Well, I guess you can't expect to beat a top 15 team scoring less than 20 points in the second half. We were due for a bad shooting game, and we sure as hell got it.
Would have been nice to have the win, as now looks like we need to win 2 of 3 among Marquette, Villanova, and Cuse to secure a bye in the BET, and that will be a tall order.
Oh, and I saw on the hoyasaxa board that it's Alan's birthday -- hope you drowned your sorrows with some split personalities...
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Actually, given that I knew the hoyas were unlikely to finish the season with a 22 game winstreak (streak was at 7, 6 games left in regular season, 3 BET, 6 NCAAs), I'm not overly bitter about this loss. Amd while I agree that their BE stretch run is tough, I see MU as very beatable (as have most of the new BE teams have been save SF), and the 'cuse might be lucky to finish .500 the way they've been playing, and given a closing schedule that takes them on the road to MCI, and visits from nova and WVU. They're Depaul loss away from being in the lower seeded team in a first round game.
You didn't have to listen to all the goddamn hicks chanting as you left the MCI Center -- that's why you're not bitter.
Considering the way we shot, the fact that we were in the game most of the second half is actually fairly encouraging. Nothing to panic about. It's not a bad loss, but it would have been a great win that would have set the table for a run at 2nd or 3rd place in the conference.
I think we should beat Marquette and Cuse (although Cuse may have righted the ship a little against St. John's), but they are both good enough to knock us off if they have a good game or if we have a bad game. Syracuse in particular will probably need the game for its NCAA hopes and, as bad as they have looked all year, are still pretty talented.
It's a completely different team. Last year, our 8-3 start included three wins that were essentially flukes (Pitt, Nova, and ND), we weren't beating anyone decisively, and we had been completely outclassed in games against Temple, Oral Roberts, Illinois, and UConn.
This year we lost 4 games to top 15 opponents, three of which were on the road, and one which for all intents and purposes was on a "neutral" court, plus the early season hiccup against Vandy. We were competitive in all but one of those games.
We've been blowing out Big East competition rather than squeaking by, for the most part. Worst case scenario seems to be we go 10-6, which will put us comfortably in the NCAA. 11-5 is more likely, and 12-4 is possible with a little luck.
The Big East is too tough not to expect a rough patch here and there. But the team is pretty tough too.
That said, I'll be a LOT happier if we can knock off marquette.
I think you can also feel a hell of a lot better about Gtown's chances after the Cuse got smoked at home by Cincy. GodDAMN do the Orange have problems this year.
Ain't a collapse until we lose to Rutgers.
West Virginia is better than Georgetown. Marquette is not significantly worse, and was playing at home. Villanova is a lot better than us, and I expect them to beat us handily.
The remaining three games after that are games we should win. If we blow those, then its a problem. If not, we're 11-5 in the big east, which is better than most people would have expected going into the season.
The Big East is a tough conference. I fully expected us to go 1-4 over the 5 game stretch starting with pitt, so 2-3 wouldn't be the end of the world.
I will say I'm a little disappointed by the lack of composure down the stretch of the last two games, after the team seemed more or less unflappable up to that point. They could have come away with the win last night, but did some fairly dumb shit while Marquette hit some big shots on the other end.
It's disappointing, since after the Pitt win it seemed like we had a real shot at a bye in the BET and a high seed in the NCAAs. But to be honest, 5th or 6th place in conference and a 6 or 7 seed in the tournament would be a successful season. Plus, if we're a 6 they can match us up with 3 seed GW and we can final shut up their whiny fans.
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