Destiny is in our hands with Marquette falling back. Beat UCONN and our chances increase measurably, no matter what Cteighton does.
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- Thread starter fordham96
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We’re already like -1400 to win the conference. Beat UConn and it’s over.
Redenbacher
Well-known member
Looks like Neptune has done well enough to save his job for another season.
Marquette is vulnerable imo, Shaka has not proven himself in post season play at M’Q and certainly look inconsistent lately. Could lose in first, certainly second round.
UConn imo with Reed getting more minutes, a solid group with exception of a hobbled PG, has Sweet 16 potential. Wild card is their sketchy defense.
Creighton has some solid pieces offensively, but limited bench.(especially relieving Ashworth). Physical teams can bother them. Seems to have Sweet 16 potential.
Johnnies, there is no sense reciting strengths and weaknesses. A wild card to me is how liberal officiating, with refs who have not done our games, will be re our bully ball defensive approach. Lacking a lot of depth is always a worry. Certainly I see potential for Elite 8 run and Sweet 16 is probable.
Everything depends on matchups and player health at the time obviously.
They are 9-8 in conference, are wildly inconsistent , and will miss the NCAA’s for the third year in a row.
Dixon is leaving after 6 years there and they’ve had horrible losses this season.
How does Neptune keep his job?
One loss to.uconn changes all that and makes our date w Marquette potentially huge for an away game
I'm speaking in some hyperbole, but this would be a disaster for the Big East and I hope Val would intervene.
Redenbacher
Well-known member
They will finish above 500 in the conference with enough “signature” wins- Marquette, UConn and SJU- to justify keeping him.
Val intervening on anything would be a first.
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Why should they want to justify keeping him? He took a program basically in blue blood level and ran them into a ditch immediately.
If there were message boards during the Mahoney era, I'm sure this is how a Villanova board would be talking about us.
Marquette going down early? Unheard of! Their issue is the lack of size. Which shouldn't have hurt them vs Nova but they lost anyway. Odd.
U Conn has talent but the question is whether Hurley will coach what he has instead of pretending he still has Clingan, Newton, Spencer and Castle. I think he will, he's an excellent coach aside from the histrionics. But their seeding may find them a tough opponent early.
I think Creighton is a dark horse - Kalk and Ashworth are problems for just about anyone but if they have to play 8/9 game then a 1 it may not help them.
For all people want to talk about SJU only having close losses, they have a lot of close wins too. Team walks the razor's edge, could beat anyone or lose to anyone.
Hopefully one or two of the teams will make a good run and preserve the honor of the league. English and Neptune sure aren't helping at all. Cooley is a year away from contributing. The real surprise is Miller, I could not have been more wrong about X this year.
Neptune/Mahoney is a good comp.
Redenbacher
Well-known member
If he can keep the NIL $$ flowing in, and there’s no indication that he can’t, he will keep his job. Much easier than replacing him.
Neptune has nothing to do with the NIL $$ flowing in. Villanova has a rich alumni base and program infrastructure that predates him. If anything, he's probably holding them back.
Get st johns to extend him for 6 years guaranteed and then fire him. At least Villanova could afford that.
There was a time when I figured Miller coming back to Xavier would be a short term springboard to a higher program for him. Now I wonder if his mediocrity there has hurt his resume and if he's even considered by high majors.
They shot a ridiculous 57% from 3 last night hitting 15. With a more regular performance that's probably a close game.
Last I interacted with them the Nova crowd were still in the mode of "Neptune is our guy he came from the Jay Wright tree so he must be awesome.". Getting high on your own supply is a bad way to go, but that's where they seem to be.
To me the question is (to borrow a SJU slogan) "is Neptune the guy?". I don't see how you look at the last 2 years and say "yeah, sign me up for more of that" if you're trying to return to Wright level.
When Dixon leaves what is he going to do?
So if I were Nova, understanding that there's plenty of money and that it's an attractive job I would see about finding an upgrade.
But I doubt they do that. They will have to be humbled a bit more before they realize that just because a guy came from their tree doesn't mean he's automatically great.