NCAA Tournament

[IABearcat]

We just need to take this one game at a time. I know it's fun to start talking about second round matchups, but I have been hearing some great things about UNCW, Mid Tenn. St and others that can be possible first round matchups. I have all the confidence in the world we can win a game like that just saying anything can happen. Baylor didn't think they would be losing to Yale last year. I know we all know this but just wanted to reiterate that.

Also a 4 or 5 seed allows for a possible second round match against a Cinderella team. How sweet would that be! Give us some Xavier luck!

I have also heard people saying 3-6 seed range is basically the same. I think 3 is a big difference. It allows you to stay away from the 1, but the 6 seed could get upsetted by a 11 seed. Obviously the better seed you are the less likely for an upset, but I have a feeling a 3 seed getting upset to a 14 seed is a huge drop off from a 4/13 or 5/12. Does anyone know?

Regardless, I think we are all on the same page no matter what we are going to be a 4 or a 5. Unless upsetted on Friday.

I am with you there, I think I'd prefer and underachieving P5 team at an 11 seed vs a Cinderella midmajor team as a 12.

But I think the 3 seeds this year are cut above the 4 seeds.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Ok maybe I went a little far, but basically its gonna be a 50/50 shot in the Round of 32 to get to the Sweet 16.

I don't think you know what "realistic" means lol. I'd agree that, assuming we're getting a 4 or 5, it's around a 50/50 shot at reaching the Sweet Sixteen. No doubt about that. You initially made it sound asinine that anyone would think we could make the Sweet Sixteen, which is pretty comical.

 

[Alum2013]

Given how poorly this team has been playing on the road, I would be surprised if we make it past the first or second round. They have the talent to be an elite 8 team, but they just can't shoot and have a severe lack energy on the road.
The UConn game was a big difference in energy level. Even though the shooting still stunk, you can see how good this team is just by playing hard. If we keep playing with that energy on road through the AAC tourney, I think sweet 16 is a fair expectation.

 

[GarradJ21]

Given how poorly this team has been playing on the road, I would be surprised if we make it past the first or second round. They have the talent to be an elite 8 team, but they just can't shoot and have a severe lack energy on the road.
The UConn game was a big difference in energy level. Even though the shooting still stunk, you can see how good this team is just by playing hard. If we keep playing with that energy on road through the AAC tourney, I think sweet 16 is a fair expectation.

It's really not fair for you to criticize them for how they performed on the road for these tournament games. The games will be on a neutral site. That is a huge difference. Look what we have done in our two neutral games this year and even our neutral games last year. Huge difference than on the road games.

 

[Alum2013]

It's really not fair for you to criticize them for how they performed on the road for these tournament games. The games will be on a neutral site. That is a huge difference. Look what we have done in our two neutral games this year and even our neutral games last year. Huge difference than on the road games.

What? Both of them are not home games correct? The majority of our games away from home have produced underwhelming performances where we play with far less energy then when at home. Obviously pretty much all teams play worse when not at home, but I'm pretty sure other people have posted stats showing we play way worse then average when not at home.
If we play like we did against UCONN from here on out (which we only have the AAC tourney to judge), I think we can do some damage. If the UConn game was an aberration, then I think we're in trouble for the tournament.

 

[indydoug]

Realistically, no one knows. Who knows what we will be or who we would play in the second round.

ok gotcha.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

What? Both of them are not home games correct? The majority of our games away from home have produced underwhelming performances where we play with far less energy then when at home. Obviously pretty much all teams play worse when not at home, but I'm pretty sure other people have posted stats showing we play way worse then average when not at home.
If we play like we did against UCONN from here on out (which we only have the AAC tourney to judge), I think we can do some damage. If the UConn game was an aberration, then I think we're in trouble for the tournament.

Using the UConn game as a barometer doesn't make sense. They are trash and undermanned. UC shot 30% and beat them by 20 and had 44 rebounds to their 47 points.

If UConn wins and UC plays them Friday then, it is a (pseudo) road game due to playing in their gym.

 

[GarradJ21]

What? Both of them are not home games correct? The majority of our games away from home have produced underwhelming performances where we play with far less energy then when at home. Obviously pretty much all teams play worse when not at home, but I'm pretty sure other people have posted stats showing we play way worse then average when not at home.
If we play like we did against UCONN from here on out (which we only have the AAC tourney to judge), I think we can do some damage. If the UConn game was an aberration, then I think we're in trouble for the tournament.

It doesn't matter..Anyone can tell you that plays basketball, going into someones home gym to play them is a lot different than playing a team on a neutral site. Of course nothing compares to being in your home gym, but you can't look at away games either.

So with that said we have had 2 neutral games. Scored 71 in each game and looked pretty good. Gotta play defense. We score 76- or so last year in the tournament. That's better to look at then comparing us going into opponents gyms.

 

[Alum2013]

Using the UConn game as a barometer doesn't make sense. They are trash and undermanned. UC shot 30% and beat them by 20 and had 44 rebounds to their 47 points.

If UConn wins and UC plays them Friday then, it is a (pseudo) road game due to playing in their gym.

If you read my previous post I said that our shooting still sucked. What I'm talking about is the energy the team played with compared to other games that weren't at home. You don't get 44 rebounds by accident. The team was playing harder against UCONN than probably almost any other nonhome game this year.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Using the UConn game as a barometer doesn't make sense. They are trash and undermanned. UC shot 30% and beat them by 20 and had 44 rebounds to their 47 points.

