I thought the team played well tonight, there’s a reason Texas Tech is the #14 team in the nation, and they’ve won 46 straight games against non-conference opponents at home, this was ALWAYS going to be a tough game for us, we were going to have to nearly play perfect to win this. That’s why i just shook my head when guys at half-time were gloating like we had already won, Texas Tech played horrible the first half and were only up 3 points, I knew we were in trouble for not building a bigger lead turning them over so much in the first half.
And this is the part I know people don’t want to hear, but this team is going to have a better record down the stretch. I’d argue nobody in the country has played a harder 5 game stretch than us. Think about this, we played 4 teams that are ranked in our last 5 games and 3 of those ranked games were on the road. We have the second youngest team in D1 basketball, I don’t care who the coach is, that’s going to be hard to come up with multiple wins out of that.
This next stretch is what I’ve been looking forward to. I think we’ll win 4 or 5 of our next 6 here. This is how I’m seeing the schedule playing out…
UGA - W @LSU - L
Vandy - W @SC - L @Miz - W
Miss St - W @Aub - L
TAM - W @UK - L
Miss - W @Vandy - W
Alabama - W
19-12… on the bubble, probably need 1 or 2 win in SEC tournament to sneak in NCAA.
Sure wished that would happen. I know times have changed but I am frustrated by the game today, I don’t think we should ever lose to Tech I remember to old S W C days and the way we used to dominate them in the 70’s and 80’s
Georgia scored 98 points today! I don’t think they will show up and just give the hogs the game! This team doesn’t know how to win and they showed it again today.
It started against Texas and it has continued to be a problem. Players don’t know their role and they can’t pass the ball on the offensive end and get movement. They don’t feed the post and you rarely see the ball get to the feee throw line.
There’s no moral victory and they just don’t have it yet. I wouldn’t count on them wining many more games. They gave this one away today.
Back to the drawing board. He NIT would do this team more good than a one and some in the dance.
I am actually shocked at the number of “we actually played decent and had a shot to win” posts. I figured the board would be in full meltdown mode. Props to them for actually being supportive. Also props to Mike and the kids, hard fought game and we had a chance. I actually thought TT would snap out of their funk and beat us by about 20. Have to say I was impressed.
Now as to your post on remaining record:
UGA - W @LSU - W (I think today may have shown our kids they can play with anyone)
Vandy - W @USCe - W (I think they cam back down to earth a little today)
@ Missery - W
Miss St - W
@ AUB - L
aTm - W @UK - L
Miss - L
@ Vandy - L (Vandy plays good at home, ask TN)
Bama - ? (I’ve actually considered this a toss up game all year)
That’s 7-4, which puts us at 18-12. That Bama game may become EXTREMELY important.
I think 19 gets us a definite NIT bid, if we beat Bama and win 2 in the SECT, then I think we definitely are in bubble play.
By the way, that would make 21 wins. Why is that important? Because since the inception of the NCAAT and the NIT, AR has reached 20 wins 29 times, 28 they made the Big Dance, once they made the NIT (Portis’ freshmen year). After that year there was a consolidated effort to increase SOS.
And while I was writing my response, here comes Army
I like your optimism with your predictions of the remaining W/L in conference, But IMO I think 6-6 is probably more realistic.
That would put them at 17-14 and no shot at an NCAA bid unless they miraculously win the SEC Tournament.
This years team is extremely young and have had many chances to win games that they ultimately lost and those lost opportunities to get wins is the difference between winning 20+ games for the season and not.
The SEC is probably going to get at most 6 teams in the NCAA Tournament field this year by Bracketology and I don’t see at this time how our Hogs will finish as one of the top 6 teams in the SEC.
I don’t think with the major turnover in roster and playing so many freshman that a 17-14 season is all that horrible and by no means think Coach Anderson needs to be fired, but they did have opportunities to get to 20 wins which would’ve been really good.
