Taj79

I don't Crews will say much. He is a veteran coach with a veteran team. I could see a couple of steely glances, knowing nods, and gentle reminders to prod this team. With Mitchell, Evans, Ellis, Jett and McCall, not much should be needed. Loe negates Smith. Evans matches up with Jones. I expect Marshall to try and atone for a piss poor game at the Fetz buit we have Glaze and Remekun to neutralize him. Ten fouls to give and both he and Jones are poor shooters from the line. Four guards to run at Dunham and Clarke. They still starting Dunham for Barlow? If so, no bench again. Fromm ans Woods and stigall are mop-up minutes guys. The Bills will/should be motivated. I can see winning on Friday busting us into the Top Twenty Five somewhere in the mid-teens. Oh, damn ... jinx.

Havoc is designed to trap the dribbler on the sideline when his back is turned. You almost automatically asssume the free temmate is th eone who';s man left him but Havoc then rotates the baseline/midcourt closest defender up to your expected outlet pass. There was one play where oneof our guys faked that and the vCU guy was caught in mid-air trying to get back to his man. The other Havoc-inducing play is the 3/4 court pass. We escaped on a few of those last night. This Havoc is no different then presses we ran in high school ... the key is always taking the ball to a middle in a zoneor a press and force two guys on you and freeing one teammate up. We seemed to get lax in the second half. Who wouldn't? They were meat but this is Billiken basketball so you know never to call anyone meat. All the calls that had Havoc coming on and them making more baskets were true, but it was being done when the game really mattered little. Our intent was obvious-- run the clock. Now usually, this gets into our usual trouble -- extended scoring droughts. I believe that did not happen last night because VCU plays Havoc and is always gambling on defense. So despite their great athletes, they still couldn't cover all the holes on a basketball court. Plus, without Havoc working, they were exposed as limited individual defnders. Havoc is a team defense, left to their own doing, they weren't that good. Yes, I'd take Reddic in a heartbeat. The rest? Meh. But still, even most of the putbacks in their second half were the result of us rotating over and them having a jumping jack available to tip or slam home the rebound. Still, the game was over once Jett got through his "zoning" out. I am sure VCU was thinking .. "okay, now where the hell did this guy come from?" It reminded me of the Nova game last year -- my buddy, a Nova grad said he knew it was over when Jett started making threes. That three minute stretch of Jett's 12 points was magic last night. I can't express how proud the guys made me last night. I didn't think it possible but this team is surpassing my expectations beautifully anmd making last year's accomplishment a proud yet somewhat disappearing memory. This is rare air in the world of Billiken basketball..

Brad Stevens is hyping the Bills for his team's use come Friday. Classic. On one hand, he has to know he's neither athletic enough nor deep enough to stay with us. We proved that. We killed them in the Fetz and I'd take us in a neutral court as well. But we are at Hinkle, on a Friday night, in a revenge game. C'mon. No brainer. And if he loses? Hey, they ARE a Final Four team. See. Told you so. We out-physicalled Charlotte, who out-physicalled Butler on their home court. We are deeper. We have better talent. We may not win Friday, but I still think we rate higher than Butler. Butler's best wins are by single points done a whole year ago (2012). I'm kind of joking, but then againb, I'm kind of not.

Oh man, I loved you in "Top Gun." I knew you looked familiar f05.

To be fair, you really can't avoid the gimicky-ness of some things. Havoc is one thing, so too was Forty Minutes of Hell. MasonNation was all the rage in Cleveland two years ago at the NCAA first round when I was there. Play Like A Champion Today might be another. The Izzo-Zone. Clevelan'd Dawg Pound. Iggles. The West Coast Offense. Run-n-Shoot. America's Team. Whatever. Doesn't bother me one way or another. Kind of give you an identity that is more understandable. Some who don't have it might be jealous but not admit it. My thing with the current Havoc thing is that I didn't see VCU as being "skilled" as seems to be the case with many teams nowadays. It dovetails into the other thread about referees calling fouls fouls and Bilas crying about basketball being tough to watch today. I was not impressed with VCU's ability to shoot the jumper. I have seen them six or seven times so I think I have a body of work as evidence. They have seven pretty good guards and it is to their advantage to play that way. Playing that way could even negate some benches --- for us Rob Loe, Cory Remekun, Grandy Glaze and John Manning become unusable players if Havoc reigns supreme. Umass fell apart in my opinion because ythey have one guard in Chaz Williams. GeeDub had no guards. That's why I think VCU wins at X on Saturday. Smart has recurited those types of players based on his style. You do whatever to give you the best chance to win. We exposed New Mexico. We exposed Butler. We exposed VCU. What I like about us right now is we play defense and have a number of guys who we can go to on various nights which makes a lo tharder to contain and figure out down the stretch run.

