I think that is a very accurate take. Except for perhaps Utah, we do not have a signature win, yet. We have 4 losses on the road. Interestingly, Creighton and UConn were winnable, yet we had clunkers against SH and X. We must win at Butler and hopefully at PC; no easy task however. If we can steal one at MQ, that would help us alot. And we must win at least 4 of our 5 home games.
A Tough Road Ahead….
- Thread starter Silly Donovan
- Start date
With our OOC schedule we need to be above .500 in conference with a signature win against one of the top three plus one win in the BET.
It's a good question because it's difficult to answer. This season has been a seesaw ride. In the beginning we played lousy against Michigan, Dayton and Boston College but played well against Utah, West Virginia, Xavier (1st), Butler, Villanova, almost beat UConn, but almost blew the Providence game, close game against Creighton, terrible game against Seton Hall, close game against Marquette, great game against Villanova then the debacle last night at Xavier.
You never know which team is going to show up. So to answer your question Paultzman, this team is terribly inconsistent, on both ends of the court, from game to game, and this is not a sign of an improving team.
The bottom line is that regardless of anything that has happened up to this point this team still has their destiny in their own hands. They are still currently projected as an 8th seed. Go 7-3 in the last 10 and the bid is locked in. If not , then we have to win more games in the BET. If we go 6-4 we need one win in the BET. If we go 5-5 we’ll need two wins in the BET. But, as I said, we are currently in and control our own fate. Go out and take care of business. If they don’t then they don’t deserve it. People on this board like to talk about the fight that this team has after they fight back from deficits, well, we are going to see just how much fight this team has in them for real over these last 10 games. Let’s see it.
UConn / Marq / Creighton: 1-2 (we crush Creighton at Home)
Prov / Hall / Butler: 2-1
Gtown/DePaul: 3-1 (sorry- but we are too inconsistent to sweep em both
6-4 to close the year: 19-12 (11-9) - we win 1 in the BE, finally playing on Friday night.
We avoid the Dayton Play-in with a 10/11 seed. We get to the Sweet 16..... mic drop.
Prov / Hall / Butler: 2-1
Gtown/DePaul: 3-1 (sorry- but we are too inconsistent to sweep em both
6-4 to close the year: 19-12 (11-9) - we win 1 in the BE, finally playing on Friday night.
We avoid the Dayton Play-in with a 10/11 seed. We get to the Sweet 16..... mic drop.
That's a broad and, frankly, an illogical view of things. It all depends who we beat as well. If we win 6 more conference games, we're dancing.
If we win five more and two of those wins are against two of the top three teams in the conference; we're dancing. It's not hard to see if you look at the current metrics.
Obviously SJU is still alive regarding the tournament and after watching last nights game I find it somewhat surprising. The transfer portal players have been mainly disappointments and the freshmen recruits have been mainly non contributors.
Soriano, a pre Pitino transfer has been a great contributor and Jenkins has performed up to expectations and Ledlum close to expectations but Alleyene, Taylor and Dingle have not lived up to expectations, especially Dingle and Luis has looked like a big east all star at times but mostly like a recruit playing his first year of team ball.
The two freshmen have not developed as quickly as hoped and after eight moths on campus and twenty games in I find that disappointing.
These are my expectations and I am sure there are many disagreements but to still be alive concerning the tournament without even decent contributions from most is pretty encouraging.
Soriano, a pre Pitino transfer has been a great contributor and Jenkins has performed up to expectations and Ledlum close to expectations but Alleyene, Taylor and Dingle have not lived up to expectations, especially Dingle and Luis has looked like a big east all star at times but mostly like a recruit playing his first year of team ball.
The two freshmen have not developed as quickly as hoped and after eight moths on campus and twenty games in I find that disappointing.
These are my expectations and I am sure there are many disagreements but to still be alive concerning the tournament without even decent contributions from most is pretty encouraging.
Damn I wish Brady Dunlaps little linsanity run lasted the whole season and not one week haha
Up and down. Until I see a sustained run, and we're running out of time, that's all they are IMO
As far as SJU is improving I feel they are defensively because they are competitive with the big east powers and the offense leaves so much to be desired. It must be the defense that has improved over the season.
True Dink, I said 7-3 because if we do that that means that we probably would have a signature win in there plus another road win. If we don’t play well enough to go 7-3 then the chances of us playing well enough to get that signature win or another road win go down. Then we have to depend on the BET. You are correct , if we did just go 5-5 but beat UConn, Creighton at home and Marquette on the road we would be in.
I’m with mean and I’m nice
SJUWillRockNYC
Well-known member
What happened to the def last night?
88pnts, that's sure good def.
You can’t isolate the defense to one game.
6 more wins will likely get us in, as long as we sweep DePaul and Georgetown.
I think the biggest determination is how many minutes of supreme effort do we get. We are pretty damn good (warts and all) when we play like a pack of hungry dogs. We get into trouble when when we try to turn it on in spurts. We are not going to overwhelm anyone with our offense. The desperation level we saw down the stretch against Marquette is what we need to strive for. That level of effort for even 25+ minutes per night will win a lot of games.
Yup, missing link, can they defend at that level consistently? X game gave us pause about that, but we’ll see tomorrow