Outcome if we played our OOC schedule now?

[DogMania]

After suffering through last night's loss against Creighton and having watched some recently played games from the P4 Conference teams we played back in November and December, I wondered what would the outcome be if we played those teams now?

BYU (I believe they lost one of their starters via injury for the year, let's not take that into a count for this hypothetical.)

Zona (I realize we lost to them only by 4 pts, with our team down 2 starters. I know they are without K. Peat for while, but let's consider him in the what if equation.)

Illinois (They have really improved as their season has progressed.)

KU (Played them w/o Peterson, though they've won some big games without him, as their team has incrementally improve since we played them. )

Florida (They too have really improved as their season has progressed.)

Texas (They've been a mixed bag, though have beaten a few highly ranked teams during their very tough conference schedule.)

Based on how poorly we've been playing, on how much most of the above teams have improved, and having all the their players avaliable and healthy, I'm not sure we'd beat any of them now.

Maybe we still beat BYU and Texas, but not the others, the way this team seems to have regressed since the beginning of January, sans a few games along the way where they cleaned up a few areas.

Note that I'm not writing this team off and still believe they have the talent and roster to turn the ship around. I know they have some deficiencies, but think they have enough talent in other areas to compensate for those if they can play to their strengths and make adjustments to mitigate their weaknesses. I just don't know if they have enough runway and if the team and coaching staff are capable of bringing out the best of their strengths and addressing their weaknesses.

What do you think?

 

[Dove]

Forget the OOC. The Big East schedule is now a concern....

 

[jibsey]

Is Alex at full strength?

 

[BGesus4]

Good God. This board really cannot handle the team having any of the normal season bumps. If it isn’t a hot knife through butter to a championship it’s the end of the world. Most seasons, no team does that.

Bottom line: we are a talented team capable of beating any team in the country. Definitely need to figure some things out, but also very capable of a deep run and even winning a championship. We probably won’t go into the tournament looking like the best team but we have a legit shot to end it looking like it.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Good God. This board really cannot handle the team having any of the normal season bumps. If it isn’t a hot knife through butter to a championship it’s the end of the world. Most seasons, no team does that.

I'll take the tradeoff because going back to back was incredible, but it really drove this place into the toilet going forward.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Not really gonna answer the question (sorry) but I do think in the future we should schedule a marquee OOC game in the middle of the BE schedule, if possible.

 

[RashadRay11]

Not really gonna answer the question (sorry) but I do think in the future we should schedule a marquee OOC game in the middle of the BE schedule, if possible.

I've been saying this for 4 months : )

But we went 5-1 before, I think we'd go 5-1 now. Big East coaches see us twice every year.

 

[RashadRay11]

Good God. This board really cannot handle the team having any of the normal season bumps. If it isn’t a hot knife through butter to a championship it’s the end of the world. Most seasons, no team does that.

Bottom line: we are a talented team capable of beating any team in the country. Definitely need to figure some things out, but also very capable of a deep run and even winning a championship. We probably won’t go into the tournament looking like the best team but we have a legit shot to end it looking like it.

Couldn't agree more. We can beat anyone in the country, and I think every game we play will be close no matter who we play. That's how it is with this team at this pace and I'm enjoying a season's worth of close games for a change.

 

[RuffRuff]

I've been saying this for 4 months : )

But we went 5-1 before, I think we'd go 5-1 now. Big East coaches see us twice every year.

Of course you do..... even though it's 100% not happening. I don't care how many x Creighton sees us, they stink.

It's impossible to know, but they wouldn't be 5-1.Illinois and Florida would probably roll this team right now. We woudn't win at KU right now either. They just smacked AZ and ISU there. I'll give it 3-3 best case. We get BYU, Texas and pick off one of the other 4.

 

[Windham4th]

Good God. This board really cannot handle the team having any of the normal season bumps. If it isn’t a hot knife through butter to a championship it’s the end of the world. Most seasons, no team does that.

