Rivals countdown...10th???

[hoyaparanoia1984]

collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1146&CID=720317

I have to admitt I am a little shocked coming in at #10.

All other polls aren't we 6th or higher? Louisville must be higher.

[jgalt]

I am shocked too, i have thought all summer that there are two tiers to the top 25: the first six (Memphis, UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Louisville, and Us), then everyone else. presumably from looking at who is not on their top 25 yet, USC, Tennessee, Michigan State, and Indiana (sorry to anyone who was on pins and needles waiting for the rest of the top ten). Now those teams will be great teams, but they (USC, IU mostly) are relying on unproven freshmen talent. Mayo is good but is he Mello? (yes i know there is more existing talent on the USC then there was at SU, but that has nothing to do with this thread)

In the end, rivals will be eating their words when the Hoyas prove to be substantially better than the teams i listed out side my top six.

also, No mention of Wright?? hes out for at most two months not the whole season.

[JohnJacquesLayup]

I don't know. To be fair, we haven't seen a JTIII-coached team without Jeff Green starting, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from this season.

[HoyaNyr320]

johnjacqueslayup said:

I don't know. To be fair, we haven't seen a JTIII-coached team without Jeff Green starting, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from this season.

Hit the nail on the head. I think people on this board need to calm down with the "righteous indignation" about pre-season rankings that <GASP> rank us below #5. Don't get me wrong, we're going to be good this year and we'll win whole truckload of games in the Big East. However, neither we nor the media know what to expect of us at the beginning of the season. People on this board seem to have short term memory about how our season began last year. If you want to get a laugh, look at some of the threads on this board from December and early January. I'm not going to be shocked if we take a couple lumps this year too and in that case we will not be in the top 5 at the beginning of the year. However, JTIII has shown over the past 3 years that he gets his teams playing their best basketball at the END of the season when it matters most. In other words, I don't envision us starting in the top 5 or spending most of the season in the top 5, but by the end we will be there.

[jgalt]

That is an interesting point and i hadnt thought of it from that angle. that could prove to be a factor, but i feel that the leadership of the returning seniors will do much to combat that missing piece. they know how to run the offense and many times through out the season ran it with out jeff, and at some times better than when jeff was in.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I'm not surprised because i had a feeling that rivals would rank us too low. But it is defiently too low. I knwo we haven't had a 3 team with out Jeff, but we're still only repalcing one player. We had to replace 3 players last year. Also I wasn't at every game jeff's freshman year seeing as i was a highschool senior. However I was at a lot of them( thanks jimmy) and If i recall jeff was used in a very different way than he was the last two years. i think III and the team will adapt well. We have more returning pieces than we did last year. I think our schedule is easier than it was last year. I don't think we'll struggle as much early on.

[GIGAFAN99]

hoyanyr320 said:

johnjacqueslayup said:

I don't know. To be fair, we haven't seen a JTIII-coached team without Jeff Green starting, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from this season.

In other words, I don't envision us starting in the top 5 or spending most of the season in the top 5, but by the end we will be there.

And I think that will prove completely incorrect. I think we have a very good chance of starting inthe top 5 (see all other preseason rankings) and spending a lot of time there (see the number of largely unloseable games on our OOC schedule).

So in short, Rivals playing the role of fifth dentist on the Hoyas doesn't change my ideas about the season one bit.

[hoyaparanoia1984]

We lose one guy( yes we all know who that is ) from a final four team. Our offense is setup that it DOESN'T go through just ONE guy, like most teams, it goes through 5.

How many teams lose 1 player from a final four team and are ranked outside the top 6-7?
Memphis didn't make the final 4
Louisville nope...and Indiana?? Don't even go there.

[PDRHoya99]

jgalt said:

Now those teams will be great teams, but they (USC, IU mostly) are relying on unproven freshmen talent. Mayo is good but is he Mello?

Doesn't Rivals also spend a lot of bandwidth ranking recruiting classes? Is it any shock that they are putting more stock on unproven incoming talent (up whose asses they have been blowing smoke for some time, see Mayo, OJ), than on proven college level talent? Half of their site is about selling hype on unknown commodities, so this ranking is in no way surprising.

[SFHoya99]

I don't see any reason to get riled up by this ... I'd rather see us unranked and have something to prove. Given how we started last year, we'll probably be better in March than December anyway. We do have loseable games -- I think at ODU, at Bama and at Memphis are all very loseable.

That said, for all those who get worked up over this, I think College Hoops Net has us at 19.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Georgetown plays a ball-hawking man-to-man defense that is among the nation's best.

Did you watch us play last year? We don't play a "ball-hawking" defense at all - we switch off on screens and play to stop penetration - the goal is to have the opponent take long, contested shots. Oh and our best defense isn't our man-to-man its our zone because that keeps Roy in a shot blocking position and takes the lane away.

