Contrarian View: Not Ready to Throw In The Towel

[Umami Zen]

We have 6 home games left/5 away games.. Irrespective of the opponent.. See us going 5-1 at home.. Of the 5 away games.. All except Creighton are vs opponents currently ranked below us in BE standings. See us going no worse than 4-1.. If my numbers hold up preceding the BET.. We're 24-7.. With very strong OOC wins on the resume that appear to be growing in value for Selection Sunday.

Some teams are more comfortable playing with a chip on their shoulder.. And are chasers.. Some like to lead and go wire-to-wire and be the chased. Think our guys like the chip on the shoulder kind of vibe.

We've got our "warts".. Areas for improvement. Fans can make a choice as to their optimistic or pessimistic views.. I'm still "in" on the season being a success.. A choice I've made as a casual fan.

 

[Edward Sargent]

We have 6 home games left/5 away games.. Irrespective of the opponent.. See us going 5-1 at home.. Of the 5 away games.. All except Creighton are vs opponents currently ranked below us in BE standings. See us going no worse than 4-1.. If my numbers hold up preceding the BET.. We're 24-7.. With very strong OOC wins on the resume that appear to be growing in value for Selection Sunday.

Some teams are more comfortable playing with a chip on their shoulder.. And are chasers.. Some like to lead and go wire-to-wire and be the chased. Think our guys like the chip on the shoulder kind of vibe.

We've got our "warts".. Areas for improvement. Fans can make a choice as to their optimistic or pessimistic views.. I'm still "in" on the season being a success.. A choice I've made as a casual fan.

Great post! I had us at 24-7 at the start of the season (I also had an L at SHU).

 

[Sportsman5]

If Samson Johnson can change the dynamics of the team, then we can definitely get back on track. But it will probably take some additional experimentation, so the next 3-5 games might not go well from a win perspective. But we can potentially peak in March and do some damage in the tournament.

 

[tykurez]

Counterpoint to your contrarian view: At this rate only Geogetown will be left under us in the standings and the way they played us at our place leads me to believe that’ll be a tough one in front of their handful of fans.

DePaul just beat Xavier in Chicago.

Nova is still Nova and that game is on senior night.

 

[Palatine]

We need to stop self destructing every second half.

Predicting who we will beat in the future has proven to a worthless enterprise.

 

[aburks41]

Yeah...I thought we would go 4-1, maybe 3-2 in that 5 game gauntlet, and then 7-0 or 6-1 in the next 7 games in the "easy" part of our schedule.

We've gone 2-5 so far. Any expectations I had for this team are completely gone lol

 

[jake14mw]

I'm torn about this. I just can't get my head around that this is the same team from earlier. I do believe it can be turned around. Regardless of that, you're projections seem REALLY optomistic. I would not project ANY team in the Big East to go 9-2 down the stretch.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

The team looks ready to throw in the towel. AJ has looked completely emotionless since those two techs. And that stuff about him being the best perimeter defender in college bball looks like it was a cruel joke now, guy can’t keep anyone in front of him.

 

[huskyfan224]

We need to stop self destructing every second half.

Predicting who we will beat in the future has proven to a worthless enterprise.

In our losses, we’ve lead in 3 of them, tied SJ, down 3 to Prov. Abysmal

 

[Hurleyman216]

Well we were a mix of #2 UConn and terrible last night. The first half we played like a top 10 team and if we came out in the 2nd half with the same energy and ball movement we win that game by 25 points on the road against the #52 team in KenPom. Instead we reverted back to the low energy, forced interior passes, no ball movement offense. Anytime a team starts to go on a run against us I want to see the Joey C/Clingan combo out there because they just bring a needed spark and energy to the team. Maybe we need to see a little bit of Joey C at the PG spot. First half we were 7-15 from 3, then we decided to just throw the ball inside the whole 2nd half which didn’t work.

 

[August_West]

Yeah...I thought we would go 4-1, maybe 3-2 in that 5 game gauntlet, and then 7-0 or 6-1 in the next 7 games in the "easy" part of our schedule.

We've gone 2-5 so far. Any expectations I had for this team are completely gone lol

Indeed. You can't watch these games and the way we've been playing and "expect" anything at this point. We've actually been remarkably consistent in one area: the way we lose. It's been a trend and we have a pretty big sample size of failure in the same situations against vastly different style teams. The trending is troubling and quite frankly mind blowing. Everyone knew we had warts in certain areas even undefeated but the swing from how we looked in November and December to what we are now is the strangest thing Ive ever seen.

 

[August_West]

Joey C/Clingan

Bingo. They are like a package duo together. They make each other better. Joey should not get many minutes without Donovan in there, but probably should be in every minute Donovan is in. And Donovan needs to be in a bit more than he has been to this point. Unfortunately Sanogo is lost after a promising start.