Bottom line: we are a talented team capable of beating any team in the country. Definitely need to figure some things out, but also very capable of a deep run and even winning a championship. We probably won’t go into the tournament looking like the best team but we have a legit shot to end it looking like it.

Problem is the team they beat the most is themselves

 

[BFieldHusky]

Of course you do..... even though it's 100% not happening. I don't care how many x Creighton sees us, they stink.

It's impossible to know, but they wouldn't be 5-1.Illinois and Florida would probably roll this team right now. We woudn't win at KU right now either. They just smacked AZ and ISU there. I'll give it 3-3 best case. We get BYU, Texas and pick off one of the other 4.

"Impossible to know" but then a definitive answer.

Think before you post...

 

[RashadRay11]

Of course you do..... even though it's 100% not happening. I don't care how many x Creighton sees us, they stink.

It's impossible to know, but they wouldn't be 5-1.Illinois and Florida would probably roll this team right now. We woudn't win at KU right now either. They just smacked AZ and ISU there. I'll give it 3-3 best case. We get BYU, Texas and pick off one of the other 4.

“Impossible to know” but he then proceeds to list it like it already happened

 

[RuffRuff]

“Impossible to know” but he then proceeds to list it like it already happened

I'm not fully confident on that - just my guess. We should know better after the next two games. That's my guess. Florida and Illinois are both peaking, KU has played great ball, especially at home.

 

[NJHusky]

I've been saying this for 4 months : )

But we went 5-1 before, I think we'd go 5-1 now. Big East coaches see us twice every year.

More importantly BE refs won’t do mixed conf games

 

[FightOnCT]

I don’t think this team would get manhandled by any of them simply because they make every game competitive one way or another. But I am also glad we got those wins OOC to buffer our seeding for now.

 

[upstater]

After suffering through last night's loss against Creighton and having watched some recently played games from the P4 Conference teams we played back in November and December, I wondered what would the outcome be if we played those teams now?

BYU (I believe they lost one of their starters via injury for the year, let's not take that into a count for this hypothetical.)

Zona (I realize we lost to them only by 4 pts, with our team down 2 starters. I know they are without K. Peat for while, but let's consider him in the what if equation.)

Illinois (They have really improved as their season has progressed.)

KU (Played them w/o Peterson, though they've won some big games without him, as their team has incrementally improve since we played them. )

Florida (They too have really improved as their season has progressed.)

Texas (They've been a mixed bag, though have beaten a few highly ranked teams during their very tough conference schedule.)

Based on how poorly we've been playing, on how much most of the above teams have improved, and having all the their players avaliable and healthy, I'm not sure we'd beat any of them now.

Maybe we still beat BYU and Texas, but not the others, the way this team seems to have regressed since the beginning of January, sans a few games along the way where they cleaned up a few areas.

Note that I'm not writing this team off and still believe they have the talent and roster to turn the ship around. I know they have some deficiencies, but think they have enough talent in other areas to compensate for those if they can play to their strengths and make adjustments to mitigate their weaknesses. I just don't know if they have enough runway and if the team and coaching staff are capable of bringing out the best of their strengths and addressing their weaknesses.

What do you think?

In 2011 we went 13-0 in the OOC against a murderer's row of teams.

Then we went 9-9 in the BE.

We ended the regular season by going 1-4.

Now before people talk about the BE getting 20 teams into the tourney that year, the great majority all flamed out early.

I'm not saying this team is more talented than that one, and it really doesn't matter anyway because that one played VERY poorly at the end of the year, and we could have asked this very same question back then, and we'd probably say something like, we wouldn't beat many of those teams if we played them now.

Then you look at last year's team which was basically the same team but without a stud point guard. They played just as bad if not worse than how we're playing now.

They also took the eventual national champion to the very end of their tourney game.

So, I'm going to say, we just don't know.

