Bad Day for Big East.

[bicentennial]

Today was a bad day for our competition in the big east. On an interesting note the high scorer for Charlotte in Louisville's loss was our old recruit Chris Braswell with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Anyone who has ever questioned JTIII's skills recruiting should recognize their error and apologize for their comments. Hopefully, all his awesome recruits in the future can get their academic house in order so they can attend GU. If they can, we will continue to do well. Also, Duke beat St. John's but it was a closer game than anyone predicted even in Cameron. Can you say 10 teams in the tournament!

[jerseyhoya34]

Vernon Macklin did not play today.

[Dhall]

Dec 5, 2009 23:31:12 GMT -5 bicentennial said:

Today was a bad day for our competition in the big east. On an interesting note the high scorer for Charlotte in Louisville's loss was our old recruit Chris Braswell with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Anyone who has ever questioned JTIII's skills recruiting should recognize their error and apologize for their comments. Hopefully, all his awesome recruits in the future can get their academic house in order so they can attend GU. If they can, we will continue to do well. Also, Duke beat St. John's but it was a closer game than anyone predicted even in Cameron. Can you say 10 teams in the tournament!

Umm, Braswell plays for Charlotte and Benimon plays for Georgetown. So I'm not sure how that reflects on the recruiting of big men for this year. Hard to tell on one game, but it might be that Braswell is the fish that got away.

[MCIGuy]

Should we have a What Could Have Been thread for Braswell too?

[lichoya68]

aw dont diss bennimen he looked good on d and twice took the ball to the hole very welll and yes i know its au but he is strong and in the kenner he came on strong and played tough d and rebbies with the big guys ALOT of big guys no braswell for sure but jt3 has gotta take students and players too.. ps that creek guy for indiana is a great player but got no response from the hoyas i do believe coach KNOWS a little what hes freaking doing.. im proud of him and the players who come GO HOYAS BEAT BUTLER just a few thoughts

[grokamok]

Louisville stunk it up (vs. their ranking) out-of-conference last year, too, (Western Kentucky and Minnesota on a neutral floors & UNLV at home), screwing the Big East before conference play, so I'm not surprised, though I am disappointed.

Marquette losing to NC St. at home after being up 14 also hurt, as did Providence losing to URI after holding a 16-point lead early in the 2nd half (this one was away and URI is not a pushover this year, though). With DePaul having the expected (especially with Koshwal out) loss at Vandy and St. John's having the expected loss at Duke, these three others hurt. The conference is now second in the Sagarin ratings (having held a fair lead just before), third in Pomeroy (having been a very close second) and a much less convincing first in the RPI (having been first by a wide margin before).

The remaining out-of-conference games for the Big East include:

Today Villanova essentially @ UMD at the Verizon Center
12/8 GU vs Butler at MSG
12/9 Providence @ GW (not a gimme, based on how the two teams are playing)
12/9 UConn vs Kentucky at MSG
12/9 St. John's hosting Georgia
12/10 Syracuse essentially @ Florida in St. Pete
12/10 DePaul vs Mississippi State in St. Pete (note: Koshwal will still be out)
12/12 GU vs Washington in Anaheim
12/12 Marquette @ Wisconsin
12/13 Villanova @ Temple (can't ever count out a decent Big Five team at home)
12/13 Cincy @ Xavier
12/16 Cincy @ UAB
12/19 Seton Hall hosting Temple
12/19 Notre Dame hosting UCLA (UCLA is down, but is from a power conference, and we should never underestimate the Irish's ability to play down to their opponent)
12/23 WVU hosting Mississippi
12/28 Rutgers @ UNC
1/1 WVU @ Purdue
1/2 Louisville @ Kentucky
1/2 Seton Hall vs VA Tech in Cancun
1/6 Syracuse hosting Memphis
1/17 Uconn @ Michigan
1/23 WVU hosting Ohio St.
1/30 GU hosting Duke

In some of these 23 games, Big East teams will be favored by a bit; in some they will be underdogs. Hopefully, there will be several more wins than losses. Losses in any of the other games on the schedule would be significant disappointments.

On a side note, our soft schedule thus far (Temple excepted, to whatever degree) has begun to hit our rating. Right now, our strength of schedule is at 335 in Sagarin (which is now "connected" and based only on games from this season), 331 in Pomeroy and 204 in the RPI; we're rated 24th, 38th and 47th, respectively. Wins in the upcoming week against Butler (now ranked below us with their losses to Minnesota & Clemson in the 76 Classic in Anaheim) and Washington (who could drop below us in the next poll with their loss @ Texas Tech) would go a long way to justify our currently-high rankings in the polls.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

The SOS drop was almost entirely due to playing 1-7 American (plus the Sagarin "connected" switch).

Given the early point in the season, our strength of schedule in RPI and Sagarin should rise almost 100 places (if not more) after the games with Butler (6-2) and Washington (6-1), and will continue to rise with games vs. Old Dominion (5-3) and Harvard (6-2).

