Sunday, January 24, 2010
Big East Weekend
With UCONN beating #1 Texas yesterday West Virginia knocking off #25 Ohio State yesterday, the conference picked up a pair of very nice nonconference wins to bolster the Big East's reputation. Since the Irish are currently projected to finish 9th by the end of the season, we will need for the selection committee to take as many Big East teams as possible. That also means that teams like UCONN, Louisville, and Marquette have to drop a few contests down the road. A Marquette win against Syracuse could have really set back Irish NCAA dreams.
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9 comments:
I'll give Brey credit. He is not trying to hide the fact that he could care less about defense and rebounding. Today's SBT - "Guys that can score will start."
I'm a little taken back by that. I have never heard a big-time college coach say something quite like that.
Let's remember that we were calling time out against DePaul deep in the second half because we decided to play no defense in the second half and make Will Walker look like the second coming. Think that will fly against Villanova?
That UConn win vs Texas probably put a nail in ND's coffin...
I'm sorry, but you seriously expect the committee that's NEVER put ND in as a bubble team AND NEVER put in more than 8 in one conference to break BOTH those 'rules' for a middling ND team THIS YEAR? HA...Good luck with that...
UConn is in now barring a complete collapse to 8-10 (and even that could get them b/c of rep and the Texas win). ND alsomst desperately needs a big upset Wed to vault them into 6th or 7th in the pecking order...
Which is exactly why the Irish will need to pick up an extra couple wins down the road. 10-8 in the Big East is the bare minimum record ND needs. That would put them 7th or 8th in the league.
7th or 8th...with a loss to Loyola (Thanks Brey)....
ND needs 11 wins...After the Nova game, the schedule drops off and ND SHOULD win 5 in a row to get to 9 wins, then take chance getting the next 2 in the last weeks....Anything less and it's over
After the game one of the group that we usually talk to said Brey made the comment on his weekly show that he expected the team to go 9-9 or 10-8? He thought that would be good enough to get in? Unbelievable! Did anyone hear the same?
I think 10 wins puts us in 6th place.
Villanova
Cuse
WVU
GTOWN/PITT/UCONN (we finish ahead of one of these teams at 10 wins)
I think Pitt is setting up for a potential collapse. They have lost 2 straight games in which they were favored and that early loss to Indiana shows just how mediocre they can be.
What you can't do is worry about other teams. And you don't have get all technical about it. ND controls their own fate...I mean what if they go undefeated from here on out? Then who gives a shit that Uconn beat Texas.
You can't focus on what other teams do because you have no control over that. ND needs to just approach every game with the intention to win it. You can't waste time speculating. The fact of the matter is if the Irish finish strong with wins they will make the tournament, despite who other teams may beat.
Like Brey said in the Tribune, if you can score you'll play. The subs first second and third choices if in the game are not scoring. So if they can score know one will ever know it. That way the starting five will play almost all the minutes. You can't argue with a genius.....
While you are mostly right Knobby, it does in fact pay to speculate a little bit as ND is likely to be squarely on the bubble. It varies from season to season how well you need to perform to get into the tourney. The better the Big East performs out of conference, the more teams we are likely to send dancing.
Look at the NFl. This year two 9-7 teams got the AFC Wild Card spots. Last year the Patriots went 11-5 and were left out of the playoffs. While I know there is no playoff selection process in the NFL, I am just trying to illustrate that speculation has its upside.
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