Games of Interest 1/3

[RockawayHoya]

OOC:
ODU leads at Northeastern, 54-40 (10:00 2nd)
JMU leads Delaware, 48-34 (7:49 2nd)
Hartford leads at Maine, 48-47 (8:55 2nd)
Towson trails vs. VCU, 31-39 (15:59 2nd)
WSSU trails at Georgia Tech, 31-74 (11:59 2nd)
Michigan trails Illinois, 11-14 (10:09 1st)


BE:
ND def. Louisville, 78-62
SHU leads Rutgers, 36-33 (half)
WVU leads Nova, 46-24 (half) --> wow
St. Johns tied vs. Depaul, 28-28 (half)

[TrueHoyaBlue]

Nova opens the second half on a 10-4 run.

Hartford and JMU both win.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

OD wins 73-67

wssu looses 46-97

seton hall wins the battle of new jersey 77-72

st. john's 64 depaul 53


wv 67 villinova 56

towson loses in double over time 84-80.

[GULaw]

Michigan up 6 on Illinois with 90 seconds left. Would be good to see Michigan get some quality wins.

[LizziebethHoya]

Michigan beats Illinois by 10...good win for them.

Not "of interest" but Virginia is shooting the lights out of Gonzaga and is up 60-26 at the half.

[RBHoya]

Hall, SJU, and WVU all get wins. Got a chance to see all three of these on local tv tonight, here are a few observations.

-WVU is for real, and if it hasn't been said enough lately I'll say it again: Beilein is terrific. This team looks a lot like the teams of the last 2 years, only with different faces. Frank Young had like 8 3's tonight. They hang around the outside a lot as we've come to expect, which is great unless they have nights where they're cold. At the moment, though, they look pretty damn good.

--Nova looked very out of sorts. WVU was pressing them a little and they just took bad shot after bad shot and made tons of turnovers. Reynolds looked HORRIBLE. They most likely are better than they looked tonight, but Beilein pretty well took Wright to school tonight.

--Which again prompts me to make the point that Beilein's recruiting strategy is successful. Most of these guys are 2 or 3 star recruits, and look like they'd fit in playing at Yates. But they're getting it done, because they can shoot the ball. WVU's offense is a lot like ours in many ways, so its interesting to see the contrast in recruiting styles. I'm still not sure who's strategy is better, but you're not going to see Beilein signing an athletic point who can't shoot and really struggles to score or a super-athletic big man with few discernable offensive skills beyond putback dunks. At the moment it's tough to question Beilein's route, but hopefully III's strategy proves successful in the end too.

--I can't remember EVER seeing the Garden so dead. I mean, there were just great seats all over the place, and the only sound picked up by the audio feed was the SJU cheerleaders. I've seen some televised SJU games before, many of which were poorly attended, but this looked like the worst.

--Both of those teams stunk too. I wouldn't sweat playing either of them. Things change of course but I have been very disappointed this year by the Red Storm. I watched them get taken to OT and almost lose to a really weak Boston U team last weak, and they played poorly again tonight I thought. Nothing about them makes me think they can sniff the NCAA's. And I have my doubts about Norm. It's too early, certainly, to start thinking he's going to be on the hot seat, but where is this team going? They have a number of seniors this year, they should be better than this. And nothing he's really done in recruiting has made me think that things are going to get much better, when you consider how talent rich the NYC metro area is and how few of those top players are going to SJU. IMHO, and I know it's still early for this kind of a prediction, but I think their programs not going anywhere, they're going to end up meddling in mediocrity for a few more years before eventually showing Norm the door. Which is an absolute shame, because they have the most potential of any school in the conference, playing in THE media market and THE basketball arena. Recently a number of players have elected to go to UCLA and moreso USC because they are big media markets and they want to get their name out there before going to the next level. St. John's should absolutely be able to capitalize on that same phenomenon, but right now, they don't seem to have a lot going for them. It's a shame, the city of NY is crying out for a decent basketball team to root for, and neither the Johnnies nor the Knicks seem to be able to get it together.

