once see any official tell him to simmer down prior to the T. When he got T'd, he was squatting in the coach's box watching Brooks get fouled on a lay-up on what should have been an and-one. I don't know what he said to the ref, but he didn't stand up or move at all - although I have no doubt he said something choice. I think they knew Mac should not have been T'd up (or at least two of the three refs did) and from that point they were just waiting for Jay to give them a chance to T him up. He obliged less than three minutes later. He was no where near as vocal when he got the T as he had been through most of the game. I am pretty sure that if the one guy hadn't T'd up McDermott for whatever he said, Jay would have never gotten his. And the funny thing is he continued to rant about a number of calls, but once they had evened the score, they had no intention of giving him another one.

There were a number of questionable calls in the game last night for both teams but the one you mentioned above, was actually a good no-call. Brooks initiated the contact into Ochefu by jumping backward as he went up for the basket. They showed the replay a couple of times and Ochefu actually backed off a bit. Both announcers called it a good non-call.

I thought Creighton played a good game. Much like Xavier did, Creighton took Hilliard out of the offensive flow. It seemed to affect VU more last night than it did against Xavier. I was not surprised the game was as close as it was. I had actually picked VU to lose int he Bench Warmers Pickem' Pool. Happy to be wrong again but was definitely nervous. I think Creighton is far better than their record and will likely upset a team in NYC next week. Just hope it isn't VU!

Only thing now for Creighton-
they're locked into the 9 or 10 seed. So would be seeing one of DePaul or Seton Hall 1st rd. Then if they win there, one of Nova, Georgetown, or PC. Kind of a tough thing there.

The other possible upset is Xavier on their senior day.

[mpwalsh8]

I don't know how Jay Wright is most nights, but last night he literally came out of the tunnel for warmups bitching about calls. He was complaining loudly about every call against VU almost from the opening bell. The referees told Wright a handful of times to cool it (in so many words), and finally gave him a bench warning after a particularly demonstrative rant just a few minutes before they T'd McDermott. That was what made the T against McDermott so laughable. McDermott does his share of arguing, but he is not normally very demonstrative when he does it, and he sure as hell was no where near Jay's performance last night. I did not once see any official tell him to simmer down prior to the T. When he got T'd, he was squatting in the coach's box watching Brooks get fouled on a lay-up on what should have been an and-one. I don't know what he said to the ref, but he didn't stand up or move at all - although I have no doubt he said something choice. I think they knew Mac should not have been T'd up (or at least two of the three refs did) and from that point they were just waiting for Jay to give them a chance to T him up. He obliged less than three minutes later. He was no where near as vocal when he got the T as he had been through most of the game. I am pretty sure that if the one guy hadn't T'd up McDermott for whatever he said, Jay would have never gotten his. And the funny thing is he continued to rant about a number of calls, but once they had evened the score, they had no intention of giving him another one.

There were a number of questionable calls in the game last night for both teams but the one you mentioned above, was actually a good no-call. Brooks initiated the contact into Ochefu by jumping backward as he went up for the basket. They showed the replay a couple of times and Ochefu actually backed off a bit. Both announcers called it a good non-call.

I thought Creighton played a good game. Much like Xavier did, Creighton took Hilliard out of the offensive flow. It seemed to affect VU more last night than it did against Xavier. I was not surprised the game was as close as it was. I had actually picked VU to lose int he Bench Warmers Pickem' Pool. Happy to be wrong again but was definitely nervous. I think Creighton is far better than their record and will likely upset a team in NYC next week. Just hope it isn't VU!

Only thing now for Creighton-
they're locked into the 9 or 10 seed. So would be seeing one of DePaul or Seton Hall 1st rd. Then if they win there, one of Nova, Georgetown, or PC. Kind of a tough thing there.

The other possible upset is Xavier on their senior day.

Having lost to Seton Hall twice by a single point, I would imagine Creighton would like to see the Hall again. I suspect it would be another close game and certainly one Creighton could win. Not sure who Creighton would match up best with after that, based on what I saw last night it appeared to be Villanova!