The guy in the unenviable position of filling the shoes of Green, who was the Big East player of the year, is DaJuan Summers.

Sorry, wrong again. Its going to be Ewing.

And I regret to inform all of you that apparently Chris Wright doesn't play for Georgeotwn anymore.

Great article Rivals. If the other board didn't have great inside info I'd cancel my subscription.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I agree with At memphis obviously. I'd defiently agree with bama if they had steele, I doubt it now with out him, but i'm willing to conceed that one. but no way in hell we lose to ODU. ignoring my own feelings of us being more motivated in that game will lead us to victory. ODU lost their top 3 players. emekanadavandcorny.blogspot.com/2007/10/gregs-list.html

we're going to punish ODU for that loss. It's going to get ugly.

[SFHoya99]

hoyasincebirth said:

I agree with At memphis obviously. I'd defiently agree with bama if they had steele, I doubt it now with out him, but i'm willing to conceed that one. but no way in hell we lose to ODU. ignoring my own feelings of us being more motivated in that game will lead us to victory. ODU lost their top 3 players. emekanadavandcorny.blogspot.com/2007/10/gregs-list.html

we're going to punish ODU for that loss. It's going to get ugly.

Did you think we were going to lose to ODU at McDonough last year? Oregon at home?

We'll be motivated but so will they. Mid-majors rarely get a BCS team at home, let alone a Top 5 BCS at their place. The Ted, as they refer to it, will be rocking and their players will want another scalp.

[GIGAFAN99]

sfhoya99 said:

I don't see any reason to get riled up by this ... I'd rather see us unranked and have something to prove. Given how we started last year, we'll probably be better in March than December anyway. We do have loseable games -- I think at ODU, at Bama and at Memphis are all very loseable.

That said, for all those who get worked up over this, I think College Hoops Net has us at 19.

At ODU is not loseable. I guess technically it is but let's get serious. It's a revenge game where the revenge is being taken out on a team that lost three starters (top three scorers as well) including two all-conference performers.

The other two are loseable but beat 'Bama and we're not getting knocked out of the top 5 for a loss at another top 5.

[SFHoya99]

gigafan99 said:

sfhoya99 said:

I don't see any reason to get riled up by this ... I'd rather see us unranked and have something to prove. Given how we started last year, we'll probably be better in March than December anyway. We do have loseable games -- I think at ODU, at Bama and at Memphis are all very loseable.

That said, for all those who get worked up over this, I think College Hoops Net has us at 19.

At ODU is not loseable. I guess technically it is but let's get serious. It's a revenge game where the revenge is being taken out on a team that lost three starters (top three scorers as well) including two all-conference performers.

The other two are loseable but beat 'Bama and we're not getting knocked out of the top 5 for a loss at another top 5.

I'm sure you said the same about ODU at McD last year.

Oh yeah, by November 28th, ODU will have played at Clemson, UNC (neutral), and BYU or Louisville (neutral), as well as Iona and two cupcakes.

We will actually have played some comp (Michigan at home), but the other two are at Ball St and W&M.

Who's going to be better prepared? More in sync? They may be tired from that Vegas tourney (Wed after a Fri/Sat tourney) but they'll be ready. I don't think we lose it, but this talk of it being impossible to lose because it is a revenge game is silly.

Last year's game was impossible to lose b/c it was in McD. Of course, ODU sees gyms and fans like in McD all the time, but we'd obviously not lose that game...

I also think the Michigan game is loseable (not likely to lose), it being the second game of the season. Weird things happen that early. Luckily for us, they have much more to adjust to than we do (losing Jeff versus a whole new system).

[HoyaSinceBirth]

no i didn't think we'd lose those games, but i never think we're going to lose a game, so that's not a very good meassure. I'm sure if we'd done our homework we'd have thought more highly of ODU and Oregon( on that front we were influenced by how easily we handled them the year before, it definetly should've been thought of as a loseable game)

[lichoya68]

im not surprised thinking the three to seven ranks were too high LOVE IT TO BE low and overperform will lose a few early go under radar and then come on strong in feb and march hmmmmmmmmm sound kinda familiar hmmm go hoyas

[MCIGuy]

hoyanyr320 said:

johnjacqueslayup said:

I don't know. To be fair, we haven't seen a JTIII-coached team without Jeff Green starting, so I'm not quite sure what to expect from this season.

Hit the nail on the head. I think people on this board need to calm down with the "righteous indignation" about pre-season rankings that <GASP> rank us below #5. Don't get me wrong, we're going to be good this year and we'll win whole truckload of games in the Big East. However, neither we nor the media know what to expect of us at the beginning of the season. People on this board seem to have short term memory about how our season began last year.

Last year's team returned without essentially three starters and last season team's relied on more freshmen or inexpereinced underclassmen (especially in the backcourt) than this upcoming team will. Its ridiculous to keep comparing the two situations.

