Are we now officially the cardiac BILLIKENS?

[Billikenboy]

SLU lose by 30....give me a break. I honestly do not think there is a team in the Top 10 that would want to face SLU in the tournament. Ask WSU if they would like to play SLU in the first round. These Billikens are a nightmare matchup. You know they will play good D but with the offense clicking...that is a major problem for opposing teams.

[majerus mojo]

15.. 30.. It's an exaggeration. Point is Cuse is great this season and we traditionally struggle vs. zone. Don't get too worked up about it, but we want to be the 4-seed in WSU region, no doubt.

[DoctorB]

I was very surprised by how good GMU was. All this talk about how lucky they were, or bad reffing... Give 'em their due. Bryon Allen was in a zone and he is among the best players in the league, certainly the best one I had not seen or heard much about. They really fought hard and hammered us on the boards, absolutely hammered us. It's also not their fault they got away with some bad officiating. They easily got to the rack over and over and we better figure that out pronto.

How is this team without a win in the league?? Sometimes teams just play absolutely great, I guess; anyway this is not a bad team by any stretch. Winning out there will be no cupcake, folks...

[slu72]

We're not losing to 'Cuse by 30. That's nuts. I don't know what the Wiz would calculate, but I'd put our odds at 33% or 1 out of 3 we'd win.

[cheeseman]

Something was definitely different than the Richmond game, but I would characterize it as "crispness" rather than intensity, particularly regarding defensive rotations. Too many times our helpside defense challenged shots that the primary defender already had covered (at least in the second half). This led to all of the second chance points, as the weakside defenders were out of position. And offensively we were almost too intense! Lots of big defensive plays were negated by bad passes/poor decisions on the ensuing possession.

+1 - I used the word intensity because the coaches after the Richmomd game used it - but crispness is fine also. We would defend for 25 seconds like a demon and then somebody would make a mistake and the entire effort went down the drain. One mistake and then an open drive and when it was constested it still some how rattled around and dropped for them. Their 5-5 3pt shooting were killers - they would hit one just as soon as we would get a 5 pt lead and had just missed an ill advised early shot clock attempt that would have gotten us over the hump. How many points did we leave on the table from poor passes or a dumb dunk attempt after we had made a great steal.

[cheeseman]

I was very surprised by how good GMU was. All this talk about how lucky they were, or bad reffing... Give 'em their due. Bryon Allen was in a zone and he is among the best players in the league, certainly the best one I had not seen or heard much about. They really fought hard and hammered us on the boards, absolutely hammered us. It's also not their fault they got away with some bad officiating. They easily got to the rack over and over and we better figure that out pronto.

How is this team without a win in the league?? Sometimes teams just play absolutely great, I guess; anyway this is not a bad team by any stretch. Winning out there will be no cupcake, folks...

I don't think anybody is really saying that GMU is a cupcake. People have simply been saying that tlhey shot an unusually high % from the field and that our defense was not up to snuff - the numbers support this. Everybody talked about how they beat us on the board badly so when you couple the high shooting % with our poor rebounding and the officiating - earlier I did state that I really did not have big beef with the refs other than the walking GMU got away with - you get what we saw today. I think our defensive effort was in such contrast to Richmond that people were just surprised. As fair as how good GMU was - one could have said the same thing about Santa Clara and RI last year but where did they really end up? Remember what the Big Tuna said - you are what your record says you are.

[Deutschkind]

I feel the need to address this. Syracuse is obviously a great team. With Arizona's loss tonight, they will probably be ranked #1 on Monday. Sure, if they were to play SLU they would be favored in the game. But a "30+" point loss??? Even as great as Syracuse is, do you realize that their highest margin of victory on the season was 28 points at home versus the basketball power Binghamton (4W- 18L)? Next come 22 point victories against cornell and east michigan, a 21 point victory against high point and then a 20 point victory against Virginia tech. For comparison purposes, SLU's highest margin of victory is 27 points with a total of eight 20+ point victory margin games. The most impressive of any of these blowouts belongs to SLU vs Richmond. The only common opponent the two teams share is both played fordham at home- SLU won by 22, Syracuse won by 15. Am I saying SLU is the better team? No, but I am hopefully making it clear that expecting a 30+ point loss to Syracuse is terribly disrespectful to our team.

Duke takes Syracuse to overtime at Syracuse. Duke is ranked #17 and SLU is ranked #19. So a team ranked 2 slots higher can go on the road and make a game of it, but SLU at a neutral site (you are implying a potential tournament matchup) is just going to crap its pants and lose by 30+? What kind of defeatist mentality is this? My personal expectation for this team is that they can compete with any other college team anytime anywhere and make a game of it. I would guess that the wiz's line on this game would be Syracuse by less than 10 points at a neutral site. For SLU to have an expected loss of 30+ would require a matchup versus a professional team. We are not some bottom feeder- we are the damn 19th (and rising) ranked team in the country!!

