Looking at the upcoming Season - PREVIEW THREAD

[aughnanure]

Buzz will be fine. Marquette is in great shape.

They are rebuilding this year though. Just making the tourney would be nice.

No, just making the tournament would not be "nice". Not making the tournament would be hugely disappointing.

Not once in the Old Big East did Marquette not make the tourney, so in this new format w/ no Cuse, Uconn, ND, Pitt, Cincy, Ville - it would be quite disappointing to not make it in.

You're building yourself up for a big let down.

BTW, you faced the likes of Cuse, UConn, ND, Pitt, and Cincy once each in a typical season in the old Big East. The new Big East is double round robing. So, it'll be Georgetown and Villanova twice each.

BTW, Cincy was no world beater in the old Big East. Missed the tournament 5 straight years and last year barely made the tournament. If UConn hadn't been ineligible, they probably wouldn't have made it. Their record in the last 10 games, something on which the committee puts a lot of emphasis, was abysmal.

Yeah, and before Vander and Cadougan (and I still can't get over how people think that Junior is THAT big of a loss), it was DJO and Crowder. Before them, it was Jimmy Butler and Dwight Buycks (2 NBA players). Before them it was Lazar Hayward and Mo Acker. Before them it was Wesley Matthews, Dominic James, and Jerel McNeal.

By the way, this is the lowest PPG scoring leader we've had to replace since I don't know when (less than 15). And he never even scored more than 8 pts per game in a season before last year. Meaning our scoring was actually quite spread out. The other two you point out averaged just over 15 pts TOGETHER.

And seriously on the rebounding? You're talking about 5.1 RPG to replace. Call me not that worried. I love Lockett, but he is just a great glue (i.e., the definition of replaceable- we only had him for 1 year!).

[aughnanure]

The brawl didn't set Xavier back really at all. Sure maybe the regular season, but they still made a S16. Xavier also focuses quite a bit on transfers, and have consistently hit on them. The down year last year was because our administration basically railroaded our best player in Dez Wells.

I thought I just remembered them having a lot of transfers (as in like 2 or 3) after that. I thought there was at least one other of your key players pushed out with Dez, but I guess I was wrong.

[Bill Marsh]

No, just making the tournament would not be "nice". Not making the tournament would be hugely disappointing.

Not once in the Old Big East did Marquette not make the tourney, so in this new format w/ no Cuse, Uconn, ND, Pitt, Cincy, Ville - it would be quite disappointing to not make it in.

You're building yourself up for a big let down.

BTW, you faced the likes of Cuse, UConn, ND, Pitt, and Cincy once each in a typical season in the old Big East. The new Big East is double round robin. So, it'll be Georgetown and Villanova twice each.

Cincy was no world beater in the old Big East. Missed the tournament 5 straight years and last year barely made the tournament. If UConn hadn't been ineligible, they probably wouldn't have made it. Their record in the last 10 games, something on which the committee puts a lot of emphasis, was abysmal.

It also means two games against DePaul and two against Seton Hall. We also normally played Georgetown and Nova twice. Especially GTown. The point is, the Old Big East was better regardless.

I agree that the old Big East was a better league. But that doesn't mean that teams faced a better schedule. It made for great TV match ups and was especially important in the conference tournament. But teams normally only played the top opponents once each season. Marquette, for example, did not normally face Georgetown twice in the regular season. In 8 years, Georgetown showed up twice 2 times and Villanova 3. They normally faced each of those teams once.

But that's really beside the point. Regardless of Marquette's individual experience with any team or two, teams only faced 3 teams per season twice. that's out of 15 opponents. So, for the overall league, it's a schedule that will have every team competing against the league's best teams twice every year.

something that's proving to be an upgrade for the league is the reemergence of St. John's and Providence. While both had great histories in the 34 years of Big East play, both were down for almost the entire length of Marquette's time in the league. Those games could be counted as a win almost every year. The timing of their reemergence means that the new Big East has 2 tough teams in place of what were previously easy wins most years.

[Bill Marsh]

No, just making the tournament would not be "nice". Not making the tournament would be hugely disappointing.

Not once in the Old Big East did Marquette not make the tourney, so in this new format w/ no Cuse, Uconn, ND, Pitt, Cincy, Ville - it would be quite disappointing to not make it in.