Nice post Blu. i agree, we are getting into the heart of our schedule and i think we are positioned to finish strong. Will it be enough? Hope so. We are going to win one we aren’t supposed to, Hoping it’s UK but they’ve really turned it on lately. I think we get one vs. Aubbie or at LSU. I like your list but i think we beat SC, Frank just has trouble vs. our system it seems and i can see us losing at Mizzou but i’d love to be wrong there. WPS
I agree with this Chris, when I was typing that out, I went back and forth on that. I actually do like our chances in that @SC game a lot, we always play well against them, and TBH I think they are going to end up fizzling out here pretty soon.
@Kentucky, I’ll be honest, with the way Kentucky is playing right now, I don’t see them losing a home game to anyone in the conference, that’s including Tennessee. And @Auburn, they are really tough to beat at home, plus it’s a bad match-up for us, a team that likes to play as fast as we do with really good guards that can shoot the ball and handle the press. So, I don’t like our chances in that game either. @LSU, I also think will be rough, same situation, team with good guards that can play fast and shoot the ball, touch match-up for us. But, @SC, @Mizzou, @Vandy, these are VERY winnable games for us, I think we’ll get 2 of those 3. And I think they will hold home court the rest of the way, I don’t think we’ll let another team get out of Bud with a win this year.
Thought we had spurts of good play and spurts of not knowing who to guard and who would be taking the shot. Out defense was good but half court offenses were awful. Finally we get inside and mad some plays. If we play like this and keep getting better I think Blu’s assessment of our schedule is close. I also swap SC for MO on wins. We don’t win at MO very often, even when we should it seems.
I don’t think TT is top 15. We beat them at our place.
Right now, this team seems to falter in crunch time…they can’t run a half court offense and have to put up forced shots…until they figure it out, I’m not very optimistic.
Blu, I hope your scenario plays out. I think the effort recently has been great. There is a lot of what ifs, especially in any loss. My understanding Isiah Joe was a little under the weather yesterday. He shoots his normal % and we win handily. In retrospect , Daniel ends up with only 3 fouls and sets out most of the first half. MA may have to roll the dice the next time and continue playing his best player. This finishing stretch could go either way. We get a couple players hot with their strokes and it could be amazing.
There are several games this year, where you can point out one of our guys “just shooting their percentage” would have changed the outcome. It’s part of being young. That’s why I like this class so much, in two years (Jones SR, Joe JR) they won’t have very many of those nights. Plus, everyone else will improve and we will have some younger studs that help us as well.
If you tell me we will continue to play aggressive D like we did this last game I’m all in with your assessment, but any let up and we will be in trouble. However with our youth you never know who will or won’t show up and that worries me coming down the stretch. WPS
You are too optimistic…when have we shown outside of an Indiana(with several of their best players out) win that we could protect home court? I see no way we beat Miss State or Bama this year. They are both more talented with guard play. Vandy at Vandy? Highly unlikely. And giving us Ole miss at home is also optimistic, they just whipped us at their house. We could easily lose at Missouri as well. I think 16-15 is more likely and it’s optimistic to me. This team has shown zero consistency. Mike still squeaks out a winning season. Gotta hope he finds some scoring for next year.
Good prediction, on 1 tournament appearance in 6 years. And us having to win 9 games in a row to make the tournament. You were really close on that. I’m surprised ESPN didn’t give you a call with that kinda of basketball knowledge. :roll:
Just a little friendly advice, you don’t want to play the post history game with me, your predictions and/or opinions are wrong about 90% of the time, you’re a joke. Go troll somebody else, Mr. 1 tournament in 6 years.
I literally posted the quote for you with the date and time. You even threw in a smart comment about us having to have "rattle off 9 wins in a row.’ And at the time we were 17-6, 6-4 in conference, and firmly in the tournament by every major bracketologist. That’s just poor basketball knowledge dude, and I’d personally be embarrassed if I knew that little about how something worked. Now go to another thread and troll somebody else, this didn’t work out the way you thought it would… Nice try though.