Big East Games, Week of Dec. 5 thru Dec. 10th.

Tuesday 12/5/17

4 Villanova (-5) vs. 12 Gonzaga, 6:00,
TV: ESPN -Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas, Holly Rowe
Jimmy V Classic (MSG)

Vermont @ Marquette (-3), 6:00,
TV: FS1 -Jeff Levering, Stephen Bardo

North Dakota @ Creighton (-18.5), 7:00,
TV: FS2 Steve Physioc, Nick Bahe

Utah @ Butler (-7.5), 8:00,
TV:FS1 -Aaron Goldsmith, Steve Lavin

St. John's (-5) vs. Grand Canyon (Phoenix), 10:00,
TV: ESPNU- Chuckie Kempf, Adrian Branch

Good start to the night for the Big East. Huge road win for Nova and a very nice win for MU. I thought we played our best offensive game of the year. Defense still wasn’t good, but Vermont is a good team and they shot the lights out as well.

Kent State at #13 Xavier
Justin Kutcher & Steve Lavin
12/6
6:00 PM
FS1


Brown at Providence
Brandon Gaudin & Vin Parise
12/6
6:00 PM
FS2


Central Connecticut State at DePaul
Jeff Levering & Dickey Simpkins
12/6
8:00 PM
FS1

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DCwarrior

Good start to the night for the Big East. Huge road win for Nova and a very nice win for MU. I thought we played our best offensive game of the year. Defense still wasn’t good, but Vermont is a good team and they shot the lights out as well.

---

I DVR'd the Nova/Gonzaga game and watched it after the MU game. IMO, Nova is better than last year despite the loss of Josh Hart. They soundly defeated a good Gonzaga team. Paschall and Spellman check all the boxes at the 4/5 positions: strength, athleticism, rebounding and can pull defenders out with their ability to shoot the 3. They are both good free throw shooters as well.

This might be Mikal Bridges' last year at Nova. He has always been athletic and a good defender, but the evolution of his offensive game is impressive. Bridges had 28 points (5-9 from 3), 6 boards, 2 blocks and 1 steal. He is looking like a first round pick. Phil Booth had his best game so far this season, scoring 20 points on both drives and 3's. Brunson is Brunson, arguably the top PG in college basketball. Divincenzo is an athletic guard with size (6'5") that can do a little bit of evrything. The key will be the contributions of freshmen Gillispie, Crosby-Roundtree and Samuels. Samuels was a Top 50 recruit but really did not play last night.

Xavier and Seton Hall look as good as they have ever been, but it still might be Nova yet again. Conference play is going to be brutal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MIKAL. BRIDGES. ����❌<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SCtop10?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SCtop10 </a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NovaMBb?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NovaMBb </a> <a href="https://t.co/1rWT4XFiAS">pic.twitter.com/1rWT4XFiAS</a></p>&mdash; Villanova MBB (@NovaMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/NovaMBB/status/938268417924136960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Providence needed overtime to beat Brown tonight.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MU/Panther

Providence needed overtime to beat Brown tonight.

---

The Friars have not been living up to their potential for sure.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nukem2

The Friars have not been living up to their potential for sure.

---

I was super high on them going into the season, but they have not meshed together and looked disjointed against Rhode Island. Reminds me a bit of the Hall team that had underclassmen (Whitehead, Delgado, Carrington, Rodriguez) and upperclassmen (Gibbs, Mobley, Sina) divide. They miss Emmitt Holt, but the Young/Watson combination should be solid enough at the 5 with the other pieces 1-4. I think that Cooley needs to make some tough choices about PT and firm up their rotation/style.

Apparently Cartwright is injured. He is the proverbial straw that stirs the drink. He played only 15 minutes last night and scored only two free throws and had only two assists. He didn't start the game. He is the key to the Friars' success with Bullock right behind him.

Kind of OT but I was watching the FS 1 pregame show before the Georgetown Howard game........Donny Marshall just said that the advantage that the Hoyas had by starting out undefeated and building up all of these non conference wins was that " they could make the tournament with only 7 or 8 conference wins"

I swear to god he said that.....lol......I mean how can a guy who gets paid to discuss college basketball have no idea how the selection process works? Or does he just hint his audience is stupid and he can hype up the Hoyas and nobody will notice?

I mean what a great idea...schedule a bunch of teams that can't beat you in the non conference and make the tourney every year by winning 7 conference games!

Yep that's the ticket!

I heard that as well, between the Valpo/Purdue & Howard/Georgetown game. I really hope that is not what he meant.

Georgetown's only true non-conference test will be next Saturday against Syracuse.

Friday 12/8/17
St. John's vs. #16 Arizona State (-5.5) (Los Angeles), 7:00PM
TV: PAC 12Networks/P12N AZ - Ted Robinson, Steve Lavin

Saturday 12/9/17

Marquette at Wisconsin, 11:00AM
TV: FS1-Brian Anderson & Stephen Bardo

Youngstown State at Butler, 11:00AM
TV: FSN-Vince Welch & Jordan Cornette

Nebraska at Creighton, 1:30PM
TV: FS1- Justin Kutcher & Nick Bahe

North Carolina A&T at Georgetown, 1:30PM
TV: FS2- Rich Ackerman & Vin Parise

VCU vs. #19 Seton Hall, 2:00PM
TV: FOX -Brian Custer, Donny Marshall & Holly Sonders

Providence at UMass, 2:00PM
TV: NESN

DePaul at UIC, 3:00pm
TV: espn3

Colorado at #13 Xavier, 4:00PM
TV: FS1- Tim Brando & Len Elmore

Kamar Baldwin scored 19 points, Paul Jorgensen and Kelan Martin had 15 apiece and Butler coasted to a 95-67 win over Youngstown State on Saturday.

Decent day for the Big East--Providence losing @ UMass being the only disappointment. They seem to really be in a funk.

* LaSalle at #4 Villanova - Brian Custer & Jim Spanarkel - 12/10 12:00 PM FS1

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MU/Panther

* LaSalle at #4 Villanova - Brian Custer & Jim Spanarkel - 12/10 12:00 PM FS1

---

Nova struggling in this one so far.