(8) Big East Opening Night Games 11/9/21

[Novachap]

Crap, had nova giving 41.

[Husky_U]

Looks like the best Johnnies team in decades. Absolute fire.

[billyjack]

All of us have survived tonight so far.

Creighton huge run to take control over Pine Bluff. It was at least 55-46 UAPB-- now 76-62 Jays... and 30-7 run.

Friars struggled vs Fairfield.

Xavier held off late Niagara run-- ehhh, not sure X fans should be singing "Hey hey hey goodbye" to Niagara.

[sju88grad]

Looks like the best Johnnies team in decades. Absolute fire.

The opponent was weak but I can’t remember seeing this type of performance by a SJU team this early in the season

[adoraz]

Some games were closer than they should've been, but the league is 8 for 8. I'll take it.

Nice blowout by St. John's, though they played the worst team in D1 (according to KenPom).

[butlerguy03]

Butler struggled with IUPUI’s match-up zone and settled for jumpers in the second half. Playing without Thompson, Tate, Groce, and Hodges (2 starters and 2 key backups).

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Some games were closer than they should've been, but the league is 8 for 8. I'll take it.

8 for 8 is excellent, but some BE teams will need to play better against better competition. I trust they will.



College basketball No. 1-358 rankings: Preseason countdown concludes with top 68 teams for 2021-22 season – Matt Norlander, CBS – October 14, 2021

221. Mount St. Mary's
249. Niagara
294. Fairfield
310. SIU Edwardsville
328. IUPUI
345. Central Connecticut State
353. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
356. Mississippi Valley State

Mount St. Mary's @ 4 Villanova
CCSU @ 24 Connecticut
IUPUI @ Butler
Fairfield @ Providence
Niagara @ Xavier
Miss Valley State @ St. John's
Arkansas Pine BluffB @ Creighton
SIUE @ Marquette

Big East Conference Live Scoreboard – ESPN

College Basketball Opening Night Takeaways: Ohio State avoids upset, Navy sinks Virginia - Kyle Boone & David Cobb, CBS Sports – November 10, 2021

Villanova flashes dominance early

As 23-point favorites over Mount St. Mary's, No. 4 Villanova nearly doubled up that number in its 91-51 win to open the season. The Wildcats looked brilliant and deep in the outing, with junior Justin Moore pouring in 27 points and Jermaine Samuels, Brandon Slater and Collin Gillespie teaming up to add a combined 47 in a supporting performance. It was to be expected from a top-five team at home as a heavy favorite, but an eye-opening performance nonetheless. Jay Wright's got a stacked, experienced roster that demands your respect.

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[MullinMayhem]

Obviously we all played cupcakes and we played the biggest cupcake, so obviously proceed with caution but:

Johnnies looked legit even though it was vs. worst team. They're still a D1 school and it's not some D3 exhibition. It counts. We finally have some size. Not only that, but we have at least 3 bigs who can score and have real skill. Stanley already showed he has a jump hook and soft touch around rim. He finished a lot too as only a freshman. Soriano is going to be at worst a rock solid big man for us who will prevent teams from pushing out on our shooters as in years past. It used to be so easy to defend us...just get in the faces of our 3 pt shooters and ignore the bigs we had, because they couldn't score to save their lives. It worked. This is a new day for us, because if teams try that again, Soriano, Wheeler, & Stanley will make them pay. Looks like Posh improved his 3 pointer which can be a huge key for us and Coburn, Smith, etc. can really shoot it. Only main negative I saw was our turnovers but that's to be expected this early with a mostly new team.

UConn, SJ, and Nova performed about where I expected and maybe even exceeded a bit. All 3 teams looked very good and pretty polished for this time of year. UConn is going to bully a lot of teams, especially if they lack size. I want to see what happens when an opponent has several good bigs to match them, but it was a great start. Time will tell if they have enough scoring after Bouk. Nova looked like Nova. PC worries me...this seems to be a pattern with them struggling in OOC and then doing pretty well in conf play which hurts us. I know Fairfield isn't the worst in the country, but this PC team should absolutely dominate them with their experience & talent. Xavier looked pretty "meh" without Freemantle. They need him to make tourney. Butler was missing guys but still...disappointed.

Still early of course, but my early takeaways.

[Wizard of Westroads]

Ark PB (357 in KenPom) had a 17-0 run against Creighton, which was favored by 33. That might have been the most unimpressive stretch of the night in the BE, but the Jays did bounce back strong. Worth noting: CU had 8 dunks and only 7 3s. Our slogan this year is going to WTF.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Just win baby. It was clear many teams had jitters last night playing in front of huge crowds. Wouldn't make too much of it.