- Joined
- Sep 20, 2011
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The money line has us as 5-to-1 underdogs. It's been an encouraging season overall; we've been much more competitive against good teams than in the past two seasons, even if the wins haven't exactly followed just yet. A loss today against a very good Houston team wouldn't change that, so long as the team fights and competes for 40 minutes.
A WIN today, on the other hand, and we've suddenly got a live season on our hands. All the building for the future talk will go out the window and we'll find ourselves completely caught up in THIS year and getting two more wins to make the dance. It will be March again!
So what are our challenges?
*Houston is a better team than us. The 10-point line is not coming out of left field.
*We lost by 8 at home. We've not been so great away from home this year.
*Free-throw shooting: Houston put us on the line for 25 shots in our first game and we converted an abysmal 56%. I don't expect them to make it easy on Carlton around the rim. We need to convert, but this has been an ongoing struggle.
*Houston will be more rested. But as someone else on the board pointed out, our foul trouble against USF (Carlton, Adams) may actually help us out here tomorrow.
*We shot really well from 3 against USF, so there's a chance guys start jacking up 3s in the early going rather than taking time and working for the open shot. If that happens, things could get ugly in a hurry.
And what's to like?
*You'd better believe Hurley and Adams are already in do-or-die March mode. Houston is just playing for seed.
*We lost by 8 without Adams or Gilbert. Adams is back.
*Carlton has probably improved more in the past month than any other player on either team.
*We've had a game to acclimate to the court and environment. Houston hasn't. Familiarity with the shooting sightlines may be worth a bit to us in shooting percentage.
*Memphis's game is immediately after ours. Memphis fans would much prefer to see us on Saturday instead of Houston, assuming they can beat UCF. If we can keep it close into the second half, the arena is going to fill in and I'd imagine the fans are going to root like hell for us to take out Houston for them. This could give us a big boost and potentially sway a few important calls by the zebras towards the good guys in the closing minutes.
The season's not over yet. We know this team is capable of playing good teams close -- they've done it time and again this year. Let's see if they can break through and pull out a marquee win. GO UCONN!!
A WIN today, on the other hand, and we've suddenly got a live season on our hands. All the building for the future talk will go out the window and we'll find ourselves completely caught up in THIS year and getting two more wins to make the dance. It will be March again!
So what are our challenges?
*Houston is a better team than us. The 10-point line is not coming out of left field.
*We lost by 8 at home. We've not been so great away from home this year.
*Free-throw shooting: Houston put us on the line for 25 shots in our first game and we converted an abysmal 56%. I don't expect them to make it easy on Carlton around the rim. We need to convert, but this has been an ongoing struggle.
*Houston will be more rested. But as someone else on the board pointed out, our foul trouble against USF (Carlton, Adams) may actually help us out here tomorrow.
*We shot really well from 3 against USF, so there's a chance guys start jacking up 3s in the early going rather than taking time and working for the open shot. If that happens, things could get ugly in a hurry.
And what's to like?
*You'd better believe Hurley and Adams are already in do-or-die March mode. Houston is just playing for seed.
*We lost by 8 without Adams or Gilbert. Adams is back.
*Carlton has probably improved more in the past month than any other player on either team.
*We've had a game to acclimate to the court and environment. Houston hasn't. Familiarity with the shooting sightlines may be worth a bit to us in shooting percentage.
*Memphis's game is immediately after ours. Memphis fans would much prefer to see us on Saturday instead of Houston, assuming they can beat UCF. If we can keep it close into the second half, the arena is going to fill in and I'd imagine the fans are going to root like hell for us to take out Houston for them. This could give us a big boost and potentially sway a few important calls by the zebras towards the good guys in the closing minutes.
The season's not over yet. We know this team is capable of playing good teams close -- they've done it time and again this year. Let's see if they can break through and pull out a marquee win. GO UCONN!!
