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Sunday, February 20, 2005

St. John's Game

Stephanie is going to the game today at MSG. I'll provide her analysis after the game.

10 comments:

IPB said...

Well, if the current score is any indication (51-35), her report is not going to be positive. I hope we can pull this out, but it seems like this team has hit a wall. I don't know if our young guys are tiring out as the season wears on (I think this may be part of it b/c St. John's really sucks, is not strong offensively yet put a tremendous amount of points on the board in the first half). If we lose this one, a win against Providence is a must and we're probably going to need to beat UConn or have a strong showing in the BE tournament to make the NCAAs. Very disappointing....

Diamond_Mike said...

Well, St. John's played out of their minds and we played sluggishly and couldn't shoot. Again, a valiant second half comeback can't overcome a massive deficit. Nova is now a must win. I'm glad the boys have a week off. We're clearly hitting a wall.

Johnny Shades said...

After pressing her for some details, Stephanie told me that on the offensive side of the ball she thought we missed far too many 3 pointers and gave up too many steals. She also tells me she was not impressed with our defensive effort. I think I'm going to sign her up for ESPN's Dream Job.

Diamond_Mike said...

Stephanie hit the nail right on the head. 19% from behind the arc will kill you when the other guy is shooting lights out. Definitely a good contender to take over for Dickie V. Seriously, though, as upsetting as this is, we still can make the tourney with wins against Nova and Providence. Our margin for error has just evaporated. (If we beat UConn that would work too, but I'm not holding my breath.)

Italian Stallion said...

having gone to the game myselfy, i must agree w/ steph's analysis. i missed the first 5 minutes and was dismayed to be greeted by a 15 - 3 score in favor of st johns. i will say that they looked very flat and sloppy and dead in the first half. defense was poor, shot selection was horrible and there was no intensity at all.

the second half looked a lot better and when they pulled to w/in 6 it was very much like the bc game. to sum it up, too little too late.

i don't know if it's that the young guys are tired, b/c they play w/ some toughness in the second half as much as they just can play 2 solid halfs of ball. but, it does seem that in the second half of games they are about as tough a team out there as anybody else.

Jester of Magellan said...

Is anybody worried that the timing of these losses is going to be a big problem? I know that magic number was 10 BE wins. But it seems that if you loose a couple in a row (especially ones you're supposed to win) then that may sit heaving in the selection committee's mind. (i.e. 10 wins was enough when we were winning, but may not be enough now that we're losing).

IPB said...

I realize that the NCAA selection committee doesn't sit around and count the number of teams selected per conference, but my understanding is that major conferences like the BE and ACC often field 6 teams while 7 is almost unheard of.

Assuming the BE gets 6 teams in, BC, Syracuse, UConn, Pitt and Villanova (barring a total meltdown on Villanova's part) look like sure bets.

That basically leaves GU to battle it out with ND for the last spot. We have the edge over ND at this point in light of ND's loss to UConn this evening and now control our destiny.

Sunday's game is looking more and more like a must win.
Can you imagine if we lose and then have to head to UConn to try to break a 3-game losing streak?????

IPB said...

I step back slightly from my earlier post. I didn't realize Villanova is only 7-5 in BE play although they have wins over 3 ranked teams (Kansas, Pitt, and WV). Assuming they go 2-2 the rest of the way (and finish 9-7 in BE play), does anyone think they won't get in? Any thoughts?

Diamond_Mike said...

Nova has a MUCH better RPI than we do. That is why most think they're a lock. If they go on a horendous losing streak, that could change, but I don't see it. After us, they have two creampuffs to finish out the season. (The problem with creampuffs, as we now know, is if you lose to them it is very bad.) Hopefully BC will top them and we can beat them too and then they'll need to win their last two to make the tourney. I think Nova is really a must win; either that or UConn. If we lose both, we'll have to beat Providence and then win at least two games in at MSG to make the tourney. With how tired we look, I'm not too hopeful about the Big East tourney, especially if we don't get a first round bye. As to your point, Mike, yes the selection committee looks at how you play down the stretch. But to get into the tourney we're going to have to win two out of our next three, so I think that's moot.

Jester of Magellan said...

I watched most of the UConn-ND game and I don't think we have a rats chance in hell of beating UConn. I know that they've struggled a bit at times, but they looked like they were hitting on all cylanders last night.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that 'Nova falls apart, and that we learn to score in the opening minutes of a game!