I wonder if Nick Smith gives a boost and the team wins more than loses down the stretch, what is the ceiling in the seeding for the Hogs? The Selection Committee has been known to weigh seeding on the health of a team. Did you lose someone and are you not as good as the record says, or did you gain someone and they weigh everything differently? Would you have won more games if that player had been with you earlier? Can they get to a 4 or 5 seed? I don’t know the answer, but it’s going to be fun to watch.
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I’m interested in how Nick can work as a zone buster. Granted, we are looking better against zones, but our outside shooting isn’t up to par to consistently shoot our way out.
I was wondering the same thing yesterday. With a HEALTHY Nick, can we take down Tennessee and Bama? Winning both is unlikely I know. But what if we do win 2 of our remaining 3 away games? And what if we make it to the SEC tourney finals? (Once there is seems to not matter for NCAA seeding…though I would love to see the Hogs win the SEC tourney, which seems to put me in the minority).
I could see our seeding go as high as a 5. I don’t think that is unrealistic IF the above scenario played out. Might even sneak into a 4.
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I think you are onto something. Teams might at least be more hesitant to slap a zone on us…especially if Devo keeps shooting it like he is.
I hope they do. That quick passing inside the zone attacking it from the backside and our proficiency on pull up jump shots within the zone seems to be all jelling. If they can settle down and avoid the over-passing tries for spectacular assists and just be efficient, this can be an outstanding passing team for the Hogs.
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Tennessee is looking more and more vulnerable.
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When I was watching warm-ups at the A&M game, I paid particular attention to how the players interacted with Nick. He was walking around amongst them as they were shooting and they all had a relaxed happy look with him. The three guards (Black, Council and Devo) are getting close to 40 minutes lately so there’s plenty to share and not hurt anyone’s feelings. This could really bode well for us going down the stretch. Fresh legs from a 5 star recruit who may hit his stride about tournament time. Win the last 7 games - 3 seed, win 6 games - 4 seed, win 5 games - 5 / 6 area.
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I figure with or without Nick, Hogs have a chance to get back into Top 25 before the last 3 games. I think that translates to a 5 seed. Beyond that with Nick, if they go 2-1 in the last 3 games, that will put them on the verge of a 4 seed or may even get a 4 seed depending on how other teams perform. Run to the finals of SEC tournament will probably get them a 3 seed.
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That would be awesome.
I don’t know if we are good enough to win the natty. We will see.
But I KNOW we are good enough to win the SEC Tourney. And I wanna win it. I know, I know…the Big Dance is more important. I am greedy. I want to see a trophy come home. This year. Period. 
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If you have to get on the court play to win.
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With this year’s injuries and the remix required, The Elite Eight sounds almost in the miracle accomplishment category. After watching the downward cycle of our women’s team, the coaching achieved by Muss his staff deserves all the accolades possible. I hope NSJ is able to play and finish the season, and better mesh in a way that only accentuates the efforts of the entire team. Tomorrow will be another step in still a season where the next game is always an attainable challenge.
I think the SEC HOOPS TOURNEY is similar to the BASES TOURNEY, if you go all out to win it you are due to let down at the DANCE. We’re not likely to get a bye. JMO. 
Right now I have them finishing 5-2 (2 losses at Bama and TN) and at least 1-1 in the SECT. I think that will get us to a 6 seed (best possibility). However, if we can somehow beat TN or Bama (or even better both), I think that 4-5 seed might be realistic. Of course if we win out and then win the SECT, it’ll be an interesting Selection Sunday.
It is exciting to look forward and I do a bit of that myself, but Mississippi State is playing pretty well and we need to take of business today. Maintaining momentum will go a long way in how the team feels about itself and especially how the selection committee will look at us. Win today and we continue riding the wave, if not the tone of this board goes into a funk.
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I just looked at the schedules of us and the teams ahead of us (well 2 are tied with us at 6, ESPN has us behind FL and Missery, not sure why on FL, but on FL page they have us ahead of them, anyways). I think after today we end up tied with KY and AUB for 4th (that would put us in 5th) I like our remaining schedule better than AUB’s, and aTm’s. Fl, in my opinion has the easiest, so I think aTm, us, FL, and AUB can all still earn a bye. AUB would be the only one with a tie breaker against us.
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Absolutely
I really can’t see us climbing any higher than 7 probably. I really can’t see us winning at Tennessee or Alabama but we are very capable of winning both.
Nick will probably take several games to get his legs up under him. I think he will probably just about to be hitting his stride when we go on the road for those back-to-back games with Alabama and Tennessee.
I like the way this team plays together, they genuinely like each other and they are very well coached if we continue to shoot the ball the way we have and the defense that we saw in the second half against Kentucky manifests itself for 40 minutes we’re going to be a handful for anybody
If we can beat Alabama or Tennessee and win a couple of games in the SEC tournament. We may can come up to a 6 but I’m really not expecting to win at Tennessee or at Alabama but I sure would love to see us do it
Mississippi state’s defense is going to give us trouble just like they do everybody.
This is going to be an ugly type game that hopefully we can pull out but we have to get that Kentucky game out of our mind and get ready for an absolute tug of war today.
I think the home crowd and the excitement of getting Nick back will be enough for us to pull it out by about 6 points. Something like 64 -58
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I agree todays game by all indications should be a hard victory to achieve. It would be hard to duplicate anything like last Tuesdays game. Of the three road games I think our best chance is against an offensively challenged Tennessee team.
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Regardless of the seeding, with a healthy Smith joining this team… there’s not a coaching staff in the country that would want us in their bracket. With Smith and the ongoing maturity of the team, it’s our best chance to make a Final Four since the early 90’s.
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