(01-08-2017 04:27 PM)Bcatbog Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:24 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  With our talent, it is definitely realistic. In SK's senior year, I believe we were 26-5 going into the conference tourney. That team was less talented and the AAC was a better conference then. Anything less than 15-3 in conference is a failure IMO.

People need to seriously think back to SK's last year. SK was capable to taking over a game at the end and secure a victory. He would take the ball, drive to the hoop - and if fouled drain the FTs. There is NO player on this team of the stature of SK.

IMO somewhere out there will an ugly loss of 2. I really do not care as long as we beat X.

Bob

PS: In honor of SK I made the trip from Cleveland for Senior Night. JJ was part of that night as well. I will remember the emotion of that night forever.

evans and cumberland on that level

In retrospect, these kinds of threads always end in tears.

(01-08-2017 04:27 PM)Bcatbog Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:24 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  With our talent, it is definitely realistic. In SK's senior year, I believe we were 26-5 going into the conference tourney. That team was less talented and the AAC was a better conference then. Anything less than 15-3 in conference is a failure IMO.

People need to seriously think back to SK's last year. SK was capable to taking over a game at the end and secure a victory. He would take the ball, drive to the hoop - and if fouled drain the FTs. There is NO player on this team of the stature of SK.

IMO somewhere out there will an ugly loss of 2. I really do not care as long as we beat X.

Bob

PS: In honor of SK I made the trip from Cleveland for Senior Night. JJ was part of that night as well. I will remember the emotion of that night forever.

SK was the best player of the Mick Cronin era, no doubt. Outside of him, I'm not entirely sure anyone else on that roster would even start on this year's team. For all of SK's heroics, we couldn't even get out of the first round of the tourney against a 12-seed. I expect more from this year's team.

That team had three great seniors but Mick gassed them way too early. Harvard beat us weeks before ever stepping on the same court.

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(01-08-2017 05:49 PM)BigDawg Wrote:  I think it is definitely possible. I have a gut feeling we beat XU. I think we will wind up with with 2-3 conf losses.

Since it was brought up. Coincidentally, XU let Myles Davis back on the team today. How convenient. Ya know, because their Super Bowl is 2 weeks away.

(01-08-2017 07:10 PM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  That team had three great seniors but Mick gassed them way too early. Harvard beat us weeks before ever stepping on the same court.

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Good point. And I'm certainly not attempting to disparage JJ or Rubles... I would love to have either one of them on this team. But the overall talent level on that team minus SK was not very good. We could lose our best player (I'll say Evans for the sake of argument) and I think we would still make the tournament. Take SK off that team and you're looking at a hot mess.

(01-08-2017 07:14 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 05:49 PM)BigDawg Wrote:  I think it is definitely possible. I have a gut feeling we beat XU. I think we will wind up with with 2-3 conf losses.

Since it was brought up. Coincidentally, XU let Myles Davis back on the team today. How convenient. Ya know, because their Super Bowl is 2 weeks away.

I'm pretty sure that's been the plan for a while -- the suspension coincided with the academic calendar. New semester now.

(01-08-2017 07:14 PM)Cat-Man Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 05:49 PM)BigDawg Wrote:  I think it is definitely possible. I have a gut feeling we beat XU. I think we will wind up with with 2-3 conf losses.

Since it was brought up. Coincidentally, XU let Myles Davis back on the team today. How convenient. Ya know, because their Super Bowl is 2 weeks away.

Maybe also because their next game is Tuesday against #1 Villanova.

(01-08-2017 07:10 PM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  That team had three great seniors but Mick gassed them way too early. Harvard beat us weeks before ever stepping on the same court.

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That team overachieved early but the offensive limitations of almost everyone outside SK caught up to us. A lineup of GLawn, SK, Shaq, Titus, and JJ gave teams a lot of guys they could help off of.

(01-08-2017 07:49 PM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 07:10 PM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  That team had three great seniors but Mick gassed them way too early. Harvard beat us weeks before ever stepping on the same court.

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That team overachieved early but the offensive limitations of almost everyone outside SK caught up to us. A lineup of GLawn, SK, Shaq, Titus, and JJ gave teams a lot of guys they could help off of.

Tons of athleticism, no shooting (outside of SK). It really is a wonder that team managed to win 27 games.

(01-08-2017 07:55 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 07:49 PM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 07:10 PM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  That team had three great seniors but Mick gassed them way too early. Harvard beat us weeks before ever stepping on the same court.

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That team overachieved early but the offensive limitations of almost everyone outside SK caught up to us. A lineup of GLawn, SK, Shaq, Titus, and JJ gave teams a lot of guys they could help off of.

Tons of athleticism, no shooting (outside of SK). It really is a wonder that team managed to win 27 games.

To put it in perspective that team won a regular season co-championship with the defending national champion over the eventual national champion. While I don't think SK should have been national player of the year if college basketball had an MVP award he would have been an obvious choice. That team has zero chance of making the tournament without him.

