Marquette’s victory over Nova last night put pressure on the four teams ahead of them working for a bye in New York in two weeks. The Eagles can now finish 13-5 with wins in their last two games against Georgetown and at Syracuse. With the Hoyas looking more and more vulnerable, this is entirely possible with Marquette on a 5 game roll, winning handily in each. Let’s take a look at the leaders and their prospects for a bye.

Georgetown - The Hoyas are 12-3 and finish with St. John’s, at Marquette and Louisville. If the Hoyas were to lose to Marquette and Louisville they would end up 13-5 and lose a tiebreaker to both teams. Two wins would assure the Hoyas of a bye. Even though GTown is in a good position, they have to be careful of a letdown and must defeat either Marquette or Louisville to enter the BET with some momentum.

Louisville - The Cards are 12-3 and finish with home games against Notre Dame and Villanova along with a final game at Georgetown. Although the Cards should win both home games, ND is capable of an upset. If the Cards lose to ND and GTown they will end up with a record of 13-5 and lose tiebreakers to the Irish and UConn. Louisville has two wins over Marquette and a win over Georgetown. If the Cardinals win two of the last three they will secure a bye.

Notre Dame - The Irish are 11-3 and have three of the final four games on the road. Although they have been unbeatable at home, they have shown some vulnerability away. With splits against UConn and Marquette, the Irish lose tiebreaker vs. Georgetown and still have to travel to Louisville this Thursday. The game at DePaul is not a gimme, seeing that it is a rivalry game. ND should beat St. John’s at home and USF away. If the Irish split their remaining four games they will end up 13-5. A Marquette victory over Georgetown might force the Irish to play a Wednesday game.

UConn - The Huskies are 10-4 and suffered a crucial loss at Nova on Saturday. Remaining games are at Rutgers tonight, West Virginia Saturday and at Providence and home to Cincinnati next week. The Huskies must win 3 of the last 4 to put themselves in a good position at 13-5. UConn has trouble with Providence and West Virginia is still a mystery team. Two losses will probably push UConn to a Wednesday game. The Huskies lose a tiebreaker to Georgetown and win tiebreakers vs. Louisville and Marquette. The UConn-ND tiebreaker will be determined by the Irish game vs. Louisville this Thursday.

****UPDATE***** In checking all possibilities, if Marquette were to lose one of their final two league games, UConn and ND would have to win 2 of their remaining four games to receive a bye.

Complicated???? Not really…… Typical???? You bet….. WELCOME TO THE BIG EAST!

Categories: Commentary, Georgetown, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Marquette, Louisville, Coach O, Postseason
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Dan’l B noted that West Virginia is actually quite a good team who suffers from a low ranking because of losing a bunch of close games. UConn, up until today, had been winning a bunch of clos games. So it didn’t surprise me today that they lost in a close game against Villanova — one of these coin flips had to end up being tails. Here are the highlights, courtesy of ESPN:

Here are some quick thoughts I had. I’ll let Coach O affirm/negate my observations — perhaps he saw something different in person (if he ever made it to the game):

• Scottie Reynolds is so absolutely dangerous when he gets his shoulders square. He has one of the best-looking shots in the Big East.
• UConn typically plays a high post-low post game with Adrien in the high post and Thabeet in the low post. That makes sense superficially — Adrien is the power forward, is shorter, and has more basketball skills to make better decisions; Thabeet is 7′3′’ and is the center. But I think having Thabeet up top and Adrien down low is at least something to continue to try out. Thabeet surprised me with two great passes to Adrien down low, so perhaps his basketball skills aren’t that bad. Adrien is a better finisher than Thabeet and also can catch the ball in traffic. Here are two examples from the game:
  
  

  Both nontrivial passes — in the first one, he leads Adrien a bit, and in the second, he throws a left-handed, wraparound bounce pass.

• Villanova has the best jerseys in the Big East (although Marquette’s powder blue uniforms are pretty close). Syracuse and UConn have the worst jerseys.

Categories: Commentary, donald, Connecticut, Villanova, Game Banter
5 Comments »

There’s nothing I can say that would add to what Jay Bilas said (as usual).

Great use of the press by Jay Wright, though. Villanova almost always seems to play Georgetown tight because of this.

(Editor’s note: I retract my original love for ESPN. You’ll notice that if you go to this page, there is no embed text, so it seems like you can’t put it in your blog. If you look at other game highlights, you’ll notice the same thing. But, if you go to one of their videos with some fucktards (excluding Jay Bilas, of course) wanking it around a table discussing “bracketology” — well, of course then you can embed the video. Dumb.)

Categories: Commentary, Georgetown, donald, Connecticut
4 Comments »

If bracketologists were marine biologists, poll voters would have their assistants report on goldfish in bowls, RPI enthusiasts would hang out at Sea World, and Sagarin and Pomeroy would only be found by the Coast Guard. I’ve wasted time looking at the polls, and I guess I’ll continue to do so here and there. The RPI is definitely better, but it does a very good job at telling us nothing special. There are two animals that the RPI simply can’t handle: the ridiculously good record against moderate or worse competition and the moderate or worse record against ridiculously good competition.

Naturally, the great records and mediocre schedules come out of the secondary conferences. Drake, Butler, and St. Mary’s, I’m talking about you. Not only is your RPI inflated, you’re shooting up the polls too. “Wait a minute! Give those guys a break, they’re screwed by the BCS bullies!” Well, I think the RPI and polls actually do these schools the bigger injustice. Name the non-BCS schools that have gotten a 5th seed or better in the last decade and done something with it. That list is awfully short. These teams are good, but they don’t belong in the top 25. There’s nothing wrong with being one of the top 40.

And of course there’s the “Izzo-Chaney-Olsen Plan,” in which you schedule half a dozen elite non-conference games before conference play starts. No surprise, it’s Olsen this year with the #8 RPI and #1 schedule. UConn, yes UConn! is a bit overrated by the same method.

What the RPI fails to do is recognize quality basketball and pick out would-be sleepers (if they get to dance at all). Kansas State will obviously dance, and I expect to see them in the Elite Eight. Wisconsin’s very quietly 19-4 and a lot better than their #20 RPI. But the one I’ll be watching will be West Virginia. They’ve got a #48 RPI, a 12-seed from Joe Lunardi, and a resume full of quality play all year. Barring a disaster the rest of the way, they’re going to slip into the tournament in the #8 to #12 range and will have a great shot at the Sweet Sixteen as “underdogs.”

Categories: Rankings, Dan'l B, Connecticut, West Virginia
4 Comments »

I know it’s not right to laugh at other people. But I can’t stop laughing at this interview:

Hasheem has really started realizing his potential this season, but he has a ways to go in the media department.

Categories: Commentary, donald, Connecticut
3 Comments »