If UConn wins and UC plays them Friday then, it is a (pseudo) road game due to playing in their gym.

UConn would be the semis on Saturday.

 

[justinhub2003]

If you read my previous post I said that our shooting still sucked. What I'm talking about is the energy the team played with compared to other games that weren't at home. You don't get 44 rebounds by accident. The team was playing harder against UCONN than probably almost any other nonhome game this year.

In our two neutral games we shot 50% and 43% and combined for 14 3's... that also was early on and before the imergence of jarron Cumberland, who scored just 2 points combined.

We got just 3 points off the bench against Rhodes island.

If we're taking about the ncaas then you can only use neutral site games as a measure for predicted success.

We average 80 something at home
60 something on the road
And 71 in neutral sites.

If we score 70 in most rounds of the NCAA tourney, we're gonna win bc of our defense.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

If you read my previous post I said that our shooting still sucked. What I'm talking about is the energy the team played with compared to other games that weren't at home. You don't get 44 rebounds by accident. The team was playing harder against UCONN than probably almost any other nonhome game this year.

I don't know if I buy the whole energy theory. The games are officiated a bit differently for the visiting teams is Why I think all road teams struggle. Plus travel, unfamiliar settings and change in schedule, Athletes are normally creatures of habit.

 

[justinhub2003]

The tournament is all about match ups.

In the last 3 years we could only win by grinding it out. And we just so happened to face teams who really were bad matchups for us. We had the toughest 9 seed last year in my opinion with a pro on its team.

This year we now have multiple options on offense and defense. If a team is shooting well from 3, we switch to man to man . If a team if getting it inside on us, we play the match zone. If a team wants to push the pace, we can score in transition and score in the 70 or 80's or if they try to slow us down, we're masters of the grind it out.

Sure. We could lose in the first round. Mich st did last year.

But we also are much more equipped for a run because of our new found versatility offensively and defensively. We also have multiple scoring options this time around.

 

[Alum2013]

We're basing our nuetral court stats off 2 games that were games 4 and 5 of the season. That's hardly a reliable statistic.

I agree if we score 70 points we should probably win most games. But our team over the past 3 months has had problems doing that when not at home.

 

[GarradJ21]

Cronin even admitted the guys were probably coasting a little bit towards the end of the season before these last two games just with their minds on March. Worries of shooting difficulties on the road at SMU and UCF (and others) are out the door for me. New season starts this Friday and no one is home (but maybe UCONN). Of course we can still shoot poorly in one of the games or multiple..Who knows what's going to happen, but we should all have confidence that this team is truly going to do what it takes to win and all effort will be there for the conference tourney and even up a notch for the NCAA tourney.

I just don't think it's fair to use the same numbers playing @ Moody one of the hardest environments or going to UCF on their senior day with a team that truly is a bad/weird match up for us.

I know what youre saying.. We don't have much to go off of then just being away from our own gym but my opinion is don't go off anything then and trust the process because going into someones home gym is a lot different than neutral.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

The NCAA Tournament this year is going to be very dicey to say the least. The ACC as a conference is loaded this year. The Big 12 has a few good teams and the Pac 12 is having a resurgence to some decree. The big east other than Villanova and Butler are down. the Big 10 sucks and the SEC as a whole not very good. really feel the Tourney is wide open but would like to avoid a ACC match up in the first two rounds.

 

[Alum2013]

I don't know if I buy the whole energy theory. The games are officiated a bit differently for the visiting teams is Why I think all road teams struggle. Plus travel, unfamiliar settings and change in schedule, Athletes are normally creatures of habit.

Completely fair points. I just felt like the team played harder based off what I was seeing compared to other road games I watched.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Completely fair points. I just felt like the team played harder based off what I was seeing compared to other road games I watched.

either way I like you want to play better on the road.

 

[Alum2013]

Cronin even admitted the guys were probably coasting a little bit towards the end of the season before these last two games just with their minds on March. Worries of shooting difficulties on the road at SMU and UCF (and others) are out the door for me. New season starts this Friday and no one is home (but maybe UCONN). Of course we can still shoot poorly in one of the games or multiple..Who knows what's going to happen, but we should all have confidence that this team is truly going to do what it takes to win and all effort will be there for the conference tourney and even up a notch for the NCAA tourney.

I just don't think it's fair to use the same numbers playing @ Moody one of the hardest environments or going to UCF on their senior day with a team that truly is a bad/weird match up for us.

I feel like this team, probably more then any other Cronin team, can overcome a poor shooting night. I just fear if we're cold and the other team gets hot. Like people have said, we don't have that one player (who has emerged yet at least) who is willing to take the game over and score at will when everything else is failing.

 

[GarradJ21]

I feel like this team, probably more then any other Cronin team can overcome a poor shooting night. I just fear if we're cold and the other team gets hot. Like people have said, we don't have that one player (who has emerged yet at least) who is willing to take the game over and score at will when everything else is failing.

Youre correct..That's why the post is so important. When Tacko and UCF took away our post it really hurt us. I am more scared about our post being taken away with some really tough bigs than a 30% 3 point shooting night. When youre cold you gotta get easy buckets somehow.