@Bomble --- I have Dominion power delivered through BG&E conduits, and Constellation Energy oversight. PEPCO doesn't affect me directly. Lose power? Hey, by the way, what is happening with the GeeDub tickets? Are they being mailed (I haven't got mine) or do I have to get them at McFaddens on 3/02? @Wizardryship --- all I know about the X/VCU game is what I read in the 64+ pages on their board .... that they are not favored to win, that they are picked to lose, road team in A10 power house home, etc. etc. Right now, despite their loss to us, I'd have to pick them to win at X on face value. Let's see what X does on the road tonight in Kingston, RI. I believe I picked Rhode and if that happens, I find out more that X is who I thought they were and with that, depsite VCU's loss, I still take the Rams at Cintas.

... freaking enjoyable. Bottom line. Nothing to complain about. Total domination which I wasn't sure was possible but now see it is so. I have picked those damn Dawgs for Friday night but am not scared by the Hinkiedome. We are a better team with more talent and much deeper. I will not chnage the pick because I said what I said but wil gladly (and not shockingly) eat crow come Friday night. So be it. Some observations .... loved reading the 64 pages of the VCU board on us. Some real clueless posters on there (as there are anywhere). But similar gripes to what we see here ... worst call ever, that was a flop, inadequacy of the refs, and so on. The one guy (districtballer) seemed an understanding and analytical sort. Who cares. Nice to see some of their unbridled enthusiasm breached and tempered. Even those believing they were coming back in the second half. Hey, they smoked Umass. No reason NOT to believe they wouldn't do it to us. But Jordair really turned on the jets and took three minutes to quell the rally all by his lonesome. Zone? I'll say. Guy had his own zone all to his bad self. I suspect it will be a war zone if or when we see them again in Brooklyn. Refs. I thought the calls were adequate but recognize we won so my enthusiasm is slanted. Sorry they don't like flopping but it's a part of the game. How else do you counter a crazed maniac of a brute rushing towards the basket with sheer force and no skills? I said early on in our previews that VCU's free throw shooting was suspect (lost them the game at Richmond) and that they were not really adept at basketball skills. i think 53% from the line backs that up as does the 17% or 18% they shot in the first half when the game actually counted proves that point. Overall, 44% but there was a lot of easing off I thought by our guys iin the second half. I previewed that they are a team predicated on making layups off their defense. They didn't do that so they got creamed (two, last second three-pointers shortened that 20-point domination at the end). Although my last negative text to my buddy in Cleveland was how does a ref on the other side of the court make that call on Evans when there is a ref right in front of the action? Game plan. While we did not exclusively attack the VCU defense in breaking their press, we used enough attack and enough set up the offense to make it go. I'm with the guys and Pete Gillen who says VCU clutches and grabs and rakes you all over the court. Even their board acknowledges they do that and it hurts when the refs call it that way. WTF?!?! A foul is a foul -- there should be no calling it "THAT" way it should always be that way. Do not discount the fact that their poor ass shooting in the first half contributed to their overall downfall but what has been somewhat overlooked (even by Ramnation) is that defense has something to do with missed shots. Yes, they rushed a whole lot of bunnies down low but that part they could control and did not. ShakaTV. Why is CBS Sports so in love with the bald punk? Yeah, he's won, and I guess that's enough but at one point, the appearances on the tube were Shaka 6432, Rick Majerus 1 and Jim Crews 0. McCartney (I think) of CBS is always gushing over how Shaka coaches on the sideline and never sits down. He's a freak show at times. When does the quaintness of that wear off? I've watched them now against us, Umass, Richmond, Fordham, St. Joe's and La Salle and believe his 15 minutes of fame are long over. There is not much of a difference IMO from him and Hurley at Rhode Island except Shaka got to a final four. Annoying. I loved that I could hear one fan screaming "sit down Shaka" at a lot of the turns. Crews got no love on the TV apearnace front until under three minutes when I guess CBS decided it was decided. And, of course, we had Gillen again pushing how SLU needs to remove th einterim tag and do it now. Man, they guy has done so much. I'm on thefence on this one now bu tstill not sure I want moving forward to include him. But I am softening. Jett. Amazing. Maybe he does jump to the head of our MVP thread based on that three minute zone he found last night. But do not misplace Ellis and his contributions. I love that the Ramnation is focused on his punk ass blue hair. And I'd probably hate him too if he wasn't on my team. I know I hate anyone named Plumlee. Same concept. McCall got some of his game back last night with 15. I loved that "little Mikey" didn't take crap from the big bad VCU Daniels lad and got hit with the double technical for their efforts. Don't back down. I stil don't see us as being the physical agressor but all the world -- the on-scene announcers, the talking heads in the studio, the paper reporters and the poor suffering fools on Ramnation -- all claim we are the bigger brutes. WHEN have you heard that about little ol' Saint Louie Ewie? Barnett contributed. Glaze did just enough. Remeken and Loe too. We have found our new Conklin and he is named Evans. Mitchell is doing so well just running this team that his scoring is not needed nor missed. Just yet. We could win out but I doubt it. I can't believe X is favored over VCU. If that is the case and it holds true, VCU is not as good as advertised. X is a bunch of freshmen .. Havoc should feast on them as they did GeeDub. I'll be watching La Salle go to Temple on Thursday on CBS again. Then on to NBC for the Butler game. Bring home a winner.

