Jay Bilas still has WSU ranked ahead of Creighton in his POWER 68-Jan 29, 2012

[shox1989]

Jay Bilas still thinks we are better than Creighton and Murray St. even after we lost to the Drake. He has us ranked 17th in his latest power 68 rankings. He ranks CU #19 and Murry St. #21. He has SWOMO ranked #68.

He even mentions that he thinks we are better than Murray St. in his Murray St. write up.

Excerpts from the BILAS POWER 68 RANKINGS:

17. Wichita State Shockers

The Shockers are rated in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.

18. Connecticut Huskies

UConn just got Ryan Boatright cleared after a three-game absence, and with him comes more offense. Jim Calhoun still needs more production out of his big men.

19. Creighton Bluejays

Creighton leads the nation in field goal percentage (51) and 3-point percentage (45.1). Wins against Iowa, San Diego State, Wichita State, Missouri State and Northern Iowa indicate that Creighton is a lock for the NCAA tournament.

20. West Virginia Mountaineers

The missed goaltending call was tough, but the 16-point loss to St. John's was far more damaging. Still, West Virginia is a very good team. The Mountaineers average 14.5 second-chance points, which is second in the Big East. In wins, West Virginia gets 29 percent of its points from the offensive glass, but gets only 16.4 percent in losses. WVU's best wins are over Cincinnati, Marshall, Georgetown, Kansas State, Missouri State and Rutgers (twice).

21. Murray State Racers

This is an NCAA tournament team that can win games and play in the second weekend. But I do believe that Wichita State and Creighton are better teams. Perhaps Ivan Aska's return will change my mind.



Here is a link to his complete POWER 68 RANKINGS:

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7516582/college-hoops-top-68-rankings-kentucky-wildcats-retain-no-1-spot

[60Shock]

Whatever he is smoking is illegal.

[shox1989]

Whatever he is smoking is illegal.

I would much prefer what Jay Bilas is smoking to whatever Andy Katz is smoking!

[_kai_]

Jay Bilas is a superb analyst. If he's in our corner, I'll frigging take it.

[Dan]

I like the attention but his write-up on Creighton is much more convincing that they're a better team

[ShockerPhi]

I love Jay Bilas and Jay Bilas loves us. I do think he is a weeeeee bit wrong in saying we are better than Creighton, but the fact that he says so makes me believe it ;)

[shox1989]

I love Jay Bilas and Jay Bilas loves us. I do think he is a weeeeee bit wrong in saying we are better than Creighton, but the fact that he says so makes me believe it ;)

I actually believe we are the better team, we just don't play like it all of the time. I have seen more CU basketball this year than ever in my life (it seems like nearly all of their games are on espn3 or on TV) and I just don't think their defense is as good as ours nor is their offense. They have a really good team, but you know if we hadn't jacked up so many 3s against them or if we had only had a few more of them, we would be the one ranked right now.

I like Gibbs, he is the glue that holds that team together. McD is a really gritty, hard-nosed player who can really score and rebound. Their big guy, I call him E, is pretty spotty in my opinion. He is definitely better than last year, but he seems to almost disappear a lot in games.

But when I watch them play they don't seem to dominate teams the way the Shockers often do. CU struggled twice to beat Bradley, for example (Believe me that second game was a lot closer than the final score). Most of the time they get good solid wins, but they are not dominating teams.

[WuDrWu]

Jay Bilas is a superb analyst. If he's in our corner, I'll frigging take it.

Like him or not, Jay Bilas is smarter than 99.99% of people on the planet and I don't believe his bias goes any further than his alma mater, if even that far. What he says, he believes, and is as informed as anyone out there. I have disagreed with his position on occasion, but after listening to his argument, I usually can't. That's because he's smarter than I am, and more informed.

[ShockerFever]

I actually believe we are the better team, we just don't play like it all of the time. I have seen more CU basketball this year than ever in my life (it seems like nearly all of their games are on espn3 or on TV) and I just don't think their defense is as good as ours nor is their offense. They have a really good team, but you know if we hadn't jacked up so many 3s against them or if we had only had a few more of them, we would be the one ranked right now.

I like Gibbs, he is the glue that holds that team together. McD is a really gritty, hard-nosed player who can really score and rebound. Their big guy, I call him E, is pretty spotty in my opinion. He is definitely better than last year, but he seems to almost disappear a lot in games.

But when I watch them play they don't seem to dominate teams the way the Shockers often do. CU struggled twice to beat Bradley, for example (Believe me that second game was a lot closer than the final score). Most of the time they get good solid wins, but they are not dominating teams.

But we do jack up way too many 3's and have done so on multiple occasions, mostly in our 4 losses. So, no, we are not the better team. The better team would have fixed this problem by now. Creighton's IQ is better than ours and it shows. And that's why they are CLEARLY the better team. You can argue if's, and's, and but's all you want.

[ShockerPhi]

But when I watch them play they don't seem to dominate teams the way the Shockers often do. CU struggled twice to beat Bradley, for example (Believe me that second game was a lot closer than the final score). Most of the time they get good solid wins, but they are not dominating teams.

This part I definitely agree with. We seem to just blow out some teams, and CU doesn't seem to win by more than 12 at the most. However, they find a way to win (almost) everytime, and that helps them a lot.

[shocker3]

I like Jay! I wish he were on the selection committee. If he had been on the committee last year we would have been dancing.