At this point I think we need to focus on getting to 10-8 in conference, beating Dartmouth to get to 20 total entering the BE tournament. I think that's the worst we can be and still have a *shot* to get in without winning the BET. Most would probably disagree with that now, but I expect this conference to get more respect as the season goes along and the numbers start to shake out. If we get to 10 we keep ourselves in thet mix, at 9 we're toast.
The strength of the conference in March is a secondary issue. The primary issue is going 10-5 the rest of the way, which is no small mountain to climb given the way this team looks. Conservatively speaking we're 2 total wins and 1 conference win behind where even measured prognosticators had us at this point, so we have some ground to make up with little margin for error.
*Obviously anything above 10 is great, but I focus on 10 because it's a semi-realistic figure. 11-4 the rest of the way is not out of the question, but an extreme long shot.
**The only upside to being 0-3 in conference is that if we do get to 10-8 and beat Dartmouth we'll be able to say we've won 11 of our last 16 games. Backloaded wins makes it seem like you're hotter going into selection time, and the first 3 can be written off to playing 3 of the toughest conference games early on.