The pieces are in place including depth, strong defense, improving diversity and consistency in the offense, and a relatively weak league. But to get to 27-4 they must continue to cultivate that killer mentality. Take teams out early and keep your shoe on their throat thus eliminating the inherent random nature of the end of close games.

The great teams and players do this. Close games are for teams of similar or greater talent and we won't see but maybe two until the tournament.

(01-08-2017 03:19 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:38 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:26 PM)Recluse1 Wrote:  This is a very talented team and one that can play up to 8-9 players reliably, so I'd say yes. Not too many teams have people who can hit jumpshots at 1-5 and not many have the length and athleticism. Factor in the caliber of competition in conference and that we seem to be getting better as the season rolls along, I see very few losses. It's not unrealistic to expect 27-4. I know there's a lot of ball to be played, but I feel pretty good about what remains of the season. It'd be nice to win both the season title and the conference championship.

This. We haven't won a conference tournament championship since 2004. It's no coincidence that our best showing in a conference tournament in the Mick Cronin era led to a Sweet 16 appearance. Building momentum and playing your best basketball late in the season matters if you're going to make a deep tournament run. UConn has been our kryptonite, but they are down and we have our most talented team in at least 5 years. No more excuses -- it's time to cut down the nets in Hartford.

Wtf is the tournament is hartford F'ing Connecticut!?!? This damn conference.

A long time ago my father, who only had an 8th grade education, said to me "Any time you don't understand something, insert the word money".

(01-08-2017 10:22 PM)ctipton Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 03:19 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:38 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(01-08-2017 02:26 PM)Recluse1 Wrote:  This is a very talented team and one that can play up to 8-9 players reliably, so I'd say yes. Not too many teams have people who can hit jumpshots at 1-5 and not many have the length and athleticism. Factor in the caliber of competition in conference and that we seem to be getting better as the season rolls along, I see very few losses. It's not unrealistic to expect 27-4. I know there's a lot of ball to be played, but I feel pretty good about what remains of the season. It'd be nice to win both the season title and the conference championship.

This. We haven't won a conference tournament championship since 2004. It's no coincidence that our best showing in a conference tournament in the Mick Cronin era led to a Sweet 16 appearance. Building momentum and playing your best basketball late in the season matters if you're going to make a deep tournament run. UConn has been our kryptonite, but they are down and we have our most talented team in at least 5 years. No more excuses -- it's time to cut down the nets in Hartford.

Wtf is the tournament is hartford F'ing Connecticut!?!? This damn conference.

A long time ago my father, who only had an 8th grade education, to me "Any time you don't understand something, insert the word money".

Smart man.

If they really wanted to make money, the tournament games would all be held at the home court of the higher seeded teams. First round Sunday, final eight Tuesday, semifinals Thursday, finals on Saturday. Day off between games would better simulate NCAA tournament anyway.

Follow the money. Plus at the time the AAC selected the site they thought UC and UH were gone and UConn would be left as the premier overall member.

I think they want to make the conference look strong. So they put in a place with high attendance. No doubt, Orlando was great last year, but the attendance was horrible. In the years that we hosted the conf tourney during conf USA and The Great Midwest, the games were well attended. Just like when the tourney was in Memphis a few years back.

Realistic, but I'm going to predict no. I just have a hard time believing teams like UCONN are really going to stay down all year. Memphis won't stay down either and it's debatable how "down" they even are right now. I think we lose at least 1 of those 4. SMU twice could easily deliver a loss. X is 50/50. That still leaves like 8 games including Temple and @Tulsa. I don't think this is the type of team to take any WTF losses though so I think 4 is possible with 5 or 6 being more likely.

BTW, Mick was worried about the defense going into the season. Turns out this might be the best defensive team UC has had since SK's senior year. I know people haven't been high on Washington's defense , but I think he's been better than expected on that end (very versatile despite some liabilities) and because Clark is so great defending around the basket they don't need Washington as the rim protector. Between Caupain, KJ and Evans UC is just so long at the top of the zone (also true when Cumberland plays). When Jennifer comes in they lose some in length but he is in the offensive players grill the entire time. I love watching this team defend.

(01-09-2017 11:12 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  BTW, Mick was worried about the defense going into the season. Turns out this might be the best defensive team UC has had since SK's senior year. I know people haven't been high on Washington's defense , but I think he's been better than expected on that end (very versatile despite some liabilities) and because Clark is so great defending around the basket they don't need Washington as the rim protector. Between Caupain, KJ and Evans UC is just so long at the top of the zone (also true when Cumberland plays). When Jennifer comes in they lose some in length but he is in the offensive players grill the entire time. I love watching this team defend.

Gary is so good on D. Gonna suck to lose him but I am super excited about Tre Scott...In his limited minutes this year it's evident that he loves defending the rim.

As for the perimeter, we will get A LOT smaller next year with JJ and Cane Broom logging a lot of minutes. Cumberland will also be on the court a lot more so I'm sure they'll really focus on his defense this summer.

Also, 27-4 this year is definitely realistic.