The Wiz Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 To be favored by nearly double digits over a good team like St. Joe is a testament to how far we have come. I currently have us ranked at 20th with a projected 7th seed. As I mentioned in another thread, we will be favored in all the remaining games including the A-10 tourney. Bills are looking good. As for this game, we need to hold St. J to 14 shots or less and 29% shooting from the arc. A real positive we now have is the Big M...momentum plus confidence. This shows up everytime we exceed the spread. Spread beating over time also shows a team that has come together and jelled. We are there. Dangers going forward....we are ranked. While this is a good thing...super publicity for the program and recognition, the danger is everyone is gunning for you...trying just a little bit harder. A St. J team that has had an OK season is thinking....This is our chance to beat a ranked team....a GW board will have a discussion...if we beat the Bills should we rush the court. The point is we now have a target on our back and that changes things...makes games more difficult to win. The other concern I have going forward is about momentun...again, a good thing but the question will be asked...are we peaking too soon. If in fact we did win the remaining games that would be 16 in a row going into the Dance. Tough to maintain that focus for that long.. The answers to the above dangers will come from the Coach. This is where JC can make the difference. He can help the team deal with the added pressure of being ranked. He can also help keep the focus and balance over time to keep the momentum and the energy levels even. He can transmit the message of...act like you have been here before....and act like you belong. Can he do it? I guess we will soon find out. He has had the answers for the past month. He now faces a set of new challenges. If he answers these questions successfully in the coming weeks then we may also have an answer to who will be Coach next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bills10 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Hopefully we can win out to get the best seed possible, but also use the start of each tournament as a refocusing point. In NYC and the NCAA, it doesn't matter what you have done in the past, but what you do today. I think our guys have shown that already, and am starting to see that this Final Four talk from people outside the program is not just hype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Crews went undefeated at Indiana. I think that experience will really help us to keep our focus no matter how many games we win in a row. I do think St. Joes is a tough game. They seem to have quit on their coach. They were picked to win the A10 this year and I'm sure they'd love to have one positive moment this season. Not gonna happen though. This team doesn't care about their ranking or their media exposure. The goal since they came in as freshmen was to win the A10. They won't let a National Ranking get in the way of winning the outright title. Agree that GW is tough and the fans will definitely be in to it, but they just had a senior guard go down for the season with an injury. Guy only averaged 4 ppg in 20 minutes a game but according to their fans, they were already thin at guard. Our backcourt can wear them down. I don't know if we've ever won at GW, but we will next week. Xavier always a tough place to play. They play really good defense and they've been playing better as of late, but I just don't know if they can score enough against our defense. That's the game the worries me the most though. Still, a loss would surprise me. La Salle at home to finish the season. La Salle is a solid team but I just don't see the upset happening. La Salle could be desperate for a big win, but I don't see a let up from us at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Pine Jim Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I like the fact that JC has emphasized lately the "take 'em one game at a time" approach. That's what we seem to be doing as tempting as it might be to take a peek into the future. He's also said that he's not a "numbers" guy. Let' just focus on each individual game. Hard to do but right now we're crewsing. That Rhody home loss seems like eons ago. Let' go Bills ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Yes, we have momentum and are playing with a great deal of confidence. The W at Butler showed that, they didn't get rattled by being down and a really rowdy crowd of Dog fans. But you always have to guard against being too over confident. This is not the time to be thinking about the dance, or taking too seriously all the positive press. Still one game at a time has got to be the mantra moving forward. I checked each of the teams w/in reach of us for the A-10 title. Butler, VCU, and us all have tough games left. LaSalle, X, and Temple not so tough. There isn't a game left for us that doesn't shout TRAP! St. Joes was the preseason pick to win the title. Playing at GW's crackerbox has always been a tough venue, and they've shown they have the talent to make it a contest. LaSalle at home brings Galloway, the type of player we've always had trouble with. And finally X at Cintas... well, the names and faces may have changed but they're still X. No doubt this stretch will tell us a lot about JC and how motivated this team is. Ideally, I'd like to see us win these next 4 to grab the conference title, one of their goals, win a game in the tourney, and then maybe actually lose one for a wakeup call. We'd still be in the dance with a decent seed, 6 or 7, if we did that, but as the Wiz pointed out it's awfully difficult to maintain this kind of focus over a stretch of 15-16 games. If we win out the rest of the way, including Brooklyn, I'd be over the moon, but if we happen to lose a tourney game, it shouldn't overly concern us and, in fact, may be the best thing to happen to us going into the dance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I think the mindset of this team is such that we will keep pushing and it is unlikely that we suffer a letdown. We learned our lesson vs RI. And we have jelled. Having said that, out of the last 4 games, you have to figure that realistically we will drop one somewhere along the line. I think at home we will beat St. Joe handily, by 14 or more but then the road games, especially Xavier, are going to be a challenge. Hey Wiz, I agree with SLU at about # 20 at this point & 7 seed. Wow. Soon, "Dems & Repubs, working together". