SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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Twice this year I've expressed the feeling that a particular game would be the first one we would get beat. I've been delighted to be wrong each time. I'm shooting for a whiff here.
I'm worried about the trend in recent games of our either forcing a lot of turnovers and winning the game with fast breaks depsite bad shooting nights, (Seton Hall and DePaul: 5 treys but 41 turnvoers forced) or not forcing an unusual number of turnovers but winning the games by shooting the lights out, (Bucknell, Tulane and the Providence: 39 turnovers forced but 28 treys). You know the game is coming when we aren't focing turnovers and not hitting jump shots. Tick...tick...tick.
Then there's Kadeem Batts and Gerlad Coleman who lived in the high post against us when we played Providence. The Friars didn't go right at Fab melo as Herb Pope did. They made him come to them and then moved around him to score and draw fouls, (antoehr factor: you knew Fab would stop getting those char=ging calls once he got a reputation as a flopper). Batts and Coleman were 15 for 17 from the line against us. Jay Crowder is a better player than either one. We wound up playing CJ Fair at cneter because Fab had four fouls. Rak had fouled out and Baye wasn't avaialble. He won't be available in this game, either.
We saw Marquette beat us last eyar and when it looked like were getting revenge in the NCAA's they reversed the momentum and frustrated us again. Now we are looking for revenge again in our own place. They used to be a "soft" team that we could drive through to score. But now they have become the sort of physical team that always gives us trouble.
It's not that I'm convinced that we will lose. It's just that when I try to imagine losing to Marquette, the picture comes into greater focus than when I pictured Seton Hall, DePaul or Providence doing it.
I'm not afraid of the first loss. Nobody's ever gone unbeaten in this conference. (Only one team has made it through with a single defeat since we went to a full schduel in 1980-81- can you guess who it is?). It's fun being #1 but we are just keeping the seat warm for someone else. That's just a set of opinions anyway and in this sport the opinions don't ultimately determine the champion. I'm not sure I want to be undefeated going tinto the post season. Maybe the players would embrace it the way they've embraced being #1 but I don't want to be 36-1 with the loss in the good ol' Sweet 16.
I don't think this team would collapse once they get beat like last year's team did with a four game losing streak. I think it will be more like two years ago when we started 13-0, lost to Pitt at home, won another 11 in a row, got beat the first time by Lousiville, won four in a row, lost to the Cardinals again, then saw AO go down in a one and done vs. Georgetown in New York, still won in the first two rounds, then lost to Butler. Hopefully we'll have a better run at the end. Defeat will sting just as much when it comes, (it always does), but it won't be a tragedy, just another game.
I'm worried about the trend in recent games of our either forcing a lot of turnovers and winning the game with fast breaks depsite bad shooting nights, (Seton Hall and DePaul: 5 treys but 41 turnvoers forced) or not forcing an unusual number of turnovers but winning the games by shooting the lights out, (Bucknell, Tulane and the Providence: 39 turnovers forced but 28 treys). You know the game is coming when we aren't focing turnovers and not hitting jump shots. Tick...tick...tick.
Then there's Kadeem Batts and Gerlad Coleman who lived in the high post against us when we played Providence. The Friars didn't go right at Fab melo as Herb Pope did. They made him come to them and then moved around him to score and draw fouls, (antoehr factor: you knew Fab would stop getting those char=ging calls once he got a reputation as a flopper). Batts and Coleman were 15 for 17 from the line against us. Jay Crowder is a better player than either one. We wound up playing CJ Fair at cneter because Fab had four fouls. Rak had fouled out and Baye wasn't avaialble. He won't be available in this game, either.
We saw Marquette beat us last eyar and when it looked like were getting revenge in the NCAA's they reversed the momentum and frustrated us again. Now we are looking for revenge again in our own place. They used to be a "soft" team that we could drive through to score. But now they have become the sort of physical team that always gives us trouble.
It's not that I'm convinced that we will lose. It's just that when I try to imagine losing to Marquette, the picture comes into greater focus than when I pictured Seton Hall, DePaul or Providence doing it.
I'm not afraid of the first loss. Nobody's ever gone unbeaten in this conference. (Only one team has made it through with a single defeat since we went to a full schduel in 1980-81- can you guess who it is?). It's fun being #1 but we are just keeping the seat warm for someone else. That's just a set of opinions anyway and in this sport the opinions don't ultimately determine the champion. I'm not sure I want to be undefeated going tinto the post season. Maybe the players would embrace it the way they've embraced being #1 but I don't want to be 36-1 with the loss in the good ol' Sweet 16.
I don't think this team would collapse once they get beat like last year's team did with a four game losing streak. I think it will be more like two years ago when we started 13-0, lost to Pitt at home, won another 11 in a row, got beat the first time by Lousiville, won four in a row, lost to the Cardinals again, then saw AO go down in a one and done vs. Georgetown in New York, still won in the first two rounds, then lost to Butler. Hopefully we'll have a better run at the end. Defeat will sting just as much when it comes, (it always does), but it won't be a tragedy, just another game.