--Of course, SJU won the game, mostly because as bad as they were, Depaul was slightly worse. This was the Depaul team we smacked last year and who lost to Northwestern, not the one that beat Kansas or killed 'Cuse.

--I actually like the Seton Hall team a lot, think they have the potential to upset some people as they did last season. They are easy to root for, they have a lot of medium sized guys who just play hard. Eugene Harvey, their freshman point, is very good, and will be one of the best players in the conference in the future.

--Figures to be a long first year for FHJ. Hope he can work some of that magical recruiting touch he's supposed to have pretty quickly.


Also I just watched Michigan win (4 games of interest were on tv here at one time, pretty sweet). With a game at Northwestern next, who knows, they may amount to something after all.

[FLHoya]

rbhoya said:

-WVU is for real, and if it hasn't been said enough lately I'll say it again: Beilein is terrific. This team looks a lot like the teams of the last 2 years, only with different faces. Frank Young had like 8 3's tonight. They hang around the outside a lot as we've come to expect, which is great unless they have nights where they're cold. At the moment, though, they look pretty damn good.

sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200701030636

Am I seeing that right? Did West Virginia take 37 of their 44 field goals tonights from three point range? Now there's a system!

Gotta love Frank Young, who's 6-5 210 lbs and shot all of his 13 attempts from behind the arc (and for that matter Alex Ruoff who's 6-6 210 and went 3-7 all from three-land...they're both from Florida too apparently).

[RockawayHoya]

rbhoya said:

-WVU is for real, and if it hasn't been said enough lately I'll say it again: Beilein is terrific. This team looks a lot like the teams of the last 2 years, only with different faces. Frank Young had like 8 3's tonight. They hang around the outside a lot as we've come to expect, which is great unless they have nights where they're cold. At the moment, though, they look pretty damn good.

--Nova looked very out of sorts. WVU was pressing them a little and they just took bad shot after bad shot and made tons of turnovers. Reynolds looked HORRIBLE. They most likely are better than they looked tonight, but Beilein pretty well took Wright to school tonight.

--Which again prompts me to make the point that Beilein's recruiting strategy is successful. Most of these guys are 2 or 3 star recruits, and look like they'd fit in playing at Yates. But they're getting it done, because they can shoot the ball. WVU's offense is a lot like ours in many ways, so its interesting to see the contrast in recruiting styles. I'm still not sure who's strategy is better, but you're not going to see Beilein signing an athletic point who can't shoot and really struggles to score or a super-athletic big man with few discernable offensive skills beyond putback dunks. At the moment it's tough to question Beilein's route, but hopefully III's strategy proves successful in the end too.

--

I watched most of the game tonight too, and I agree with RB. The names on the jerseys might be different for WVU, but it looks like the same team: extremely disciplined, strong evidence of teamwork, players buying into the concept of a coaching philosophy, etc. Young was impressive. They will be much like last year's squad: a very dangerous team who can beat anybody in the country on any given night, but since they are so reliant on the 3, they could have an off day shooting from behind the arc and pay the price for it.

UVA... um, good lord... is there a more "Jekyll and Hyde" team than them or Depaul?

Towson missed a chance to steal a game from VCU (one of the better teams in the CAA), as they had the lead with under 10 seconds to go in regulation and also had a lead with under a minute to go in double OT. Ugh.

Solid win for Michigan. Illinois, although obviously not as good as in past years, is still a pretty decent team.

[GIGAFAN99]

rockawayhoya said:

rbhoya said:

-WVU is for real, and if it hasn't been said enough lately I'll say it again: Beilein is terrific. This team looks a lot like the teams of the last 2 years, only with different faces. Frank Young had like 8 3's tonight. They hang around the outside a lot as we've come to expect, which is great unless they have nights where they're cold. At the moment, though, they look pretty damn good.

--Nova looked very out of sorts. WVU was pressing them a little and they just took bad shot after bad shot and made tons of turnovers. Reynolds looked HORRIBLE. They most likely are better than they looked tonight, but Beilein pretty well took Wright to school tonight.

