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Post by jaypak on Oct 20, 2014 14:37:01 GMT -5
We have reached "the turn;" that is, the halfway point in the conference season. The Big East (hereafter referred to as "BE") plays an 18-game, home-and-home schedule. The top 4 teams qualify for the conference tournament, which rotates and this year will be held at Marquette's Al McGuire Center. Changes in the league this year include the addition of Providence to the conference as a tranfer from America East, and the pairing of Georgetown and Creighton as weekend travel partners, a challenging arrangement for whomever has to travel to D.C. and Omaha in the same weekend. I invite Macroman, Warriors, Sportsnut, and anyone else interested in the BE to contribute here.
Conference Standings as of October 20:
School Conference Overall RPI
Seton Hall 8-1 18-4 71 Creighton 8-1 15-7 46 Marquette 7-2 16-5 24 Butler 6-3 14-7 91 Xavier 5-4 12-9 58 Villanova 4-5 11-13 148 St. John's 4-5 15-9 137 Georgetown 2-7 8-14 174 DePaul 1-8 3-18 295 Providence 0-9 4-19 308
Weekly Honorees: Offensive Player of the Week - Autumn Bailey, Marquette OH Defensive Player of the Week- Kelli Browning, Creighton MB Freshman of the Week- Gabby Benda, Marquette S
Notable Nuggets from Last Week: - Marquette set an NCAA record for points scored in a 4 set match with 117. They handed Seton Hall the Pirates' 1st league loss: 32-34, 25-20, 25-23, 35-33. Seton Hall falls back into a tie with Creighton, while Marquette remains in the thick of the race.
- Lauren Smith of Creighton tied the BIG EAST mark for hitting percentage in a league game, as her .857 hitting percentage led Creighton to a win over Providence: -10, -12, -7. The previous mark was set by Marquette's Kelsey Mattai vs. Pittsburgh on Oct. 5, 2012. It was also a Creighton record for hitting percentage in a match.
Looking Ahead: - Marquette pays a visit to Creighton's Sokol Arena on Friday, hoping to avenge a home loss that left them behind the 8 ball in the conference race. - Xavier visits Seton Hall. This is a must-win for the Musketeers if they are to contend for the league title.
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comic
Sophomore
Posts: 138
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Post by comic on Oct 20, 2014 15:07:58 GMT -5
TRUE or FALSE: Kirsten purposely didn’t let up on Providence this past weekend because she despises that they are in the Big East and that they drag the conference RPI down.
(25-10, 25-12, 25-7)
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Post by terp1932 on Oct 20, 2014 16:14:39 GMT -5
Providence is to be expected. They have no funding and I believe don't have anywhere near a full count on scholarships. DePaul is brutal yet again! Not that much higher than Providence in the RPI. That really is hard to believe considering their location in the middle of all that prep volleyball talent.
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Post by cardinalvolleyball on Oct 20, 2014 17:21:12 GMT -5
Providence is to be expected. They have no funding and I believe don't have anywhere near a full count on scholarships. DePaul is brutal yet again! Not that much higher than Providence in the RPI. That really is hard to believe considering their location in the middle of all that prep volleyball talent. Not terribly surprising if they are not fully funded and don not have a gym centrally located on campus. Also their campus is right downtown so takes a different type of kid to live the city life. Would be nice to have them beat up the east with homegorwn kids though.
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Post by jaypak on Oct 20, 2014 23:34:19 GMT -5
TRUE or FALSE: Kirsten purposely didn’t let up on Providence this past weekend because she despises that they are in the Big East and that they drag the conference RPI down. (25-10, 25-12, 25-7) After the match, she stated that the goal was limiting errors, and when you limit the other team to 29 total points, you've accomplished that. She also was happy that every healthy team member played 3 sets while meeting their goal. The week before the match, Booth gave an interview to the university sports radio show in which she said, " Providence as an institution was in the Big East last year but was not [competing in the league] in volleyball, because they were a non-scholarship program. They are slowly working to meet league minimums. I haven't seen them play. My understanding is they have an incredible libero, and they're trying to get the athletes [they need in order] to compete. Now I know they've played a lot of teams tight, so we need to be ready to go."