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 If we are truly a top 20 team we should be no worse than a 5 seed. 20 div by 4 = 5. Imo we are.currently one of the top 10 and should be a 3 or a 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastsidejoe Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 If we are truly a top 20 team we should be no worse than a 5 seed. 20 div by 4 = 5. Imo we are.currently one of the top 10 and should be a 3 or a 4. wow Roy, an optomist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pretty_ricky Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 I think lunardi has us as a 6 per twitter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Keep winning and all good things will come to pass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 If we are truly a top 20 team we should be no worse than a 5 seed. 20 div by 4 = 5. Imo we are.currently one of the top 10 and should be a 3 or a 4. Roy, the way we are playing, I, too, think we can beat a lot of top teams and might be Top 10-15, but it is TBD. We just have not played a tough enough schedule. Look at our SOS, it is not that high. Of our quality wins NM, Butler, VCU, Butler, 3 were at home and none were against a power conference. Butler's # 9 ranking proved to be not credible. We have to show that we are top 10 material, 21 wins is good, but the voter's and computer's theories wonder how would be do playing the grueling Big 10 schedule, The Big East schedule, etc. Last night watching MU and KY, both still rated about the same as us, I thought we would take apart either... not just beat, shred.... we have superior "D" and much more discipline on "O" than either. But we will have to prove that in the tourney. This yr, we need to win that second game, against a power conference # 2 seed type team. If we play like we are now, I think we can to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 If we are truly a top 20 team we should be no worse than a 5 seed. 20 div by 4 = 5. Imo we are.currently one of the top 10 and should be a 3 or a 4. Ah, if only life were that simple, Broy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 The key to winning games in the dance is how well the coaches prepare their teams. We saw it last year in Columbus. Memphis was completely taken out of their game by RM. And he almost pulled off another upset against MSU, except for that one defensive lapse where Green hit Appling for that wide open 3, which he hadn't been hitting. JC's mettle will be shown in the NCAA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 <blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="eastsidejoe" data-cid="346176" data-time="1361726751"><p> wow Roy, an optomist!</p></blockquote> Always tell it like i see it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbizzle09 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I think the mindset of this team is such that we will keep pushing and it is unlikely that we suffer a letdown. We learned our lesson vs RI.And we have jelled. Having said that, out of the last 4 games, you have to figure that realistically we will drop one somewhere along the line. I think at home we will beat St. Joe handily, by 14 or more but then the road games, especially Xavier, are going to be a challenge. Hey Wiz, I agree with SLU at about # 20 at this point & 7 seed. Wow. Soon, "Dems & Repubs, working together". #7 seed wouldn't surprise me and I also feel like there is one more regular season loss on the horizon with a very real likelihood of another loss in the conference tournament. That probably plays out to an RPI of anywhere between 20-35 with a SOS of around 80. Say the Bills finish the conference tournament with a 26-7 record and an RPI in the low 20's, the committee can justify a seeding anywhere between 5 and 8. Of course, if the Bills run the table in the regular season and win 1-2 games in the conference tournament, you will see a regular season A-10 title, an RPI in the low teens and a possibility of a 3-5 seed. The main thing is, the Bills seem to hold a lot of their seeding destiny in their own hands. It seems very likely, with the 4 top 25 wins on their resume, that they shouldn't see anything worse than an 8 seed at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lfraz22 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Id really like a 6 seed or higher to avoid a 1 or 2 seed in the seond round Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 -what is our record in the first game after becoming ranked? any way to research that? can't be that many happenings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slubillikens43 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 <blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Cowboy" data-cid="346272" data-time="1361765957"><p> -what is our record in the first game after becoming ranked? any way to research that? can't be that many happenings</p></blockquote> 0-1 last year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Man Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 -what is our record in the first game after becoming ranked? any way to research that? can't be that many happenings going strictly by the AP Poll (which has readily available documented history) http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/saint-louis/1994-schedule.html In 1994*, SLU cracked the AP top 25 on 1/17 when they were ranked #23, they lost their next game @Marquette*, but were still ranked #23 the next week with Marquette jumping to 22. They beat Marquette in STL the following week and remained in the top 25 the rest of the year. That was the only season between 1965-2010 that SLU was ranked, thus for the Modern Era, SLU is 0-2 in firsts game after cracking the AP top 25. *I want to say SLU checked in at #25 in the coaches poll in 1994 1 week before they cracked the AP top 25, but that was 19 years ago and I could be remembering incorrectly **a Marquette team that upset Kentucky in the 2nd round to get to the sweet 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 going strictly by the AP Poll (which has readily available documented history)http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/saint-louis/1994-schedule.html In 1994*, SLU cracked the AP top 25 on 1/17 when they were ranked #23, they lost their next game @Marquette*, but were still ranked #23 the next week with Marquette jumping to 22. They beat Marquette in STL the following week and remained in the top 25 the rest of the year. That was the only season between 1965-2010 that SLU was ranked, thus for the Modern Era, SLU is 0-2 in firsts game after cracking the AP top 25. *I want to say SLU checked in at #25 in the coaches poll in 1994 1 week before they cracked the AP top 25, but that was 19 years ago and I could be remembering incorrectly **a Marquette team that upset Kentucky in the 2nd round to get to the sweet 16 -thanks, time to change that record!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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