Hey we might even be able to beat a team like the Milwaukee Bucks this year. #UnintentionallyTanking

[bonwich]

They really fought hard and hammered us on the boards, absolutely hammered us. It's also not their fault they got away with some bad officiating. They easily got to the rack over and over and we better figure that out pronto.

I'd guess this is an interesting dilemma for such a pinpoint-trained defense. You're in perfect position to cut off a three-step drive, and your man takes a fourth or fifth step to get around or past you. Kind of a toughie.

[DirtyRican]

With Syracuse??I love the Bills, I live and die with them day in and day out. But between our struggles against zone defense and their players, I don't see us standing a chance at winning against them. You think Austin McBroom is going to match up with the Syracuse guards? I don't see that at all.

Dumb maybe a little harsh, sorry I was drunk. Do we match up well against them? Prob not great but not bad enough we get blown out. Our D is solid enough to keep us in the game against any team in the country.

[slufanskip]

To play consistently good every game and go undefeated is pretty tough and as we know hasn't been done in almost 40 years. Every year even the best team in the country loses to a ream or two, or three that they should beat. Lesser teams have great days, great teams have poor games ... it happens. So far the Bills don't have a loss you can say they should have won Maybe a loss you could say they could have won, but not should have. Even in the games when they are a little off and their oponent is exceptionally hot, they've managed to win. There is something to be said for that. I love watching this team. I didn't get to watch the game until late, but even with a couple of minutes left I wasn't overly nervous. When it went to overtime, I felt it was ours.

[moytoy12]

To play consistently good every game and go undefeated is pretty tough and as we know hasn't been done in almost 40 years. Every year even the best team in the country loses to a ream or two, or three that they should beat. Lesser teams have great days, great teams have poor games ... it happens. So far the Bills don't have a loss you can say they should have won Maybe a loss you could say they could have won, but not should have. Even in the games when they are a little off and their oponent is exceptionally hot, they've managed to win. There is something to be said for that. I love watching this team. I didn't get to watch the game until late, but even with a couple of minutes left I wasn't overly nervous. When it went to overtime, I felt it was ours.

Agreed. We've pulled out some games we would have lost in the past (URI last year, any number of games prior to last year).

[JettFlight5]

Agreed. We've pulled out some games we would have lost in the past (URI last year, any number of games prior to last year).

GMU yesterday was the Rhode Island game here from last year. Lesser team shoots the lights out. Thankfully, we were able to flip the endgame script.

[GW]

15.. 30.. It's an exaggeration. Point is Cuse is great this season and we traditionally struggle vs. zone. Don't get too worked up about it, but we want to be the 4-seed in WSU region, no doubt.

I agree that SLU's best draw would be WSU. But, frankly, Syracuse may not be that far behind... Even expecting a 15 point loss is "an exaggeration", so why go there at all? Per Espn's BPI, the expected margin is 5.6 points for Syracuse. I would expect Wiz's line to be somewhere along these lines. Wiz's last top 25 did not have Syracuse at #1 or even #2. What was his ranking? #16... Why so low? Well, as we have been observing, Syracuse really DOES NOT consistently blow out opponents, even when they should. Who is our matchup nightmare? Arizona who wiz did have at #1 (probably still does even with the loss). Using the 30+ point victory benchmark, they actually have 4 to their credit. They even have a 50 point victory where they doubled up their opponent and another 30+ point doubling up where they held an above average Washington state team to 25 points. In other words, even against Arizona we would not expect to lose by 30+ (or even 15 for that matter...), but they are the team which has the best chance of pulling that off and the team to avoid...

Really, I don't want to call out your's or B.Hayes fandom by any means- I'm sure you both follow the team more than I do. I just believe we should be at a point with this team where we don't fear any matchup.

[Old guy]

Luck or not no team can shoot 55% in a game and hit 5 of 5 from three at one point and not be called lucky. They played hard and we rebounded like dirt today but you can not tell me that they did not get away with at least 5 walks that end up scores. Also, we did not play very good help defense today either. Where was the intensity we had with Richmond?

I did not say that GM had no luck, they definitely did have good luck, however they are not a bad team. They have good players and lots of talent, they certainly do not appear to desrve the 0-7 they have in conference play.

[The Wiz]

I agree that SLU's best draw would be WSU. But, frankly, Syracuse may not be that far behind... Even expecting a 15 point loss is "an exaggeration", so why go there at all? Per Espn's BPI, the expected margin is 5.6 points for Syracuse. I would expect Wiz's line to be somewhere along these lines. Wiz's last top 25 did not have Syracuse at #1 or even #2. What was his ranking? #16... Why so low? Well, as we have been observing, Syracuse really DOES NOT consistently blow out opponents, even when they should. Who is our matchup nightmare? Arizona who wiz did have at #1 (probably still does even with the loss). Using the 30+ point victory benchmark, they actually have 4 to their credit. They even have a 50 point victory where they doubled up their opponent and another 30+ point doubling up where they held an above average Washington state team to 25 points. In other words, even against Arizona we would not expect to lose by 30+ (or even 15 for that matter...), but they are the team which has the best chance of pulling that off and the team to avoid...