--Which again prompts me to make the point that Beilein's recruiting strategy is successful. Most of these guys are 2 or 3 star recruits, and look like they'd fit in playing at Yates. But they're getting it done, because they can shoot the ball. WVU's offense is a lot like ours in many ways, so its interesting to see the contrast in recruiting styles. I'm still not sure who's strategy is better, but you're not going to see Beilein signing an athletic point who can't shoot and really struggles to score or a super-athletic big man with few discernable offensive skills beyond putback dunks. At the moment it's tough to question Beilein's route, but hopefully III's strategy proves successful in the end too.

--

I watched most of the game tonight too, and I agree with RB. The names on the jerseys might be different for WVU, but it looks like the same team: extremely disciplined, strong evidence of teamwork, players buying into the concept of a coaching philosophy, etc. Young was impressive. They will be much like last year's squad: a very dangerous team who can beat anybody in the country on any given night, but since they are so reliant on the 3, they could have an off day shooting from behind the arc and pay the price for it.
.

And there is where I lose respect for WVU. Sorry, if I'm not down with teams that play to get to the Sweet 16 occasionally. Aggression wins titles. Threes win ESPN upset of the day highlights. It's a nice component to a team but it can't BE your strategy.

All that said, are we finally ready to say the Big East is ridiculously mediocre this year? Pitt, Georgetown...then Marquette...then ND(did I just say that?) then...everyone not in the following list of the Naismith-Shamers:

St. Johns
Rutgers
Seton Hall
South Florida
Cincy
Providence
Depaul
Louisville

Big East is baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Real bad. Go 2-1 in these first three and the last 13 look more like the Hoyas' first 13 games than we care to admit.

[CO_Hoya]

gigafan99 said:

And there is where I lose respect for WVU. Sorry, if I'm not down with teams that play to get to the Sweet 16 occasionally. Aggression wins titles. Threes win ESPN upset of the day highlights. It's a nice component to a team but it can't BE your strategy.

Well, they did shoot 19 FTs (made 12, not so good), so there may have been some aggression. Admittedly, I didn't see the game, so most of those FTs may have just come in the last few minutes when 'Nova was fouling.

[1984alloveragain]

Giga, you say 2-1 is a very good possibility with our squad---so do I, but I'm NOT gonna rule out a 3-0 start for us. Yes, I'm an OPTIMIST, but we play nova on Monday, their 3rd game in 5 days, and having the middle one at home makes them really travel 3 times -- pretty tough to do in that short span of time. Then, we're off till the next Saturday at Pitt---but the panthers have a pesky game on Wednesday in Chicago, while we can GEAR up for them, at their place where we've won before, and after having a number of pretty big road games to prepare for the environment. 2-1 would be ok, but 3-0 makes up for at least one, if not Both our home losses. We'll see... Btw, VERY nice win for the Wolverines...

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I'm an extreme optomist. we very easily can go 3-0 and we will go 3-0. Nova didn't look good at all. that'll be the easiest of the three. i like our chances home against ND. and we've had pitt's number as of late. I think we'll be fine.

[GIGAFAN99]

hoyasincebirth said:

I'm an extreme optomist. we very easily can go 3-0 and we will go 3-0. Nova didn't look good at all. that'll be the easiest of the three. i like our chances home against ND. and we've had pitt's number as of late. I think we'll be fine.

Worry not about my optimisim, I agree. But Pitt is actually good, and on the road right now they should beat us.

Now we'll perform an autopsy on them in February at home, but I'm just saying any combination of 2-1 out of the gate puts us in good position to get a bye, even this early.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

you're right 2-1 will put us in a great possition.

[KHoyaNYC]

2-1 would be great because I see a real possibility of going 6-0 after those first 3 games. We should not lose any of the 6 games after Pitt.

Also, regarding WVU, I think it is wrong to characterize them as not aggressive. They play to their strengths. Their biggest strength is shooting, especially 3-point shooting. What's wrong with that? That's not not being aggressive, that's good coaching.