Two for Tuesday. Record goes to 47 - 14. Three games tonight.

Shannon Ryan ([email protected]) writes syndicatedly and get spublished weekly in The Baltimore Sun. This week, she is the only writer I can see showering the Bills with some love. I can't link it from the sun but its says;" #23. Saint Louis. Billikens face VCU and Butler this week for chance to assert themselves. (25)" Props inthat she spells "Saint" correctly. Did not see her last week when she had the Bills in her poll at #25. She has Indiana #1 followed by Miami, Michigan State, Gonzaga and Duke. Kansas at #10. New Mexico at #15. And Butler at 22. No mentionof VCU at thi spoint. She dropped Butler 9 spots after their home loss to Charlotte last week. Frankly, I think that's a correct move. She also lists "Games to Watch" and has this one: Friday: Sain tLouis at Butler. Can the Billikens beat the bulldogs twice in one season?" I'll ask .. why not three times?

I don't know that today's basketball players are necessarily rugby players ... but the skill level has dropped off considerably. Charlotte had guys I hated and questioned their skill levels but would love to have Willie Clayton on my team, for example. Seems to me that the guys in the paint no longer want to float and glide like Dr. J or Larry Bird or Scottie Pippin. Now if you're 6'8", you'd better be able to bring the beef. Guys, including good shooters like Cody, couldn't make foul shots Saturday night because of the pounding they took on both sides. I still think the team with the better skills won. I have heard it said by more astutue guys than me that a team like VCU, and Arkansas, and even the old UC-in-CUSA-teams would rake and scrape and grab you all they could, until the ref finally called a foul to cut it out. The refs need to be uniform, no doubt abut it. College guys will adapt. If it is all about winning by the suits as the one quote says, a couple of losses due to four or five guys fouling out will curb that crap quite quickly. You are starting to see it in the NFL with head shots to defenseless receivers. But it will take a while. I loved the one picture in the Post where the Charlotte guy was actually grabbing Cody's forearm while he held the ball. Non-contact sport? Sure. When the whislte blew (if it did) the defender likely would have worn the eyes-wide-with-wonder look asking "what did I do?" You grabbbed him stupid. Last I knew, that was not allowed, right? When Henry fouled out for raking Cody, Cody went to the line unable to see because of the rake across his face. Henry sat on the floor in protest about that call as I recall. Tee him up. You want six fouls, you got it. Two more shots and the ball ends crap quickly too. I expect VCU to come out tonight and grab and clutch and rake with the best of them. If I were them, I would too. I am sure we will not be innocent either. I think the numbers are down because skills are left to suffer. Gone are the days of 500 free throws a night to be good. Nah -- geting on SportsCenter for "Dunk of the Year" is much more important. How many guys did you posterize from the foul line? Not a one. It seems to make it to the next level, you got to be strong --- all you skinny arse Willie Reeds .. down to D ball. I believe as they develop muscle, they lose skill and finesse. Gots to pay the piper somewhere along the line. Instead of eveyone being able to shoot, you got one guy ... and he's usually from Croatia, Serbia or Lithuania. Or Australia or New Zealand. For some teams .....

