January Conference Schedule

ghostzapper

ghostzapper

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2023 $upporter
After an uneven non-conference performance we begin our conference play in January. Looking ahead, half of our eighteen conference games will be played in this month. We have five home games and four road games (see below). This should be the easier part of our schedule (the second half seems tougher) but we will need to blend quickly and raise our level of performance and consistency to navigate this part of our schedule successfully.

From an optimist's point of view we can win most of these nine games. We will probably be favored to win in about half of these games. If we do not get through this part of the schedule above five hundred then we will have a very difficult time raising our record during the tougher second part of the season. I am hoping we can be at least 6-3 during these games because a look at the second half of our schedule will be much more challenging (see below).

I hope our staff has our team more ready to play forty minutes of quality basketball then was displayed during the non-conference part of our season. I believe the talent is there to do well, but we need to come out of the gate and play well for the full game in order to have success.

January:
1/2/13 @ Villanova
1/5/13 @ Cincinnati
1/9/13 Rutgers
1/12/13 Georgetown
1/15/13 Notre Dame
1/19/13 @ DePaul
1/23/13 @ Rutgers
1/27/13 Seton Hall
1/30/13 DePaul

Second Half:
2/2/13 @ Georgetown
2/6/13 Connecticut
2/10/13 @ Syracuse
2/14/13 @ Louisville
2/20/13 South Florida
2/24/13 Pittsburgh
3/2/13 @ Providence
3/5/13 @ Notre Dame
3/9/13 Marquette
 
Since our January games are now over I thought I would reply to my own thread.here.

Coming in to the month of January we were not playing well but I thought if the team came together that we had some winnable games on the schedule. I was secretly hoping we could go 7and 2 but thought that 6 and 3 was attainable and necessary, if we were going to have a successful season. We made the 6 and 3 the hard way, with a bad loss to Rutgers at home and surviving tonight in OT over a DePaul team that we probably should have beaten with some room to spare. Aside from a total no show against Georgetown no game was one we couldn't have taken.

While the next nine games are much tougher then the last nine, the team is tougher as well.. They have grown up quite a bit and are much better coming out of January then they were going in. Adding Branch to the regular rotation and Pointer emerging as a force, along with better team chemistry, are some of the reasons for optimism. If the team's focus and intensity doesn't lapse (as it seemed to do at times tonight) and we get 40 minutes of maximum effort every game, then we might wind up finishing in the top five in the league. That would be a huge accomplishment for this group.

Below are the remaining nine games on our regular season schedule:


Second Nine
2/2/13 @ Georgetown
2/6/13 Connecticut
2/10/13 @ Syracuse
2/14/13 @ Louisville
2/20/13 South Florida
2/24/13 Pittsburgh
3/2/13 @ Providence
3/5/13 @ Notre Dame
3/9/13 Marquette
 
5 and 4 is attainable. Even 6 and 3 is not impossible. However the road games against Louisville, Syracuse, Georgetown and Notre Dame as well as the home against Marquette will all be tough. We are likely to be decent sized underdogs in all five of those games. Additionally our home games against Pittsburgh and Uconn are not going to be easy either.

It really will be more about continued team growth and playing games with fire from start to finish that will define the rest of the season. As you saw tonight we are capable of losing to anyone in the conference when we are not at our best.

However I do believe in this group and think we will pull some upsets along the way and can finish above five hundred in the second half. Maximum effort every game is the key and an 11-7 conference record could get us in to the tournament a year ahead of schedule.
 
Being 6-3 right now I'm very proud of this team. The media kept rolling their eyes at us saying "They're too young to really compete yet" and all we did was win 5 in a row ignoring the haters. There is absolutely no easy game in the Big East...none. The worst Big East teams would be fighting against Wichita State and Creighton for the MVC title I have no doubt. Providence, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall, etc. are very underrated and only look bad because of the crazy amount of talent in the Big East. With that said, 6-3 in the toughest conference in America with freshmen and sophs demands respect and I think the media is finally noticing. I don't expect to win any games from here on out since we have UConn, G'Town, L'Ville, ND, Cuse, Marquette, etc.

It's going to be absolutely brutal and I feel like 0-6 would be likely if it was early in the season, but this team is developing battle scars and I don't see why there isn't an outside chance we steal one against G'Town, Marquette, ND, or UConn. I don't have any expectations from here on out and I'm comfortable realizing we may get beat up quite a bit. The good news is being 6-3 affords us a bit of a cushion...not a big one by any means, but a slight cushion to have an off night or 2, but if we can steal 3-4 games or just end up .500 in the conference as an NIT team, I'd be 100% proud of these guys. All that I ask is that if we must lose to these teams, let them blow us out instead of us losing them at the last seconds leaving me wondering "what if". It's a major longshot that we take down the juggernauts, but hey if Nova can do it, why not us? That should be our tag line for this year especially if we steal a few more: "Why not us?".
 