What I love about this schedule is that by the end of the season our OOC strength of schedule should be around the toughest in the country, with each of the following teams having a legitimate shot at 20 wins (either because they're that good and/or they play in a weaker conference):

- Mt. St. Mary's
- Temple
- Butler
- Washington
- ODU
- Harvard
- Duke

[grokamok]

Dec 6, 2009 17:06:32 GMT -5 grokamok said:

Louisville stunk it up (vs. their ranking) out-of-conference last year, too, (Western Kentucky and Minnesota on a neutral floors & UNLV at home), screwing the Big East before conference play, so I'm not surprised, though I am disappointed.

Marquette losing to NC St. at home after being up 14 also hurt, as did Providence losing to URI after holding a 16-point lead early in the 2nd half (this one was away and URI is not a pushover this year, though). With DePaul having the expected (especially with Koshwal out) loss at Vandy and St. John's having the expected loss at Duke, these three others hurt. The conference is now second in the Sagarin ratings (having held a fair lead just before), third in Pomeroy (having been a very close second) and a much less convincing first in the RPI (having been first by a wide margin before).

The remaining out-of-conference games for the Big East include:

Today Villanova essentially @ UMD at the Verizon Center
12/8 GU vs Butler at MSG
12/9 Providence @ GW (not a gimme, based on how the two teams are playing)
12/9 UConn vs Kentucky at MSG
12/9 St. John's hosting Georgia
12/10 Syracuse essentially @ Florida in St. Pete
12/10 DePaul vs Mississippi State in St. Pete (note: Koshwal will still be out)
12/12 GU vs Washington in Anaheim
12/12 Marquette @ Wisconsin
12/13 Villanova @ Temple (can't ever count out a decent Big Five team at home)
12/13 Cincy @ Xavier
12/16 Cincy @ UAB
12/19 Seton Hall hosting Temple
12/19 Notre Dame hosting UCLA (UCLA is down, but is from a power conference, and we should never underestimate the Irish's ability to play down to their opponent)
12/23 WVU hosting Mississippi
12/28 Rutgers @ UNC
1/1 WVU @ Purdue
1/2 Louisville @ Kentucky
1/2 Seton Hall vs VA Tech in Cancun
1/6 Syracuse hosting Memphis
1/17 Uconn @ Michigan
1/23 WVU hosting Ohio St.
1/30 GU hosting Duke

In some of these 23 games, Big East teams will be favored by a bit; in some they will be underdogs. Hopefully, there will be several more wins than losses. Losses in any of the other games on the schedule would be significant disappointments.

On a side note, our soft schedule thus far (Temple excepted, to whatever degree) has begun to hit our rating. Right now, our strength of schedule is at 335 in Sagarin (which is now "connected" and based only on games from this season), 331 in Pomeroy and 204 in the RPI; we're rated 24th, 38th and 47th, respectively. Wins in the upcoming week against Butler (now ranked below us with their losses to Minnesota & Clemson in the 76 Classic in Anaheim) and Washington (who could drop below us in the next poll with their loss @ Texas Tech) would go a long way to justify our currently-high rankings in the polls.

So, after all was said and done...

W 12/6 Villanova essentially @ UMD at the Verizon Center
W 12/8 GU vs Butler at MSG
W 12/9 Providence @ GW (not a gimme, based on how the two teams were playing)
L 12/9 UConn vs Kentucky at MSG
W 12/9 St. John's hosting Georgia
W 12/10 Syracuse essentially @ Florida in St. Pete
L 12/10 DePaul vs Mississippi State in St. Pete (note: Koshwal will still be out)
W 12/12 GU vs Washington in Anaheim
L 12/12 Marquette @ Wisconsin
L 12/13 Villanova @ Temple (can't ever count out a decent Big Five team at home)
L 12/13 Cincy @ Xavier
L 12/16 Cincy @ UAB
L 12/19 Seton Hall hosting Temple
W 12/19 Notre Dame hosting UCLA (UCLA is down, but is from a power conference, and we should never underestimate the Irish's ability to play down to their opponent)
W 12/23 WVU hosting Mississippi
L 12/28 Rutgers @ UNC
L 1/1 WVU @ Purdue
L 1/2 Louisville @ Kentucky
L 1/2 Seton Hall vs VA Tech in Cancun
W 1/6 Syracuse hosting Memphis
L 1/17 Uconn @ Michigan
W 1/23 WVU hosting Ohio St.
W 1/30 GU hosting Duke

The Big East went 11-12 in the noted games, but UConn beat Texas in a game I had missed: 12-12, a bit worse than hoped. In addition, St. John's lost at home to a good Cornell team, ND lost at home to LMU (and thier home W against UCLA is of the most marginal note), Louisville lost at home to Western Carolina, Providence lost at home to Iona, South Florida lost at home to Central Michigan, DePaul lost at home to American, Pitt lost in NY to a terrible Indiana team, and, of course, we lost at home to ODU -- 8 additional "significant disappointments" among the 16 schools, though the ODU and, especially, Cornell losses are, in retrospect not as bad as they could have been. Still, it's been a better season for the conference than we had a right to expect, after losing so many of last year's stars. It's a good thing that our Hoyas finished the conference's OOC slate (excepting what should be a home game against Robert Morris for Pitt) strong!

[HoyaSinceBirth]

i mean most of the loses that i thought we'd get fall on Uconn, cincy and seton Hall

[prhoya]

I like the strength of that schedule. Of course, we contributed nicely to it.