Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2448396, member: 488"] [USER=2844]@gtcam[/USER] makes a good point. Villanova is arguably the best team in the country and Columbia played them tough. They also hung around for a while against a pretty good Penn State team. Losing to them would have been embarrassing, but they're still good enough to compete for the Ivy League crown and a tournament bid. There are two teams in our conference alone ranked below them on KenPom and they're within whispering distance of UMass, Memphis, Pittsburgh, etc. We played them on a Wednesday night just days after the conclusion of an emotionally and physically draining road trip. I imagine they got in Monday morning at a brutal hour and then rev up the tanks for Columbia minus one of their best players. They predictably came out flat in the first half but then fought back behind the efforts of some unexpected contributors. They were an 11 point favorite and won by four. Overall there is a lot of bad but there is also enough hope to be seen for people who want to see it. I'm happy to get out of there with a win and move on. If we can hang our hats on one thing so far it's the lack of a bad loss - that's one of the things that has killed us the past few years and it would go a long way towards securing a tournament berth to avoid them this year. [/QUOTE]