[bball2223]

comment on how your team is doing, as well as the others around the league

[bball2223]

ND won 109-53 over a NAIA team on Friday night. Rob Kurz had 23 ponts, and 11 rebounds and has a shot to be most improved player in the league. Zach Hillesland had 14 points, and 12 rebounds. When we get Harangody back we will be really good.

[bball2223]

Daily updates for who wins, and loses every day:


Today Thanksgiving:


Villanova beats UCF 76-68

[HB]

BYU beats Louisville 78-76. Shocking!!!

[raffhoops]

Another week down and the Big East is 85-25 overall after a fairly succesful week in non-conference action. The Big East won the Big East/SEC challenge or whatever that was going on in Birmingham and Philadelphia this week.

Villanova rallied from down 21 with 8 minutes left to knock off LSU and secure a 3-1 advantage between the two conferences. Providence, who lost to South Carolina at the Wachovia Center, was the Big East's only victims. But the Friars did get a big overtime win over Boston College last weekend.

That was one of two wins for the conference over the ACC this week. Syracuse won in Charlottesville, while St John's lost to Miami. On the season the ACC has won five of the nine contests between the two conferences. There are only two other conferences with winning records versus the Big East. The West Coast is 2-0 after St. Mary's beat Seton Hall and Gonzaga downed UCONN, while Creighton beat Depaul in the only matchup between the Big East and Missouri Valley.

Marquette has the big game of the weekend as they travel to instate rival Wisconsin. Jerel McNeal has led the Eagles with 16 points per night and Tom Crean's group will be looking for a strong performance for him this weekend. He has been in double figures five of six games this year. Marquette scored a season high 100 in last weeks win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Alex Ruoff continues to be one of the reasons that West Virginia is playing as well as they are. The 6-6 junior led the Mountaineers with 28 in their win over Auburn. He knocked down 6 threes on 8 attempts in the game. For the season, he is shooting nearly 47 % from beyond the arc averaging better than three treys a contest. The 'eers have an interesting matchup with surprising Duquesne this weekend.

Notre Dame seems to be coming into its own a little bit. The Irish were very good in a win over Eastern Michigan and then defeated Kansas State at MSG to complete the week. At 6-2 at the moment, and with what they have in front of them over the next few weeks, ND should enter the Big East schedule at 10-2 and be a contender during the season. Kyle McAlarney has found his shooting touch since they returned from the Virgin Islands and has made 19-of his last-32 trifecta attempts. Meanwhile, Luke Harangody came through with back-to-back top notch performances this week.

Speaking of back-to-back efforts. Give Dominique Jones an early stocking stuffer for consecutive 30 point efforts this week. The Bulls have now won 6 in a row, and Jones has been a key factor. His 30 point efforts helped USF get to 6-3 with wins over Central Florida and Richmond. The Bulls host USF Saturday night.

[raffhoops]

Nine games into the Syracuse basketball season and its already starting to feel like seasons past. In particular, last season. We were told that all the mistakes of the past would be eliminated this year. But now as we've watched for a little more than a month, we have to realize that not much has changed.

Sure there was that nice win over an overpumped Virginia team (and even that came with their best player Marvin Gravesing on the sidelines). And of course that win came on the road, so that was supposed to quiet the NCAA selection committee who snubbed a 21-win, fourth place team a year ago. Because after all, Syracuse didn't win on the road last year, and had this horrible reputation of not ever leaving the Carrier Dome. The committee's key statistic is the RPI, and the Orange is right where you don't want to be again. Right on the edge. An RPI between 30-50 gets you looked at. And when you get looked at and you have home losses to Rhode Island and UMASS and a neutral site loss to Ohio State you have marks against you.

Still, the RPI has greatly increased this year. Up from 50 a year ago, when the committee was able to say no. However, I just can't imagine that it is going to stay in that 35 range when games against Colgate, Cornell, East Tennessee State and Northeastern hit the schedule. With that though it is highly likely that the Orange enters the Big East portion of its schedule with a 10-3 record.

In the last 24 hours, I've seen some doom and gloom Orange fans suggest that Syracuse will have to win 12 conference games just to make the NCAA field. I'd say if that happen and they went to NYC for the BE Tournament with a 22-9 record, they would have a ticket punched for the tournament. In fact, barring any major problems in the next four games, I would think that 11 Big East wins in any fashion will be enough for the Orange. If they get to 21 wins again this year, I think they'll get into the tournament.

Still, there are enough concerns to worry about getting there. Twice this year they have let leads get away against inferior competition down the stretch. Sizable leads that shouldn't have slipped away. When Donte' Greene fouled out last night Syracuse appeared to have no one capable of making the big play down the stretch. And they didn't make enough foul shots.

Certainly, this is a team that has plenty of potential and might get better with experience as the season wears on. But its also a team that because of the inexperience is capable of being beaten by inferior teams.

The question that all Orange fans want to know is, will this team make the tournament? And the answer is fairly complex. It really depends on how they perform in the Big East, and if they get to 10 or 11 wins. Realistically, it shouldn't be that daunting of a task. The Orange has 8 Big East games that should be looked at as sure wins for tournament teams. If they manage to win 7 of those, they put themselves in a position where winning four of their remaining 10 games just about locks up a March Dance. That means four wins against any of the following West Virginia, Connecticut, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pitt, Marquette or Villanova or Georgetown and they play the latter two each twice and they should get to the magic number.

Of course that means they don't screw up in any of the four easy ones the rest of the way, and they find a way to win seven of eight against the lesser part of the conference. If that happens, Syracuse could find its way back into the NCAA field. If not they'll be back in the NIT.

Too much was made over who Syracuse did and didn't play last year, and where they played them. Syracuse played a schedule worthy of NCAA inclusion last year, they just didn't win enough games. They are getting close to going down that road again. But they have a healthy RPI of 35 and they have the bulk of the schedule in front of them. They need to take it out of the committees hands. They need to win 15 games the rest of the way.

Don't let the committee be a factor.