Monday, December 10, 2007

Big East Bloggers Poll

1) Georgetown (18): 288 pts.
2) Marquette: 257 pts.
3) Pittsburgh: 256 pts.
4) Villanova: 226 pts.
5) Louisville: 214 pts.
6) West Virginia: 206 pts.
7) Connecticut: 165 pts.
8) Syracuse: 153 pts.
9) Notre Dame: 144 pts.
10) Providence: 131 pts.
11) Seton Hall: 123 pts.
12) St. John's: 81 pts.
13) South Florida: 70 pts.
14) Rutgers: 56 pts.
15) DePaul: 48 pts.
16) Cincinnati: 30 pts.

"South Florida's freshman Dominique Jones swept the weekly honors, getting the most votes for Player of the Week AND Freshman of the Week. Jones scored 30 points in a road win at Richmond and 25 more in a home win over UAB for the Bulls this past week. The Bulls have won seven in a row after starting the year 0-3 under new coach Stan Heath."

Good for Jones, he certainly deserved both awards. Finals result in a pretty light schedule this week... not a lot of top 25 teams in action. Oh, well... I'll have to find some way to amuse you all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're blog is fantastic! Are you an assistant ND coach or related to Mike Brey? You sure know your stuff.

Question: why doesn't Brey play more then just his top 8 players. It seems to me he needs to develop his bench if he wants to still have stamina during February and March.

Anonymous said...

I hear that Charlie Weiss attends the home games. Why isn't he out recruiting?

Anonymous said...

If Mike Brey doesn't make it past the first round of the Big East finals this year, do you think he's history?

BlackandGreen said...

Ha, thanks for the compliments. I am in no way affiliated with Coach Brey or the team. I love hoops, but I definitely don't envy the coaches who have to spend such long hours gameplanning, recruiting, etc.

Coach Brey always likes to play just the guys he has enough confidence in. This year, it's the eight veterans but I wouldn't be surprised to see one or two of the freshmen get significant minutes before the end of the year. The short bench has been a concern in the past. My thoughts? If Coach Brey truly thinks a starter at 85-90% is better than a fresh option off the bench, he's right to stick with the starter. Once the conference season comes around, I'd rather have a tired Kyle McAlarney playing with the game on the line than Jonathan Peoples at his best.

Charlie Weis does attend many of the home games, but it actually serves a purpose for recruiting. Last Saturday, Weis was there with a bunch of committed players. It's nice to give the high schoolers a sense of school spirit outside of football season. Plus, at this point in the recruiting season he's more focused on nailing down a handful of guys. That means getting them on campus instead of travelling 24/7.

Coach Brey was on the hot seat a bit last year, but surprised everyone and got a lot out of a team that was expected to miss the tournament. This year, he's definitely safe. It would take another year or two of finishing in the NIT with good players for his job to be on the line. No matter what happens this year, he should be safe.

Thanks for the input and keep reading the blog!