I read the VCU board and do not believe in registering to troll (or respond -- unless credited with saying stupid things I did not say -- like the idiot on the Bonnies said I did. But he did apologize). As is always the case, a few idiots like everyone else has. Us too. All I can say is I look forward to the game.

Have to do TWIA10 --- This Week in the A10 ---as a strange week of scheduling has A10 games on every night except today, a variance from the usual Wednesday/Saturday rotation. I'm going by days of the week but stopping at Friday to relook trends and circumstances. Tuesday --- Duquesne is at Butler. More lightning in a bottle for the Dukes? I think not. Butler. Tuesday --- VCU at SLU. Creed versus Balboa. You know how that one ended, with a disputed call for Creed. Got to believe the Bills will open favored. But this is a real contrast in styles. Who imposes who's will? I don't know, but I'm rooting (and picking) the home boys. Go Bills. Wednesday --- Fordham at GeeDub. GeeDub. Even if Gaston is back, the Smith Center is a mausoleum of a home court. Wednesday --- Xavier at Rhode Island. Xavier has better athletes. And has won at Duquesne and at Bonaventure. Rhode Island is on a two-game winning streak,beating Dayton in Kingston and the Dukes in P-burg. I'm thinking Rhode Island here. Wednesday --- Umass at The Bonnies. Here's one of those dumb ass games. Umass obviously has more talent. The Bonnies are duking it out with Dayton for the twelfth and final Brooklyn spot. Will Brown Indian and company not be in the city that never sleeps to defend their glorious A10 tourney title of 2012? Probably. Umass. Thursday --- La Salle is at Temple and the game is on North Broad Street and not the Palestra nor Gola. I can't pick Temple, I just said I was sold on La Salle. Am I? Am I? Crap. What to do, what to do? Friday --- Saint Louis at Butler. I think the Bills are better. Andrew Smith is back but rusty and maybe the injury lingers. Butler has revenge factored in. It's at the legendary pit-of-pits the Hinkidome. I think the Bills can and should win. But I think Butler will knock us off. There it is. Oh yeah ...... I said it so I have to pick them, right? La Salle (even tho' a Temple winwould not shock me). And now,a few words from our Wizardness ........

I'm tired of Havoc. I've said enough. I've seen it and know how it works and what it is supposed to do. It's a lay-up generating offense/defense and if you rush back to stop the break, Graham and Daniels pop what is usually a wide-open kick out three. They can play 7 guards. Thier interior is weak but we usuallymake guys like Reddic super human. Gonna take some hard work.

Given our trends, where we tend to reset the half-court offense once out of the trap and over half-court, that will play into VCU hands tomorrow night. Not saying we need to attack at every opportunity, but enough to keep them honest. Plus, if we do break them and do attack and do make the basket, turn around and defend .... they will cherry pick due to the blown defensive assignment at the other end. They play to make you speed up and make mistakes, giving them better opportunity at easier and more numerous shots. Daniels and Graham will shoot the treys. Reddic is the windex guy. The rest are nice enough but mostly complimentary. Going to be interesting in that irresistable force/immovable object kind of way.

If we can handle VCU, we can handle La Salle. La Salle is Philly playground at its guard-oriented finest. Galloway, Duren and Garland are all pretty damn good. Mills is adequate. Jerrelle Wright meets the standard of the 6'8"big man we turn into a star. Steve Zack is a hack. Their bench is weak and thin and usually is Garland and Zack. If Galloway gets frustrated by our defense, he can self-destruct. We did that to him last year at Gola. Garland seems like a second Galloway but I haven't seen him play but twice. Giannini is not that great of a bench coach; Majerus used to steal his lunch money. Plus we are at home on senior day. VCU forced GeeDub into 25 turnovers last night. As I said, VCU's strength would take out GeeDubs weakness and win by 30. I was off .... they only won by 27. (Sorry your Wizship). VCU ran seven ...count them SEVEN ... guards at GeeDub last night. FR point Joe McDonald almost had just as many TO (8) as points (9). Kromah saw ONLY 14minutes as a guard so GeeDub went with youth. Juvonte Reddic, another 6'8" star in our making to come, went 11-for-13 and scored 24. VCU shot almost 54% from the field but I'd back out layups before I was all that impressed there. They shot 47% from three. They start four guards and the three off the bench played 54 minutes as well. Buckle up. Again, if we break their press and then set up our usual offense, it just allows Havoc to reload and trap in the half court. We must get the ball into the middle and make them pay for their press. Then, when we do that, expect VCU to immediately inbound the balland race back up court. Seven guards lets them do this.