You're building yourself up for a big let down.

BTW, you faced the likes of Cuse, UConn, ND, Pitt, and Cincy once each in a typical season in the old Big East. The new Big East is double round robing. So, it'll be Georgetown and Villanova twice each.

BTW, Cincy was no world beater in the old Big East. Missed the tournament 5 straight years and last year barely made the tournament. If UConn hadn't been ineligible, they probably wouldn't have made it. Their record in the last 10 games, something on which the committee puts a lot of emphasis, was abysmal.

Yeah, and before Vander and Cadougan (and I still can't get over how people think that Junior is THAT big of a loss), it was DJO and Crowder. Before them, it was Jimmy Butler and Dwight Buycks (2 NBA players). Before them it was Lazar Hayward and Mo Acker. Before them it was Wesley Matthews, Dominic James, and Jerel McNeal.

By the way, this is the lowest PPG scoring leader we've had to replace since I don't know when (less than 15). And he never even scored more than 8 pts per game in a season before last year. Meaning our scoring was actually quite spread out. The other two you point out averaged just over 15 pts TOGETHER.

And seriously on the rebounding? You're talking about 5.1 RPG to replace. Call me not that worried. I love Lockett, but he is just a great glue (i.e., the definition of replaceable- we only had him for 1 year!).

The numbers are beside the point. What we know for sure is that the combination of players that Marquette had last year got them to the Elite 8. That is a known. With 3 players gone, who were among the 5 who played the most minutes, we introduce a lot of unknowns regardless of the talent level.

Numbers only tell part of the story. They don't tell us about the quality of the split second decision making on the floor. They don't tell about boxing out when someone else gets the rebound. They don't tell about intangibles like toughness and defense. IMO, those were all factors which made Marquette the top 10 team they were last year. Will this team be as tough as last year's regardless of the talent? Who knows?

The fact that Buzz successfully integrated new players in the past reflects well on his coaching abilities and is a credit to him. But that kind of success is not automatic and even great coaches have years when it doesn't come together despite the coach's best efforts. I'm not saying that this will be a bad year for Marquette. Not at all. Just that a lot of questions have to be answered before we know for sure what this team will be.

[aughnanure]

[Gave up on the quotes since it doesn't allow you to do more than 3, and I think I messed it up trying to fix it]

First, Marquette played Georgetown 2X 4 out of the last 5 seasons.

I also think you are assuming quite a lot about 2 teams who haven't even finished above .500 in the league the past 2 seasons and underrating the team that won more Big East games than any the team in that same time period. I hope StJ and Providence are on the upswing, but you are taking a bit of a leap in assuming those two are really back.

[Friarfan2]

Marquette fans who do not think they are rebuilding are wrong.

[marquette]

[Gave up on the quotes since it doesn't allow you to do more than 3, and I think I messed it up trying to fix it]

First, Marquette played Georgetown 2X 4 out of the last 5 seasons.

I also think you are assuming quite a lot about 2 teams who haven't even finished above .500 in the league the past 2 seasons and underrating the team that won more Big East games than any the team in that same time period. I hope StJ and Providence are on the upswing, but you are taking a bit of a leap in assuming those two are really back.

At this point I'm relatively sure that Bill Marsh and the new "Providence fan" Friarfan2 are both the same guy. Similar join dates (August 11th and 12th), similar syntax, identical opinions, more posts than is typical of any poster at this point in the summer, etc. He is a troll, as evidenced by the baiting of Seton Hall and DePaul earlier, and us in this thread. Best to just put them on ignore and wait for the new identity to emerge so we can put that one on ignore as well.

[Friarfan2]

Wait, they said Marquette isn't the best despite losing their three best players?!?

They are both the same person and are trolls!

Sorry punk. But I'm a big east fan, and have been a big east fan since you were a CUSA fan. My posts have been well thought out and constructive. You don't think I give your team enough respect? Nonsense. I have tons of respect for Marquette. I just accept that they are rebuilding. If that opinion makes me a troll, then whatever.

I hope this board doesn't become one of those boards where constructive conversations are prohibited. If thinking Marquette is rebuilding and thinking seton hall is a waste is a prohibited opinion, them this board is going to have problems.

[Bill Marsh]

Deleted.

[Bill Marsh]

Deleted.