Since our January games are now over I thought I would reply to my own thread.here.

Coming in to the month of January we were not playing well but I thought if the team came together that we had some winnable games on the schedule. I was secretly hoping we could go 7and 2 but thought that 6 and 3 was attainable and necessary, if we were going to have a successful season. We made the 6 and 3 the hard way, with a bad loss to Rutgers at home and surviving tonight in OT over a DePaul team that we probably should have beaten with some room to spare. Aside from a total no show against Georgetown no game was one we couldn't have taken.

While the next nine games are much tougher then the last nine, the team is tougher as well.. They have grown up quite a bit and are much better coming out of January then they were going in. Adding Branch to the regular rotation and Pointer emerging as a force, along with better team chemistry, are some of the reasons for optimism. If the team's focus and intensity doesn't lapse (as it seemed to do at times tonight) and we get 40 minutes of maximum effort every game, then we might wind up finishing in the top five in the league. That would be a huge accomplishment for this group.

Below are the remaining nine games on our regular season schedule:


Second Nine
2/2/13 @ Georgetown
2/6/13 Connecticut
2/10/13 @ Syracuse
2/14/13 @ Louisville
2/20/13 South Florida
2/24/13 Pittsburgh
3/2/13 @ Providence
3/5/13 @ Notre Dame
3/9/13 Marquette
Click to expand...


We'll be favored only once.
 
Since our January games are now over I thought I would reply to my own thread.here.

Coming in to the month of January we were not playing well but I thought if the team came together that we had some winnable games on the schedule. I was secretly hoping we could go 7and 2 but thought that 6 and 3 was attainable and necessary, if we were going to have a successful season. We made the 6 and 3 the hard way, with a bad loss to Rutgers at home and surviving tonight in OT over a DePaul team that we probably should have beaten with some room to spare. Aside from a total no show against Georgetown no game was one we couldn't have taken.

While the next nine games are much tougher then the last nine, the team is tougher as well.. They have grown up quite a bit and are much better coming out of January then they were going in. Adding Branch to the regular rotation and Pointer emerging as a force, along with better team chemistry, are some of the reasons for optimism. If the team's focus and intensity doesn't lapse (as it seemed to do at times tonight) and we get 40 minutes of maximum effort every game, then we might wind up finishing in the top five in the league. That would be a huge accomplishment for this group.

Below are the remaining nine games on our regular season schedule:


Second Nine
2/2/13 @ Georgetown
2/6/13 Connecticut
2/10/13 @ Syracuse
2/14/13 @ Louisville
2/20/13 South Florida
2/24/13 Pittsburgh
3/2/13 @ Providence
3/5/13 @ Notre Dame
3/9/13 Marquette
Click to expand...


We'll be favored only once.
Click to expand...

Impossible to say as your only as good as the next game. Yes Gtown we will be dogs. There is chance we are slight fav at home vs. Uconn. After that obviously the two big road games are no. After that its a total crapshoot.
 
Since our January games are now over I thought I would reply to my own thread.here.

Coming in to the month of January we were not playing well but I thought if the team came together that we had some winnable games on the schedule. I was secretly hoping we could go 7and 2 but thought that 6 and 3 was attainable and necessary, if we were going to have a successful season. We made the 6 and 3 the hard way, with a bad loss to Rutgers at home and surviving tonight in OT over a DePaul team that we probably should have beaten with some room to spare. Aside from a total no show against Georgetown no game was one we couldn't have taken.

While the next nine games are much tougher then the last nine, the team is tougher as well.. They have grown up quite a bit and are much better coming out of January then they were going in. Adding Branch to the regular rotation and Pointer emerging as a force, along with better team chemistry, are some of the reasons for optimism. If the team's focus and intensity doesn't lapse (as it seemed to do at times tonight) and we get 40 minutes of maximum effort every game, then we might wind up finishing in the top five in the league. That would be a huge accomplishment for this group.

Below are the remaining nine games on our regular season schedule:


Second Nine
2/2/13 @ Georgetown
2/6/13 Connecticut
2/10/13 @ Syracuse
2/14/13 @ Louisville
2/20/13 South Florida
2/24/13 Pittsburgh
3/2/13 @ Providence
3/5/13 @ Notre Dame
3/9/13 Marquette
Click to expand...


We'll be favored only once.
Click to expand...

I could see where we could be favored 3 or 4 games. Favored-schmavored at the end of the day, as the games have to be played on the court and not on paper.
 
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