I think there are too many timeouts. You start with five but lose one if you don't use it before half. You can only carry four into the second half. Plus, there are the auto timeouts at the first stoppage under 16, 12, 8 and 4 for TV. That's 18 stops possible per game. Show me any game that doesn't employ this, TV or not. In the ND/Louisville five-OT game, each team got two more timeouts per OT session. Takes for freaking ever but also allows for the team to disrupt timing and rhythm as Charlotte tried last night. I agree with those believing Crews doesn't use timeouts well. However, if that's his only failing, I'm okay with that. A veteran team is a good thing to have. I suspect he might use more if he didn't have faith in the guys. Plus, winning cures everything. If this is all we got to b*tch about, I'm okay with it.

Typical kind of team that gives us trouble ---- no finesse and all brute.

Looks like wins across the late games for a 6 and 2 night to go 45 - 14 overall.

Two and two in the early game picks. Okay, I'm convinced ---- La Salle is for real. Dayton took down a pretender in Xavier. Butler is NOTthat good. And Umass Temple was a toss up. Umass has crashed with two losses this week. Gone to 41 - 14. Right now, winning the four late games.

Fuok. Thought it started at 7 central and I'm in the east. Camein at 10 to 9 but a nice closing run. If the refs decide to swallow the whistle,this will be a Charlotte type game then. Their frustration is growing. Henry thinking he can take Jett .... dumb fuok. As for the charges, stop leaving your feet. Pretty simple. Rammer says lots of missed traveling calls too.Impose the will.

@Wizness --- yours are calculatable numbers right? Mine is just a little more feel. I have nothing more to go on than gut. So I will be wrong at times and it doesn't matter. Just what i think. Numbers never come true 100% of the time either .... otherwise Rhode Island never beats us this year at home. I don't profess to know any more than anyone else. Just doing it for fun to see what the end-of-year percentage is. As for VCU/GeeDub --- GeeDub plays Joe McDonald, a true freshman point guard from Lorton, VA as a starter. Their other main guard is Lasan Kromah, who is not a ballhandler. That leaves another freshman Keith Savage and senior Bryan Bynes to help in the backcourt. Their bigs are immobile, stuck on the blocks, bigs. They also have two Euro-forwards Garino and Mikic who only really catch-n-shoot (although Garino from Argentina ain't too bad for a freshman). With Havoc, I expect a trainwreck where VCU's strength manhandles GeeDubs weakness. At VCU. In Richmond. Maybe 30 is a bad call but if it were a description, I'd say "blowout" --- which can look reasonable on a final scoreboard but I see a "no contest" coming here just the same.

This is likely the only "super bowl" game left on Daytons' schedule. After entertaining X, the Fryers go to Amherst and Charlotte. Can't see anything good happening there to a team that has already lost on the road to A10 powerhouse Rhode Island. Then home to Richmond and the Bonnies. Right now, those games are too close to call and if the Fryers do lose these next three games, or even just the two road games, their m9nd set will be questionable at best. Then a closing loss likely on the road at GeeDub. Currently they are at 3 and 7 in league play and in 13th place. As in NI(A10)T. A win over Xavier moves them into a tie for 12th should the Bonnies lose at Richmond. That would even them up with the Bonnies after this weekend making Brooklyn still doable. After Richmond, the Bonnies entertain Umass before going to Duquesne. Then they host Charlotte before going to YouDee so the Bonnies have just as equal a tough time ahead. It all depends how much of a carrot is on the stick for the Fryers there. In order to control what they can, the Fryers have to win tomorrow. I think they'll be ready. Still think they can do it and I don't think X is that much better. X only beat them by 5 at Cintas so I can see an easy flip going down in Dayton tomorrow. Plus, the Dayton paper is all the rage about what playing X means to YouDee guys. Not so much what playing Dayton means to X guys. Chip-on-the-shoulder time.

