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Sunday 3/28/21
West: 5 Creighton vs. 1 Gonzaga, 2:15, CBS - Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Jamie Erdahl
Hinkle Fieldhouse

Line: Gonzaga -13.5/158.5

Welp!

I expect the Jays run to end here. BUT......it's March. Anything can happen. Stranger things have happened

Any Big East team can beat any team in the country.

Exciting match-up between top notch basketball schools. Both schools breath basketball day and night.


I would say my own top games to watch this weekend are:

(1) Creighton v. Gonzaga
(2) Syracuse v. Houston
(3) Villanova v. Baylor

No one giving CU any chance. Just how I like it.

Both Creighton and Villanova are playing at Hinkle. Good vibes there.

LMS wrote:No one giving CU any chance. Just how I like it.

That's not any different from the ESPN pundits all going crazy about Ohio's Preston and stating Creighton had no chance.

Based on KenPom ratings Creighton is the best team Gonzaga has faced since December. The only teams ranked higher than Creighton that they have played are Virginia and Iowa. Both wins came on a neutral floor. They also beat Kansas who CU lost to this season. That win also came on a neutral floor, while Creighton lost by a couple FTs on the road in one of the hardest places to win in the country.

CU plays in the Big East, and that’s different than playing in the WCC. We lost 8 games this year. 4 of them were by 2 possessions or less. 2 losses came on senior nights for Paul Scruggs at Xavier, and then for Collin Gillespie at Villanova. Gonzaga didn’t play a game on an opponents’ senior night. Not even against Santa Clara of Pepperdine. Those are always trap games. Gonzaga coasted with 5 home games to close the regular season.

The last team close to us in the metrics that Gonzaga played in a tournament setting was BYU. BYU while playing for an NCAA auto bid raced out in front so fast that it took Gonzaga until the final 4 min to get the game under control. Gonzaga hasn’t lost and that is why they look unbeatable. But I think they are beatable.

Don’t get me wrong. They look amazing, and I think the Jays need to play stellar offensively and defensively to have a chance. But if they play like they did against Seton Hall and at home against Villanova they might surprise everyone. The Jays are better than their record, and certainly better than they performed against Georgetown in the Big East final.

The Jays went 11-5 on the road and on neutral courts. We went 9-2 against the top half of the Big East. We went 7-5 against the bottom half. We have been so inconsistent and generally have played worse in many games we were supposed to win. But aside from the big East championship game, we’ve played better when the competition has been stronger, and the stakes have been higher. For all those reasons I’m optimistic Zegarowski and co will be ready for battle and make it a game.

billyjack wrote:Both Creighton and Villanova are playing at Hinkle. Good vibes there.

They should absolutely be comfortable in the venue (especially Creighton who literally just played there), but I don't know if being in Hinkle would give either team a good vibe considering past regular season results. Hoping for a good game, but Creighton is going to need to play their best game of the year (and hope Gonzaga doesn't play well) to win this one in my opinion.