Monday Musings

The polls came out early this afternoon and as expected X took a tumble in both. The ESPN poll has us at #22 and the AP at #19. Safe to say we need a win at St. Joes to stay in both next week. The Hawks have lost four straight so the pessimist in me says they are due for a win, the optimist says X closes out these last 3 league games and wins the A10 title.

Other things noticed:

- Brad Redford is leading the A10 in 3 Point Shooting Percentage at 48%. He is 45-94 on the season. BJ Raymond is shooting from deep at a 42% clip on 150 attempts. DBrown is a very good 43%. Holloway is at 38% on 34 attempts and Dante' checks in at 32% on 98 tries. Hopefully we get hot in March and stay on a roll from outside. I like our chances against anybody if we can hit 8 or more treys a game.

- ESPN has done their own mock bracket. They used a lot of 'what if' scenarios and X landed as 5 seed playing Western Kentucky. The trend the last couple of years by the selection committee has been to place teams from non power conferences against each other in the first round so that seems plausible. What doesn't fit in my mind though is having Notre Dame seeded as a 10 and Georgetown at 9 WITHOUT having the Bearcats in the tournament. They are listed as one of the first four out. It is important to note this is not Joe Lunardi's 'bracketology' as that comes out a little later this week and I don't think Joe will have both ND and G'Town in.

- Also of interest is Temple is listed as one of the first four out. They are 'bubbling' up based off strong recent play. Their RPI is in the thirties and if they can beat UD on the road next week they may squeeze themselves in.
I don't believe they have lost since X beat them at home.

- St. Louis is making a late season push and it wouldn't suprise me if they end up with a first round bye in the A10 tournament. Solid NIT team and Rick Majerus is starting to lay the foundation. Reportedly the brand new Chaifetz Arena was rocking during their upset of UD on Saturday night. I like their senior guards a lot and you never know they could peak in the A10 tournament and punch a ticket to the big dance.

- Speaking of our St. Joseph game it is being televised at the same time as the UC/West Virginia game on Thursday. I am going to have to DVR that one and you guys need to know I turned down a couple tickets from a vendor for the return of UC's all time winningest coach. IF it was any other day I would have been all over it. It's going to make for great television and probably the only time in my life I would root for Bob Huggins. Why? Because I like Mick Cronin even less. At least Bobby could back up his talk. And if you really know me that is a big statement.

- In the next week or so I will be throwing up teams outside of the top 6 conferences that the big boys on the bubble need to keep an eye on during conference tournmament time. In another week March will be here and soon ESPN will have all kinds of tournament action to view. I love all the intensity March basketball brings.