[R Jay]

First and foremost, we match up really well with Butler. Neither team is extremely athletic having just made the move to the Big East. In fact, if we had Roosevelt Jones we might trade places with Butler in the standings (Yes, Jones is that much of a difference maker). Even though we've lost both times, the games were very close. I'd love to see them in the 2-7/10 game.
We kept up with Nova yesterday, but that was mostly because they shot poorly throughout the game. Like Butler, Nova isn't super athletic but has enough shooters to be the best team in the Big East. Nova is also an incredibly intelligent team. They're like we were last year in those two regards. Unless we were guaranteed that Nova would shoot like yesterday, I don't think any Jays fans would like to see Nova again in the 1-8/9 because it wouldn't be pretty.
The teams we would least like to see in the second round are Providence and Georgetown. They are just so much more athletic than us and their guards smothered our guards when we played them. On the other hand, our post play has greatly improved since we played them in late January, so we might stand a better chance against them in the 2-7/10 game.
I'd throw St. John's in with Providence and Georgetown, but it doesn't look likely that they will get to the 2 seed.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Butler hasn't beaten many really good teams in the last month and a half. 6 of the wins- Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul. Only other wins were vs Seton Hall and St John's. 0-5 against the top 3 teams in the conference. Also, I'm not the only one who said something about Butler. Might want to go and look at the thread....

Yeah but you are always the one that tries to (not so subtly) treat the BE as if it is a glass half empty and every other league as if it is glass half full. It's a BE message board Stever. You don't need to be Devil's Advocate in every single post. Let BE fans communicate with other BE fans without feeding your urge to piss on everyone's Cheerios.

Let's recap Butler. I really think you are tremendously off base here. Two last second losses to Gtwn (who they actually beat in the preseason), a buzzer beater loss vs the #4 team in the country, a big win vs. SJU (tourney team) and a big loss @ X (tourney team). And they beat the other teams that quite frankly have beaten several "good" BE teams this year. Why would you just dismiss them. They win last night if they hit some FT's. Big deal. If they had gotten blown out in every game, then you might have a point. But they played tough, could have won any of those games sans @ X, and you think that signals them not being ready for the tourney. Whatever dude.

[stever20]

Butler hasn't beaten many really good teams in the last month and a half. 6 of the wins- Marquette, Creighton, and DePaul. Only other wins were vs Seton Hall and St John's. 0-5 against the top 3 teams in the conference. Also, I'm not the only one who said something about Butler. Might want to go and look at the thread....

Yeah but you are always the one that tries to (not so subtly) treat the BE as if it is a glass half empty and every other league as if it is glass half full. It's a BE message board Stever. You don't need to be Devil's Advocate in every single post. Let BE fans communicate with other BE fans without feeding your urge to piss on everyone's Cheerios.

Let's recap Butler. I really think you are tremendously off base here. Two last second losses to Gtwn (who they actually beat in the preseason), a buzzer beater loss vs the #4 team in the country, a big win vs. SJU (tourney team) and a big loss @ X (tourney team). And they beat the other teams that quite frankly have beaten several "good" BE teams this year. Why would you just dismiss them. They win last night if they hit some FT's. Big deal. If they had gotten blown out in every game, then you might have a point. But they played tough, could have won any of those games sans @ X, and you think that signals them not being ready for the tourney. Whatever dude.

My point on Butler is really they're playing close to what we expected them at the start of the season. I think Atlantis may have inflated the perception of them to some degree. 0-5 against the top 3 teams isn't a compelling case for them. 5-8 against teams in the tourney right now. There is a big difference between teams competing and teams winning. I guess I'm just not much into moral victories, because those are still losses. The fact is Butler did miss those free throws.

Good teams find way to win games. Look at St John's. They are 3-2 vs the top 3. Xavier is 3-3. Way more impressed with St John's than I am Butler right now. Since 2/1- St John's 6-2 Butler 5-3- and St John's played a FAR tougher schedule. Heck, I'd take Xavier's 4-4 against a BRUTAL schedule over Butler right now.

To your point about the other teams-
Marquette beat Providence
Creighton beat Xavier and St John's
DePaul beat Xavier and St John's

So yes Xavier and St John's lost 2 games to the bottom 3 teams. However, their 3 wins against the top 3 teams far outweigh that in my mind.