In the same interview, she was asked this question: The BE as it is reconstituted has the stated goal of being a basketball league... Do you think there is enough emphasis on volleyball? Booth's reply: Well of course, as a volleyball coach I always think there could be more focus [laughs]. Here's the deal - our Midwestern schools, the Butlers, Xaviers, Marquette, and Creighton are putting a lot of resources into volleyball. Some of the East Coast schools, it's not as much. Now, I'm going to say to you, and I say to the administration (and our administration is totally on board)... Volleyball is the most popular girls sport in the country right now. It's bigger than basketball, it's bigger than soccer. More little girls are playing volleyball than any other sport in the country at this time. It's not every sub-section of the country, but the country as a whole, so we feel we've got a lot of growth potential for volleyball. Not only with the quantity of girls that are playing, but also in a fan base and things along those lines, and atmosphere, and obviously revenue. As you can tell, I've got my talking points ready on this [laughs]. I feel strongly that investing in volleyball is a great decision for the Big East and obviously a lot of us coaches are trying to push things that way.
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Post by macroman on Oct 23, 2014 1:16:19 GMT -5
One big factor in Big East play right now is that it has a 4 team conference tournament. With 7 teams potentially competing for those spots no one is completely safe. You need to go out there and take care of business every time out. I think that it's a good chance that the cut line will fall at 11-7.
I'm a Marquette fan and I'm very pleased with the way the team has developed after changing coaching staffs and a lot of personnel.
Creighton and Seton Hall are definitely very competitive teams (and we lost to Butler) so I look forward to an exciting stretch run.
On Providence, they may have been playing largely America East opponents but they were independents for volleyball and members of BE for all other sports. I believe that Providence was the last school to qualify for the NCAA tournament in volleyball as an independent. They've had good programs in other sports like soccer so I expect that with time they'll become more competitive. They face the same challenges in recruiting as other Eastern schools and layer on top of that they don't have much reputation in volleyball.
It's much better for conference scheduling to have 10 teams rather than 9 so I'm glad to see Providence as a member. Every conference has their Texas Tech or Washington State. Someone has to end up at the bottom. It's only a big negative if they don't take steps to try and work their way out of it.
Speaking of building a program, Creighton had dropped their program for a period of time and as has been discussed they're now very competitive.
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Post by n00b on Oct 23, 2014 8:54:34 GMT -5
On Providence, they may have been playing largely America East opponents but they were independents for volleyball and members of BE for all other sports. That's not true. They were actually associate members of the America East for volleyball for 4 season (2010-2013). When they went to the NCAA tournament in 1985, they were members of the Big East (and won the conference tournament). And layer on top of that they are 1 year removed from having ZERO volleyball scholarships. It really isn't that much better for scheduling. You could just take the schedule they created with Providence included and delete that match. Would that schedule really be that much worse? The Big East was the poster child for 'gaming' the RPI. They did it excellently last season. Providence ruins that this year and could be the reason it's a 1-bid conference.
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Post by macroman on Oct 23, 2014 21:00:56 GMT -5
The BE uses a travel partner system. 9 teams means that somebody is without a partner and it's terribly unfair to the team without a partner.
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Post by n00b on Oct 23, 2014 21:05:12 GMT -5
The BE uses a travel partner system. 9 teams means that somebody is without a partner and it's terribly unfair to the team without a partner. This is true. It was also true in the old Big East. They simply rotated who the "Wild Card" team was so everybody took turns. I guess that's a question for Kirsten... what's worse, not having a travel partner or playing Providence twice. I'd guess she'd prefer the former (but I don't know this to be true).
