Men's Postseason chatter thread (Merged)

[ellitor 33,062]

1 hour ago, jared52 said:

0% chance of AU going to the NCAAs. No way they win 5 of those remaining games. I just hope they don't go 1-5 or 2-4. Frankly, 4-2 is probably necessary for the NIT and there still a lot of unpredictability when it comes to this team and their mental toughness. Missing Spencer is a big loss that could cost them the NIT. 

I wasn't talking about the likelihood of doing it. Just giving the pure mathematics of what they have to do.

[jared52 4,354]

Has a team gone from the bubble to not making the postseason at all faster than AU?

[ellitor 33,062]

1 hour ago, jared52 said:

Has a team gone from the bubble to not making the postseason at all faster than AU?

They can still make the CBI with a win or 2.

[AUBwins 10,064]

3 hours ago, ellitor said:

They can still make the CBI with a win or 2.

Does the CBI really take teams from power conferences? It seems they load up on Sunbelt schools, etc.

[jared52 4,354]

3 hours ago, ellitor said:

They can still make the CBI with a win or 2.

I always forget about that one but frankly, it's not worth mentioning. It's like playing in the Birmingham Bowl. Yay for more games and practice, but it certainly isn't a step up from last year to be honest.

[FoundationEagle 637]

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

Does the CBI really take teams from power conferences? It seems they load up on Sunbelt schools, etc.

CBI does. CIT does not. Oregon won the CBI a few years back. CIT has never taken a power 5 school. 

[AUBwins 10,064]

Ok thanks for clarifying. 

[ellitor 33,062]

On 2/18/2017 at 9:42 PM, jared52 said:

I always forget about that one but frankly, it's not worth mentioning. It's like playing in the Birmingham Bowl. Yay for more games and practice, but it certainly isn't a step up from last year to be honest.

Emotions are clouding your logic my friend. Yes it is. Albeit not the step we wanted, finishing over .500 overall and in any post season tourney is a clear & distinct step up from last year's 11-20 & no post season play team.

[ellitor 33,062]

8 hours ago, FoundationEagle said:

CBI does. CIT does not. Oregon won the CBI a few years back. CIT has never taken a power 5 school. 

Yup. It's in CIT's rules to only use non P5 schools.

[jared52 4,354]

53 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Emotions are clouding your logic my friend. Yes it it. Albeit not the step we wanted, finishing over .500 overall and in any post season tourney is a clear & distinct step up from last year's 11-20 & no post season play team.

Maybe a little, but that AU team was 5-13 in the SEC. AU is 5-9 so far this year and the remaining schedule looks like 2-2 so a 7-11 finish. I just can't see that as a step forward. .500 is a step forward. NIT is a step forward. Winning 2 more SEC games and making the third tier post season tournament (if they do) isn't a step forward in my book.  Look at our inbred cousins up the road, they have taken a step forward. Yeah, they lost to AU twice somehow, but sit 9-5 with 4 winnable games to go. If AU had their record (16-10, 9-5) I'd be more apt to say AU is taking that next step. I'm not willing to do so at 16-11, 5-9.

AU certainly has some nice non-conference wins, but the SEC play has been pretty poor overall.

[ellitor 33,062]

35 minutes ago, jared52 said:

so a 7-11 finish. I just can't see that as a step forward.

While disappointing to what hopes were, it is a step forward mathematically and in a tougher SEC than last year overall with the midpack being stronger. Average SEC RPI this year is 78. Last year it was 100. AU's RPI is 85. Last year it was 179. That last part is a significant jump.

43 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Winning 2 more SEC games and making the third tier post season tournament (if they do) isn't a step forward in my book.

Statistically it would be. That would be 18-14 overall if we lose our 1st SEC Tourney game. In baseball terms that would be a 6.5 game increase over last year & win % change of 35% last year to 56% this year likely headed to the CBI. That is improvement.

 

49 minutes ago, jared52 said:

ook at our inbred cousins up the road

They did not have Tony Barbee taken them down to a total abbys in basketball either. They had a much better starting point for their new staff.

51 minutes ago, jared52 said:

the SEC play has been pretty poor overall.

Already covered.

[jared52 4,354]

Obviously it's all in how you view the numbers.

2 hours ago, ellitor said:

They did not have Tony Barbee taken them down to a total abbys in basketball either.

I know you meant abyss but this is very funny since my daughter's name is Abby and she plays basketball. She started school a year before the majority of her peers so she's a year younger than everyone in her grade. She's the smallest kid in the 6th grade league, this is only her second season of basketball, and she's not gifted athletically. So yeah, it's a fairly apt description of the Barbee teams. 

Trust me, I want Bruce here long enough that they name the arena after him and I know there's a long way to go. But the late season fade has been disappointing and assuming they miss the NIT, the rest of the numbers don't matter a ton. They matter, but it's all in how you want to manipulate the meaning. I'm doing it too. 

[boomstick 1,315]

Drating updated their NIT predictions this morning. We're projected as a 4 seed in the NIT, which hosts a first round game.

http://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/

[ellitor 33,062]

8 hours ago, boomstick said:

Drating updated their NIT predictions this morning. We're projected as a 4 seed in the NIT, which hosts a first round game.

http://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/

Would LOVE to play Georgetown at home!

[au302 2,669]

How much longer can we use the "Barbee took us down" excuse? I was fine with it at first but it's getting annoying. I think if anyone deserves major blame it's Jay Jacobs. How that ass clown is our AD is beyond me. I think this team is frustrating to watch but its been a fun ride. If we can beat either UGA or Arky, and beat Mizzou (who's gotten better and could easily beat us) we could probably make the NIT.  

