Jay Bilas thinks Maryland is tougher than us (LOL)

[McLovin]

Playing hard or with passion isn't the same thing as toughness.

I also don't think practicing hard makes tough teams. Calhoun had a whole host of teams that practiced hard and were soft. Mostly because they were young. It may be true that tough teams practice hard (though I'm not sure I grant that), but I certainly don't think the statement "If a team practices hard, they are necessarily tough" is true.

You could be right, but that's why we play the game. We will know who the tougher team is by 9PM Saturday night.

And I want to clarify, I never said Maryland couldn't beat us or that Bilas was wrong for picking them. It's a 7/10 game, which are usually a toss-up when it comes to "experts" making their picks. But I am taking exception to the fact that he hasn't watched us all year (this is clear) and he is calling Maryland the "tougher" team. I've watched Maryland play a lot the past month. They aren't tougher than us. They may be better and definitely more battle tested, but their team is not tougher. But then again, I'm an idiot so I could be wrong.

 

[SubbaBub]

I want Martin to up his game on the offensive end. If not, then show more of his toughness on the defensive end. Like Samson from The Longest Yard.

View attachment 65840

Sanogo is stealing some of Martin's stats. When Polley was starting at the 3, Martin was playing inside and outside. Now he's not seeing the ball as much, nor should he with the emergence of Cole and Sanogo.

Hurley should run some of Polleys looks for Martin who can also hit open 3's.

 

[tykurez]

Bouknight, who grew up a baseball player and only committed to basketball after having Tommy John surgery recommended ...

Is this common knowledge? Literally had no idea ...

 

[back2BE4us]

I get the Creighton pick and even the Nova pick but G’town looked absolutely scary on Saturday. Not sure of his handicap on an average Colorado team that lost to the preseason 12th place picked team in Oregon St. in the championship game. G’town has a good PG, a streaky SG and played with effort on both sides. They could very, very easily be a s16 team with their draw.

 

[elmcityboy]

Is this common knowledge? Literally had no idea ...

it was part of a recent ny post profile of him! wonder if that is where bilas picked it up

 

[elmcityboy]

Sanogo is stealing some of Martin's stats. When Polley was starting at the 3, Martin was playing inside and outside. Now he's not seeing the ball as much, nor should he with the emergence of Cole and Sanogo.

Hurley should run some of Polleys looks for Martin who can also hit open 3's.

i think martin is 1 for his last 17 threes, many of which were open looks. he has been slumping badly.

 

[bendm]

I hardly see any bias in picking a 12 to lose to a 5, and two shaky 5s to lose to good looking 12s

i certainly do! two 12 v 5 upsets are you kidding! just because creighton lost to a hotter than the sun gtown team doesnt mean theyre shaky. ive got them in the sweet 16.

 

[UChusky916]

About 8-10 years ago, Bilas was one of the better analysts and non-biased national commentators, especially considering the fact he's a Duke grad and on ESPN.

Since picking against UConn every game in 2014, it's opened my eyes that he's not near the top analyst he once was and that he's simply not watching games outside of P5 and more specifically the ACC. Now he's just another ESPN lackey.

Who cares what he has to say? More bulletin board material for our guys but you'd hope they don't need any added motivation.

 

[tzznandrew]

i certainly do! two 12 v 5 upsets are you kidding! just because creighton lost to a hotter than the sun gtown team doesnt mean theyre shaky. ive got them in the sweet 16.

I mean, that's cool too.

They didn't just lose to Georgetown, they got slaughtered. By a 12 seed.

But even if you trust them more than I do, Santa Barbara is a good team that can compete with—and beat—Creighton at a neutral site.

 

[August_West]

Isn’t mclovin the guy who said he can’t see any weaknesses on our team last week?

yeah I’ll take a pass on toughness opinion thing. Creighton out toughed us , nova out toughed us.

we really play hard, it’s a great thing. Other teams do too. Believe it or not we are not the toughest team in America.

 

[August_West]

Sanogo is stealing some of Martin's stats. When Polley was starting at the 3, Martin was playing inside and outside. Now he's not seeing the ball as much, nor should he with the emergence of Cole and Sanogo.

Hurley should run some of Polleys looks for Martin who can also hit open 3's.

Dear lord no. Martin can see some 3’s in game flow, fine. But running plays to free him for threes with our lineup would be coaching malpractice.

 

[elmcityboy]

i certainly do! two 12 v 5 upsets are you kidding! just because creighton lost to a hotter than the sun gtown team doesnt mean theyre shaky. ive got them in the sweet 16.

there is basically a 12 v 5 upset every year, so i wouldn't be surprised if it is just laziness on the part of bilas picking both big east teams to go down. lots of people will be making those picks.

 

[UCfor3]

Considering we gave up 17 offensive rebounds (which is the main reason we lost on Friday) and were outrebounded by 17 against Creighton, I wouldn't say that's an unreasonable take by Bilas. Maryland is going to be a tough game that will force us to execute in the half court, they won't be afraid to put defenders in driving lanes daring us to shoot from 3.. wouldn't be surprised to see them double Sanogo on post touches either they communicate extremely well defensively.

Not an unreasonable take at all, but if our toughness quotient is based simply off the Creighton game...yeah it's pretty low. If you base it off the 2 Gtown games and the SH game it looks pretty good. Creighton out toughed us but then got out toughed by GTown who we out toughed twice. Let's not base too much off the small sample size of one most recent game. If people want to say we haven't consistently shown the mental toughness over the whole season to win and close out tight games, that might be more fair. Getting outrebounded once doesn't prove much. The shoe has been on the other foot plenty of times this year.

