Big East Predictions for X

[longliveskip]

I understand that expectations are pretty low for this team considering how we've fared vs lesser competition. I, for one, am slightly more optimistic.

I think we can get to 9 wins in the BE. maybe we sneak one or two wins from Creighton, UConn, and Marquette. we "should" be able to sweep DePaul, and go .500 vs. Nova, Prov, SJ, Butler, SH.

looking at the whole picture, i think we end up with 8 wins in the conference. gonna be a tough year, but these boys are playing hard. the top of the league may be as good as it's ever been in a long time.

[muskieman]

I understand that expectations are pretty low for this team considering how we've fared vs lesser competition. I, for one, am slightly more optimistic.

I think we can get to 9 wins in the BE. maybe we sneak one or two wins from Creighton, UConn, and Marquette. we "should" be able to sweep DePaul, and go .500 vs. Nova, Prov, SJ, Butler, SH.

looking at the whole picture, i think we end up with 8 wins in the conference. gonna be a tough year, but these boys are playing hard. the top of the league may be as good as it's ever been in a long time.

Did I miss Georgetown?

[Kevin Reilly]

I hate to be negative but I think 9 wins is about right. The Big East is loaded... maybe the best since Xavier has been in the league. Hard to see us beating U Conn, Creighton, Villanova and Marquette. That's 7 losses right there. We probably split with St. John's, Georgetown and Providence. Nine and ten sounds reasonable. This is based on us playing a lot better than we have so far. Djokovic has been very shaky. I am surprised he is starting. Miller usually makes his players earn their playing time. I like Ciani and Nemeiksa a lot better than Miller does. On the other hand I am disappointed in Green and Swain so far. I think Swain has been very leaky on defense which is his calling card. It's obvious Green and Swain have a lot of talent but they need to grow up fast. I for one am happy with the young talent but not sure we make the tournament this year. Go X

Reasonable assessment

[longliveskip]

I understand that expectations are pretty low for this team considering how we've fared vs lesser competition. I, for one, am slightly more optimistic.

I think we can get to 9 wins in the BE. maybe we sneak one or two wins from Creighton, UConn, and Marquette. we "should" be able to sweep DePaul, and go .500 vs. Nova, Prov, SJ, Butler, SH.

looking at the whole picture, i think we end up with 8 wins in the conference. gonna be a tough year, but these boys are playing hard. the top of the league may be as good as it's ever been in a long time.

Did I miss Georgetown?

whoops. i did. we should sweep them as they are rebuilding more than us but you never know with Cooley. still think we are in the 8-9 win range. we will probably win one or two that we "shouldn't" but with this team we will probably drop a couple as well that we "shouldn't" so it will all balance out to about 8-9 wins in the BE.

[skyhops]

I agree with skip regarding UConn, MU, Nova, and Creighton based on their games I've watched. Maybe win one against Nova or MU at home, but I see seven losses in those games. Maybe steal a road game against DePaul or Georgetown otherwise I see six games won in BE. Hope I am wrong, but we just not strong at the 4 and the 5. Oushmane has played better lately and has the size, however Djokavic is liability on both sides of the ball. Miller starts him due to his length, but he can't shoot or play defense. Ciani will be solid, but not fair to expect much from him next year and Gytis plays hard, but is undersized. If Des could suddenly develop a three point shoot that could change things, but don't see that happening. Hunter would make a difference. This team has played much better last two games, however talent is just not there this year unfortunately. The Oakland and Delaware loses were just unacceptable.

[pdxmuskie]

8 or 9 wins seems like a reasonable goal. Getting 10 would be huge.

The conference is possibly the strongest it has been at the very top (at least 2 other years were likely as strong or stronger) but After UCON, Marquette and Creighton, it is nothing special. The Big East is projected to get 5 teams in which is great but not record setting. Nova is projected in the 8/9 game. Obviously these projections will change but the conference didn't exactly dominate the non conference schedule.

Nova has losses to Drexel and Penn which is likely worse than Xavier's worst losses.

Something to keep in mind is how close X is to having a good record. Washington and Houston could have both been wins with 1 fewer mistake or an extra ball bouncing our way. Delaware also could have been a win and the team was competitive against Purdue. X played badly in a number of games allowing teams to stay in games as well as resulting in losses but the team is young and still learning to play together.

I can't say I have high expectations at this point but there is hope for a strong finish. Expectations of 9ish wins in conference makes sense but hopefully they can exceed expectations.

[skyhops]

According to the pundits, xavier will need 12 to 13 BE conferences wins to be considered for an at large and to win a game or two in BE tourney. The Delaware and Oakland losses loom large. Providence looked really good last night and Butler is solid.

[pdxmuskie]

12 sounds right. 11 might get it done if a lot of other things work in Xavier's favor. I get the bad loss argument when calling out certain games but it is more about the volume of blown opportunities. Washington should have been a win. Houston could have been a win. Delaware should have been a win. On paper Oakland should have been an easy win but in reality, X was not going to win that game, at least not without a significant change in approach.

10 and 3 wins in the conference tournament would probably also work. Minimum of 1 conference tournament win with 11 or 12 regular season wins and probably 2 wins in the tournament, especially if only 11 regular season wins.

[skyhops]

No way we win more than six.

[pdxmuskie]

St Johns may finish 4th or 5th in conference. Guessing Nova finishes 6th but could be 7th or even 8th. Nova has talent but I am not a believer in their coach. Always felt he had talent at his prior school but couldn't ever get it done with any consistency. I may be wrong about the level of talent he had. If so he will certainly prove me wrong in the very near future.

Providence is probably top 6. Butler could be top 6. Xavier has to figure out how to end up top 6 but not going to happen without changes. Top 6 doesn't get X in the tournament but is a solid year given the turnover and leaves the possibility open with a strong BE tournament.