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Post by macroman on Oct 23, 2014 21:44:24 GMT -5
Why pick on Providence? Are they that much worse than DePaul or even Georgetown? All the conference teams should be encouraged to improve and they'll likely be embarrassed if they don't. It should be recognized that the Friars are a work in progress and likely will continue to be for a couple years.
Providence certainly does not singlehandedly turn the BE into a 1-bid league.
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Post by jaypak on Oct 24, 2014 23:57:35 GMT -5
The BE uses a travel partner system. 9 teams means that somebody is without a partner and it's terribly unfair to the team without a partner. This is true. It was also true in the old Big East. They simply rotated who the "Wild Card" team was so everybody took turns. I guess that's a question for Kirsten... what's worse, not having a travel partner or playing Providence twice. I'd guess she'd prefer the former (but I don't know this to be true). You folks were correct LAST year, but things have changed. Creighton now has a travel partner. With the addition of Providence, the BE now has 10 volleyball members, and everyone has a travel partner. Last year, Georgetown and St. John's were partners, and Creighton had no one. This year, Providence was paired with St. John's, and Georgetown with Creighton. Last year, Creighton played 2 home games a weekend, but each of its 2 opponents played only one game that weekend, at Creighton. This year, Creighton plays home games on Friday evenings and Sundays at noon or 1:00. The Friday opponent in Omaha has to fly to D.C. to play Georgetown on Sunday, and the Sunday opponent in Omaha will have played on Friday in D.C. Thus, on Sundays, Creighton now has an advantage, playing a team in the early afternoon that has just flown halfway across the country after a Friday evening match. This year, the Sunday home opponents are Xavier, Providence, DePaul, and Seton Hall. When Xavier and Providence were here, they played totally flat. The Seton Hall match, last of the regular season, could be critical in the conference race. Providence, by the way, added 2 scholarships this year to go from 0 to 2. The Friars were a founding member of Big East volleyball in 1979, made the NCAA tournament in 1983 and 1985, left the Big East in 2002, competed as an Independent from 2002-2009, competed in America East as an Associate Member from 2010-2013 (as n00b said), and rejoined the Big East in 2014. Providence has lost its last 39 matches in Big East play dating to a Oct. 22, 2000 win over Villanova. Since then, PC has won just 6 of 123 sets in Big East play, and won just 1 of 64 sets away from home. The Friars have lost 57 consecutive sets in Big East play since taking the first set at Seton Hall on Oct. 28, 2000. And yes, DePaul is really bad this year, too, but it's unfair to put Georgetown in the same category as PC and DePaul.
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Post by bucky415 on Oct 24, 2014 23:59:03 GMT -5
Or not, since Seton Hall didn't do themselves any favors tonight.
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Post by hittherock on Oct 25, 2014 1:06:22 GMT -5
aaahhhhhh your going to say DePaul and Friars are really bad and its unfair to put Georgetown in the same category, not really..not sure what great record they have so much better than the other 2
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Post by n00b on Oct 25, 2014 7:36:54 GMT -5
Why pick on Providence? Are they that much worse than DePaul or even Georgetown? All the conference teams should be encouraged to improve and they'll likely be embarrassed if they don't. It should be recognized that the Friars are a work in progress and likely will continue to be for a couple years. Providence certainly does not singlehandedly turn the BE into a 1-bid league. Non-conference record over the past 3 seasons... Georgetown 18-21 DePaul 21-18 Providence 13-38 Yes the conference will always have a last place team, but the goal is for that team to still do ok out of conference to help everybody's SOS. Not the case with the Friars.
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Post by jaypak on Oct 25, 2014 15:43:45 GMT -5
aaahhhhhh your going to say DePaul and Friars are really bad and its unfair to put Georgetown in the same category, not really..not sure what great record they have so much better than the other 2 The record isn't much better but Georgetown's RPI is 175, DePaul 298, Providence 306, which is a big difference, and Georgetown has beaten the other 2. As for the post directly above, it illustrates that DePaul was respectable the past 2 years; it's just this year that I categorize them with Providence.
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