Really, I don't want to call out your's or B.Hayes fandom by any means- I'm sure you both follow the team more than I do. I just believe we should be at a point with this team where we don't fear any matchup.

Well, believe it or not ,,,even weeks later, I still have Cuse at 16th...this was validated when they scratched out a win at home against Pitt a team I had at 17th....You are correct ...I do not see a blowout against a Cuse team....Cuse by 3 1/2 over the Bills....And you are further correct ...I still have Ariz #1 even after the loss...they are just a great team.....Zona by 8 over the Bills ...which is far from a blowout.

[b.hayes]

I hope we never have to find out. I don't actually believe we would lose by 30+, I was trying to get across the fact that I don't think we match up remotely well with their players or their scheme. I think we would have a hell of a time scoring 60 points against them, and I don't think our defense would keep them under 60.

Our average bodies of work don't make it likely that a 30-point game would be the result, but our average bodies of work against George Mason suggested a 14 point victory and we were tied at the end of regulation. Syracuse might not be the #1 team in the nation, they might not be Top 10, but I think there are instances where we might perform better against a Top 10 team that we match up well with rather than a Top 11-25 team that has schemes and athletes against whom we typically struggle.

Syracuse hasn't played a moment of man-to-man defense all year, they play exclusively zone. And since 2005 I can't remember one 5-minute stretch where we played well against a zone defense. It would be awful hard to beat a team as talented as Syracuse without putting together 5 good minutes.

[brianstl]

There may not be a team we match up against worse than Cuse. Nobody plays zone better than Cuse. That game could get ugly.

[thetorch]

There may not be a team we match up against worse than Cuse. Nobody plays zone better than Cuse. That game could get ugly.

They play the exact same defense as Richmond does and we ripped them apart.

[The Wiz]

They play the exact same defense as Richmond does and we ripped them apart.

What happens if the team that plays the exact same defense as Richmond ( B+ ) is an A+ team ( Syracuse ) ?

[Deutschkind]

What happens if the team that plays the exact same defense as Richmond ( B+ ) is an A+ team ( Syracuse ) ?

+1

[brianstl]

They play the exact same defense as Richmond does and we ripped them apart.

And so did my CYC team when I was in grade school.

Different levels of talent and ability to execute make a big difference in the results teams produce. Just the length of the Syracuse players makes a difference in how effective the defense is.

[slufan13]

I'd have less confidence in our chances against Syracuse than any other team in the country.

[cheeseman]

I did not say that GM had no luck, they definitely did have good luck, however they are not a bad team. They have good players and lots of talent, they certainly do not appear to desrve the 0-7 they have in conference play.

You are missing my point - I never said GMU is a dog what I said was that call it luck or NOT they are not a team that shoots 55% from the field - season avg. When a team plays out of their normal level you can not say it is because of they are talented when they are 7-14. There is a reason they are 7-14 and it is not because they shoot above 50% every game. I am not dissing GMU just saying that they had an unusual shooting day and you can call it because of their talent or it can be labeled being a lucky but if it was due to their talent level they would not be 7-14 - at least Bill Parcels would not say that.

[bauman]

You are missing my point - I never said GMU is a dog what I said was that call it luck or NOT they are not a team that shoots 55% from the field - season avg. When a team plays out of their normal level you can not say it is because of they are talented when they are 7-14. There is a reason they are 7-14 and it is not because they shoot above 50% every game. I am not dissing GMU just saying that they had an unusual shooting day and you can call it because of their talent or it can be labeled being a lucky but if it was due to their talent level they would not be 7-14 - at least Bill Parcels would not say that.

Unfortunately, a big contributor to GM's shooting % was our defense and rebounding. Someone pointed out in this or another thread about this game that MC was blown by by the guy he was guarding. That comment should not have been limited to MC. It also happened on quite a few instances on our other guards, and when it happened we did not rotate over to help like we did in the Richmond game. I'm not sure why we were poor on our help D. It's possible that GM had our bigs pulled out of the middle so that they couldn't help. That made for quite a few layups, some of which went in and some of which GM rebounded and put in on the 2nd/3rd/4th attempt. Regarding the 3 pt %, my recall is that they were pretty well unchallenged. All in all this was clearly a letdown from our effort in the Richmond game. Hopefully, JC has a bunch of teaching points on game film to correct our poor D and rebounding.

Thank you Rob Loe.

[thetorch]

What happens if the team that plays the exact same defense as Richmond ( B+ ) is an A+ team ( Syracuse ) ?

Richmond had a top 50 defense. Is an A+ team exponentially better than a B+ team?

Certainly there is a difference in talent level but we've already seen the defense, which is half the battle. I'd give the Bills a shot. No team in the country can blow us out on a regular basis, I don't think any team could beat us by 30 or 40.