Xavier - 2nd Game

Xavier is beating Butler by 11 at halftime. Reynolds has 9 rebounds in the first half already. Dunham has three fouls and has contributed very little.
 
Enjoyed the game, atmosphere, HOF induction presentation & Malik tribute. It is natural to feel great on a day like that. That said, it is crucial to beat Xavier at home & sweep series. If our guards & Dom run the court the way they can, that neutralizes Stainbrook a lot. Let's get the big boy winded. Yes we have a short turnaround, but so do they. Yes some of our guys have nagging injuries, but that's all part of the game. "Taking Care of Business" mantra is BS unless we do.

Do we squander another critical opportunity or grab a huge win & get some momentum going into GT game? My bet is if Jordan plays like he did Saturday & Obekpa can replicate his nine rebounds we will. Let's get it done or all the sentimentality & good feeling from SH win goes down the drain. These kids deserve NCAA tournament experience & so do we. :)
 
Enjoyed the game, atmosphere, HOF induction presentation & Malik tribute. It is natural to feel great on a day like that. That said, it is crucial to beat Xavier at home & sweep series. If our guards & Dom run the court the way they can, that neutralizes Stainbrook a lot. Let's get the big boy winded. Yes we have a short turnaround, but so do they. Yes some of our guys have nagging injuries, but that's all part of the game. "Taking Care of Business" mantra is BS unless we do.

Do we squander another critical opportunity or grab a huge win & get some momentum going into GT game? My bet is if Jordan plays like he did Saturday & Obekpa can replicate his nine rebounds we will. Let's get it done or all the sentimentality & good feeling from SH win goes down the drain. These kids deserve NCAA tournament experience & so do we. :)
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Zero margin for error at this point. Absolute must win. 8-7 makes the possibility of an NCAA bid much more probable than 7-8.

Agree with you on all points about the day. It was a huge win, a great day to remind us just how special SJU is, and for one day at least merged our wonderful basketball past with a team that has provided some really great basketball at times this year.
 
Not going to this I can't be out this late on a work night which I'm pissed about but this will be the most winnable game of the next four IMO. Marquette terrifies me they almost beat us last time and I can see the kids having a let down traveling to Wisconsin to play a team that despite having a bad record will still give us all we can handle.

Must win here to get to 8 as other posters have said. Two wins against X and PC would make a possible 0-6 vs nova the Hoyas and butler look a lot better than 3-7.

Xavier is also coming off a great week beating CINCI and BUTLER so hopefully they have a letdown game here.

Jamal Branch has been huge in our last two wins. Will look for him to contribute too and I still wanna know why Lavin buried him in the dog house after he had the game of his career at Creighton.
 
Ranking went from 41 to 44. Actually went down a few spots. Maybe in part due to Syracuse and Minnesota losing.

I don't really feel safe about any of our four remaining games, but we need to win 2 of them. I think the line in 3 of the games- GTown, Marquette, Xavier- will be within plus or minus two points. Basically, those 3 games will be complete toss ups. We need to win 2 of 3 heading into Nova.

Running RPI forecast, we can go 2-2 and lose the first round of BET and still have an RPI around 45. If we can't manage to do that, we probably don't deserve to be in the tournament.
 
Look I think 3-1 is needed with a win over Georgetown or Nova included. Looking at the RPI....notice who is moving up. Pittsburgh - why is that important because Pittsburgh is a site for the first weekend. They would get a slot before us.
Hope for a game that isn't full of whistles...
 
The best way to look at it is the following: IMO the best the Big East can reasnably hope for is 5 tourney bids. Nova, PC, Georgetown, and Butler are all likely to get a bid before SJU. Xavier is 8-7 in conf, we are 7-7. A win places them in solid position (9-7 vs. 7-8) to finish above us in conference If we tie with them in conf and have similar records, the committee would look as an SJU sweep in our favor. A split and Xavier finishing above us would likely get them the 5th bid.

There are a hundred ways to slice our tourney chances, but finishing 6th in the BE will give us a very slim chance of dancing. Tomorrow we can edge past Xavier or put ourselves almost hopelessly behind them. Just win.
 
The best way to look at it is the following: IMO the best the Big East can reasnably hope for is 5 tourney bids. Nova, PC, Georgetown, and Butler are all likely to get a bid before SJU. Xavier is 8-7 in conf, we are 7-7. A win places them in solid position (9-7 vs. 7-8) to finish above us in conference If we tie with them in conf and have similar records, the committee would look as an SJU sweep in our favor. A split and Xavier finishing above us would likely get them the 5th bid.

There are a hundred ways to slice our tourney chances, but finishing 6th in the BE will give us a very slim chance of dancing. Tomorrow we can edge past Xavier or put ourselves almost hopelessly behind them. Just win.
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The best they can hope for is 6 (or 7 if SHU, DePaul, Creighton, or Marquette wins the BET). If Selection Sunday was today there would be 6 teams in.
 
1 point is what I expected. Weren't we 8 point dogs last time?

Plus, Xavier is coming off of wins vs. Cincy and Butler.
 
6 teams is looking more and more probable after Xavier beat Cincy and butler. Now if SJU just takes care of business and wins 3 more games this year we will get 6. Don't know why we need to look at it as Xavier/SJU for one spot, both could very well make it and I think they will

As long as Xavier doesn't falter at Creighton they are a lock
 
I won't disparage anyone who is looking ahead and saying "if we win x and y, then we'll be dancing, or if we win x,y, and z, we'll be a 7 seed ..." etc.

But for my own mental health and well-being I've stopped looking ahead. This team makes it impossible to take anything for granted lol
I think that's a blessing and a curse. It makes the wins more special, but certainly causes many of us indigestion.

Honestly though, I don't know how anyone can say any game is close to a guarantee. Even the marquette game. Who the hell knows.

I was fired up as all hell coming off the Xavier win, and we laid an absolute egg in D.C.
So as much as I'd love to say I see this team going 3-1 or whatever, I can't.
I don't even want to think about anything beyond Xavier tomorrow, because getting your hopes up with this team is a recipe for disappointment.
So I'll stick with what I said weeks ago: we're too inconsistent and too short on the bench to make the tournament. But I'd love for this team to surprise me and prove me wrong.
 
8pm start. Hope we still get a good crowd
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I'm going

If you live in the 5 boroughs, then get your ass to the game FFS.
Give the seniors in their last days here huge support. Let them know how much you appreciated them.

GO REDMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
8pm start. Hope we still get a good crowd
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I'm going

If you live in the 5 boroughs, then get your ass to the game FFS.
Give the seniors in their last days here huge support. Let them know how much you appreciated them.

GO REDMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am there......representing Jersey. It's just a short train ride through the tunnel.
 
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