BIG EAST TWITTER POLL - WEEK 3
Well, we missed week 2 while I was in The Bahamas watching SJU disappoint me, per usual, and we’re a day late (but not a dollar short) here in Week 3. However, it doesn’t look like the Twitter cognoscenti are as disappointed by the Johnnies, bumping them up a spot to 3.
Without further ado, here’s the results of the Week 3 Twitter Poll, as always parens indicate first place votes, after the hyphen is total points:
Marquette (13) - 175
UConn (5) - 140
St. John’s - 117
Creighton - 108
Xavier - 101
DePaul - 91
Providence - 78
Butler - 70
Seton Hall - 41
Georgetown - 35
Villanova - 34
A new number 1: Marquette Golden Eagles, who have looked red hot ever since I tweeted that they were frauds early in the CMU victory. Since then they went on the road to beat Maryland, came home and beat AP Poll #6 Purdue in dominant fashion—an 18-point victory—and went down to Atlantis for a one-off neutral site victory over Georgia, 80-69. You’re welcome Marquette fans.
Should be noted that these votes were cast before UConn’s loss to Memphis in their first real game of the season. Will be interesting to see how the voters react. Certainly a lot will depend on how the rest of UConn’s Maui trip goes.
Butler and Hall were the biggest climbers, jumping 2 spots each. Butler’s jump no doubt on the strength of their win over SMU at Hinkle. Hall on the strength of 2 top-100 KenPom wins over 42 VCU in OT and 93 FAU, games which sandwiched a lopsided loss to Vandy in the Charleston semis.
Nova & Georgetown each tumble 2 spots. For Georgetown it was the loss of the first real test and nothing else but 2 wins over the softest, moistest, most delicious cupcakes. Since the week 1 poll ‘nova has lost to St. Joe’s, a bad UVa team, and Maryland, with their lone win in that span coming at home vs. UPenn. At least they’re not going to finish 6th in the Big 5 this year!
Player of the (2) Week(s)
Kam Jones, duh!
This one was a no brainer, or as one voter (non-Marquette) put it in his responses:
Kam Jones, duh (10.5/18)
Since the week 1 poll Jones has averaged 16.8 ppg, including 2 in the W over Maryland, and 17 in the W over Purdue. He also dished out 6.5 apg and took down 5.8 bpg. He posted a triple double in that Purdue game, slashing 17/13/10, for what I understand to be the first triple-double in Marquette program history (a stat I find wild given the program’s illustrious history, and if that stat is not true, blame the Scrambled Eggs podcast, as I heard it there). He was also pretty efficient, shooting 55% from the field, and an eFG of 60.6%.
Others Receiving Votes:
Eric Dixon (3) - Poor Eric. I don’t usually comment on the “others” in the POY ballot, but had to comment here. Not sure what else he can do both for his team. He got my vote, going for 26.3/6.8/1.8 over the last 2 weeks, including an insane 38 point performance against Maryland. Unfortunately ‘nova has absolutely no help for him. And lest you think he’s just racking up volume, he was quite efficient as well, shooting 50% from deep, 49.4% from the field on 19.3 shots per game. a TS% of 63.1 and eFG of 59.7. Unfortunately for Eric, the voters have spoken, and winning matters in POTW voting!
Conor Enright (1), David Joplin (1), Luke Fonts (1), Zuby Ejiofor (0.5)
Fan Pulse
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best, here’s how our panel views their own teams:
UConn - 9
DePaul - 8
Xavier - 7.6
St. John’s - 6.5
Butler - 6
PC - 6
Creighton - 4.5
Seton Hall - 3
Georgetown - no responses
Marquette - no responses
Villanova - no responses
Never ones to lack in self-confidence, UConn fans were feeling plenty good about their team at the time of voting…wonder what the vibes are like in Maui right now??
DePaul comes in 2nd on the Fan Pulse rankings with an 8/10. This is the best DePaul team in years, and while that may only be a mid-table or 2nd tier team this season, DePaul fans have every right to be amped up about both this season, and the future under Chris Holtmann.
Seton Hall fans being perhaps a bit too harsh on their squad after 2 respectable wins in Charleston. They’re a long way from being an NCAAT team, or even an NIT team like last season, but they still have Sha…and that’s about all I can say to try and cheer you guys up, sorry Hall fans!
Moving forward, I’m hopefully—if my ADHD brain cooperates—going to create a regular panel, with 5 Twitter accounts per fan base. If you’ve been voting, don’t worry, you’ll be on the list. If you’d like on the list, particularly Marquette and Villanova fans, reach out. I presume Georgetown fans are boycotting my content because they hate me for reminding them that Ed Cooley is a snake and their program is still in the toilet in year 2, but if there’s any Georgetown fans willing to participate, hit me up!