[Boz]

khoyanyc said:

2-1 would be great because I see a real possibility of going 6-0 after those first 3 games. We should not lose any of the 6 games after Pitt.

To paraphrase my friend the Gemini, you people are clearly issuing an invitation to the dance.

(and I don't mean the good dance in March)

I'll take 1-0 over the next 1 game, thank you very much.

Right, lic?

[Filo]

RB - good post, but I do have one quibble...

rbhoya said:

I'm still not sure who's strategy is better, but you're not going to see Beilein signing an athletic point who can't shoot and really struggles to score or a super-athletic big man with few discernable offensive skills beyond putback dunks. At the moment it's tough to question Beilein's route, but hopefully III's strategy proves successful in the end too.

That's not a fair comparison. First, unlike WVU, JTIII does not need Vernon to produce much yet, given the talent ahead of him. Second, I don't think Vernon has had the chance to show his skills much. I still think VM is going to shine in this offense -- probably not this year, but definitely over the next few.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

boz1 said:

khoyanyc said:

2-1 would be great because I see a real possibility of going 6-0 after those first 3 games. We should not lose any of the 6 games after Pitt.

To paraphrase my friend the Gemini, you people are clearly issuing an invitation to the dance.

(and I don't mean the good dance in March)

I'll take 1-0 over the next 1 game, thank you very much.

Right, lic?

i think the notion of not looking ahead is great for the team. they need to take games one at a time. but to apply this to fans is just silly. no team ever lost a game because their fans were over looking a game.

[GIGAFAN99]

khoyanyc said:

2-1 would be great because I see a real possibility of going 6-0 after those first 3 games. We should not lose any of the 6 games after Pitt.

Also, regarding WVU, I think it is wrong to characterize them as not aggressive. They play to their strengths. Their biggest strength is shooting, especially 3-point shooting. What's wrong with that? That's not not being aggressive, that's good coaching.

It is when you're stuck with it.

But if I told you that JTIII had a system that recruited nothing but Jon Wallace players of various heights, would you be thrilled?

Their strengths are perpetuated by the fact that they recruit specifically for that system. It's not like they couldn't recruit other players. It's just that their system actively seeks 7'0 tall guys who like to stand outside and shoot threes and 5'11 guys who like to stand outside and shoot threes. That's fine, but you'll always be somewhere between "fair" and "pretty good" with that philosophy.

Just my opinion. I think WVU basketball is terrible to watch.

Agreed that we could go 6-0 in that soft stretch.

[KHoyaNYC]

gigafan99 said:

khoyanyc said:

2-1 would be great because I see a real possibility of going 6-0 after those first 3 games. We should not lose any of the 6 games after Pitt.

Also, regarding WVU, I think it is wrong to characterize them as not aggressive. They play to their strengths. Their biggest strength is shooting, especially 3-point shooting. What's wrong with that? That's not not being aggressive, that's good coaching.

It is when you're stuck with it.

But if I told you that JTIII had a system that recruited nothing but Jon Wallace players of various heights, would you be thrilled?

Their strengths are perpetuated by the fact that they recruit specifically for that system. It's not like they couldn't recruit other players. It's just that their system actively seeks 7'0 tall guys who like to stand outside and shoot threes and 5'11 guys who like to stand outside and shoot threes. That's fine, but you'll always be somewhere between "fair" and "pretty good" with that philosophy.

Just my opinion. I think WVU basketball is terrible to watch.

Agreed that we could go 6-0 in that soft stretch.

We'll have to agree to disagree. I think his system and recruiting philosophy works and the improvement continues. At least that's what the numbers suggest. Beilein took over a broken program 4 years ago and every year since WVU has earned more BE wins than the previous year and the last two years he's gotten WVU to the Elite Eight and Sweet 16. Last three seasons' pomeroy ratings have been 29, 16 and 8. I'd say that already qualifies as "pretty good" and obviously he has them playing quite well so far this year. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't have any particular love for WVU, but I do admire the job Beilein has done in such a short amount of time.