[boomstick 1,315]

7 minutes ago, au302 said:

How much longer can we use the "Barbee took us down" excuse? I was fine with it at first but it's getting annoying. I think if anyone deserves major blame it's Jay Jacobs. How that ass clown is our AD is beyond me. I think this team is frustrating to watch but its been a fun ride. If we can beat either UGA or Arky, and beat Mizzou (who's gotten better and could easily beat us) we could probably make the NIT.  

Just me, but I'll blame Barbee for at least another year. His roster management and lack of recruiting is the reason Bruce's first two years were filled with having to get transfers and JUCOs to try to put a competitive team on the court. If he had left anything worth a dang as underclass men, we'd probably be in a little better position year and going forward. 

[ellitor 33,062]

32 minutes ago, au302 said:

How much longer can we use the "Barbee took us down" excuse? I was fine with it at first but it's getting annoying. I think if anyone deserves major blame it's Jay Jacobs. How that ass clown is our AD is beyond me. I think this team is frustrating to watch but its been a fun ride. If we can beat either UGA or Arky, and beat Mizzou (who's gotten better and could easily beat us) we could probably make the NIT.  

An excuse for what? Even though there have been glaring disappointments this season, this program has made real progress. We will play in a post season tourney 1 way or another, are guaranteed a winning record for the 1st time in 8 years, have a 100 spot RPI jump from 179 last year to 79 this year, have 6 true road wins this season which is 2nd in the SEC, and will have an at least 6 game jump in overall record from last year to this year.

[ellitor 33,062]

31 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Just me, but I'll blame Barbee for at least another year. His roster management and lack of recruiting is the reason Bruce's first two years were filled with having to get transfers and JUCOs to try to put a competitive team on the court. If he had left anything worth a dang as underclass men, we'd probably be in a little better position year and going forward. 

Yup. Would have been nice to see Coach Person coach Jordan Price for example.

[AuburnNTexas 7,127]

This team has talent and is getting better even though they have faded a little toward the end. Most Freshman hit a wall sometime during the season it is a long grind and they are not used to it. The fact that we start and sub so many freshman makes the end of the year impact greater. Making any Post season tournament is a plus because they get to play more real games together as a unit.  The experienced gained helps down the road. They will now have a full Off-season for conditioning which will help them next year and with so many new players they will be able to add to their defensive sets and their offensive sets. 

While I was hoping for better this year we were warned by a lot of very knowledgeable posters to expect pretty much what we got.  Look at a few of the games that we lost that we could have won and you will realize we were closer than many think.  Should have beaten Ole Miss one injury and one meltdown. Basically we had trouble playing two good half's.  When we played good second half's we won when we played good first half's we lost or barely held on that is maturity and that gets better each year.

Losing Johnson who has played really well down the stretch will hurt as will Dunans who can be really good or really bad but who always plays hard will also hurt but we have capable people coming in for them and we will have a year under our belts.  We will need Spencer to come back healthy and to get better and Wiley will also need to improve because our biggest weakness is inside where we basically only have two legitimate bigs then others are undersized for where they are playing. Having to help our bigs down low is one of the big reasons we gave up so many open three's. If Spencer and Wiley can hold thier own defensively next year then whole team defense improves because people won't have to sag to help down low.

The bad D at times was not lack of effort but people out of position trying to help out down low. Wiley is big but needs to get stronger and quicker and Spencer needs to work on playing PF as having both on the floor at same time is our best chance to play well as it will allow others to play positions they are more suited for especially Purifoy.

 

[augolf1716 21,096]

Well said NTex

[aufan57 922]

10 hours ago, ellitor said:

Yup. Would have been nice to see Coach Person coach Jordan Price for example.

Jordan Price has been an extremely productive  player for La Salle.

[ellitor 33,062]

45 minutes ago, aufan57 said:

Jordan Price has been an extremely productive  player for La Salle.

Yup!

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

This team just gets more interesting to watch over the course of the season. They're VERY inconsistent with their play, but seem to always be capable of winning any game, or losing any game. I could see us going 1-2 the rest of the season and an early exit in the SEC Tourney, but I could also see us finishing 3-0 and making a run in the tournament as well! It's crazy what this team is capable of playing a bunch of freshman who aren't as strong, experienced, or mentally tough as these bigger, older SEC teams. The future is bright. Heck, this year might even still be bright. 

[ellitor 33,062]

7 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

This team just gets more interesting to watch over the course of the season. They're VERY inconsistent with their play, but seem to always be capable of winning any game, or losing any game. I could see us going 1-2 the rest of the season and an early exit in the SEC Tourney, but I could also see us finishing 3-0 and making a run in the tournament as well! It's crazy what this team is capable of playing a bunch of freshman who aren't as strong, experienced, or mentally tough as these bigger, older SEC teams. The future is bright. Heck, this year might even still be bright. 

If we would just play fundamentally sound ball we would be very dangerous.

[boomstick 1,315]

2 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

This team just gets more interesting to watch over the course of the season. They're VERY inconsistent with their play, but seem to always be capable of winning any game, or losing any game. I could see us going 1-2 the rest of the season and an early exit in the SEC Tourney, but I could also see us finishing 3-0 and making a run in the tournament as well! It's crazy what this team is capable of playing a bunch of freshman who aren't as strong, experienced, or mentally tough as these bigger, older SEC teams. The future is bright. Heck, this year might even still be bright. 

I agree with all of this. They're really unpredictable, which makes them frustrating to watch. As long as they can stay really active defensively and cause issues, I think this team can put together a good run to end the season. They don't have to be lock down defenders, just cause some havoc and create some easy opportunities for themselves.