Could this be a "separation Saturday" in the middle of the pack of the A10. Some nice matchups in terms of getting a more solid picture on who is going where in the league and who has what personality. Some good viewing on the tube too ... Xavier is at Dayton on ESPN2. Can Dayton defend the home fires in a rivalry game? La Salle entertains St. Joe's on NBC Sports. But, in typical Big Five fashion, it's a La Salle home game played at Penn's Palestra. Hmmmm. Temple goes to Umass with both teams licking wounds. This game and the Butler/Fordham game are on CBSSports. A10 viewing from noon EST through the 8 pm hour. And we get Charlotte. Picks from a couch in Maryland .... First, us and Charlotte. I gave a scouting report in another thread so I'm pretty sure what to expect. And I expect the home cooking, home crowd, suffocating defense and a team of no individual stars to continue and us to prevail. I think we easily cover his Wizship's spread. Xavier at Dayton. Rivalry game but more Dayton's rivalry than Xavier's. Xavier's rise is predicated on Semaj Christon, a freshman, going into 13K fans at Dayton for the first time. Dayton just got their arse wiped at Rhode Island. Xavier is on the rise. Xavier is on road. Dayton wins at home. St. Joe's and La Salle at the Palestra. The Palestra is actually further from La Salle's campus and home than it is Hawk Hill. St. Joe's has got to be the most confounding team of the A10 season right now, followed closely by crosstown buddy Temple. La Salle is riding mighty mo. I like St. Joe's front line of Aiken, Roberts and Kanasevic better than Wright and Zack. La Salle's four guards, while not blowing me away because of their undisciplined and frenetic style, are better than SJU. And it's a city game in the Big Five as well as the A10. La Salle just won at Olean; SJU eked out a home win over Richmond. My disdain for La Salle notwithstanding, I'm picking the better defensive team in Saint Joe's. Butler at Fordham. This shoulda/woulda/coulda been a no-brainer without cause to pause but Charlotte exposed just how shallow Butler is without Smith and with Fromm/Dunham starting. Still .. it's Fordham. Butler. Temple at Umass. Lots of wounds to lick here. I could see the over/under on stretcher removals of players from the court at 2.5. The legend of Calipari/Chaney lives on. I think Umass has a better supporting cast but Dunphy can and will outcoach Kellog. I think Umass has better players. Umass. Bonaventrue at Richmond. Bl;ah road team. Blah home team. Go with the home fires. Richmond. Rhode Island at Duquesne. Even if Duquesne had not won at Temple, this still would have been tough. If Duquesne wins, wil the one student in the student section rush the court? Not gonna happen, but it could, not that it matters. Rhode Island seems to have better players. Rhode. GeeDub at VCU. GeeDub has no guards. I expect VCU to win well near by 30. Now, over to my good friend, his lordly Wizship ...... spreads/picks?

Wow! Never saw Duquesne coming. Talk about massive "mood" swings. Templ euyp nine. Duquesne runs and ties it. Then Duquesne goes up nine. And Temple comes back to tie and take lead. More evidence of two things 1) thi sis not the typical and usual Temple team , and 2) the A10 race always has these freaking mind-benders as the season nears a close. Just wow! Wyatt with 35. Combined, thi stime Lee and Hollis-Jefferson, scored 11. Add in a duece by Cumming and three guys on their starting five averaged like 4 poitns for the game. You will not win many that way. Wyatt led Temple in points, rebounds, assists and steals. Looks like they are indeed Wyatt University right now. Umass played toe-to-toe with VCU and had them by five at half. Putney came out and scored or assisted on like 13 of Umass' first 18 or so points much like he did at Amherst against us last year. But the whole game was helter-skelter basketball. VCU has loads of conditioned athletes and their game plan is always the same .... to wear you down. Umass has one guard ... really ... in Williams and it took its toll in the second half. Williams had six assists in the first half alone .. and finished with 7. VCU forced 24 turnovers. Th eresults were 4 and 2 for the games ytaking the record to 39 and 12 for a .765 percentage. On to Saturday.

I think ACE is right on in acting like this loss might wake up Butler. However, I think Butler has been riding the name recognition wave this year ..... two final games in three years, not good last year, they eke out a one-point win over Marquette in Maui, follow that by beating an abviously flawed, young and not-too-good UNC team in Maui, move through the other, lesser Indiana teams and then catch a break when a former walk-on beats #1 Indiana. At that point, muich like a recovered junkie finding old smack, the nation remembers Butler and the love affair is quickly rekindled. This is reaffirmed by a prayer of a win against Gonzaga and a nice start (albeit against questiona\ble A10 teams) against SJU, Dayton and Richmond. And because of that old rekindled love affair, they are still in the top ten or so. Butler can and might beat us in Hinkle but I stil am not impressed. Just to break even, they have to beat us by the reciproical 27 we kicked their arse on in Chaifetz.