 

[Billy Jack]

We have 6 home games left/5 away games.. Irrespective of the opponent.. See us going 5-1 at home.. Of the 5 away games.. All except Creighton are vs opponents currently ranked below us in BE standings. See us going no worse than 4-1.. If my numbers hold up preceding the BET.. We're 24-7.. With very strong OOC wins on the resume that appear to be growing in value for Selection Sunday.

I completely agree with you.

We’ve just been through the toughest stretch of the season. Four of the last 6 games on the road. Four if the last 6 games against the top half of the league. We’ve dropped 5 out of 6, but hopefully this tough stretch has toughened us up.

These losses have to be frustrating and demoralizing for the team. With the next game being at home vs Butler, there is an opportunity for the team to get a win and an emotional uplift before taking on Xavier.

Frankly we should be favored in every game for the rest of the season except for the Creighton game in Omaha. So, your projection would seem to be spot on, even allowing for an upset against us in one of the games which projects as a close game.

So, I’ll go you one better and go with the chalk, which says that we will finish 25-6.

 

[Umami Zen]

An observation about our 5s.. Setting of a pick.. Basic/old school stuff.. Purpose: either to rub/impede the defender on the ball handler/cutter from continuing to play D on that player to get a shot or pass off. Contact is required.. OR.. The PnR.. Minimal contact by the 'picker" and immediately rolling to the hoop/open area to receive a pass(if open).. More about the roller "getting" the ball.

I would suggest that one of our 5s is fluent in both scenarios whereas the other is only rolling to the hoop (with little or no contact on the pick) to the ball handler's defender and only looking for the pass. If the pass does not come.. He becomes frustrated..

BBIQ stuff

 

[Umami Zen]

I completely agree with you.

We’ve just been through the toughest stretch of the season. Four of the last 6 games on the road. Four if the last 6 games against the top half of the league. We’ve dropped 5 out of 6, but hopefully this tough stretch has toughened us up.

These losses have to be frustrating and demoralizing for the team. With the next game being at home vs Butler, there is an opportunity for the team to get a win and an emotional uplift before taking on Xavier.

Frankly we should be favored in every game for the rest of the season except for the Creighton game in Omaha. So, your projection would seem to be spot on, even allowing for an upset against us in one of the games which projects as a close game.

So, I’ll go you one better and go with the chalk, which says that we will finish 25-6.

I respect your opinion (and bravery) and don't think it's an impossible scenario.. Holding serve at home is what good BE teams do. Our fans have to be loud and show up.

 

[AdamaNation]

If Samson Johnson can change the dynamics of the team, then we can definitely get back on track. But it will probably take some additional experimentation, so the next 3-5 games might not go well from a win perspective. But we can potentially peak in March and do some damage in the tournament.

If he doesn’t play this week he may just never play and save eligibility. I’d have to think. But boy could we use this shot in the arm

 

[NowInStorrs]

Don't forget to bring a towel!

 

[StllH8L8ner]

I thought we were going undefeated the way we were playing for the first two months of the season. Well, not undefeated but only a couple of tough losses. Still trying to stay optimistic despite my urges to start looking at the calendar to see when Spring Training starts. Need some adjustments obviously but I’m still “in”…

 

[Uconn77Duke74]

We really need to generate a different approach to Defense. I'd love to see a long term effort at the full court press. Limit the time their offense has to get set up, maybe force some errant passes. Worst case we just use this to wear their guards down a bit so they dont drive for layups and dunks all second half. We are supposedly "deep" and should be able to do this for decent stretches. This should play right in to Jacksons wheel house as well.

 

[JB75]

I wud feel much better about things if there was some hope that I would think DH would switch things up -but I don’t see that happening -so my hope is dwindling. He’s a stubborn dude

 

[Jaydumo20]

Great post. I think No one is throwing in the towel. Even though we say we are. How many times have we had a crap regular season and still had the lingering expressed hope that we run the BE tourney table to get in. The majority of us will regain hope, misguided or not, before every tip. We just love to yak. People just take a few days to reach your refreshing optimism.

 

[Billy Jack]

I respect your opinion (and bravery) and don't think it's an impossible scenario.. Holding serve at home is what good BE teams do. Our fans have to be loud and show up.

Right back at you.

 

[JB75]

If Samson Johnson can change the dynamics of the team, then we can definitely get back on track. But it will probably take some additional experimentation, so the next 3-5 games might not go well from a win perspective. But we can potentially peak in March and do some damage in the tournament.

Does anyone know when he is expected back? I haven’t even heard Hurley say anything in weeks about even a possible timetable

 

[Billy Jack]

I wud feel much better about things if there was some hope that I would think DH would switch things up -but I don’t see that happening -so my hope is dwindling. He’s a stubborn dude

Maybe he’s just a guy who is not in panic mode - unlike so many on this board.

 

[August_West]

Maybe he’s just a guy who is not in panic mode - unlike so many on this board.

Are you talking about Hurley?

If you are, that's wild. The guy is a lot of things, many of them real good, but the dude lives in panic mode even during the best of times. It's his brand.