Still think there's a WaPo pro-MD conspiracy?

[Big Dog]

Wilbon will be at the BET instead this year:

New York, N.Y.: The Big East Tournament is going to be amazing! I can't wait. Are you gonna be coming up to NY to spend some time at 33rd and 7th in March?

Michael Wilbon: Yes, I am. I've covered the ACC Tournament for 11 straight years, but I'm going back to the Big East, which I last covered when Allen Iverson was in his second and final season...I can't wait...CANNNOT WAIT to see it...especially with all the teams on the bubble (Louisville, Seton Hall) who are going to need victories to get into the NCAA Tournament.

[jerseyhoya34]

I saw that in the chat. Does anybody notice how much the WG fans pepper those chat rooms with WG/GU nonsense?

[Frank Black]

Louisville is on the bubble?

[bawlmerhoya]

The 'Ville needs to win out, and they might have the talent to do just that. It is an exciting storyline. If they play their hearts out and other teams mail it in, they might make it.

[MCIGuy]

It took him forever. Kornheiser stopped going back in the early 90s and Wilbon seemed to be contracted to go only to the ACC. I remember the season after Juan Dixon's last season at Maryland and Jason Williams' at Duke Wilbon was bemoaning the lack of big name stars in college basketball (using the departures of ACC stars to the pros as an example). What ticked me off was that same season the Big East was full of stars (Sweetney, Okafor, Caron Butler, Carmello Anthony, Gomes and many others whom I'm forgetting) and if Wilbon wanted to see great basketball all he had to do was go to New York City to the Big East Tournament.

Anyway the key thing is if Wilbon actually stays for the entire tourney as he has done most years for the ACC regardless of how far Maryland advances. Last season Mike Wise wrote columns for the two days Gtown played but left after the Hoyas fell to UConn.

[FrazierFanatic]

bawlmerhoya said:

The 'Ville needs to win out, and they might have the talent to do just that. It is an exciting storyline. If they play their hearts out and other teams mail it in, they might make it.

As long as they play their hearts out tomorrow, in their last home game against former Con. USA foe Marquette, they will make us happy! I don't see them having a chance at UConn this weekend without Padgett.

[prhoya]

Classic bandwagoner!!! He last went to the BET when the going was good.

[RDF]

Wilbon knows very little about sports. He's too busy on topics that are 10 years old and the guy still worships at alter that is Michael Jordan.

As for Louisville, this year's team is garbage. I thought their recruiting class last year was overrated and Cards class this upcoming year is much better suited for Pitino's style and Big East caliber play. Earl Clark and Jerry Smith are solid and Pitino will either hit/miss with Caracter who has talent but is lazy and doesn't take to conditioning--but neither did Nazr Mohammed and Pitino made him a millionaire.

[DoubleOhHoya]

they may suck, but we need to pray they're on tomorrow night.

Also, their recruiting class for next year is SICK. much better than ours. I think two 5 star players, three four star players

[RDF]

Hoyas recruiting class is equal, if not superior to Louisville's---have you seen Caracter play? He's highly overrated in terms of production and rated off what he did as a 9th Grader at Nike Camp. Clark is good but I'd not trade him for Summers--especially when it comes to our system. Rivers plays in our offense in HS and Sosa is good/more dynamic but remember recruiting is about who fits your system. PE JR is a very underrated player because he's athletic/talented but has practiced for an entire year--which puts him ahead of anyone on either team. Macklin is as talented as anyone in this class.

Recruiting classes get ranked off who is doing them--not the talent coming in--for instance Pitino has a rep and III doesn't --yet--he will start getting that and as we win more, we'll have highly ranked classes.

Clark and Smith are great players--but no better then Summers/Macklin are for us--and everyone we've signed fits our system which is MOST IMPORTANT in recruiting.

[SFHoya99]

Recruiting classes also get ranked off volume.

The issue is, classes rarely keep more than three players of value. Louisville returns Terrance Williams, Juan Diego Palacios and David Padgett as returning starters. Are all five recruits going to start over them?

Aside from having a player like Austin come in with our class, I really can't think of a better class balance than what we have coming in this year.

[ephoya04]

CAN WE PLEASE STOP...reading all these excuses is making me ill. Everyone wants to point to point the finger at GW for having an inferiority complex yet we are going to make up whatever excuses we can to justify that our recruiting class is better or as good as Louisville's?!?! Seriously now people. We have a good class, they have a good class. Period. End of story. Let's enjoy what we have going and wait for it to play out on the court.

[SFHoya99]

ephoya04 said:

CAN WE PLEASE STOP...reading all these excuses is making me ill. Everyone wants to point to point the finger at GW for having an inferiority complex yet we are going to make up whatever excuses we can to justify that our recruiting class is better or as good as Louisville's?!?! Seriously now people. We have a good class, they have a good class. Period. End of story. Let's enjoy what we have going and wait for it to play out on the court.

Talk about an overreaction.

Louisville's class is rated sixth by Rivals. Ours is rated tenth. So there's definitely room for discussion as to who's class is better and who's class is more suited for Georgetown.

Make up whatever excuses we can? Inferiority complex? When does Louisville ever come up on this board? And the "excuses" are just good analysis.

Caracter is overrated, and just about anyone will acknowledge that. Plus, since he's not even playing for his prep school anymore and there's a lot of skepticism that he'll even make it to Louisville. So much that Pitino is trying to get in on Lance Thomas.

So Macklin is higher rated and seems to be doing well in his school. And he doesn't have a long history of attitude problems.

RDF likes Earl Clark. I don't. I mean, I think he's going to be the star everyone projects. He's not a point and he hasn't produced according to his ranking. Maybe a less talented Rudy Gay?

I wouldn't trade DaJuan for him, though I can acknowledge that the rankings prefer Clark.

Then it is Edgar Sosa and Jerry Smith versus Rivers. Rankings-wise, there is no contest. But Rivers' ranking was depressed by injury, and the fact that he plays in a Princeton helps him. Also, you have to weigh the possibility of Smith and Sosa staying and both being happy.

To me, Georgetown has the better frontcourt recruits, but Louisville has the better backcourt. Louisville wins, I think, if Caracter comes, but not if he doesn't. Adn I didn't even count Ewing.