 

[REB1094]

I think we play up to the opponents and have the same result. Maybe with a loss to Illinois because of Keaton Wagler

 

[RuffRuff]

In 2011 we went 13-0 in the OOC against a murderer's row of teams.

Then we went 9-9 in the BE.

We were blown out by 30 points by Louisville to end the regular season.

Now before people talk about the BE getting 20 teams into the tourney that year, the great majority all flamed out early.

I'm not saying this team is more talented than that one, and it really doesn't matter anyway because that one played VERY poorly at the end of the year, and we could have asked this very same question back then, and we'd probably say something like, we wouldn't beat many of those teams if we played them now.

Then you look at last year's team which was basically the same team but without a stud point guard. They played just as bad if not worse than how we're playing now.

They also took the eventual national champion to the very end of their tourney game.

So, I'm going to say, we just don't know.

I give this a very hesitant maybe. That's what I think we are all holding out for. Most of has glazed Hurley as the best coach in the sport. This is the year he really earns that title.

 

[BFieldHusky]

I give this a very hesitant maybe. That's what I think we are all holding out for. Most of has glazed Hurley as the best coach in the sport. This is the year he really earns that title.

So he didn't earn that title winning back to back titles in 23 and 24 in historic fashion, including as a 4 seed?

 

[superjohn]

In 2011 we went 13-0 in the OOC against a murderer's row of teams.

Then we went 9-9 in the BE.

We ended the regular season by going 1-4.

Now before people talk about the BE getting 20 teams into the tourney that year, the great majority all flamed out early.

I'm not saying this team is more talented than that one, and it really doesn't matter anyway because that one played VERY poorly at the end of the year, and we could have asked this very same question back then, and we'd probably say something like, we wouldn't beat many of those teams if we played them now.

Then you look at last year's team which was basically the same team but without a stud point guard. They played just as bad if not worse than how we're playing now.

They also took the eventual national champion to the very end of their tourney game.

So, I'm going to say, we just don't know.

Yep but that was also the best conference ever that season. You're also confusing seasons...Louisville blew us out by 30 in 2014, they had our # that season. We went undefeated out of conference in '23 too but we only played one ranked team in that out of conference slate and then the team really stumbled in conference but that bad streak was in early January.

This feels unique because we haven't looked good in 10 of our last 12 games and it's been far from a typically demanding Big East schedule.

We've been waiting for the team to snap out of it and I think most of us thought the blowout at Creighton would be the catalyst. We followed it up with another blowout against Xavier and then the opposite has happened since. Our defense which was our strength has fallen off a cliff.

It's weird to see a Hurley team look so much worse at the end of the regular season than they did early in the season.

 

[RuffRuff]

So he didn't earn that title winning back to back titles in 23 and 24 in historic fashion, including as a 4 seed?

Two years don't make a coach best in the sport, no. I'm not saying he loses that perch this year, as he deserves a grace period, but you just don't own that label for eternity due to two years.

 

[RuffRuff]

 

[Kemba15]

Two years don't make a coach best in the sport, no. I'm not saying he loses that perch this year, as he deserves a grace period, but you just don't own that label for eternity due to two years.

Who has more than 2? And among that group, who has their multiple rings more recently?

 

[RuffRuff]

Who has more than 2? And among that group, who has their multiple rings more recently?

Hurley doesn't have more than a round of 32 other than those two years. You don't get forever best coach in the sport title for two years.

 

[Hoophound]

I’ve been as big a critic of this team as there’s been, but I do it out of my love for the program. I don’t think we’ve been very good, but I do think we can get to the FF. Not only can we play better, but it has been obvious under Hurley that our offense creates problems OOC and that we get a more favorable whistle in the tourney. We play pretty basketball and the Big East rewards ugly basketball.

Creighton plays pretty ball too, but they shot the lights out last night. It’s frustrating to lose, but I never sweat a loss to McDermott too much. Great coach and great guy. His team is growing.