 

[Fore!]

Don't have a problem that he picked against us. For us, it will be depending on which team that will show up. If we play tough D and hit some 3s, we can beat anyone. We can also lose to anyone if we can't make 3s.

The also missed open non-3's. The reason for the rebound differential was directly related to Sanogo's inability to stay on the court due to foul trouble. Creighton had no answer for him.

 

[bendm]

But even if you trust them more than I do, Santa Barbara is a good team that can compete with—and beat—Creighton at a neutral site.

even without gillespie you see nova losing to winthrop? theyre like #100 in kenpom

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

But even if you trust them more than I do, Santa Barbara is a good team that can compete with—and beat—Creighton at a neutral site.

They've got a guard named Jaquori McLaughlin who's definitely got a shot at an NBA career. The kid is fun to watch.

 

[August_West]

Not an unreasonable take at all, but if our toughness quotient is based simply off the Creighton game...yeah it's pretty low. If you base it off the 2 Gtown games and the SH game it looks pretty good. Creighton out toughed us but then got out toughed by GTown who we out toughed twice. Let's not base too much off the small sample size of one most recent game. If people want to say we haven't consistently shown the mental toughness over the whole season to win and close out tight games, that might be more fair. Getting outrebounded once doesn't prove much. The shoe has been on the other foot plenty of times this year.

Did you watch the nova game? They won that game simply because they were tougher. That wasn’t a classic nova win, they didn’t shoot well tgat game, what they did do was push us around in isolations and win every 50 50 ball. And were mentally tough enough to stay disciplined in winning time.

St. John’s was tougher than us too. It ain’t just 1 bad rebounding game against creighton.

 

[bendm]

there is basically a 12 v 5 upset every year, so i wouldn't be surprised if it is just laziness on the part of bilas picking both big east teams to go down. lots of people will be making those picks.

agreed but it's not a coincidence he didn't pick gtown and oregon state as the upsets when they both just won their conference tourneys. instead he picked against both higher seeded BE teams...

 

[tzznandrew]

even without gillespie you see nova losing to winthrop? theyre like #100 in kenpom

I mean, every year you see multiple teams lose more inexplicable games than this would be. On the eve of their match, Virginia was KenPom 1 and UMBC was KenPom 189.

Providence just beat Villanova and is only 15 spots ahead of Winthrop.

I'm not saying it will happen, but both this and the Creighton pick are perfectly reasonable.

 

[tzznandrew]

agreed but it's not a coincidence he didn't pick gtown and oregon state as the upsets when they both just won their conference tourneys. instead he picked against both higher seeded BE teams...

Why does there have to be an agenda? Why the need for conspiracy thinking here?

Isn't it more likely that he just thinks a team that got smacked by a 12 seed on Saturday might lose to a 12 seed this week, and that Winthrop might be able to take out a rattled Villanova team? They really haven't had time to fully adjust and have lost the only two full games they've played since the injury.

 

[August_West]

Why does there have to be an agenda? Why the need for conspiracy thinking here?

Isn't it more likely that he just thinks a team that got smacked by a 12 seed on Saturday might lose to a 12 seed this week, and that Winthrop might be able to take out a rattled Villanova team? They really haven't had time to fully adjust and have lost the only two full games they've played since the injury.

I mean it’s just a bracket pick. Why do we care? He’ll either look like a genius or an idiot. Just like everyone else throwing darts at the bracket board.

 

[bendm]

Why does there have to be an agenda? Why the need for conspiracy thinking here?

Isn't it more likely that he just thinks a team that got smacked by a 12 seed on Saturday might lose to a 12 seed this week, and that Winthrop might be able to take out a rattled Villanova team? They really haven't had time to fully adjust and have lost the only two full games they've played since the injury.

and uconn is going to lose and gtown...yeah if he's just throwing darts what are the odds

 

[UCfor3]

Did you watch the nova game? They won that game simply because they were tougher. That wasn’t a classic nova win, they didn’t shoot well tgat game, what they did do was push us around in isolations and win every 50 50 ball. And were mentally tough enough to stay disciplined in winning time.

St. John’s was tougher than us too. It ain’t just 1 bad rebounding game against creighton.

Pretty much what I said

 

[UCfor3]

Did you watch the nova game? They won that game simply because they were tougher. That wasn’t a classic nova win, they didn’t shoot well tgat game, what they did do was push us around in isolations and win every 50 50 ball. And were mentally tough enough to stay disciplined in winning time.

St. John’s was tougher than us too. It ain’t just 1 bad rebounding game against creighton.

It seems you only want to count the losses when ranking our toughness. People lose games for a lot of reasons. Toughness is one of them. So is execution, experience, matchups, foul trouble, injuries, coaching, shooting, turnovers, foul shooting, etc...If you want to throw all those under the "catch all" of toughness then you would have to do the same for our wins.

 

[tzznandrew]

and uconn is going to lose and gtown...yeah if he's just throwing darts what are the odds

I don't think in evaluating four separate games—each with its unique matchups—you necessarily have to see each of these games as a coin flip and therefore try to calculate some odds.

But further, none of the individual takes is unreasonable or surprising. Every single one of those picks is fair, even if they don't happen. I doubt he's thinking much about some deep personal bias against the Big East when he's picking 67 games.

Really, I think the issue is that the BE has three games along the 5/12 line. Experts always like to pick 1 or 2—but never more than 2—of those 12 seeds. Picking high performing regular season mid-majors over lower-performing high majors who got hot makes a lot of sense. So in that sense really the only game off that line is 7/10 matchups, and that's always a coinflip (10s win about 40% of the time).