I think a strong SOS makes us a better team. The guys know there is no room for a letdown and they have to play hard for the entire game at both ends. There is no "gimme" factor.
Official 2014-2015 Schedule Thread
- Thread starter Jack Williams
- Start date
It depends if we make it to the NIT semifinals or not. If we lose before, our only national games are against Duke and Syracuse which is similar to Wisconsin and Syracuse that we played this year. Either way, we have to beat the Georgia's, Minnesota's and Gonzaga's of the world. Just playing them will not help.
Us not winning key OOC games is why Georgetown, who finished behind us in the conference standings last year, actually finished ahead of us when it came to getting intto the NCAA tourney. They were among the first 4 out--we were not. That's because they beat Mich State and VCU.
This schedule is already much better than last year and not all the games have been announced. The way I look at it we have a lot of opportunities already for signature wins. I know from the Preseason NIT it will come down to that St Josephs game as the game we need to win to have a chance to beat Minny or the Zags, but they lost a lot coming into this year. I figure, early in the year, they will have a brand new lineup still trying to figure things out, so our group of veterans should be able to take that game.
Chances for Signature wins:
St Joes
Syracuse
St Mary's
Gonzaga (maybe)
Minnesota (maybe)
Georgia (maybe)
Duke
Villanova (2X)
Georgetown (2X)
Chances for Signature wins:
St Joes
Syracuse
St Mary's
Gonzaga (maybe)
Minnesota (maybe)
Georgia (maybe)
Duke
Villanova (2X)
Georgetown (2X)
No "maybe" on Syracuse?
Huh?
The reason I put maybe on those three teams is because we have work to do to even get a chance to play those teams.
thanks, i misunderstood.
That last point is the key point. The many benefits of playing a strong schedule are clear. But you don't want to be in the position - as we sort of were this past season - of having to prance around in March talking about how tough the schedule was and how the BE is underrated (even if both of those things were true)...because you didn't pick up quality wins against the OOC schedule or the top teams in the conference.
Having a strong SOS has to be a secondary piece complimenting both a high win total and quality wins within that total. I'd rather just win and worry about whether the SOS is 10 or 40 after that.
Excellent points. Last season we consistently failed to win key NCAA Tourney implication games. Net of nice win against Creighton at MSG, we failed to get over hump in many contests like Cuse at MSG, Wisconsin, PC in BE Tourney & critical Xavier game at MSG. Granted Cuse & Wisconsin games were very tough. However, if we expect to dance we must grab some of those challenging contests & avoid being upset by inferior teams. IMO, our margin of error is slight & we must establish rotations early, avoid odd ball experiments & come to play each and every night.
On a side note, I have given up hoping for a more structured offense. (Surprise me Steve) For starters though, can we make a concerted effort to improve our out of bounds defensive approach? We just give up too many points not defending under our basket & a few miscues there could be a critical difference in closely contested games. Lastly, if our shooting woes continue, it becomes ever so critical for our offensive rebounding to improve dramatically. Hopefully Thomas will help with that.
Agreed on all. The single biggest thing I can say for next season is that we have to be ready to go from Day 1. Beat inferior teams by 20 like good teams do and be competitive against quality competition - picking up some wins - starting in November. Nobody expects perfection, especially early on, but it is reasonable to expect a veteran team with an established staff to be ready to go when the season begins and not at some later point in time. Expectations have to be raised, not softened, the latter of which unfortunately became an increasingly big part of last season.
We had to be -100 in terms of inbounds plays last year. Our defense gave up way to many buckets as you mentioned and our offense, if possible, was even worse. They never ran a play, dlo caught the ball in the corner almost every time it seemed.
Let's hope we give it to Syracuse. Especially after reading this from yesterday's Syracuse blog:
"A rivalry no longer, SU vs. SJU is part faux-battle for New York, part trip down Nostalgia Lane -- kind of like driving down the neighborhood you used to live in. Like the games with Georgetown, playing St. John's is kind of sad and kind of comforting, but mostly sad.
There's a reason you stroll and not vacation on trips back.
And where Georgetown will at least bring some hype (that will likely fade by the third or fourth year of the deal), playing St. John's at the Carrier Dome brings little to nothing for the Orange and Orange fans. The only reason SU wanted to keep playing the Johnnies was to have access to New York City, keeping its imprint down state and in Madison Square Garden. But having St. John's in Central New York is at the most a reprieve from the early season home cupcakes like Cornell and Colgate.
Which is fine, I guess I'd rather see Steve Lavin and the Red Storm than someone and the Big Red, but Syracuse should really change up the way it deals with St. John's. Instead of the classic "home-and-homes," why not just pull off an "away-away" contract? Four or five years of SU in the Garden against the Red Storm, no return games in the Carrier Dome. A win for the program wanting to keep its standing in NYC and a win for the fan base out there still clamoring for days gone by.
Plus, the Garden, as we all know and have heard and have read, is Syracuse University South (a good five hours south, but no one wants details to get in the way). There will always be plenty of orange in place of red when Syracuse plays "at" St. John's. So it's not like a true roadie for Jim Boeheim and company.
The bottom line is, the more things change the more things actually do change. The appeal of Georgetown for Syracuse is morphing, the appeal of St. John's already changed years ago. It's strange but I'd rather Syracuse play away than home when it comes to the Red Storm, if the two have to play at all. It's not like we're talking about Duke here anyway."
http://www.nunesmagician.com/2014/6/17/5817216/su-basketball-st-elsewhere-like-nyc