If you want to get a laugh, look at some of the threads on this board from December and early January.

And just look at the posts from the summer and early fall of 2006 in which a bunch of fans thought some of us were getting our hopes up too high considering all the senior expereince we had lost. Quite a few were convinced that the 2006-2007 team would not be as good. Same old thing this time around.

I'm not going to be shocked if we take a couple lumps this year too and in that case we will not be in the top 5 at the beginning of the year.

And I won't be shocked if the team takes less lumps this season early on because it returns more players with experience and because those same players became battle-tested after last season's accomplishments. And in retrospect exactly what were all the lumps this team took last season early on other than ODU? Oregon was a top ten team most of the year and made it to the Final 8. The Hoyas probably should have beat them but it was no disgrace to lose to that bunch. And Duke, while not good as normal, still had some swagger left, especially at home. The Hoyas gave up a halftime lead to Duke and should have won that game too IMO but the guys shouldn't hang their heads in shame because they lost to the Blue Devils at Cameron. Especially considering Sapp and Summers were still learning and Green and Hibbert were trying to mesh with the new starters.

However, JTIII has shown over the past 3 years that he gets his teams playing their best basketball at the END of the season when it matters most.

Really? In his first season at GU the Hoyas actually started off strong and then faltered at the end by losing five straight BE games to conclude the regular season. In his second season the Hoyas went in a bit of tailspin towards the end of the regular year by losing three straight games which caused them to lose a bye in the BET that most folks thought the Hoyas had locked up. Lets not act as if III's Gtown teams have dominated or played their best ball in February or even March. As impressive as the win against Ohio State in March of 2006 was, the best ball that team played that season was in January starting with defaet of Duke all the way through to the win at home against Pitt.

In other words, I don't envision us starting in the top 5 or spending most of the season in the top 5, but by the end we will be there.

I see the team as being essentially a top five team all season....especially considering the easier non-conference schedule.

[jgalt]

Getting back on track... meaning talking about this article not our schedule. Im not really concerned with where we are in preseason ranking, ill be the first to admit they mean nothing. But this year i feel that it is clear that there are 6 teams that are favorites to make the final four and then everyone else. Rivals putting us out side of that group of six just show the sites inability to correctly judge and predict the performance of a team relative to others (which is the purpose of a preseason ranking). we all think gary parrish is an idiot because he rarely accurately analyzes the situation and that Doug Gottlieb is too because he never, not once, last season gave Jeff any credit for spectacular performance.

i dont disagree with this ranking so much that we are lower than i would like, but that i see no justification of it. if there were significant reasons (and dont give me the filling jeff's shoes line) for us not to be one of the top six teams in the country i could understand. when criticism comes with reasons it is constructive, Jay Bilas for instance. through out last season he remained in our court, promoting roy, jeff, and jon. he was one of the few commentators to do so. and i have also found his other commentary to be quite accurate. so when he ranks us below luisville in the big east i tend to be less shocked/discouraged.

[GIGAFAN99]

sfhoya99 said:

gigafan99 said:

At ODU is not loseable. I guess technically it is but let's get serious. It's a revenge game where the revenge is being taken out on a team that lost three starters (top three scorers as well) including two all-conference performers.

The other two are loseable but beat 'Bama and we're not getting knocked out of the top 5 for a loss at another top 5.

I'm sure you said the same about ODU at McD last year.

Oh yeah, by November 28th, ODU will have played at Clemson, UNC (neutral), and BYU or Louisville (neutral), as well as Iona and two cupcakes.

We will actually have played some comp (Michigan at home), but the other two are at Ball St and W&M.

Who's going to be better prepared? More in sync? They may be tired from that Vegas tourney (Wed after a Fri/Sat tourney) but they'll be ready. I don't think we lose it, but this talk of it being impossible to lose because it is a revenge game is silly.

Last year's game was impossible to lose b/c it was in McD. Of course, ODU sees gyms and fans like in McD all the time, but we'd obviously not lose that game...

I also think the Michigan game is loseable (not likely to lose), it being the second game of the season. Weird things happen that early. Luckily for us, they have much more to adjust to than we do (losing Jeff versus a whole new system).

Aren't you the probabilities guy? Where's the SF we all know?

What do you put our chances of losing to ODU at? 10-1? That's where I put it and I don't count that as loseable.

Did I say that about ODU last year? Yeah and we f'd it up even with a halftime lead. That doesn't change the fact that we should have won that game nor does it make the rematch any more loseable. In fact the circumstances surrounding the rematch make it less loseable (ODU's losses versus Hoyas returning 7 of top 8).

This is like the 2005 Vanderbilt game performance that had everyone nervous about last year's team's potential for some reason. Only this time, we're returning even more experience.